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Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by Snap on 7/3/2022, 7:13 pm

What are your opinions of best practices for teaching Beginning Trumpet and French Horn together?

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by Hugo on 7/13/2022, 3:42 pm, in reply to "Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

If you can start them on trumpet, that will be a little easier to map out a plan for the year. Starting together isn't terrible if your horn kids are on the right instrument; if you've got some kids that don't belong on horn-it can really derail the start of the class.

When I did it this way, I was fortunate to have enough trumpet to get me by until the class/horn kids were "ready" usually about 6 weeks.

Once we switched to horn, I had everyone read the same notes. It puts the horns on different pitches, but the range is appropriate for everyone and the horns can hear themselves better.

It's not ideal, but you can definitely achieve good results combined.

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by BDSO on 7/5/2022, 8:44 pm, in reply to "Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

We have to teach all of our beginners in heterogeneous classes (though we do split woodwinds from brass). This also means that not all of my horns are in the same class. We've done it this way for about 8 years and we have still been successful with horns. But we do the following:
- Give each one transposing tuners
- Start in the "Horns Only" side of the book (which mirrors the trumpet book)
- Put them behind everyone else so they can hear their sound better
- Model and match every day for 5-10 minutes (depending on how well they do)

I've only had horns in their own class once in 24 years. They have either been with trumpets or all other brass.

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by Lunney on 7/5/2022, 5:46 pm, in reply to "Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

I did it for a number of years and it never really worked for me. I eventually was able to do it as two separate classes and of course that worked well.
If I had to combine brass class…I would do the horn separate and group the trumpet, baritone, trombone and tuba as one class. At least the trumpet, baritone, trombone and tuba are all the same positions etc.
just a thought.

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by Jeremy on 7/4/2022, 7:55 am, in reply to "Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

It was tough

The trumpet class needs to learn and use second space A relatively early in the year. That same pitch is fourth line high D for horns.

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by Doc Too on 7/3/2022, 9:48 pm, in reply to "Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

I recommend starting everyone on trumpet. The beginning horn idea works very will if there is a teacher who can dedicate a class to teaching horns as a separate class. Otherwise, both your trumpets and horn-wannabes will get a better start if you don't have to worry about the horns during the first semester of trumpet class.

Here is how you do that: Advertise in the beginning that there will be X number of horn players chosen from that class at semester. Then promote that every day. Let the kids know that everyone is eligible, but the top level players are all that will be considered for the change over. Then play audio of cool horn parts as the kids are getting ready for class.

That lets you find the smart students who will work at it and gives you a hint at who the musicians are. It's a little early to know a lot about that, but you can get some insight by semester.

Then when you move the students to horn, let them keep playing out of the trumpet book. They will sound a fifth lower, but they will get used to that very quickly. (If you move them to the horn book, they are either playing too high or too low for a young player to be successful very quickly.)

If you decide to start horns and trumpets together, do the same thing with the book thing. That is, start the horns in the trumpet book. The fingerings are very similar, and it is good ear training for those horn players. The entire class will get a faster start and move along much more quickly than if they started in the beginning horn book. But the fastest start is teaching a trumpet class for one semester.

You can decide when to switch them to the horn book based on their progress and embouchure strength and flexibility.

All the best for a great start to the year.

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by 2nd Semester Change on 7/10/2022, 11:53 am, in reply to "Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

Switching your horn players to marching horns after HS marching season has ended could be helpful. With Bb marching horns learning Bb fingerings could be easier on these instruments.

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by Umm on 7/10/2022, 10:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

I think the OP was talking about Middle School....not High School. BIG DIFFERENCE HERE

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by 2nd Semester Change on 7/12/2022, 9:15 pm, in reply to "Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

I AM talking beginning year. When marching season was finished I would bring those Bb marching horns to my 6th grade horn players. It made learning the Bb fingerings easier. Not having a big inventory of concert double horns available for beginners, this helped with the transition to the 7th grade. I have always taught Bb fingerings for the full range of the French Horn. It may not be the ideal color for everyone but the intonation is superior.

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by DJ on 7/17/2022, 2:41 pm, in reply to "Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

no...

Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together

Posted by Response on 7/11/2022, 9:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Teaching Beg. Trumpet & Horn Together"

Shifting from cornet/trumpet to marching horn, then to concert horn, may have merit.

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