Twenty-two Skeletal Duets for Horns is a set of duets of easy to moderate difficulty specifically designed for teachers to play with their students in private lessons. The first 15 duets are arranged from Fifteen Safari Duets for Tubas which was composed in 1989 for playing with my tuba students at Berklee College of Music. They are at different levels of difficulty and in various styles so that we always had duets to play no matter what was the ability of the student. The additional seven duets were added in 2020. The title of each duet is a name for a bone in the human body, hence the name Skeletal Duets. There is something in each duet for students to learn: the basics of tone production, rhythms, melodic phrasing, jazz, graphic notation, etc. Most are sight readable and some have been performed in concerts. Nineteen Skeletal Duets for Trombones and Nineteen Skeletal Duets for Euphoniums are the same duets but in bass and treble clef respectively. Twenty- two Skeletal Duets for Horns includes the first 19 as in the trombones set with three additional duets added. Some of the trombone and horn duets are in the same key so they can be played together.

1. Cranium
This duet presents the cantabile singing style as studied for playing the horn. I find that this duet helps the student much like the melodies of Borgodni (Rochet) etudes.

2. Stirrup
This duet provides an opportunity to read basic rhythms and articulations. I find that the more advanced students can read in a faster tempo where the less skilled students work best in the slower tempos – a common choice for all of the duets.
3. Humerus
This waltz helps the student match phrasing in a cantabile setting. There are a few instances where the teacher (playing the first part) plays a phrase then the student plays a similar phrase.
4. Vertebra
This is in a rock style with syncopated rhythms with cantabile melodies. Articulations are especially important in this duet.
5. Axis
Legato scales and syncopated rhythms are the features of this duet.
6. Tibia
This duet alternates in rock style and swing. Articulations and manipulation of swing rhythms are important.
7. Clavicle
This duet is based on a theme by Beethoven.