Daily

Exercises
and
Routines
Version 2020

C om piled by Ju l i u s Pran e v i č iu s
Practice Rules/Recipes *

Practice time ▪ Pace practicing throughout the

day to ensure sufficient breaks
and rest.
“A daily total of three hours playing time is ▪ The best way to do so is to divide
good (remember to subtract all the little the day into two or three larger
breaks when you add up the time). Four
hours is fantastic, when spread over the
chunks: a morning, a lunch and
entire day.” - Frøydis Ree Wekre an evening session. Say
8:00-9:30, 10:00-11:30, and
sometime between 18:00-22:00.

• Aim for 3-4 hours of playing time a ▪ Since the practice rooms are
day (~20-25 hours/week) mostly free early in the morning
and in the evening, adjust your
• Gradually build up practice time by practicing hours to the availability
~30 min per week from your current of practice rooms. Take an
time afternoon nap or do something
different in between the practice
• 2-3 hours are ok if you are in the 1st chunks: the body needs time to
or 2nd year of your studies (~15-20 recover and integrate learning
hours/week), or if you have an away from the instrument
orchestra project with at least 4-hour
daily rehearsals ▪ Both quantity and quality of
practicing matter!
• Sunday is a practicing day (max one
instrument-free day per month)
Managing work
• Find a way to practice so that you
can last for 3-4 hours of playing. It • Use a practice log to help you keep
doesn’t have to be high intensity all track of how much you practice and
the time. You don’t have to be how that time is divided between the
completely exhausted after 4 hours different materials
of practice. To do so:
• Plan your work and work your plan!
▪ Take breaks!!! Use a timer to Think through what you want to
remind yourself to take a break. achieve with the next repetition, the
Timer also helps to better track next practice session, the next day,
your practice time week, semester, 5-years. Writing
things down help to get an overview
▪ Make sure to have a varied of the progress. Practice/Progress
practice repertoire (balance low diary can be helpful
and high range, soft and loud)
• Establish a routine. It takes about a
▪ Adapt the «hard» passages in a month to get used to such a practice
way that it is less tiring to play. routine. You need to develop the
For example, transpose the strength and habit.
phrase down an octave or two.
• Clear your mind. For example write
▪ Practice “micro” passages: 1-5 down all the thoughts on a sheet of
notes at a time with breaks in paper.
between

* If you are serious about becoming a professional horn player

• Externalize all your thoughts. Write • Be aware of the mode of practicing
down everything that is in your head you are at: exploration, deliberate
in a to-do list, into a calendar and practice, flow/play or creativity; you’ll
into a notebook so that it doesn’t go back and forth these phases all
interfere with your attention when the time
you practice
• Be aware of the stage of practicing
• Prioritize. Some things are more you are in: learning new material,
important than others at certain maintaining level, or preparing for a
times. Regular practicing routine is performance. You’ll need to adjust
your highest priority your practice strategies.

• Develop a way to manage practicing

that works for you. There’s no one- Staying healthy
size-fits-all.
• Becoming a horn player is more than
just playing your instrument. Do
Mindset some stretching, breathing practice,
meditation, reading, note taking,
• Evaluate your performances. If study of scores, listening to
something goes well, pat yourself on recordings, practice the Alexander
the shoulder. If something doesn’t go technique or yoga
as well, remember that you can
learn: it’s the question of effort, belief • Protect your ears. Balance exposure
in yourself and knowing effective to sound with silence
strategies.
• Stop playing if it hurts! If you don’t
• Adjust your practice, if necessary. know how to deal with the
You have to find a good balance discomfort, talk to your teacher
between being patient - and sticking
with a certain approach for a while - • Drink sufficient water; eat regularly.
with being impatient - and trying Get enough sleep!
something different if your current
approach is not working. If you get • Go swimming, jogging or find
stuck - ask for help! another exercise that you enjoy

• Practice for quality. Practicing is • Manage your expectations: aim for

deep work. It requires full attention. excellence and perfection, but
One goal of practicing is achieving remember getting good takes time,
the mastery of the practice process effort and patience. Aim high yet
itself. acknowledge that it’s a long process.

• Practice for efficiency. Endurance Responsibility

has a lot to do with strength, but also
with how efficient your technique is • Be prepared for lessons and
and how smart you are at using your projects. Stay in shape!
time and energy
• Take charge of achieving your goals.
• Listen. Your ears are the most Be your own teacher!
important tool to gage the progress.
Record yourself. Julius Pranevicius
• Be ambitious. Be brave. Professor for horn
Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH)
• Be smart!
Tips

Warm up without the Breathing Exercises

instrument
Set Metronome to 60 BPM
Physical warm-up
Breath in for 6 beats, (6 hold), 6 out
• Full-body warm up,
stretching, basic aerobic Breath in for 7 beats in, (7 hold), 7 out
exercises for 3-5 mins
Breath in for 8 beats in, (8 hold), 8 out
• Breathing exercises
etc
• Lip buzzing
Fill-up the lungs to your maximum
Mindful warm-up capacity

• Meditation and mindfulness

• Alexander technique Visualise breathing out by sending an

imaginary paper airplane or throwing a
• Yoga dart

Check out Breathing Gym for more

ideas
Tips for Exercises
• Remember the Cycle: Goals and Focus Areas
Audiation, Sound
Production, Listening/ Beautiful, rich, resonant, sonorous,
Perception dark, rich-in-overtones, ringing, full,
open, vibrant sound with a steady core
• Use metronome for each
exercise. Vary tempo BIG IN-BREATH
• Play on the F-side as much Lean gently and warmly onto the horns
as possible resistance. Each fingering has
resistance in slightly different places
• Always breath in fully look for them and adapt the “leaning”
(80-90% of your capacity) accordingly. Trust the instrument
• Don’t play the next note Sing through the horn. Even the
until you have audiated it exercises can be played musically
clearly and the transition
from the current to the next Blow a full air stream as if you are
note trying to blowing large bubbles in the
water with a straw. Wide and broad air
• Play musically and phrase - stream
even the exercises
The contact between the air and the
instrument’s resistance remains
constant regardless of the range or
Other ideas dynamics (at least mentally)

• Improvise Audiate full chords and scales

• Create your own exercises

Golden Sound 1
• Take a full breath (100% of • Audiate a full chord at once
your lung capacity) • Use F-side
• Play as if blowing big bubbles Audiation
• Don’t play the next note until
in the water with a straw you have audiated it clearly
• Constant contact with the and the transition from the
instrument’s resistance current to the next note
• Blow through the horn; broad • Use metronome Sound
Listening
air stream Production
Golden Sound 2
 Golden Sound 3 • Different key every day
• In E, in Es, in D etc
• In Fis, in G, in As etc

• Different key every day • Center each note

Golden Sound 4 • In C alto, H basso • Use metronome
• Different dynamics pp-ff
 • Avoid big changes in • Free vibration of the
the embouchure. Try to upper lip
Golden Sound 5 get down by “softening” • Audiate the full chord
the upper lip
This page is intentionally left empty
to help you focus on the long tones
- Variation: Play a note as
long as possible, as soft
as possible
- Keep audiating the sound
and the cresc/dim ahead of
time
- Alternative: audiate a pitch
at an interval (say, a fifth)
Scales, Chords, Intervals and Patterns
Scales, chords and intervals are the fundamental building blocks of pretty much any of
the daily exercises you’ll ever encounter. By applying a set of alterations you can change
the existing exercises to suit your purpose or create new exercises altogether.

Articulation component. Phrase and Patterns for

give character to each one progressions
Basic variations
- Alla Mozart/Rossini/ “Transposing” the starting
• Legato Wagner note of an exercise can be
• Non-legato tenuto - Singing/Dancing done in many patterns:
• Staccato • Chromatic
“Advanced” variations Range • Diatonic
• sfz • Circle of Fifths - up or
Adapt the range: down
• fp transpose the whole
exercise into the low or • By a specific interval
• > (accent)
high, or mid range, or go • “Christmas tree”
• . (staccato) through all the ranges. (See below)
Scales and other
exercises can be played
Dynamics over one, two or three Modes
- ppp (as soft as possible) (four?) octaves.
Using a part of a scale is Play the scales in other
-p modes: lydian, mixolydian,
also ok.
- mp/mf dorian, locrian etc;
-f harmonic/melodic minor
Repetition
- ff (as loud as possible)
Repeat notes in a rhythmic Tempo
pattern.
Length and breaks While slow tempo is good
for starting out with each
Vary the length of the Melody Direction exercise, it’s also
notes from the shortest to important to come back to
the longest Reverse the direction a slow tempo once you
Add breaks of varying have mastered it - for
length between the notes - increased control. Use
for rest, focus and Note grouping metronome often.
variation
Group notes as eight
notes, triplets, sixteenths,
Note shapes quintuplets, septuplets (7
notes) etc
- Blocks of sound Create an upbeat
- Bell-like
- Avoid wa-wa Rhythm
Change the rhythm to a
Character dotted, “Amsterdam”
rhythm, or any other
Exercises can (and pattern you can think of
should) have a musical
Examples of variations:
- Tonguing 2 can be played in a different register, in a range of different dynamics
- “One note at a time”: using any Pattern for Progression play one at a time in a 4/4 time on
the first beat. Choose the length, dynamic, and articulation of the note. Accuracy exercise by
Farkas is an example of such an exercise. You can also place a note on a beat other than the
first. Use “Advanced” articulations
- Try one of the Trill exercises in ff and pp
- Instead of starting the Scales going up first, start on a higher range first down, then up
- Try on of the Golden Sound exercises with fp and non-legato
- An exercise Forte from Frøydis Ree Wekre Thoughts is an example of extreme dynamics
and adding breaks
- Any exercise can be played in a particular character: alla Mozart, alla Rossini, alla Wagner
- Tonguing 2 is just a scale with each note repeated in a pattern
- All the variations have to be Audiated first; they are not simply changes in Sound production

It might be helpful to write down the exercise variation that you are practicing.

Patterns for progressions

Scales 1A More scale ideas:
FRW book, Hector McDonald’s
routine, your imagination
Scales 1B
Chords 1 - Keep low shoulders
- Make sure that using the thumb-valve
doesn’t “shorten” your left arm
- Add a slight cresc going upwards
Chords 2
Chords 3 - D7 chord

Chords 4 - Dim chord

Chords 5 - Broken chords

Scales 2

Pattern 1 - double tongue

Pattern 2 - triple tongue

 - Alla Mozart
Tonguing 1
Tonguing 2
 - like shooting a dart
Tonguing 3 - aim for the “bull’s eye”
- focused, precise, crispy attacks
- resistance like timpani “skin”.
Hitting it fully
 - Start in a different key each day; or a different interval
Interval training - Practice only blowing air through the horn (without
sound)
and Legato 1 - Explore the contact of the air with the horn's resistance
on different fingerings
- Audiate the whole interval at once (think harmonically)
Interval training
and Legato 2
Interval training - Start in a different key each day
- Practice only blowing air through the horn (without sound)
and Legato 3
Flexi 1: Open Harmonics
 - Practice only blowing air through the horn (without sound)
with warm and broad air stream
Flexi 2: Fifths&Forths - Maintain the same quality of the airstream throughout the
range
- Audiate harmonically, with warm sound
 - Constant “leaning” and air’s contact with the resistance
- Broad air stream
Flexi 3: “Harp” flexi - Audiate the sound of 3(or 5) notes at once
- Add an extra low note at the end of each step for flexibility
Flexi 4A: Frøydis’ trills
 - Constant “leaning” and air’s contact with
Flexi 4B: “Classic” trills the resistance
- Broad air stream
- Add an downwards chord over two
octaves at the end of each step for
flexibility and endurance
 - Constant “leaning” and air’s contact with
Flexi 5: Chord progressions the resistance
- Broad air stream
- Audiate the whole chord in advance
- Play slurred and with articulation
patterns
Flexi 6: Basic Stamp
Flexi 7: Clarke 1
Flexi 8: Clarke 2
Flexi 9: Clarke 4
 - Focus on centered and clean articulation
- Audiate the chords harmonically
Strength & Stability 1 - Sound should be steady and stable
Strength & Stability 2

Strength & Stability 3

Strength & Stability 4
 - Clear audiation
- Even sound
Strength & Stability 5 - Fluid transition in the register
break
Strength & Stability 6
Strength & Stability 7 - Audiate the pitch during the breaks
- Vary between resetting and mainaining the
embouchure between the notes
- Ensure “good” shape on each note: either
“block of sound”, or “bell-like”. Avoid “wa-wa”
shape (pushing the note)

The exercise can be done either

bending the pitch down and up,
to explore the “room” within a
Exploration 1: Finding the center pitch, or using the hand
technique (half-)stopping.
 - Establish firm and immediate
Strength & Stability 8 contact with the horn’s resistance
- “Freeze” the embouchure
between the repeted notes, reset
on pitch change
Accuracy 1
The “Rules”
1. Audiate clearly and ahead of sound production; use different audiation strategies

2. Blow through the horn and trust the horn; lean onto the horn’s resistance

3. Let the upper lip vibrate freely

4. Use your ears

5. Practice makes permanent! Do not repeat errors.

6. Define the problem before you try to solve it. Ask yourself “What am I struggling with here?

7. Things take time, but you can pretty much anything if you persevere

8. Any music which can be subdivided must be subdivided. - CL - Christopher Leuba

9. Staccato means separated, not short - CL

10. Everything, musically, depends upon the manner in which the up-beat leads towards the
down-beat of the following bar. - CL

11. All notes should be “shaped” slightly. Usually, this means a slight “decay”, like piano

12. Make sure that the end of a final note of a phrase is attractive, that is, not abruptly cut.

Example practice plan

Golden sound - Choose one exercise 10 min
The materials in this
Scales - Choose one exercise 10 min practice plan can be
Triads/Chords - One exercise 10 min played in any order. Low
horn and flexi can be
Long tones 10 min alternated with strength
Flexi A - Large intervals exercise 10 min and tough solo
repertoire practice.
Flexi B - Trills/small intervals exercise 10 min
SUB-TOTAL 60 min

The amount of exercises

Accuracy or Interval Studies 10 min can be reduced to 30-60
Strength & Stability A - High range 10 min minutes and the work
with the repertoire
Strength & Stability B - Mid/low rage 10 min increased to 120-150
Misc: Stop-horn/transposition/breathing 10 min mins on a regular basis
Low range - Etudes/Exercises 20 min
SUB-TOTAL 120 min
The “warm-up” should
not exceed 20 minutes
Solo repertoire 30 min and could be created by
Etudes 15 min combining one Golden
sound, one Scales and
Excerpts/Chamber Music 15 min one Flexi exercise.
Farkas Pre-warmup or
Strength&Stability 8 can
TOTAL 180 min be also used.
Routines, tools
Example Practice Day
Based on Martin Schöpfer

Session 1 E: Scales - in sixteenths - 5-10 D: Long tones - max 10 min

min
Set metronome at 60 bpm
A: Breathing exercises - 8 min Start with F under the staff, Start pp. 4 beats cresc til fff, then
Set the metronome at 60 bpm continue upwards until 4 beats decresc till pp, then hold 4
comfortable (A’, Bb’)
- 4x: 4 beats in - 4 beats out beats pp
- 4x: 4 in - 8 out 1 octave (12 notes) every day.
F: Cool Down - 2 min Not the same notes each day!
- 4x: 4 in - 12 out Note which notes are working well
A triad chord with fluttertongue.
and which don’t
G’-E’-C’ . Start F0, then F2 etc
- 4x: 1 in - 3 out
- 4x: 1 in - 7 eight notes out - then E: Cool Down
Total: 45 min (up to 60 min)
1 eight note in. Repeat. Triads (chords) downwards from
- 4x: 1 beat in, then 11 triplets out, the middle G. Start in p with a
then last triplet in (in 4/4 time) TAKE A BREAK crescendo on the way down.
- 4x: 1 beat in 15 sixteenth out –
then last sixteenth in (in 4/4 time) Session 2 TAKE A BREAK
- 4x: 12 in – 12 out
A: Scales in triplets - 3-5 min
From c’, then h, b, a etc
Session 3
B: Buzzing on BERP, BuzzR,
only mouthpiece - 8-10 min A: Scales “Mozart” - 5 min
- Glissando: I - V - I - VIII - I B: Flexibility - McDonald Nr. 15 From c’ to c’’
(c’-g’-c’-c’’-c’). Start on c’. - 10 min
Continue up to f’/g’
Set metronome at 60 bpm. Take a
- Glissando “down-up”: VIII - I - B: McDonald Nr. 6 - 10 min
breath every second bar. Goal is
VIII. Start on c’’ (c’’- c’ - c’’); 120 bpm in one breath. Legato and staccato! Tempo 60
continue downwards until f’ bpm at the beggining, increase
Start on B-side 0 and down to
when you have learned the
F-123, and then back up.
exercise.
IMPORTANT: distribute the gliss 1x legato ,1x staccato
over 20 seconds! Play in all keys, but not every key
every day - make a system
Set a drone-tone on your phone/
tuner for intonation! C: Etudes/Solo repertoire/
Excerpts with a goal! - 20-25
C: Etudes/Solo Repertoire/
min
Excerpts with a goal - 20 min
C: On the Horn Set yourself a goal:
Same as in Session 2
McDonald Nr.1- 5 min - in F/E/ - Something techical: First under
Es/D/C temp, then gradually faster
Scales in triplets - 5 min - from f’ D: Strength (when the day is
- Perfection: How far can I get
down to c. Metronome ca 80-100 over and you will not play/
without mistakes?
practice more)
- Feeling: Are all my c’’ the same?
F.ex: “Cantilenas” as long as you
D: Flexibility - 10 min Do I land on the same g’ coming
manage! When you are tired and
from above and below? Do I take
McDonald Nr.14 a-k. Start slowly the pressure on the lips is too
in enough air when breathing-in?
and increase the tempo every day much: 30 sec break, and then
Am I relaxed?
continue until you are tired again,
Example: Choose B. Tempo 60, 1 - Rhythm: Use metronome! Also then another 30 sec break, and so
bar per beat; play 4 bars and stop without the sound: test 2 bars and on! Say, until you have taken 5
on the first note. Breath and check if you are is “in time” breaks.
continue. Start with B-0 then
down to F-123 and back! - Intonation: Use the “drone tone”
from the tunder/app. Check your
1x legato, 1x Staccato E: Cool Down - 2-5 min
pitch from time to time.
Continue to version B. Metronome Something to relax the
(Use timer so you don’t continue
at 80 bpm. Think triplets, 3 notes embouchure
forever)
per beat. B-0 to F-123 and back
Well done!

Check out a warm- up video routine with David Cooper

 Practice areas. Overview
Changes in dynamics (subito pp-ff,
gradual pp-ff-pp)
Stopped horn
Full sound; sound quality
Transposition
Intonation
Fast single tonguing (speed of single
tongue) Rhythm(s) precision
Attack clarity, paper airplane attacks Subdivision
Double and triple tongue Tone quality
Long tones; diminuendo al niente Legato; smooth valve changes
Blowing through/trusting the horn Trills
Contact with the instrument’s resistance Flexibility
“Leaning” Natural Horn playing
Scales Etudes (studies)
Chords Orchestral Excerpts
Flexi Solo literature
Strength Chamber/orchestra/project preparation
High range Bass clef reading
Low range Mental training
Middle and ‘break’ range Body awareness/mapping
Large inbreaths; Breathing exercises Mouthpiece playing
Continuous in-out breathing circle Accuracy
Tone centering (low centering) Courage; self-confidence
Bending/Centering/Pitch elasticity Projection
Chromatic scales/Clarke Story telling
Melodic/lyrical etudes, studies, pieces Improvisation; Composing; Creativity
Atonal/modern stuff Fun
Sight reading Memorizing
Pianissimo - pp F-side
Fortissimo - ff
Examples of Practice Log templates
Frøydis Ree Wekre: Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well

Philip Farkas: The Art of the French Horn Playing

General Reading
Burton Kaplan. Practicing for Artistic Success (2004). Necessary

Christopher Leuba: Rules of the game (1993)

The inner game of tennis and music

F.M. Alexander: Use of the self

Pedro de Alcantara: Indirect procedures

Gerald Klickstein: The Musician’s Way

Timothy Gallwey: The Inner Game of Music

Don Greene: Performance success: performing your best under pressure

Kenny Werner: Effortless Mastery

Horn Books
Frøydis Ree Wekre: Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well

Philip Farkas: The art of French Horn Playing

Randy Gardner: Mastering the Horn’s Low Register

Brass Methods

Breathing gym

James Stamp: Warm ups

Carmine Caruso adapted by Landsman (online)

Clarke

Philip Farkas: The Art of Brass Playing