At the moment when I am playing, I find that the main problem I face is missed notes. By this I mean that I don't hit notes cleanly and maybe 1/10 notes has a slight blip in it.

What do I need to do to remove this aspect of my playing? Is it embouchure or will it simply improve with experience and time. Would there be any exercises that can help me play an entire concerto with every note being 'clean'

Thanks

Lip slurs really help. You could find a book, get exercises off the web somewhere, or simply make them up. If you don't do a lot of lip slurs already, start off slurring from one partial to the next without skipping any in between, and then after a while start skipping around to really work on accuracy. Make sure when you do this that you're paying attention to accuracy. It may seem a little silly since that's exactly what you're working on, but really listening to yourself helps you recognize any problems and fix them more quickly.

@flying - - There are two basic ways to play an instrument. One is by hearing and another is by feeling. I prefer to play by feel, as there are advantages in my venues to do this.

I have two suggestions for you.
First - most everyone gets a blip on the D 4th line treble clef. The reason is both D and C can be played with the same fingering. Play D a few times understanding this and see what it sounds like. Then observe that D is not above C, but below E. Now, try playing the D, understanding that it is below E. Does it sound any different? Is the blip gone?

Second - unless you are playing hours everyday there is a good chance you lips, chest, and abdominal muscles don't know exactly what it takes to make the note. Take the first line of your concerto and look at the notes. Which is the lowest note? play that note for about 2 seconds. rest for 2 seconds, then play it again for 2 seconds, rest 2, play 2, rest 2.
You want to play the note 3 or 4 times for 2 seconds; get a feel for the note. Then move to the next highest note and repeat. After you have played each pitch in the line then play the line and see if you are not more accurate.

-John

frederick - thanks although my problem is the cleanliness of attacking a note. my control for lip slurs is fairly good, I think it is more the actual tonguing/'attack' of the note

john - I understand you 'feel' methods and trying that out earlier, I found that it does help to an extent, as I am concentrating more on hitting the note perfectly, right in the centre. The exercise you provided I also tried but i guess it is not something that will improve in one practice, so I will see how it goes!

Flying, I thought my exercise would work for your predicament. It should help greatly even just doing it once. If not then it's something else, or I don't understand your issue.

You are talking about a little buzz, flip, glitch, whatever you want to call it at the begining of the note? You also mentioned 'center' , which the exercise I mentioned again should help a lot at first try. IF not, then I have to wonder about how you are tonguing, what mouthpiece you are using in what horn, or if it's simply an isse of synchronization.

I like Philip Farkas's exercise for accuracy. It's a whole page of random pitches with one quarter note at the beginning of each 4 beat measure, played at 60 beats a minute. you play the first note of the measure, then rest the next three beats, then play the first note of the next measure,etc. The notes jump all over the place from high notes to very low, strange intervals, etc. If you don't have the Farkas book (The Art of French Horn Playing) you could write your own. He encourages you to further challenge yourself by playing one note forte then the next piano through the duration of the exercise. (It's hard and I don't think I've ever made it all the way through consistently.) Farkas says this is the best way to develop accuracy. It help you develop a sense of intervals, pitch, security of attacks at different dynamics, etc.

You might enjoy reading the latest article on my blog contributed by a trombone player who recently crossed over to play horn. It's pretty funny.

Valerie Wells
http://www.beforhorn.blogspot.com/

sorry that i havent replied, I kind of forgot about this, although my problems are still there.

John - i have been trying your exercise and methods but I can't say I am finding them terribly useful, I will continue to endeavour with them and see where i get to.

Val - I do have his book and I have tried the exercise, and I appreciate how hard it is!! I find the main problem I have is i dont always know if i have hit the right note but i guess this will also develop as i get better and become more aware of accuracy so that I can feel when i play the wrong note thanks

Flyer, Sometimes it's hard to know what's causing clams -- a mechanical problem, practicing problems or a hearing problem. I'll fire out a few ideas below that have applied to me in the past.

(1) I've found certain types of mouthpieces make me clam, while others don't. Schilke and Lasky make me clam, while 100's of other horn players LOVE them. Go figure. With Farkas, Giardinelli, Conn, Bach and my Moosewood mouthpiece, I play way cleaner. I don't know why, but I think it has something to do with the rim contour.

(2) Over practicing, under practicing, or an overly strenuous warm up will cause me to clam more. I'm one of those who has to stick to a routine to keep everything going well.

(3) Scales & arpeggios help me. I had a teacher who gave me an exercise that helped with my accuracy because it helped train my ear when I was first coming back to horn 4 years ago. She had me play a major scale. Then play the major arpeggio, then the minor arpeggio, then stacked minor thirds within the same key. Then move to the next key up a half step & repeat. It seriously helped my accuracy because it trained my ear better than any exercise I'd had previously. I've been thinking of writing up a simplified version of this for my students. When I get it done, I'll make it available to you if you wish.

(4) I switched from traditional tonguing behind the teeth to tonguing on the lips & it helped me clean up my tonguing. The motion I use is like spitting out an eyelash or a tiny seed from the tip of the tongue between the lips. Try it with grains of rice & you'll see what I mean.

(5) This one is vague, but very important to me. If I'm tense, I get clipped attacks. If I'm calm, I do much better. I sometimes have to stop, take a deep breath and force my neck, back, ribs, etc. to melt, melt, melt. It always helps. I try to play my horn as if I'm made of jello and haven't a care in the world. It works. Go figure!

Mmmm.... I think I'm out of ideas. I hope something here helps. Clams are a drag.

Valerie Wells
http://www.beforhorn.blogspot.com/

Thank you Val, I will bear all of those in mind. I'm not sure I will try this lip-tonguing, it sounds a bit unconventional and I would rather not mess up my playing by trying it out, I'm sure it works well I'm just going to play it safe if that makes sense.

I also find that concentrating really hard on hitting the centre of the note help and also keeping the corner of my mouth tight but i will try some arpeggios and scales etc. and if you write that exercise up I would love to have a copy!!

Thank you so much

The accuracy exercise is done. If anyone who wants it, send me your email address.

Valerie Wells
http://www.beforhorn.blogspot.com/