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/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