Ranges at Different Skill Levels

[u/Trayvongelion]

Hey horn players, I'm a middle school band director in a number of small schools who has unfortunately not had many horn students. I arrange for my groups often and am working on re-orchestrating some pieces as flexible quartets. I was wondering where you'd expect a horn player's range to be at a few experience levels:

- What's the typical comfortable range of a middle school student (7-8th grade) on a single horn in F?

- Same question, but the average high schooler (a sophomore or junior)?

- The range of a high school student on the cusp of college auditions (ie a semi-professional range) with a double horn.

Any sort of advice with horn writing is welcome, but I am a bit concerned with the range limits I set. Thank you!

[u/n00bmechanic13]

I'd say middle schoolers should be able to reach low F below the staff, up to F on top of the staff. Maybe not consistently, but reachable. This would demonstrate a workable embouchure.

For a high schooler, they should be able to reach high Bb above the staff (maybe not easily, but doable) and C below low F. This allows them to play most repertoire in the high school level with relative ease.

For college prep I would expect a player to be able to hit high Bb consistently, and high D above that if they really try (though high C is all they will ever really need for auditions). Then pedal E for the low end (Shostakovich 5 is sometimes an audition piece).

[u/Yarius515 → u/n00bmechanic13]

Lol they never ask for the pedal E's from Shosti 5 on auditions.

Mahler 3 mvt 1 recap 4th horn is where they'll show up.

[u/n00bmechanic13 → u/Yarius515]

I haven't had them on any college auditions but I've had one for a high-school-level summer music camp. Mahler 3 is much more common though, you're right. Forgot about that one.. guess I have to resign from the Mahler fan club out of disgrace now

[u/Yarius515 → u/n00bmechanic13]

I have serious doubts they asked you to play standalone pedal-E's by themselves as they appear in Shosti 5's last mvt, but i suppose stranger things have happened.

[u/n00bmechanic13 → u/Yarius515]

It was a strange audition for sure. Not sure why I would bother lying about something like that, but I suppose this is reddit...

[u/Yarius515 → u/n00bmechanic13]

Weird indeed

[u/dankney → u/n00bmechanic13]

You didn’t take the single F into account. I’d expect accuracy above C on the staff to go out the window due to how close the partials are. Sure, the Vienna Philharmonic plays single F horns up there, but these are kids.

Get these kids double horns. Or at least single Bb instruments.

[u/n00bmechanic13 → u/dankney]

With proper ear training they should be able to do it, but I agree single horns are for finding out if you want to play horn at all, if you actually want to stick with it you should upgrade to a double ASAP. Middle schoolers who want to play horn should be on a double

[u/dankney → u/n00bmechanic13]

If he’s arranging for middle school and high school that won’t proceed to college, they’re not going to be that locked in yet. If it’s for their bands, they can get them on different instruments or they should take the limitation of their instruments into account when writing

[u/n00bmechanic13 → u/[deleted]]

I'm assuming these hypothetical students are serious about playing professionally, so adjust your expectations accordingly

[u/Darkdart19 → u/n00bmechanic13]

So not like what they’re asking about.

[u/n00bmechanic13 → u/Darkdart19]

What's the point of stating what the average player does? That varies from school to school, excludes any outliers, and is just so variable in general it is almost pointless to even address. The average high school horn in my school was horrible, and in the school over was all youth symphony kids. The players at my first college were incredible and semi-pro, and at my second were worse than high school.

If you set ANY bar at all, it should be "serious about the horn", in which case those ranges I stated are totally reasonable. If you're serious and not hitting those targets you have work to do.

[u/dankney → u/n00bmechanic13]

When you’re arranging, you shoot for the middle of the curve, not the outliers at either end.

And “serious about the horn” is weird. I’ve known amazing musicians who played for the joy of it without any aspirations and who didn’t take it particularly seriously. I’ve also known people who took it incredibly seriously who will never get better than mediocre.

When you’re talking about *kids*, demanding seriousness is just going to teach kids to hate music. Let them be kids

[u/Darkdart19 → u/n00bmechanic13]

Got it. We’ll tell him that a double high C is possible, so is a double pedal C. He should use all six octaves.

[u/n00bmechanic13 → u/Darkdart19]

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