A Singing Approach to Horn Playing

Description

A Singing Approach to Horn Playing is author Natalie Douglass Grana's guide to the intricacies of horn-playing and the development of aural skills essential to beginner and intermediate musicians.

• Serves beginners and advanced players alike through a wide range of techniques for improving players' sensitivity to pitch
• Offers a selection of exercises to tie together inner hearing, singing, and horn playing
• Targets the standard horn repertoire, with horn parts combined with important lines from the orchestra or accompaniment

About the Author(s)

Natalie Douglass Grana, Faculty, Lake Forest College and DePaul University

Natalie Douglass Grana is a hornist and educator based in Chicago, IL. Her integrative approach to teaching horn through singing and inner hearing has garnered international recognition, and she has worked with hundreds of students to develop fluency as hornists and complete musicians. Dr. Grana is currently on faculty at Lake Forest College and DePaul University in Chicago, and holds a D.M.A. in Horn Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and an M.M. in Horn Performance and B.M.E. in Instrumental Music Education from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Table of Contents

Reviews
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Song and Exercises by Tone Set
Canons, Solfeggi, and Horn Literature
Advanced Horn Literature
Further Study
Song Sources

Reviews

"This beautifully formulated book, specifically designed with the horn player in mind, is a training manual for fine-tuning your inner ear, tightening your rhythm, and improving your pitching skills—all elements in which every horn player should excel. Through a series of specially developed exercises using solfège, singing, harmony, and pulse, Dr. Douglass Grana gives you all the materials you'll need to develop the skills absolutely fundamental to any aspiring musician. With the incorporation of many examples taken from the standard horn repertoire, this book should be on the shelf of every horn studio." - Frank Lloyd, Professor for Horn, Folkwang University of Arts in Essen, Germany, renowned soloist and chamber player

"This book is incredible! I have opera singers for parents and wife, so I've benefitted from a LOT of vocal influences in my life. This book bridges the gap between brass playing and singing in simple, compelling, and wonderfully incremental ways. Dr. Douglass Grana has used the Concone vocal exercises and more to open us brass players up to our deeply creative and wildly freeing connection to singing." - Jeff Nelsen, Hornist, Canadian Brass; Professor of Horn, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music

"Quite simply: In my experience I have never heard a single successful hornist who could not also sing in time and in tune. Singing is a fundamental building block, indeed the necessary DNA, not only for the healthy development of the ear but also for technique, and most importantly for the growth of essential musical language ability. As such Dr. Douglass Grana's very welcome book goes a long way to fill what has long been a gaping hole in much horn pedagogy. Indeed, the positive ramifications of her work will surely resonate with students and teachers of all instruments. Highly recommended." - Fergus McWilliam, Hornist, Berlin Philharmonic; author, Blow Your OWN Horn