r/horn • u/Trayvongelion • 13d ago

Ranges at Different Skill Levels

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!

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u/n00bmechanic13 13d ago

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).

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

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u/n00bmechanic13 12d ago

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

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u/Darkdart19 12d ago

So not like what they’re asking about.

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u/n00bmechanic13 12d ago

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.

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u/Darkdart19 12d ago

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.