8/11/2019 Warm-Up and Daily Regimen for the Horn
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Dennis Abelson is the horn professor at Carnegie Mellon
University anda member of Pittsburgh's Opera and Ballet Orchestras.
is !arm"Upand Daily #egimen for the orn begins$ after a helpful
%able ofContents$ &ith !hat to Do and !hat to %hin($
&herein heimmediately emphasi)es the critical balance
bet&een the mental andphysical aspects of the daily drill$ as
&ell as the basic principles upon&hich the drill is based.
%his introduction is very straightfor&ard* hedoesn't &aste
a lot of verbiage$ and students can highlight (ey phrasesli(e$
Al&ays use a metronome$ and #est ade+uately
bet&eenroutines. e covers a lot of topics +uite e,ectively in a
very fe&pages.
%he !arm"Up section has virtually every note &ritten out$
&ith thee-ception of the nal chromatic e-ercises. /n this
section he maintainsa very moderate range and dynamic level through
four basic dailyroutines$ starting &ith 0ong %ones$ More 0ong
%ones$ continuing&ith Diatonic /ntervals$ Chromatic /ntervals$
Arpeggios 1on both
the 2 and B"3at sides4$ and concluding &ith Chromatics$ and
MoreChromatics. One of the strengths of this &arm"up is that
the pre"scribed order of e-ercises moves e5ciently through the
di,erentaspects of the routine.
%he ne-t section$ %he #egimen$ features daily e-ercises to
bee-ecuted in all (eys 1i.e.$ t&o (eys per day in each
e-ercise4. erecommends a total of thirty minutes$ allo&ing for
rest after eache-ercise* t&o minutes on %hirds 1in (ey and
style option of choice4$ve minutes of %hree patterns 1in all (eys4$
four minutes of %riads1in t&o (eys of choice4$ four minutes of
Arpeggios 1in t&o (eys ofchoice4$ four minutes of ma6or and
minor Diatonic 7cales 1again$ t&o(eys4$ and four minutes of
7cale8 Arpeggio Combinations 1t&o (eys4.Many of the e-ercises
provide a choice of articulations.
%he third section$ 7pecic Problems$ features a broad variety
ofe-ercises for the development and maintenance of many
othertechnical aspects of playing$ including a fe& that don't
typically turn upin other routines$ and some in rather original
designs. 7ome even havesome&hat thought"provo(ing titles* #ange
/mprovement 8 9conomy of9mbouchure Movement$ #egister /mprovement 8
%onguing$9nunciation 8 Clarity$ 0o& #egister 7trength$ %he
Brea( 82le-ibility$ %rills$ Double %onguing$ %riple %onguing$
9ntrance
Accuracy 8 Pitch 7ense$ Centering 8 Pitch Bending$ and
2le-ibility.%he last pages o,er 7ome Practical orn Player's
Philosophy$ 7omeOther elpful 7uggestions$ And a nal thought. . . /n
this section$Abelson addresses some of the myriad of con3icting
informationreadily volunteered$ emphasi)es the personal and
individualuni+ueness of each player and his or her specic needs$
and o,erssome practical generali)ations and &ords of
&isdom.
Abelson's !underhorn Press publication is a &ell"organi)ed$
thorough$and practical addition to the drill boo(s currently
available. / am stillal&ays ama)ed at ho& a slightly
di,erent s(e& to any typical e-ercisecan often give someone a
&hole ne& perspective on &hat they aretrying to
accomplish and ho& it may be attained. / guess that's
&hy
