Ugly Soft, Ugly Loud

     A point that I have to make often in lessons with my students is that in order to expand your dynamic range, you have to go beyond the point where it sounds good.  Get out of your comfort zone.  I call it "ugly soft" and "ugly loud."  If you don't push your limits, you won't improve.  This is true for most things in life.

If we keep doing what we're doing, we'll keep having what we're having.

     Related to this topic is the "Someone Might Be Listening Syndrome," which causes students to play things they're good at over and over in the practice room, while ignoring the passages or aspects of their playing that really need work.  I don't know who said it first, but "if you always sound good in the practice room, then you're practicing the wrong things."  Maybe it was Tuckwell.  (He's kind of the Mark Twain or the Yogi Berra of the horn world; most clever quotes are attributed to him!)

     Let me be clear: I'm not advocating playing with an ugly sound in performance.  This is merely a practice tool.  The goal is not to achieve an ugly sound!  The goal is to be able to play louder and softer with a beautiful sound.  In order to achieve this, you have to spend time practicing in the "Ugly Zone."

     The traditional long tones with crescendo/diminuendo are the #1 best way to expand your dynamic control, because they take you gradually into and out of the "Ugly Zone," and it's easy to track your progress as the "Ugly Zone" gets pushed farther and farther in either direction.  I know what some of you are thinking, but if you're focused on everything you should be focused on while practicing long tones, they are NOT boring!

     Besides these long tones, another great place to practice these "extreme dynamics" is in etudes.  I'm a big fan of Kopprasch (my students don't always share my enthusiasm), and I always write something at the top of the first page in my students' books that my first teacher wrote in mine:

p=ppp
f=fff

     Too often, students are afraid of getting outside their comfort zone, and therefore they don't improve as fast as they might.   There is always an adjustment period, whenever we're trying to build new skills or expand existing ones.  Think of a baby learning to walk.  It looks pretty awkward when he/she tries taking their first steps, and there will be stumbles and falls.  But, they can't go on crawling forever!

     Don't be afraid of sounding bad in practice.  Be more afraid of sounding bad in performance!  Attack your weaknesses!

The Power of Yielding

     The idea of yielding is a powerful image for me in many areas of life, but it also has applications in horn playing.  I first came across this idea in college, in the book Thinking Body, Dancing Mind, by Chungliang al Huang and Jerry Lynch.  To me, this book is right up there with The Inner Game of Tennis on the list of must-haves for performing musicians.

SMBQ China Tour 2010

     This has been a record-setting year for me, as far as travel is concerned.  I just got a passport for the first time back in the Fall, and now I've been to Argentina and China in the past 3 months!
     The SMBQ had a 2-week tour of China from April 27th - May 10th.  I couldn't possibly relate all the amazing experiences we had in this blog - I don't know where to begin!  I think I'm still processing it myself, in some ways.  Looking back at the pictures, it's hard to believe that we lived all those great moments.

Isla Verde Bronces 2010

During the first week of February, I had the opportunity to travel to Argentina to be the "Profesor de Corno" at the 4th Annual Isla Verde Bronces. This international brass festival was created by Fernando Ciancio, Principal Trumpet at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

What an amazing experience!

Little Einsteins

My 3-year old son, Tyler, loves this show - "The Little Einsteins." Each episode features a piece of visual art, and a piece of classical music. I was very pleasantly surprised one day to hear Mozart's 2nd Horn Concerto coming out of the TV - who says TV is bad for kids?

Hindemith's Horn Sonata

Tonight I'll be performing the Hindemith Sonata in F (1939) on a faculty recital. Each of our brass faculty are performing a solo piece. While doing a little fast and dirty "research" to find some things to say about the piece before I play it, I came across some interesting stuff.

Plan Your Work; Work Your Plan - A 3-Step Plan

This post is inspired by the "beginning of the semester pep talk" I've been giving to my students lately.

1) Plan your work.

Plan when you are going to practice. Don't expect practicing to "just happen!" Look at your planner for the week, and make "practice appointments" with yourself. (Btw, you should have a planner/calendar of some kind - paper or electronic.)