Best french horn books according to redditors

Without question, the best way to learn how to arrange is to put in the work transcribing some of your favorite arrangers and dissecting the way they approach things.

Study the chord progressions they use and analyze their voicing. Break down how they use counterpoint vs. countermelody. Pay attention to how they use every single voice, common articulations, and where in the range do they have each part "live" (1st vs. 2nd vs 3rd).

Write down what you observe about how they do things, try to put it into words. Compare/contrast between arrangers. This will help you better internalize what they are doing and help you to find your own style.

But...

Before doing any of this, however, I suggest to read, read, read. Here are a few books to get your started:

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The Study of Counterpoint - Johann Joseph Fux

https://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772/

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Contemporary Counterpoint: Theory & Application - Beth Denisch

https://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Counterpoint-Theory-Application-Music/dp/0876391838

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Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony - Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky

https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Practical-Study-Harmony-Dover-ebook/dp/B00DGBMH06

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Principles of Orchestration - Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Orchestration-Dover-Books-Music-ebook/dp/B00DGBMDNM

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Essential Dictionary of Orchestration - Dave Black & Tom Gerou

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Dictionary-Orchestration-Comprehensive-Orchestrators-ebook/dp/B00EUMY7LC

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Treatise on Instrumentation - Hector Berlioz & Richard Strauss

https://www.amazon.com/Treatise-Instrumentation-Dover-Books-Music-ebook/dp/B00DGBMN8C

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Arranging for Horns - Jerry Gates

https://www.amazon.com/Arranging-Horns-Jerry-Gates/dp/0876391455/

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Another excellent resource is Bandestration - https://bandestration.com/

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BONUS:

Another great read that is HIGHLY applicable to writing for marching music is:

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Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Musical-Acoustics-Second-Revised/dp/048626484X

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If you are interested to explore interplay between wind/percussion arranging and electronics:

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Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer - Andrea Pejrolo

https://www.amazon.com/Acoustic-MIDI-Orchestration-Contemporary-Composer/dp/113880150X/

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Grab a bottle of Al Cass valve oil, a bottle of a bit thicker oil, like Hetman #12 or #13, then some Bach pink tuning slide grease. The Al Cass will be used on the inside of the valves and the Hetman will be used behind the valves and under the valve cap. These three should last you a very long time. I've had my bottle of Al Cass for 3 years now, and my Bach grease for over 5. You'll eventually also want a mouthpiece brush and a lead pipe snake.

In terms of books, it depends on how you learn. If you know nothing about reading music, you can pick up one of the beginning band method books like Essential Elements, but if you are easily bored by simple melodies then this book might not be the one for you. If you are a reader, you may want to consider picking up a horn pedagogy book like Farkas's The Art of Horn Playing, Frøydis Ree Wekre's Thoughts on Playing The Horn Well, or Eli Epstein's Horn Playing From the Inside Out. These books are geared more towards someone who already has some facility on the instrument, but if you lack a teacher, they contain information on things such as embouchure formation, breathing, articulation, dynamics, range, and other things.

The most common etude books are Kopprasch 60 Selected Studies and Maxime Alphonse Deux Cents Etudes Nouvelles, but even at the beginning they are pretty advanced with regard to range and technique. I'd start with Getchell's First Practical Book of Studies for French Horn. There is a second book to this series, but at the end of book one you may want to jump to Miersch's Melodious Studies for French Horn. At the end of that book, you can probably make the jump to Kopprasch.

I'd also grab a scale book like Pares Scales for French Horn, though at the beginning it may exceed your range, so it's fine to wait on this one.

If you have any other questions, let me know!

Edit: as /u/Conn10D said above, I'd highly recommend getting a teacher. Even a month of lessons is enough to nip problems in the bud before they become bad habits that hinder your progress and ultimately take the fun out of it.

I am an organist and I have a young hornist (relative to me) that I accompany. There are many collections of hymns arranged for Horn and accompaniment. I've been bringing my horn playing up to her level and we have done John Jay Hilfiger two horn arrangements without accompaniment. Hilfiger has solo horn with accompaniment hymn arrangements as well. In a Lutheran service you might lean towards the older hymntunes, but maybe not. As others note nearly anything called 'classical music' works. It doesn't have to be sacred. PM for more ideas if you wish.

Edit: This is our main resource. The Accompaniment book is also needed.

Edit: We are working on this one for a performance later this month. Recommended.

Don't close up your throat, and don't force your horn into your face when you play, It will exhaust the muscles that form the embouchure and weaken them by restricting blood flow. Raise the tongue when you blow. It will take practice and endurance. Warm up with fundamentals. Id recommend The Art of French Horn Playing for any horn player

This is a fantastic book, but I don't think it's necessarily a good starting place for Afro-Cuban rhythms. Work through the Malabe book and at least get started in the Uribe book first.

Grab this, do the high attack exercises, grab any flexibility exercises, I have a Hector McDonald routine, Stamp is also great, but anything that gets you sustained high work is the way to go. Try this pressure reducing exercise: Sustain a C in the stave, slowly move the leadpipe away from from lips until you're barely holding on to that sound, then pull back in until you get a good tone again. It'll help train you to use less pressure, and when you play high, on-mouth pressure is the enemy. That takes care of the technical side

Process cues: Think lower air to go high. imagine the air dropping lower and lower as you go higher, it'll help keep the back of the throat open, and you need a lot of core support to get there anyway. Tighter lips isn't really it, it's fast air, a whistling sensation that pops you into the upper partials, meaty support in the lips and most essentially: singing brain. Tongue lift is also important, if you can whistle, as the sound goes higher the back of your tongue comes up. Same thing happens in the horn, so, something to think about.

If all else fails, work with a high specialist in person to get exact diagnostics on your present play style. tbqh, everyone has their natural limits. I'm never going to get down to double pedal C if I live to be 100, but I can get that E above the stave no drama llama ;-)

Any reason why your teacher is telling you that you have no chance??

For my audition I just played a few drum set grooves (swing, bossa nova, samba, 3/4 swing, and a ballad), sight read a snare drum solo, and sight read a marimba piece. I had already spent a semester in the percussion ensemble (because I originally wanted to be an English major, but after meeting the faculty of both departments I settled on music) so my teacher already knew me and had a good idea of my skill level.

My first semester was mainly rudiments and solos from Cirone's portraits in rhythm. Pretty much snare drum only focusing on building my technique. My next semester I got started on Frank Malabe's Afro-Cuban book and John Riley's Art of Bop Drumming. Beyond that I worked through Riley's Beyond Bop Drumming, Ed Uribe's book on Afro-Cuban drumming, and his book on Brazilian drumming. After that I spent a lot of time working on solo transcriptions, playing pieces that my instructor and I picked out for drums and vibes, jamming with my instructor on vibes or on drum set, and working on pieces that I was writing. By the end at lot of what I was doing was driven by my interests and what I wanted to work on to improve.

As far as the music department as a whole I took your standard history, theory, aural skills, and piano classes, along with tons and tons of ensembles.

another great book, kind of an encylopedia reference http://www.amazon.com/The-Essence-Afro-Cuban-Percussion-Drum/dp/1576236196

Get a private teacher and/or start reading up. I can recommend the following:

• Art of Horn Playing - Farkas
  
• Carved in Stone - DeRosa
  
• Horn Handbook - Reynolds
  
  The DeRosa/Reynolds are more advanced, while the Farkas talks about basics -> advanced. Highly recommend the warmup/exercises in the Reynolds and DeRosa though, the farkas can be....strenuous. Your high school band director should know enough to help you with the basics as well.
  
  Hit up your local college's music library; they may have copies of the above, and if nothing else you can sit there for half an hour and skim or copy down the exercises.
  
  Credentials: Licensed Music Educator, 2nd Year in Master's in Performance
  
  Edit: Generic rule: If you feel tight, you are probably doing something wrong. Relax!

I love Joe Singer's Embouchure Builder. Great book.

I believe Rachmaninoff's Vocalise stays fairly low, although there's a bit of challenge from the key signature.

This book also has several great mid-level solos in a reasonable range. (Looks like the Amazon link I'm giving you doesn't include the horn part, though, so I'd look for it at a music shop instead.)

These are my favorite books (I own many) and they have taught me the most. The first is by far the easiest. But it really depends on your level of musical ability--can your read music? Play piano?

https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Favorites-Accordion-Helene-Criscio/dp/1585609730/

https://www.amazon.com/Accordion-Varieties-Complete-Helene-Criscio/dp/1585601101/

https://www.amazon.com/International-Accordion-Favorites-Hornpipes-Two-Steps/dp/0786607327/

https://www.amazon.com/100-Irish-Tunes-Piano-Accordion/dp/0786636041/

https://www.amazon.com/French-Music-Accordion-Mel-Presents/dp/0786616393/

The main tip is know your chords and know how to go from one chord to another with guide tones. You could definitely transcribe horn riffs from Stax etc (Chicago, too!) recording, and there's a series from Hal Leonard that has the horn sections already scored. Horn stuff is also good for phrasing, as those guys have to take a breath to keep playing. ;)

Another thing you could do is cop lines from harmony vocals.

Essentially anything out of a Clarke or Kopprasch studies book would be great for a technical etude. I would look in the Pottag horn book for lyrical exercises.

These books are staples in college so it wouldn't hurt to invest early.

Kopprasch

Clarke

Pottag

"Lip Flexibilities for All Brass Instruments" by Bai Lin

"Mastering the Horn's Low Register" by Randy Gardner

"40 (Forty) Characteristic Etudes French Horn" Kling

The last 2 are must haves for any performance studio. The first I've seen great results with.