A guide to the

HUGHES HIGH HORN EXERCISES

A couple things to remember….
Breathe Low
Tight Right Hand
More air in the high range is not really true. Faster air (happens when the aperture gets smaller)
Understand the difference between embouchure and aperture
High range practice: have the horn OFF your face as much as the horn is ON your face
These exercises are not supposed to exhaust you, so chill. Take your time.

1. Harmonic Slurs/Sirens/Bends (a la Francis Orval) (efficient flexibility)

Function: This exercise connects the feeling in the high range with the more comfortable feeling
you normally have in middle range

Directions: At a ringing FF, play a harmonic slur starting on Ab below the treble clef staff to
third space C (octave and a third—all on the fingering 23 on the F side), pause on the C, and then
slur back down to the Ab. You must hit every partial, don’t worry about intonation…you’re
playing in tune with nature! Use a fast air stream and siren/bend a fully supported tone up to
allow the next note in the harmonic series to speak. The next higher partial should not be forced
or set with the lips… let it be an accident…the horn is built to catch the next partial…you don’t
really have to force it there. If you do, you’re practicing extra tension in the embouchure way to
early! The “bend” should sound as much like a regular horn tone as possible—don’t pull the air
out of the bend. Bending up should feel like the air is moving out and away, across the bottom
lip and the bottom lip is moving into the mouthpiece. Bending down should fee like the air is
moving out and down across the top lip and the top lip is moving into the mouthpiece. Make it
really Bendy!!!!

Continue up by half-steps: F horn 23, 12,1,2,0 Bb horn 23, 12, 1,2,0, then continue up on the F
horn with 123,13, 23, 12, 1, 2, 0

Things to focus on while playing the exercise:

1. slurs should feel like a siren on the mouthpiece
2. think of motion inside the mouthpiece, or the lips flexing out against the mouthpiece as you
ascend
3. the first note should have the fast air you’ll need for the whole slur, the more raucous and
rough the first five partials sound, the easier it is to ascend without pressure
4. you should sound like a fifth grader when you play this exercise…especially if you’ve been
doing it another way for a long time.
5. start out with triads first, then reward yourself with added partials
6. start doing this exercise slowly! After you’re getting all the notes, try sweeping up to the high
note and then back down.
7. if you’re doing it correctly, the mp pressure should feel relatively the same from the lowest
note to the highest note of each slur. Do this with your mouthpiece alone to prove to yourself
what it should feel like. We pause on the high note long enough to ask ourselves “am I doing this
correctly?”
2. How Too’s (a new body rhythm)
Function: practices more relaxed initial attacks in the high range
Directions: Use Doug Hill’s “How-To” approach: A two count approach, (in out) as opposed to
a three count approach (in, close throat and set up tension, out). Keep the mouthpiece “at bay”
while inhaling/relaxing (how) and bring it to both lips and attack the note before you think
you’re ready to play it, or….Think of eliminating the closing of the throat and setting of tension
before the attacks. Play five of the same pitch in a row with an intense focus on the approach
(body rhythm) to the note, rather than the note itself. Pull the mouthpiece off after each “How
Too”, allowing the blood to flow back to the aperture, and so you can mentally reset to start the
next one.

Start on a different pitch everyday, and ascend up by half step through five pitches. Try for five
good attacks in a row on a given pitch, but don’t practice more than ten. You’ve still rehearsed
ten great approaches regardless of hitting the desired pitch

Special tips:
1. Never correct. Just “How-Too” and let the note be whatever pitch it is, whatever dynamic it
is. Imagine the correct pitch. If you get the pitch, add to your list of duties, the muscle memory
of getting back to that same pitch the next time
2. Don’t be in a hurry. You can hyperventilate if you go to fast. Relaxed approach is the key.
Also, it won’t tire you out if you give your lips more off time than on time with this exercise.
3. This is a great exercise in any range. This may be a nice way to approach hesitation problems
as well.

3. Minor Thirds (aperture sensation) (sound sensation)

Function: once in the high register, this exercise reminds us that it’s only the inner lip and change
of air direction that adjusts slightly to alter pitches…nothing more!
Directions: Play a most beautiful minor third slur up and down.
Start a C# with a “How Too” and play a beautiful free blowing tone, sustain that note and search
for the most beautiful tone. Get rid of your body tension. Then gently ease (slur) up to the most
beautiful free blowing E, sustain, and slur back down to C#. Aperture sensation should mimic
the same feeling from harmonic slur exercise. Most change should initiate from the lower lip
INSIDE the mouthpiece. Goal… no motion seen on the outside of the mouthpiece on face or
neck. It’s only the inner lip that changes ever so slightly.

Feel the bottom lip change as you ascend…now, can you make that motion happen?

Trick: when you’re ready to flip up to E, expand or relax your lower body into your stomach.
Try releasing the tension or push out the belly to distract your attention from moving your lips.

Picture the higher note out in front of you, just beyond the low note. Take off from the low note
as if you are an airplane travelling to the next note. Always forward!
4. Bach Flexibles (calmness..all the others)
Function: to explore articulating in the high range with ease. Prepares us for playing Bach-like
passages.
Directions: Play “sol la ti do ti la” four times then bring it home to “do”
Sol is the note we set for and try to maintain the ease and feeling of that note as we ascend.
Don’t tense as you go up, keep as open as you are on the first note. Affirm this by slightly getting
louder as you descend in each measure, reaching an open and clear note at the bottom each time.
The goal is for it to feel like you are never increasing mp pressure as you play this exercise.
Lower body, take a deep pelvic floor breath and create a “beach ball” on which your lungs and
upper body sits on. As you play this exercise try keeping the ball big (enough air will come out,
you’re just inhibiting any extra tension from creeping UP as you progress through the breath).

5. Color tones/Sizzlers (efficiency when playing high and loud)

Function: minimize the effort used to play loud in the high register
Playing with edge (brassy color) makes the horn sound louder without feeling like you are
blowing hard (and running out of air fast!). There is a time and place for loud without edge of
course, but the creative use of your color spectrum, introducing edge along with more air is a
much more efficient way to get to FF. Many horn players are afraid to play with edge because
it’s OUT OF CONTROL!!! This exercise will give you the control to add edge when andwhere
you want it, rather than giving the horn the power to decide to be brassy. You’re in control of
your color!

Brassy playing requires a relaxed or released aperture and fast air…in that order! Let the relaxing
of the aperture in the mouthpiece make way for the air you’re putting through it. Lead with the
buzz change and have the air to sizzle through right behind it. Change the color purposefully, not
the dynamic (but of course the dynamic will naturally change with added airspeed.)

This is a great exercise in all the ranges, of course, but practicing it specifically in the high
register keeps us from pressing and blowing our brains out when we’re supposed to play loud
stuff.

Step one: Experiment playing one note that moves from brassy to not-brassy and back to brassy,
etc. back and forth until you truly feel how your aperture relaxes to make the brassy spread
sound. You must be able to feel this before doing the colortone/sizzler exercise.

Directions: Metronome ♩=72 Play a 17 count long tone with a color-changing hairpin.

Beautiful----------Sizzle, BREATH, Sizzle--------Beautiful

Count: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Prep: pelvic floor breath, feel the support down low from the start
Coung 1-8: Start mezzo beautiful with no edge gradually change the color until your sound is at
it’s edgiest! (It will be loud too!).
Beat 9 pelvic floor breath!
Beats10-17: opposite! Start at your edgiest and move back to mezzo beautiful (always remember
to blow forward when doing a diminuendo.

Where you want to feel tension as you move into your sizzle is down in the lower stomach/pelvic
floor area—not in the shoulders or neck.

Do this on five pitches every day, gradually moving the range up as comfortability allows

Tips on doing all of the high horn exercises:

Doing these exercises with relaxation and effortlessness in the forefront is the key element!

Do each of these exercises separately, starting in a range that you can handle and be successful.
Spend 5-10 minutes on them, or however long you can manage.

Don’t force the issue. For most of us, it’s not that we’re trying do develop stronger chops to get
up there. Instead, the case is that we’ve been going at it the wrong way, and we need to let the air
do more of the work…any tension that you’re creating above the lungs is inhibiting the airflow,
which causes more tension, which inhibits more air flow, etc. and the beat goes on….So, go up
there, do some work on playing in the upper register while maintaining control of extra tension
in your body through the exercises, and stop while you’re having reasonable success. (or think of
displacing tension lower away from your head, neck and chest) Then move on to something
else…preferably not high range.

Keep your right hand tight or compressed in the bell when playing in the high register: it helps to
center the partials better.

Pelvic Floor breathing is GREAT in the high register, but we should be breathing down (i.e.
throwing our tension down) to that muscle all the time!

It’s not necessary to do all of these exercises every day. Put them on a rotation during your
weekly practice regimen. Don’t play them all in a row. Don’t expect that you’ll have more
success with these exercises at the beginning, middle, or end of a practice session. We should be
able to play high, low, soft, loud, at any time, as long as we warmed up sufficiently.

Practicing like this in the practice room allows us to try it out in ensemble and solo playing! Yay.