Pick up any P. G. Wodehouse novel about golf. One his recurring themes is the continual search for the device that will tell a golfer exactly when to start his downswing.
-----Original Message----- From: horn-boun...@memphis.edu [mailto:horn-boun...@memphis.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan West Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 3:48 AM To: The Horn List Subject: Re: [Hornlist] Accuracy On 26 August 2011 08:47, Ralph Hall <ra...@brasshausmusic.com> wrote: > > I'm intrigued whenever I go > to a horn festival/gathering that most of the amateurs arriving to > participate have better instruments (at least younger!) than I've got > and that they are the same who are earnestly trying every instrument/ > mouthpiece on display looking for the Holy Grail that is unattainable > without a basic ability level and the self-help, imagination and > diligence to exploit it. > I suspect that the amateurs who agree with you don't often turn up to these sorts of events. Those who act as you describe are something of a self-selecting sample! > The common thread in the sensible advice coming from certain postings > is that accuracy is unachievable without maximum concentration. There > are no specific etudes that will do this for you and no concentration > switch that turns it on for a performance. Therefore, the only way to > train yourself to concentrate when it's really necessary, is to > concentrate all the time, from mouthpiece buzzing, through warm - up, > practise and rehearsals. How you play the horn matters much more than which horn you play. A good player can pick up almost any horn with almost any mouthpiece on it, and get a respectable sound out of it. Because he is less familiar with the foibles of that particular instrument, the tuning and accuracy might not be quite up to his normal standard. nonetheless, a listener would almost certainly be able to recognise the sound as being characteristic of the player rather than the brand of instrument. > Farkas says that to achieve anything as a > player you have to have spent at least a monastic 6 months dedicating > yourself absolutely to the horn and its mastery. For most, it seems to > be mystery not mastery. It's quite simple; it doesn't matter what > you're playing and which mouthpiece or instrument you're playing on - > make every note count as if your life depended on it. > I think it is possible to be a bit too literal about that. Two things are necessary for accuracy - concentration and familiarity. If you have an awkward passage that you need to get accurate, all the concentration in the world is not going to help unless you have taken the trouble to practice the passage properly - i.e. slowly enough to get used to getting it right. Only when it is familiar can you then make use of that familiarity to get the passage up to speed. > Eventually you will reach that euphoric state of 'relaxed > concentration' that is necessary to survive the rigours, both mental > and physical, that are an inevitable adjunct of playing to any sort of > respectable standard. > More importantly, you get to the state where the whole of your concentration is not taken up with the technical aspects of getting the right notes, and you can start devoting effort to the even more important issue of expression and phrasing, so that you can start playing *music *as opposed to a mere sequence of notes. Regards Jonathan West _______________________________________________ post: horn@memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/bgross%40airmail.ne t _______________________________________________ post: horn@memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
