I know that Star Wars is the reason why many people take up horn. It is supposed to have an EXCELLENT solo. For our Spring performance or district (not sure which), my middle school band is playing "Selections from Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith Featuring Battle of the heroes, A New Hope, and Star Wars (Main Title)" It is by John Williams; arranged by Michael Story. I am not a huge star wars freak, and honestly, I have NO IDEA what the solo sounds like!!! Please don't shun me for not living up to my horn reputation and provide me with a website where I can listen to the solo. The Solo is in "A New Hope" it's only 4 measures, but I am REALLY nervous. I've never had a solo before, and I think I'm gonna mess up on the D, so if anyone has tips on how to play that without messing up, please tell me!
In general, on all brass instruments playing widely separated notes and especially on horn playing in the top octave (especially above the stave), tends to be the most unreliable.
If you can sing (or whistle) the part it is generally easier to play. This means its worth practising singing intervals of 3,4,5,6 notes as well as playing them. This helps to develop a sense of pitch.
In the top octave it is generally safer to use the Bb side of a double horn. The harmonics are further apart reducing the risk of mispitching. For instance, for D towards the top of the stave the normal fingering would be first valve which is also the standard fingering for the Bb below and the F above. On the Bb side you use 1+2 with which you could play A or F#. In practice, it feels like playing A in the middle of the stave which is not a frequently mispitched note. Don't practice higher notes without warming up properly first (scales and low notes are good warm up exercises).
If you are uncertain of some rhythm its worth entering it into some computer software (Finale Notepad is free) and get it to play it for you.
After a good warm up, grab a tuner and just your mouthpiece and first, sing each note by note until you get th epitches correctly. Next, sing the whole passage, note by note correctly (if you mess up, start over.)
After that, buzz each note on your mouthpiece, and not a flimsy airless buzz, but buzz in the mouthpiece with a full sound. Do that with each note, and then buzz the entire passage like that, restart the whole thing if you mess up, like before.
Then do the same thing again, except on the horn. I know this may seem like a lengthy boring process, but it really does help center your pitches on each note.
If you have that solo and don't know what it sounds like, I'd advise that you watch the movie. You'll be able to hear what the solo's supposed to sound like, and it's a great movie. But that's just my oppinion that it's a great movie, I don't know how well you'd actually like it.
If you don't have the movie, ask a friend if they have it, or you could go to the library, I'm pretty sure that they'd have it there. Once you get to the solo in the movie, depending on what it's recorded on (DVD or VHS) you can rewind and play through it again, and again. If it's a VHS tape, try not to do this too many times because this is hard on the tape and it will break eventually.
A good idea for you is to be looking at your music while you're listening to the solo, that way you have an even better idea of what it sounds like and how to play it.
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