I Played on a Plastic Tube Horn for a Weekend so You Can Too!

I was originally going to title this post something more clickbait-y like “I played on a plastic tube horn for a weekend so you don’t have to,” but I didn’t want the title to imply that you shouldn’t play on one, because tl;dr: I actually would recommend that you play on one under the right circumstances.

While music related events have been the reason for most of my traveling - between out-of-state gigs, auditions, regional workshops, and festivals - I recently took a trip just for fun. That’s right, as a working, freelance musician, I took a trip unrelated to music…

JUST.

FOR.

FUN.

I had been planning on taking a short vacation with some old friends for a weekend of hiking, sightseeing, and casual Super Bowl watching at the beginning of February. With nothing major coming up immediately after that (no auditions, big performances, etc.) this gave me the luxury to not need to take my horn and drill excerpts, but with my normal schedule of teaching, rehearsals, and preparing for future performances, I didn’t want to lose four days of face time. Plus, avoiding flying with a horn would take a lot of hassle out of the trip.

I already owned a tube horn because I had taken it with me on a road trip in the past, but this time, I decided I would use it with more purpose, journal what I worked on, and use playing through my next brass quintet rehearsal as a test of if it was worth all worth it, or if I should take the whole horn and a practice mute next time. This post will detail what I did before, during, and after the trip to make sure I would survive being horn-less for four days, as well as how it felt to work on various fundamental areas on the tube.

Before the Trip

First, let’s start with the basics:

To acquire a tube horn, I went to Home Depot and asked for 20 ft of plastic tubing, with an inner diameter of 3/8 of an inch. I started playing on that, and progressively cut off small amounts at the end until I had some semblance of a harmonic series. The first harmonic series I came to was approx. Bb-basso, and I decided to settle for that, as it would allow for many “popular” horn notes (Middle C, F, G, Bb, Third-Space C through high F, and basically as many high harmonic notes as you want above that) for long tones and lip slur purposes. It wound up being about 19 feet long. All this will set you back a tax-deductible $7.

My trip would take place beginning early on a Friday, and ending very late on a Monday, meaning I would be without a horn for four full days. I prepared by making sure I got a good practice session on Thursday. As I mentioned earlier, since I didn’t have anything major coming up, the practice session was mostly fundamentals with a little bit of Mozart 4 thrown in.

As I packed my bags, I made sure I had as many tools as I could pack without packing the whole horn. This wound up including the tube horn, my mouthpiece, and a visualizer.

During the Trip

I flew without a horn for the first time in years and had some FEELINGS.

Going through security with no horn was mind-bogglingly easy. So much so that I don’t understand how normal people have problems with security, or are uptight about their overhead bags.

I like to fly Southwest because they tend to have more direct flights, have more overhead space, and are not total chaos when boarding the plane. In the past, I’ve paid a little extra to be in the priority boarding group with my horn, but this time, there was no need. I checked in as soon as I could and still got in the B group. This means I was somewhere in the middle of the first-come-first-served boarding order. Even so, since I was flying by myself with my one laptop bag and therefore no need for an overhead compartment, I sat in the second row! With no need to comb the plane for the most overhead space and the least uptight people to sit next to, I could sit in the most efficient spot.

Another great thing about that: when it’s time to de-board the plane, you just leave! No need to carefully pull your horn from above and delay everyone around you - I simply grabbed my bag and walked off the plane – even easier to do when you have at seat at the front!

After getting settled at our AirBnB, I prepared for my first practice session. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get 2+ hours of practice in like I would aim for on my actual horn, but I figured if I could work on some technique fundamentals for close to an hour every day, I would maintain my endurance and also be able to work on areas like breathing and air support in the same ways that I normally would.

I also knew I wouldn’t be able to play full excerpts or work on intonation, but I brought my iPad with Tonal Energy drones, and planned on singing some excerpts to a drone to keep them in my ear and feeling musical, since all of my time on the tube would be technique.

These are the fundamental areas that I found I was able to work on with the tube.

Longtones

Since I normally start my practice sessions with some easy longtones - 4 beats or 8 beats, nothing too loud or too soft, and in a comfortable range, that’s how I started my practice sessions on the tube as well. While I wouldn’t be able to listen to myself for tone quality as I normally would, I could still listen for a steady tone/blocks of sound, and make sure my embouchure was working properly and without tension. With the harmonic series I chose, there were plenty of well-sitting middle notes for this exercise.

Lip Slurs or Harmonic Series Slurs

After focusing on finding my sound, I usually move on to flexibility studies. Lately, these have included both harmonic series slurs and Farkas-style lip slurs. On the tube, I was able to cover about the same range that I would on an actual horn. I started with slower, smaller slurs along the harmonic series, and expanded it to glissandos of about two octaves where I could. Obviously, I wasn’t able to do traditional lip slurs in multiple keys as Farkas would suggest, but I was able to play arpeggios starting and ending on various notes in the range. Working on flexibility on the tube was probably one of the best-feeling exercises I could have done under the circumstances – I was able to keep my lips feeling in shape, while still working on breathing and supporting each note properly.

Low Range

As I descended into the low range on the tube, I aimed to maintain my usual “leadpipe” angle and found that the low “C” was fairly easy to play. While I wouldn’t exactly be able to play Shostakovich 5, I realized working on the low range on the tube horn would actually be surprisingly productive, as I made sure my corners were in the right place, my chin was flat, and my jaw was in the right position. Even though the harmonic series only allows for a few “low notes,” working on sustaining those notes still allowed me to feel like I would be able to maintain a strong low range when coming back to the actual horn.

High Range

This is where I used the visualizer the most in my practice. I would buzz a glissando-type exercise on the visualizer only, and then buzz that same range into the tube, listening for a continuous and uninterrupted air stream on both. If the air stream sounded weaker in spots or if I had trouble reaching the top note, I would take a better breath and make sure I supported through the air stream better the second time. This is an exercise I’ve done on the regular horn as well, and found it translated well to the tube horn since, either way, you’re working on better breathing and air support.

Articulation and Multiple Articulation

This is an area that was more difficult than I expected on the tube! I found it more difficult to make clear attacks, especially when working on double and triple tonguing. The exercise I did was a classic – sustaining one note at a time, and then tonguing that note for a few beats, using the same air. I was alarmed that this was suddenly more difficult, because normally I would consider articulation to be among my strengths. But, I used the opportunity to make sure I was paying extra close attention to exactly where in my mouth I was articulating, the speed of my tongue, and using the right amount of air. I was able to get the clearest multiple articulations with “tu-ku” and “ti-ki” syllables. I later worked on multiple articulations on the mouthpiece only, and found I was able to get the clarity that I wanted much more easily, and that came as a relief that I apparently didn’t forget how to articulate after all! I would suppose that it was more difficult to make a clear, non-stuffy articulation on the tube because, you know, it doesn’t have a bell.

Dynamics

I even experimented with playing longtones with crescendo and diminuendo swells to them – “Kendall’s Whiteboard”-style, for those of you familiar with that – because of course I did. The tube did have some dynamic range to it, but definitely not enough to realistically re-create the full horn’s dynamic range. Even so, any way to make all of the above things I was working on (which basically boil down to breathing and air support with a good embouchure) more interesting was alright with me. And naturally, I aimed to make each swell totally even on both sides. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7!, 8!!, 9!!!, 8!!, 7!, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Music!

Since the tube horn is basically the harmonic series minus the hand horn component to get more chromatic notes, I knew I wouldn’t be playing any Mozart or Strauss concerti on it. However, I also knew that that was no excuse not to practice music anyway, or aim to become a better musician away from the horn. I also spent some time singing Mozart 4 and various popular excerpts in different keys with a tone generator and metronome on. (A great thing to do while not away on a trip as well)!

After The Trip

My first day back to my routine was a Tuesday morning, where my teaching schedule started quite early, but I did have a gap in the mid-morning for a longer, more focused warm up. I started with my typical longtones and Farkas-style lip slurs, and was able to find the sound I wanted quite easily. In the past, when I have had days away from the horn due to illness or my own self-mandated rest, the first day back had been difficult to get the sound I wanted right away, or to get the lips loosened up and working correctly, with some endurance issues during the first two days back. That was not an issue after four days of tube horn.

On Tuesdays, I do fit in a solid practice session in the morning, but don’t practice too much after that, in order to save endurance for my brass quintet rehearsal in the evening. By the rehearsal, I felt like my endurance was actually BETTER than it was the previous week – although a very likely contributing factor is that we rehearsed in a more endurance-friendly order on that day.

The following days of practice included my usual fundamental areas and miscellaneous music, and I was able to ultimately make a seamless transition back into my regular routine.

Final Ideas and Considerations

Overall, my experience playing on a tube horn and then going back to a regular horn was quite positive. My trip was at the very beginning of February, and the next major performance that I had coming up was playing in a theatre pit at the end of February. I have needed to be out-of-town and in hotels a few days before an audition, and in that scenario, took a horn and practice mute so that I could still work on the music. I have also taken a horn and practice mute on other trips where I didn’t have anything major coming up, and wound up simply not practicing very much. I would say that an important consideration in this scenario is that I brought a tool to practice on, and was successful in practicing on it every day because that was something I planned on ahead of time. So, without a huge performance looming, if flying or traveling with a horn is inconvenient, and if you’ll only be away for a few days, I would enthusiastically recommend bringing a tube instead – you will feel like a rock star while traveling, won’t be doing anything loud enough to disturb other people, and will be able to play everything you could before you left as long as you practice the fundamentals, of course.

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This post was meant to be a review of the tube horn, but also wound up touching upon other areas that I haven’t written about yet. What would you like to read a future post about? Flying with a horn? My thoughts on journaling? On warming up and fundamentals? Something else? Tell me in the comments and share!

#Frenchhorn #Music #Travel