El Gos,

It seems like you need to get a good teacher....Not long enough you posted questions about tension in left hand, now you posted about an issue about endurance and proper breathing...I don't think that running will solve the issue, but it won't hurt it either. Long tones are good way to improve your breathing, but may not be enough. Use breathing marks and learn the breath always at same places. What is more important however, is to get big, deep and relaxed breaths and learn how to use your air efficiently (breathing is not only about inhaling, but also exhaling, as exhaling is what you use for creating sounds on brass instruments).

I suggest that you take a look at http://www.monette.net/newsite/mouthpieces_acclimation01.htm

Though the way you hold the horn is different than trumpet many things about posture, body use, breathing etc will be useful to you.

Thanks a lot to both of you. I've learned many useful tips by reading all the information in the site provided by trumpetnick. And I'm definitely going to get the book that iiipopes suggested; as for the DVD, do you think it is really important once you get the book? I haven't got many problems when reading or writing in English, but as for spoken English, that's something completely different, since it's not often that I can understand it. Do you think the book alone would do? Or is the DVD very descriptive and without long speeches?


trumpetnick wrote on 02/28/10 at 09:20:44:


Yes, my questions deal with such basic issues that it seems I'm hopeless. My problem is that in a small place like mine there're not many teachers to choose among. For the first two years I studied French horn my teacher was a trombone player! Last year I found a real French horn player, and we almost started from scratch, because I'd got many bad habits. He was suprised when I hinted that perhaps I wasn't using my right hand as I should, because it was something that had never entered into his head. As for breathing, he just tells me to pay attention to breathing with my stomach... Which is more easily said than done, at least for me. I'm very short-winded in general, so maybe I shouldn't have chosen a wind instrument to begin with, but I liked it so much I decided I had to try .

trumpetnick wrote on 03/03/10 at 15:10:53:


Well, that's what I thought for some time, just before switching from the trombone teacher to the French horn teacher. I thought there was something wrong with me; now, I haven't discarded it, but I think I may manage to play the horn after all. I would have never dreamt of a DIY approach to horn playing. It seems too difficult for that. And perhaps I should just stick to what my teacher tells me and hope problems will solve with time. With this teacher in my town I can afford one half-hour lesson a week, but I'm afraid that if I had to travel for lessons I wouldn't be able to take more than one every two months, or so. Maybe I should also consider that idea, and take sporadic lessons with a good teacher apart from my weekly ones!

Lessons with a private tutor are of first priority. And yes, the DVD demonstrates the proper techniques better than just reading it in a book.