Five Hours of French Horn

Image Source: meg_nicol

This week was tricky.

I couldn't do anything all day on Sunday because I had to pack and take the bus back to Penn State from my hometown. I couldn't do anything all day on Monday because I had to work. I couldn't do anything all day on Wednesday because I had class until 3:30. So that left Tuesday; I had a solid 10 hours free on Tuesday.

But I also had a whole bunch of homework to do, and I already did that for an entire day in the first week of the semester. And I wanted to at least start this semester with a reasonable sleep schedule.

So, I cheated. Sorry.

I decided that, this week, instead of doing one thing for an entire day, I would do one thing for simply a large portion of the day. But this would have to be something interesting, not just reading or watching TV like I'd done previously. And it would have to be something that I'm not used to doing for a few hours, so things like writing or shopping are out (though they may return in the future). I scanned the room for something suitable, and my eyes quickly settled on the case chained to the side of my bed.

That case holds a French horn. I've been playing the French horn since third grade, although I'm not currently part of any musical groups on campus. I started seriously practicing (>1 hour a day) a little while into my first semester here, but I've been a little less diligent since winter break, and I didn't get a chance to bring the thing home over spring break. As a result, it had been about two weeks since I'd last played the French horn.

I started practicing at about noon. The routine I followed was the same basic routine that I've been following since I started college: warmup, exercises, solos/excerpts, and warmdown.

1. My warmup lasted about 45 minutes, and consisted of simple breathing exercises, scales, and long tones. It was all pretty standard, and it's not strenuous by design, so I didn't experience any problems or even notable differences from a normal practice session.
2. The exercises I do comprise the longest and most strenuous part of my practice session. They're relatively dull, usually pattern-based etudes taken from a variety of practice books that focus on the various technical aspects of horn playing: articulation, range, dynamics, etc. In this (very long) practice session, I spent about two hours on these, and boy, was it hell. My lips were dray, and beginning to get sore, and I was only just over halfway through the day.
3. After the exercises, I practice solos and excerpts. I'd like to just be able to practice solos, but there isn't really enough horn literature to do that every day, so I add in excerpts from orchestral pieces. This section has a twofold purpose: it lets me practice the more stylistic aspects of playing horn, while also letting me prepare for any auditions I might have in the future. Unfortunately, in this case, it wasn't a terribly productive venture. I was too focused on just getting the notes out to pay attention to the finer stylistic points, and any benefits I saw to the technical aspects of my playing would have been better gained by just doing more exercises. I spent a little under two hours on these.
4. Finally, I warm down. This is essential in any practice session to prevent damage to your lips, but it was especially essential in this one. It's similar to the warmup: easy, slow, and standardized. Usually, it takes my maybe five or ten minutes to warm down; in this case, it took me almost a half an hour until I felt I was ready to return to the world of the living.

Surprisingly, I didn't notice any lasting effects. My lips were a little sore for the rest of the day, but when I woke up the next morning, they were pretty much back to normal. And even though I might not have improved stylistically, I definitely got a lot of productive technical work in. I can't speak to the effects of doing this multiple days in a row. But, if you happen to also play the French horn, and you have a slow day, a three- or four-hour practice session might not actually be a bad idea.