Rating: 
Summary: A must for all french horn players !!
Review: "Art of French Horn Playing" by Farkas is a must and bible for horn players. Never seen a book so complete with problems and SOLUTIONS discussed
Rating:
Summary: A must for all french horn players !!
Review: "Art of French Horn Playing" by Farkas is a must and bible for horn players. Never seen a book so complete with problems and SOLUTIONS discussed
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: 95 pages full of advice for any hornplayer, beginner, advanced or pro. Maybe the fotos and the layout are not best quality, but finally its the content that counts.
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for any serious student
Review: As a Horn teacher for many many years, this is required text for all my students. The "manual" for Horn playing.
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for any serious student
Review: As a Horn teacher for many many years, this is required text for all my students. The "manual" for Horn playing.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Horn 'Bible'
Review: I refer to this book CONSTANTLY as a guide for practicing, and playing. I've also recommended this book to all of my horn pals. It covers (and explains) everything: tuning, warm-up, embouchure, transposing, hand placement, etc. with helpful pictures. If you're serious about horn playing, this is a MUST in your library of books -- leave it in your music folder!!
Rating:
Summary: Still the Best But Does Need Amendment
Review: Philip Farkas's book is still the best. May it long be published! (Perhaps I speak prematurely. I have not yet seen Verne Reynolds's new book on horn playing, published by the Amadeus Press.) There are a few areas where I would like to see it brought more up to date, though. In the chapter devoted to maintenance, Farkas advocates using valve oil for lubricating the valves. That is out of date advice that I religiously followed and quickly wore out my valves' bearings, which made them clack within a couple of months of purchase of the horn. Nowadays, the better advice is to lubricate the upper and lower bearings with key oil, which has much more lubricity than valve oil, and to use valve oil strictly between the rotor and the casing as a space filler, administering the oil through the valve slides. Ever since I started searching for it in 1959, I never did find Linen Cuttyhunk string, but I think technology has moved ahead and what's now available will outlast that string manyfold. Slide greases have also improved greatly, and I don't think anyone seeks out gun grease for slides anymore. (I still use Marvin Howe's old favorite: wheel bearing grease.) In his chapter on embouchure, Farkas included nearly everything. But he omitted mention of the levator and depressor muscles, the ones that bare the teeth, without whose participation it is impossible to form an aperture, so essential to tone and response. He was obviously using them-- I am sure I see that in the photograph of him playing-- but he might have been unaware of it. The mouthpiece also forms part of the horn player's embouchure. The angle between the mouthpiece and the face isn't quite perpendicular with the horn (or with any brass instrument) because there would otherwise be no way for the upper arch of the lip aperture to form, since the levator muscles are at the side of the nose and do not act on the center of the upper lip. Nobody seems to take his advice about fingerings. Practically everyone is sure Farkas has ordered everyone to switch from the F horn to the Bb horn at G#/Ab. He did no such thing. He designated the region between G#/Ab to C as an optional area. Many need to reread that section. There is one place, though, where he was a little too arbitrary, and I wish he hadn't influenced people. He advises against ever using the third finger alone to play A on the grounds that trilling to the Bb above it would cause a cross fingering. That's true, but a third finger A is the only one that would make a trill from G# to A possible. He could have gone more into how fingerings need to be selected by what will facilitate playing, beyond what he discussed about the section about the switch from the F horn to the Bb horn and vice versa. Maybe Farkas didn't want to complicate things too much. His chapter on tonguing emphasizes the need for accuracy. But as for gaining speed, alas! it hasn't helped me much. What he is describing sounds perhaps like a controlled flutter tongue. My tongue just won't cooperate with his instructions, or anyone else's, so I use double and triple tonguing (neither one mentioned in this book but mentioned in his Art of Brass Playing) for successions of sixteenth notes after around 104 beats per minute. I've inquired around, and I've found I'm not alone in this. His recommendations about breath control appear to collide with those of the school of Arnold Jacobs, the esteemed tuba player also of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and whose teachings about breath control are now sacred among most brass players. In no way would Mr. Jacobs agree to Farkas's proposition that the throat hold back air during soft playing or any other. I'm still trying to sort that one out. A veteran trombone player from that orchestra told me once that Farkas could not have been following his own advice in the matter. Another area where others might disagree with Farkas is about how to phrase sixteenth notes. I saw a school of thought about that in Keith Stein's book, The Art of Clarinet Playing, in which that author advocated making a slight crescendo through the weak sixteenth notes, so as to make the note that falls on the beat a goal note.
The rest of the book is indeed strong. The use of double exposure to show hand position in the bell was a stroke of brilliance. His warmup routine is a real lip and accuracy builder. The recommended etudes are outstanding, as well. It's too bad, though, that Erwin Miersch's book of etudes wasn't out back in 1956. Farkas must have surely liked it when it appeared. His advice about intelligent practice is unique; I don't know why other method books, even ones for other instruments, don't lay it out so simply. His advice about stage fright is also wonderful, though I think a musician should also consult Barry Green and Timothy Gallwey's book The Inner Game of Music, which adds to what Farkas discusses.
Rating:
Summary: Still the Best But Does Need Amendment
Review: Philip Farkas's book is still the best. May it long be published! (Perhaps I speak prematurely. I have not yet seen Verne Reynolds's new book on horn playing, published by the Amadeus Press.) There are a few areas where I would like to see it brought more up to date, though. In the chapter devoted to maintenance, Farkas advocates using valve oil for lubricating the valves. That is out of date advice that I religiously followed and quickly wore out my valves' bearings, which made them clack within a couple of months of purchase of the horn. Nowadays, the better advice is to lubricate the upper and lower bearings with key oil, which has much more lubricity than valve oil, and to use valve oil strictly between the rotor and the casing as a space filler, administering the oil through the valve slides. Ever since I started searching for it in 1959, I never did find Linen Cuttyhunk string, but I think technology has moved ahead and what's now available will outlast that string manyfold. Slide greases have also improved greatly, and I don't think anyone seeks out gun grease for slides anymore. (I still use Marvin Howe's old favorite: wheel bearing grease.) In his chapter on embouchure, Farkas included nearly everything. But he omitted mention of the levator and depressor muscles, the ones that bare the teeth, without whose participation it is impossible to form an aperture, so essential to tone and response. He was obviously using them-- I am sure I see that in the photograph of him playing-- but he might have been unaware of it. The mouthpiece also forms part of the horn player's embouchure. The angle between the mouthpiece and the face isn't quite perpendicular with the horn (or with any brass instrument) because there would otherwise be no way for the upper arch of the lip aperture to form, since the levator muscles are at the side of the nose and do not act on the center of the upper lip. Nobody seems to take his advice about fingerings. Practically everyone is sure Farkas has ordered everyone to switch from the F horn to the Bb horn at G#/Ab. He did no such thing. He designated the region between G#/Ab to C as an optional area. Many need to reread that section. There is one place, though, where he was a little too arbitrary, and I wish he hadn't influenced people. He advises against ever using the third finger alone to play A on the grounds that trilling to the Bb above it would cause a cross fingering. That's true, but a third finger A is the only one that would make a trill from G# to A possible. He could have gone more into how fingerings need to be selected by what will facilitate playing, beyond what he discussed about the section about the switch from the F horn to the Bb horn and vice versa. Maybe Farkas didn't want to complicate things too much. His chapter on tonguing emphasizes the need for accuracy. But as for gaining speed, alas! it hasn't helped me much. What he is describing sounds perhaps like a controlled flutter tongue. My tongue just won't cooperate with his instructions, or anyone else's, so I use double and triple tonguing (neither one mentioned in this book but mentioned in his Art of Brass Playing) for successions of sixteenth notes after around 104 beats per minute. I've inquired around, and I've found I'm not alone in this. His recommendations about breath control appear to collide with those of the school of Arnold Jacobs, the esteemed tuba player also of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and whose teachings about breath control are now sacred among most brass players. In no way would Mr. Jacobs agree to Farkas's proposition that the throat hold back air during soft playing or any other. I'm still trying to sort that one out. A veteran trombone player from that orchestra told me once that Farkas could not have been following his own advice in the matter. Another area where others might disagree with Farkas is about how to phrase sixteenth notes. I saw a school of thought about that in Keith Stein's book, The Art of Clarinet Playing, in which that author advocated making a slight crescendo through the weak sixteenth notes, so as to make the note that falls on the beat a goal note.
The rest of the book is indeed strong. The use of double exposure to show hand position in the bell was a stroke of brilliance. His warmup routine is a real lip and accuracy builder. The recommended etudes are outstanding, as well. It's too bad, though, that Erwin Miersch's book of etudes wasn't out back in 1956. Farkas must have surely liked it when it appeared. His advice about intelligent practice is unique; I don't know why other method books, even ones for other instruments, don't lay it out so simply. His advice about stage fright is also wonderful, though I think a musician should also consult Barry Green and Timothy Gallwey's book The Inner Game of Music, which adds to what Farkas discusses.
Rating:
Summary: The Art of French Horn Playing - A Definite Must-Have
Review: The Art of French Horn Playing is a definite must-have for all aspiring horn players, young and old. As a professional for 10 years now, and a current horn teacher/tutor, I strongly recommend this book to all my students. The Art of French Horn Playing covers practically every aspect of playing the horn - from the very basics to the very technical - this book caters to every level of horn playing. Even today, I constantly refer to it every once in a while. Go, buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: This book is awsome, it is a wealth of information that every horn player should know. I love it to death, as has been said before it truely is the bible of french horn playing. If your not the reading type you may not appreciate this book's full potential, but for everyone else: BUY THIS BOOK!
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