William et al, two things to think about. First , playing with your brain also entails having a very defined concept of exactly how you want to play what is on the stand. Exactly what type of sound, attack, mood are you trying to set. Where exactly should the pitch be in relationship to the instruments also playing during that particular spot (they are on the committee). Is the forte in Brahms the same as Tchaikovsky or Bruckner, is it the same if you are playing with the oboe or flute, I would say not. So hear the whole in your head. I had a student playing Tchaik 5 slow solo for me a couple of weeks ago. I took a breath in as he was about to play, he asked what are you doing. I am hearing the soft velvet cushion of the strings, thinking about playing the A as beautifully as I can and starting it from nothing. I have the sound, pacing, feel everything in my head before I play a note. That all can be done away from the horn.
Second, if you are having issues playing with accuracy or soft or loud or whatever you feel personally deficent in look at a big picture of how to fix that problem. Continually playing excerpts until you can play it 5 times in a row fixes the problem in terms of the excerpt but does it fix the problem in all circumstances. Come up with a plan to fix playing issues away from the excerpts. When that is complete playing the excerpts comes down to number one above, coming up with a musical plan that your skills allow you to execute. Debbie Schmidt Sent from my iPhone > _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
