Pick the exercise, the key and the tempo. Every student opens it written for their own instrument, in their own key and clef — trumpet, alto sax, flute, trombone, cello, voice, 69 instruments in all.
Free core forever, works offline (the spoken narration streams) — $24.99 one-time unlocks the full studio, no subscription. Tell a friend.
— Thomas Hornig, Henri Selmer Paris Artist
Pick the exercise, the key and the tempo. Every student opens it written for their own instrument, in their own key and clef — trumpet, alto sax, flute, trombone, cello, voice, 69 instruments in all.
The major scales, long tones, vibrato, eight ear-training games, the Milestone, and much more are free; and whatever you assign opens for your student even if it sits in the Full Studio, up to two octaves (the full range is the Full Studio).
Behind the exercises are written and spoken explanations of why — how serious players build technique and prepare for a gig. It’s easy, it’s in your hand, it’s on your iPad, and it’s in your key. Enough material for a lifetime of practice.
Tap the link on a phone or tablet and it opens straight in the app, already set to that student’s instrument; where the app isn’t installed, the student taps “Play it here, in this browser” and the week plays with sound in any web browser, with nothing to install. How assigning works →
The fundamentals come intuitively. Scales, patterns, shapes and intervals teach how notes relate; the ear games teach you to hear those relationships — in melodies and in harmony. Reading gets easier too: note names, note values and subdivision are right there on the staff.
The seven modes, the ii–V–I, swing phrasing and the twelve-bar blues bass line — the map improvisers return to — all in every key.
The 22 Arabic maqamat with real quarter tones, in the same studio as jazz and classical technique — a way to build improvising technique the way a jazz player prepares, and a bridge when Arabic and Western musicians play together. Two ear games train the quarter tone and the maqam’s home note.
On iPhone, iPad and Android. The interface is in English.
Forty-six seconds for the idea, three minutes for the tour — every practice room as it was in August, before the 1.5.0 ear-training games and blues bass line. Both open on YouTube; nothing on this page loads a player until you choose to.
Every walkthrough, and a short film in 30 languages
العربية · Български · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · Hrvatski · Čeština · Dansk · Nederlands · Filipino · Suomi · Français · Deutsch · Ελληνικά · हिन्दी · Magyar · Bahasa Indonesia · Italiano · 日本語 · 한국어 · Bahasa Melayu · Norsk · Polski · Português · Română · Русский · Slovenčina · Español · Svenska · Türkçe · Українська · Tiếng Việt
Each document stands alone. Together, they form a complete framework — from the first reed on the mouthpiece to a fully built youth wind ensemble program. Read online, or download the PDF.
A nine-year course of study for the modern saxophonist-doubler. Methods, scales, and repertoire from preparatory year through master's level, with a dedicated chapter on flute and clarinet — because in the professional world, the saxophonist who doubles is employable, and the one who doesn't, isn't.
The companion document to The Study of Saxophone. Course objectives, standards by level, MuseScore-linked references for transcription study, and a frank discussion of editing and technology in modern jazz performance.
A framework for concert band programs at any institution. Three-tier architecture, instrumentation by level, audition requirements, sectional coaching as masterclass, and 149 pieces of curated repertoire across Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Wind Symphony.
Thirteen families. Sixty-nine instruments. One app.
Looking up a range? Written, sounding and learner-comfortable ranges for twenty-six wind, brass, string and mallet instruments — or the band transposition chart.
The 22 Arabic maqamat, notated with real quarter tones in their orthodox spelling, sit in the same studio as the modes, the ii–V–I and the blues bass line.
Every maqam card names the Western chord-scale it bridges to — Rast, the mother maqam, is a Mixolydian frame with a half-flat third and seventh — so the way in is a mode you may already know. Practise it the way you prepare changes: at your tempo, one maqam at a time.
The maqamat are spelled the way you know them — Rast is C, D, E half-flat, F, G, A, B half-flat, at concert pitch, with each degree’s name in Arabic and English. The Western material is next door, written for your instrument in every key: scales, the modes, the ii–V–I, swing and the blues.
A way to build improvising technique the way a jazz player prepares, and a bridge when Arabic and Western musicians play together. Two ear games train the ear for it: Half-Flat for the quarter tone, Maqam Map for the maqam’s home note. Maqam Rast is free.
Arabic maqam theory, sourced · A message to maqam players · The two maqam ear games
Richard Dirlam — a classical saxophonist who taught at North Texas State — urged me to learn every major scale. I did, and music started making sense before anyone explained it, the way a second language suddenly lets you see the world differently. The Whole Horn does the same for you: all twelve keys, transposed for your instrument, one at a time.
At fifteen, I was playing in my high school big band. Dr. Earl C. Benson brought the most incredible repertoire — and here I am, soloing in G major, the music carrying me and me carrying it, all because my teacher Richard Dirlam had made an impression on me at fourteen: learn your scales. You can learn all the bebop you want — you still won't get around your horn, play in tune, play in time, or be in control of your instrument without this. The saxophone is beautiful because it's complex, but you need to be in command of it. Fluency in your twelve major scales is what translates into everything else.
— Thomas Hornig
Yes. In For Teachers, a teacher picks the exercise, the key and the tempo and sends one link — by Google Classroom, a group chat or email. Every student opens it written for their own instrument, in their own key and clef, across 69 instruments. Teachers can assign almost anything: scales and modes, technique, the blues bass line, the 22 maqamat and all eight ear-training games, and whatever is assigned opens for the student even if it sits in the Full Studio, up to two octaves (the full range is the Full Studio). There are no student accounts and nothing is collected. For teachers.
Yes, eight, and all of them are free: Higher or Lower, Drop, Name It, Lock-On, Echo, Half-Flat, Maqam Map and Chord Colors. They train pitch direction down to 15 cents, intervals, chords from triads to jazz voicings, tuning by ear, singing a note back, quarter tones and the Arabic maqamat. Today’s ear is a daily session of about four minutes, and after a miss most games play your answer and then the right one. The eight games.
Yes. The Whole Horn has Thomas Hornig’s own 12-bar walking bass line, with chord symbols above the staff, written for 69 instruments in all twelve keys. The key of F is free; the other eleven keys are in the Full Studio, and a teacher can assign it in any key. The blues bass line.
Yes. The Whole Horn is free to download on iOS and Android, with tempo control, scales in all 12 keys, vibrato and long tones for saxophone, trumpet, flute, clarinet, oboe, strings, voice, timpani and more — each in its own correct transposition. The core curriculum is free forever; one optional one-time upgrade opens the rest.
The Whole Horn is built for exactly this. Most practice apps show scales in concert pitch, which forces a transposing player to do mental arithmetic before every exercise. The Whole Horn asks which instrument you play, then renders every scale in the correct written key, correct clef and the real playable range of that instrument — across 69 instruments including trumpet, alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute, oboe, horn, euphonium, strings, voice and timpani. It plays the scale at your tempo so you match it by ear.
The app is free to download and there is no subscription. The free tier is permanent: all twelve major scales to two octaves in your instrument's transposition, the tonic and dominant-7th arpeggios, the Milestone exercise, long tones, vibrato, the Tuning Room, all eight ear-training games, Maqam Rast and the blues bass line in F. One in-app purchase — the Full Studio, $24.99, paid once — adds minor scales, intervals, patterns and chords, pentatonics, the modes and the ii–V–I, the blues bass line in all twelve keys, overtone training, chromatic technique, the extended range, and the remaining twenty-one Arabic maqamat. Whatever a teacher assigns opens for the student either way — up to two octaves; the full range is the Full Studio. No ads, no accounts, no data collection — and the trainer works offline; the optional spoken narration streams.
Alto and baritone saxophone are in E-flat; tenor and soprano saxophone, trumpet and clarinet are in B-flat; flute, oboe and trombone are in concert pitch (C). The Whole Horn shows every scale in your instrument's written key automatically — see the transposition guide.
Work each scale through all twelve keys at a tempo you set, in your own instrument's transposition, instead of staying in two or three comfortable keys. The Whole Horn plays the scale so you match it by ear and drill the foundation until it plays itself.
Stop practicing only the three or four keys you already find comfortable, and cycle all twelve at a tempo slow enough to play each one cleanly, every day, in your own instrument's transposition. Fluency comes from covering the whole circle at a manageable speed rather than covering a few keys fast. The Whole Horn was written for this pattern: it plays every key, keeps the tempo, and scrolls the notation so you practice by ear and by eye at once.
Yes. The Whole Horn contains 22 maqamat notated with real quarter tones — half-sharp and half-flat degrees — each with its traditional tonal center and degree names in English and Arabic, in the orthodox concert-pitch spelling the app shows for every instrument (Rast is C, D, E half-flat, F, G, A, B half-flat). Each maqam also names the Western chord-scale it bridges to. Interval structures were normalized from documented historical tuning data and cross-checked against the Digital Arabic Maqām Archive; twelve of the twenty-two also carry a citation to al-Shawwa (1946). It lives in its own module, so it never interrupts a Western curriculum. Full reference: Arabic Maqam Theory.
Free on this site. The fingering charts cover saxophone and trumpet in written and concert pitch, including alternate and high-register fingerings ranked by how commonly players actually use them.
Thomas Hornig — a Henri Selmer Paris Artist, Professor of Saxophone at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music with 32 years of teaching, and Principal Saxophonist of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra. More about the author.
A free companion app
A model vibrato wave — sounding and drawn — that you match by ear. Not a metronome, not a tuner, not a drone. Violin, cello, voice, saxophone and sixty-four other instruments.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it and no account. If it is useful, The Whole Horn is the larger tool it came from.
The core curriculum is free forever — all twelve major scales in your own instrument's transposition, and all eight ear-training games. One optional $24.99 purchase unlocks the full studio. No subscription, no ads, no account.
On a computer? Scan to install on your phone.
