Apologies if this sounded hostile. Just my two bits, there seems to be a body of work showing that personal expectations have a great impact on perceived resullts. (See the referece to Ken Pope's work at the last HIS meeting.)
How have you tried to account for this affect in your work? -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Roberts-James Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 8:50 PM To: 'The Horn List' Subject: [Hornlist] Letting the Cat out among the Pigeons Bill Gross "Bill Gross" <[email protected]> writes <Is it a matter of physiology or physics? What do you base you statement upon?> This is a very relevant question, Albeit somewhat hostile. I honestly do not know if my comments were based on physiology or physics. I just sat and gave the matter my urgent attention for an hour, using several horns. My qualifications can be seen at <http://www.spinalcorrectivetherapy.co.uk/author.html>http://www.spinalcorre ctivetherapy.co.uk/author.html Let me just say that I hold diplomas in physiotherapy, osteopathy and cranial therapy, among others. I am a Senior Coach in the martial arts, former Area Coach to the West of England. I am by original training a violinist and as such am very aware of the implications of body shape and material on tone production. For the last forty years I have run my own Alternative Therapy Clinic in England, specializing in cranial, spinal and related issues. For my particular research into the question of tone production with the horn, I spent one hour carefully evaluating my own tone production with particular reference to the various body cavities and areas frequently mentioned in the horn lists. I was unable to effectively widen my mouth cavity, Indeed trying to do so badly affected my delivered tone. As a cranial osteopath I focused my attention directly on the various head cavities, with no effect whatsoever on my tone production. Similarly when focusing on the lungs. Although my playing posture could certainly affect blowing power and ease, but not tone. Even when I focused my attention on the Tanden, the lower belly of the martial arts, there was no effect whatsoever on tone production. Tone quality appeared to depend entirely on my lip embouchure and/or my mouthpiece. I was unable to locate any other factors relevant to this. Apart from the material qualities of the various horns themselves, which of course are indeed very relevant. Now, are these observations a matter of physiology or physics? Quite honestly I do not know. Other experts will no doubt comment on my views. But let us be certain that they are indeed properly qualified in their field. Being expert horn players themselves will not necessarily suffice. I observe that as I progress with my horn studies, my produced tone is markedly better than when I first started some ten years ago. And I am very aware that in my own personal case there is no connection to any of the often quoted body spaces or cavities. And Yes, I feed my wild pigeons every day. John Roberts-James <http://www.musicsolo.com/>http://www.musicsolo.com http://www.spinalcorrectivetherapy.co.uk/ http://www.alternativetherapyclinic.co.uk _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/bgross%40airmail.ne t _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
