I have a student who played trumpet for six months, then single F horn for six months and then switched double horn. Poor kid, his brain is just swimming with fingering changes. So I wrote up a super easy 5 note scale pattern in 10 different keys that focuses on common mid-range fingering patterns.
If any of you would like a copy, send me a message with your email address and I'll email it to you on a PDF.
Valerie Wells
"The Balanced Embouchure" for French horn
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I should explain what these exercises are based upon. When I first came back to horn 4 years ago, my private instructor had me doing two octave scales, Getchell etudes, and Mozart horn concerti. It was all such a huge struggle for me. I just couldn't move my fingers fast enough and would almost freeze up on 16th note passages. Then one day my instructor hooked me up with H.L. Clarke's technical exercises for cornet, simple 5 to 8 note patterns repeated in every key. She instructed me to do them slow enough so I could do them perfectly w/o fingering errors. The simplicity and repetition of the patterns removed a huge emotional load and allowed my fingers to learn to fly unincumbered. After one week of doing Clark's exercises, 16th note passages and everything else including 2 octave scales and etudes was suddenly much, MUCH easier. I still do Clarke's, but I think they are too challenging for a beginner. My exercise is a simpler, shorter pattern more apropriate for a 1st or 2nd year student.
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