Hello Jonathan, you did not get it. What I lament about, is the often noticed unwillingness to improve. That is the problem. And the "know it all" attitude of "profane" highest qualified but "musically" rather less good players.
I try to encourage them, to work just a bit to improve to "enjoy better their own playing in the group", nothing else. I am on tour with a mixed orchestra of ex-pro & amateurs & some very young players. But I have to tell them the basic things of e.g. how the orchestra should walk onto the stage, how to receive the applause, how to leave the stage - - so to make a weaker performance become better by some professional appearance, while the playing still could be better even at the present level. But they seem to forget all that between dress rehearsal & concert. But we have not to give up, to result with improvement finally. Many told me, that my direct way to address things is preferred than to "talk around the hot cake". Others might curse me (thos "naseweiss people"). But the step by step improvement confirms, that I am right. I do not expect a playing quality of any pro in such an ensemble, but a decent performance at least. And I got that, even I have to care about the orchestra when playing a Mozart concert, as the conductor is quite old, burned out & forget the things too easily. So I try to grab the orchestra & pull it through; not too difficult, as I do this without pay & such not need nerves. Hope you understood my standpoint better now. ###################################################### Am 27.04.2011 um 13:11 schrieb Jonathan West: > On 27 April 2011 03:47, Hans Pizka <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Jonathan, >> >> nearly nothing to add to your words, but would the crowd believe you ? If >> they are not willing to >> listen ? If they keep still this certain egotistical & egocentrical >> attitudes ? >> >> Nobody responded to my few words, that besides intonation the dynamic >> balance is very important >> to make a certain chord sound in tune. Often the principal voice shifts >> from one player to the other. >> >> Jonathan, that´s nothing new to you surely. But the crowd out there should >> try it before lamenting or >> questioning our recommendations. >> > > Hans > > I think that nobody doubts your experience and technical expertise. I think > there is little difference between us in terms of what we are saying in > terms of the technical aspects of tuning. > > However I think there is a difference in how we go about saying it. My > experience of life in general (rather than horn playing in particular) is > that people respond much better to encouragement and calm explanation, so > that they can be led to believe that they really CAN do better, rather than > merely being told that they OUGHT to do better. > > I'm also aware that amateur music making has two purposes. One purpose is > the same as for professional music making, to produce a performance which > the audience will enjoy and appreciate. The other is that the process of > rehearsing and practising for the performance has to be enjoyable to the > players themselves. > > Professionals get paid, amateurs don't, and so enjoying the process of > rehearsing is much more important to amateurs. That doesn't mean that > amateurs shouldn't strive to get as close to professional standards as they > can manage, but it does mean that attempts at getting amateur players to > improve are more likely to succeed if encouragement is the main weapon used. > > Most of the subscribers to this list are amateurs. It is something that is > worth bearing in mind. > > Regards > Jonathan West > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/hpizka%40me.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
