The other day I was really busy day and I found myself at 4PM finally heading home from the grocery store. On the way home I said to myself, “I have to practice” and that got me thinking. Why do I ‘have’ to practice? When did it change from I want to practice to I have to practice? (This also reminded me of how much I hate the phrase – “You have to understand.” People say it constantly, especially when they are making excuses about something. I really don’t ‘have’ to understand anything.) Anyway, back to practicing. I play the horn for fun. Yes, I want to get better, lots better, but in the end it’s enjoyment that drives me.

Of course my feelings about having to practice seem to be directly related to how well I am playing. Last weekend through Monday  I really wasn’t playing very well. It’s frustrating though I’m so used to it that it doesn’t phase me nearly as much as it used to. Tuesday I didn’t play at all and didn’t go to band because I had a horrible headache. Wednesday I didn’t practice just because I really didn’t want to which is is a first for me. Hence the ‘I have to practice’ conversation I had in my head followed by the decision not to bother. I’ve missed practice days but not because I just didn’t feel like playing. Then Thursday was absolutely stellar, both for the morning hour and again for the afternoon hour. Ditto for yesterday. It’s such a joy when I play a lot better than I expect to.

I wish I could unlock the secret to what makes some days so good. It could be because of the two days of rest but I’ve done that followed by an absolutely awful day. I did do a more abbreviated warm-up and I switched to one that my teacher gave me that she used back in high school. So maybe on Thursday I was fresher by the time I got to working on ‘real’ music. Not that warm-ups aren’t music but I’ve gotten into the bad habit of doing them by rote and not really thinking about making music out of the warm-up. Maybe the good days are days when I just concentrate better. Thursday I practiced standing up the whole time but Friday I sat after I finished my warm-ups. It would be nice to figure it out.

This morning my enthusiasm was back. I woke up at 5AM – fortunately not typical – and looked at my horn sitting out on a chair and wished that I could start practicing. Unfortunately people were sleeping. Gee, why do they do that? Don’t they know that they should get up so I can practice? I can’t wait until 8Am. Well, maybe 9 if I want to be nice.

I like Dr. Seuss.  I like the pub.  I have combined these likes into a poem.  A poem about the pub, in the style of the master.

Down At The Pub: A Seussian Tale

One day, one strange day

Not so long ago or far away

I woke up that day and was all alone

My wife had gone and left me at home

“I’m going away,” said she with a sigh

And when I asked the reason why

“I need some space, to think things through,

and decide if I want to stay married to you.”

And along came her dad drove her away

with a disapproving look and not even a ‘hey’

But sometimes life just rolls that way,

At home, alone, for a whole day?

Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

There was plenty of things that I could do

The list of ideas just grew and grew

I won’t sit and merely mourn

Or let her see me all forlorn

I’ll learn to play a big French horn

Search the Net for girl-on-horse porn

I will drunk dial an ex-girlfriend or three

and ask why the broke up with me

Then call them bitches, hang up and pout

This is what being alone is about!

I ran to the laptop, Kleenex in hand,

When my phone started ringing from the nightstand

It was my friend, my friend Brit Number One

“Alright, mate? Want to have some fun?”

I told him my plight, and he took the piss

Which hurt me inside, but that’s how it is.

“You don’t need a wife,” said Brit Number One

“I’ll take you out and we’ll have cracking fun.”

What will we do? Where will we go?

“Don’t worry, mate, I’ll let you know,

But first I’ve got one thing to do,

I’ve got to ring Brit Number Two.”

They showed up straight away,

did Brit One and Brit Two

They showed up straight away

to help me get through

I offered them tea, they just stared at me

And it wasn’t a look that was very friendly

“Tea?” cried Brit Two, with his big red puffy face

“At time of day, tea would be quite a waste.”

Then what is your plan, I asked quite confused

The Pub! They cried, overly enthused

“It’s a brilliant place, mate, yes, the pub is a place,

A place, you see, where you can get quite shit-faced.

A place to forget your untidy past

A place you can get really quite trashed

You can get beer that is wheaty and golden

And color televisions that are totally stolen

You can get pork rinds, sports scores,rolls with cheese,

If you’re lucky you can get one of many STD’s.

There’s no place for fun, not like the pub,

Or maybe a strip joint, or maybe a club

There’s so much fun, cried Brit One and Brit Two

So much bloody fun that is waiting for you!

And with that we dashed to the pub unsteadily

(for Brit One and Brit Two had been drinking, you see)

with a crash, and a bash,

flash with cash from my stash

we arrived there quite fast,

“At last!” Cried Brit Two “At last.”

His eyes slightly bloodshot

“This is the pub, this is the spot!

I’ll get the round in, you get a table

And we’ll booze it up till we’re no longer able.”

We got a table, and we got some beer

And this is when it all went a little bit queer,

For we sat and we drank, and we drank and we sat

And no one said anything, and that was that.

“This is not fun,” said I to the Brit

“We’re just sitting here, this is totally shit.”

“Mate, we’ve only just begun.

This kind of fun is British fun.

It’s not like any other fun

Like in the States

with your handgun.

Our fun starts a little glum.

Wait till we get about six rounds in.

Only then will we start talkin.

But once we start it will never stop”, said the Brit

We’ll get louder and flail like a grand mal fit

We’ll jump up on the table and do crazy stunts

Then we’ll call the other punters cunts

And if they dare to look our way

We hit them with a bottle and that’s okay.

That is fun–British fun, yes, that’s how it’s done

Now get a round in for everyone.”

I did not like this, not one bit,

British fun was not fun like I knew it,

I sidestepped the bar and snuck out for a bit.

Outside I saw a sight, a terrible fright

I tried not to cry out with all my might

For there I encountered a Slee Bellied Slag

The Slee Bellied Slag is a terrible hag

A hag, was she, and a real ho bag.

The Slee Bellied Slag had three colors of hair

Not one of them natural and a steely stare

Her shirt far too tight, her stomach exposed

spilling over tight jeans in rows and rows

I couldn’t think of an erection

When I looked at the scars from her Ceasarean Section

Her voice bubbled out like gas from a sewer

I could barely look on, let alone do her.

She beckoned me close, and I knew I was done

“I like your accent,” she growled ‘Want a quick one?”

No, cried I, jumping back like a cat

I would not, could not, and that is that

I would not, could not, in your box

I would not, could not, with anyone’s cocks

I will not do you, not today

I will not do you, in the alley way

I do not like sex near a bar

I do not like it, Slag you are.

And I ran, ran, as fast as I can

Away from the pub I ran, I ran

I realized I didn’t want this life at all

I ran from the pub and gave my wife a call

She came home and we had a talk

We talked and talked and talked and talked

Then watched the tele and ate some food

And didn’t have sex cause she weren’t in the mood.

As I fell asleep on the couch, and she in the bed

I thought “Well I’m sober, but at least I’m well fed.”

I’ve got a lot of stuff going on that’s apparently effecting my horn playing. I noticed several weeks ago that I’ve started messing up phrases in pieces that I played just fine months ago. I’m forgetting fingerings, messing up rhythms more than usual, losing my place in the music and having trouble focusing in general.

This really came to a head last week during my horn lesson with Lynn. I had a guy come to clean the chimney and he showed up during my lesson while we were playing duets. He went to take a look and came back with an estimate of $2400 and the recommendation that we shut our oil burner off – it was 30 degrees outside – and leave the house. According to him we were in imminent danger of having a puff back which is basically a small explosion in the oil burner. Well, I couldn’t play a note after that. I was completely distracted and concentrating on the music was impossible. So much for the rest of my lesson.

Both Lynn and I thought that my inability to play was due to this major distraction. We assumed it was temporary but sadly such is not the case. A friend of mine came over yesterday afternoon to play duets. Again, I couldn’t play much of anything. I had trouble with everything. You’d have thought I was only playing for a month. One of the duets we tried was a fugue that we had played a few months ago with no problems and this time I just couldn’t get it.

I told Lynn about my duet fiasco and we talked about what might be distracting me. I really didn’t feel distracted and I couldn’t put my finger on any specific thing. I am quite busy and I’ve got some more stress in my life but if you asked me I wouldn’t have said I was worried about anything more than usual. Then today at my lesson when we got to playing duets I started off just as badly. Fortunately I did get better. Not where I had been a few weeks ago but definitely better. I think some of the problem is that I lost some confidence when I played so badly at my lesson last week. If that’s it, all I need to do is find someone to play duets, or trios, or chamber music with every day. Wouldn’t that be nice.

Oh, I didn’t shut off the heat, my house is still standing and there was no explosion. I had another company come and they just cleaned the chimney for $119.00. I guess what they say about chimney companies is true.

Having to… –>

This guy—one of my all-time musical heroes (someone I’ve been listening to for over 30 years)—makes you move. He makes you feel. He makes you think. What more could you ask for?

Henry Threadgill, alto saxophone

With His Very Very Circus, live, New York, 1995

*****

With his Society Situation Dance Band (featuring Craig Harris, trombone), live, Germany (Hamburg), 1988

Like a lot of live performances (especially ones where the musicians haven’t had many chances to play together [as no doubt was the case here]), this gets better as it goes along. At first, things are a bit tentative and raggedy. Then, at around 1:50, trombonist Craig Harris starts to find his way. By around 2:15, the horns and strings are beginning to sound more cohesive. By around 3:30, the drummers, having gotten more comfortable with the tempo and structure, start to push the groove harder. At around 8:00, with everything going full steam, Threadgill, feeling Harris feeling it, suddenly breaks things down, leaving just the ’bone and the electric guitar. And with that, the performance jumps out of its skin.

*****

With Judith Sanchez Ruiz (dancer), live, New York, 2008

**********

lagniappe

Music should go right through you, leave some of itself inside you, and take some of you with it when it leaves.—Henry Threadgill

There are three rooms in my home that I practice in depending on who’s home and how much I care if they hear me practice. My favorite room to practice in, my living room / music room, has been out of commission with Christmas stuff all over the place for close to a month. That meant I practiced either in my den or my bedroom. My den is my second favorite room to practice in but most of the time someone is watching TV in there.

I’d been a bit down about my playing and in particular my sound. In my previous post I mentioned how my horn teacher, Lynn, wanted me to open up my embouchure a bit because my sound was more closed that usual. At that lesson we were playing in my bedroom. Lots of rugs, pillows, stuffed animals (yup, even at age 58) and a big comforter on a king size bed. My sound really wasn’t great. I was practicing in that room most often so I had gotten used to what I sounded like.

Well, I finally got my living room cleaned up last weekend. In contrast to my bedroom, there’s only one small rug, three chairs, no sofa, a huge window and a baby grand piano. There’s also only a half wall between my living room and my kitchen. The difference in my sound is huge.  It’s hard to describe but the sound was open and ringing and I didn’t sound stifled. What a morale booster. Instead of the ‘oh gee, I have to go practice’ feeling I was back to my more normal feeling of looking forward to practicing.

I really didn’t think there was that much difference between the three rooms I practice in. I was listening more carefully this week and I think, from best to worst, it’s living room, den, bedroom. My living room clearly stands out from the other two rooms and it really makes practicing much more enjoyable. Even so, if no one is home, I usually go through my warm-up in my den while the TV is on and I don’t really listen. (I think of warm-ups as a means to an end – get loosened up and flexible. Scott Bacon, my horn teacher that I take lessons from once a month or so, wants me to think musically about everything I do. Work on phrasing and musicality no matter what exercise I’m doing.)

The difference in acoustics between my rooms makes me wonder how students learn to get a beautiful sound out of their horn when they have no choice but to practice in a dead room. Or is there a reverse of that? If a student always practices in a room that has fantastic acoustics, do they still learn how to make their horn sound good without the enhancement of the room’s acoustics? If I had my choice to practice anywhere I would pick the auditorium where my Riverhead community band rehearses. I sound incredible there. I don’t have to do anything but put air through my horn and it sounds wonderful. On the other hand, I had to work really hard to make my horn sound good in my bedroom. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe not. I had to make a subtle change to my embouchure to get the horn to sound good. (See Breakthrough?) Do students do that without realizing it if the acoustics change from practice room to practice room? I’m just a student myself so I can’t answer that but it is something to wonder about.

Distractions –>

The Sebastopol Community Band held its first indoor concert on January 17th at the Graton Community Club under the direction of new conductor Nathan (Nate) Riebli. Playing to a capacity crowd of more than 100, the band played a variety of classics arranged for concert band including Sibelius’ Finlandia, Mussorgsky/Rimsky-Korsakov’s Night on Bald Mountain and the Berceuse and Finale from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite No. 2. A clarinet quartet, a brass quintet (“Zimpher Brass) and a flute duo  played additional pieces interspersed between the band numbers.

We didn’t know what kind of an audience we’d get since we’ve only ever played for events before and never a stand-alone concert. Our low-key advertising in the Sonoma West Times & News and West County Gazette payed off, bringing in quite a few beyond the expected families and friends. We had a great time and the audience enjoyed the music.

The band will play the same program in early February at the independent senior living complex, the Lodge at Paulin Creek. We’ll play portions of the program with several additional pieces on Sunday, April 25 in a joint concert with the  Santa Rosa Wind Symphony directed by Bennett Friedman. That concert is currently scheduled for the Graton Community Club, but we’ll likely need a different venue that can accomodate both bands and a few audience members.

I am the French horn player for the aforementioned  Zimpher Brass. We formed for the purpose of the concert, but plan to work up a large enough repertoire to play for events or for ad hoc concerts in the area.

The original Sebastopol Band (ca. 1900) (photo courtesy the Sonoma County Library)

Les Paul & Mary Ford – Goofus

This recording of “Goofus” (King-Harold-Kahn, 1930), one of my favorite songs, is just instrumental. It’s performed by legendary husband-wife duo Les Paul and Mary Ford (so, so, so much more on them another day).

The Paul-Ford version topped out at #21 on the Billboard chart on its release in the early Fall of 1950. The ensemble Paul and Ford had gathered is plucky and fun, although I have heard recordings from the ’30’s with saws and washboards which sort of put ukes and slides in the shade, but you work with what you got, and they did a great job re-popularizing a well-loved classic.

It really gets me that there was a time in this country when there was a) a set of songs that everyone knew, and b) a time when you picked up an instrument and sat down together and played, sometimes just as a family, but often as part of a larger community group. What happened? Radio killed the vaudeville star, but, moreover, the vaudeville star took group singalongs and skit shows down with him. No more public singing.

People just don’t do that often enough anymore, I think. I remember reading, quite a few years back, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (I consequently did not see the movie), and, in one of the super-tolerable parts, a character aged in her mid-70’s during the 1990’s was remarking on the emptiness of the sounds one hears walking the streets in the present day. She recalled being a child and teenager in the ’20’s and ’30’s, and how you could not so much as hang the laundry without hearing someone whistling or singing a street over or while walking past the yard.

“One Last Tickle on the Ivorys,” St. Ebba’s Lunatic Asylum, by Christopher O’Donovan on the flickr.

The idea of that touched me very deeply, because it resonated. I have always liked music, and always known a little about the history of radio and the record industry, being a big vinyl guy, and I’m not saying even at all that radio itself massacred town talent shows, I think increasing materialism and isolationism happened to dovetail with that new mass media, and long story short: it should change back. We need more of that old way of doing things, especially now, when so many people have lost hope and there are young people growing up for whom there are no stories about uncles who sang Irish tenor or great-grandmothers that could play the spoons.

It’s always fun to find out what hidden talents your friends and neighbors have (unless those talents are taxidermy and soundproofing basements), and it brings communities closer together. I think I remember hearing that a song is like a prayer times two, or some such thing, and I believe it. Everything is better with music.

“I Wanna Be a Majorette,” by Eleanor Hardwick.

I used to perform in singing groups and church choirs, and even participated in competitive choral groups in High School. The older I’ve gotten, the more I have grown very shy about my singing, but why? Half of what I hear on the radio has been triple-processed and slickly produced, and who cares if someone hears me fall a little flat? What made me so happy, that urge to open my throat that I couldn’t repress, that hasn’t changed, so why do I let fear and modern ideals of social behavior fence me in?

Holy cow, I think I just found my second resolution of 2010: Make a joyful noise. Join me, y’all!

It’s been an interesting two weeks since I last posted. For the most part I’ve been frustrated since playing day to day it’s hard to notice any progress. However, band started for the new year again after a month long Christmas break and that was an eye opening experience.

Tuesday night marked my one year anniversary playing with the 1st community band I joined.  One year ago I was very apprehensive about joining a band. I didn’t really think I was ready but fortunately my horn teacher gave me a bit of a push. I remember feeling very out of place and very nervous. I was introduced to the 1st hornist and he and I were the only hornists there at the start of the rehearsal. Thank heavens the 2nd and 3rd horns showed up. I really didn’t want to have the 1st horn hear me play.

This was the first time I played with a group since college in 1972. The band director handed me the music for 4th horn and off we went into the wild blue yonder. Cut time at quite a tempo. I didn’t have a prayer of playing any notes, let alone know where we were in the music. Fortunately we played some slower stuff and I fared better at that. I liked playing with the band enough that I kept going and over time I got better.

Fast forward to last Tuesday. The music was easy! Yes, easy. The band director handed out all new music and I had absolutely no problem sight reading through it. This was a huge boost to my lagging morale about my horn playing. I’m genuinely better. Wow.

Moving on to my lesson last Thursday. I’ve been struggling through Kopprasch #3 and Singer #4 for what seems like forever. Always with the same problem areas. I can’t play from the third space C up to the F and back down to the C cleanly – I kind of bump up into the notes – no matter how much I practice it. I have the same problem with these notes in other pieces. Of course these are not the only notes I have trouble with but at the moment these are the ones that are driving me crazy.

At my lesson my horn teacher asked me to try to open up my embouchure a bit because my sound was more closed than it’s been in the past. Lots of times she says to play out more. That’s one of my bigger problems. But at this lesson playing out more wasn’t really helping my sound open up. We checked my right hand position and that was okay. Once I opened up my embouchure my teacher said that my sound got a lot better. But the bigger change was that I didn’t miss my trouble notes. I had also been playing those same notes flat for the past couple of weeks. That improved as well. At the end of that lesson I felt recharged.

I’ve been trying to keep my embouchure more open over the past couple of days. I have found that some things have changed for the worse. I’ve lost my high Bb and C which had been easy for me. The more troubling change is that my middle register has gotten fuzzy. It’s hard to describe but the notes don’t have a pure tone. I don’t miss nearly as many notes as I had been but I’m sacrificing the quality of the note.

Yesterday I tried to go back to my usual embouchure but think about opening it up rather than actually doing it. This brought back my high range and cleaned up the middle register a bit. Some of the note chipping came back from C to F but not as bad as it was. What I can’t really tell is whether my sound closed up. That’s hard for me to hear especially in the room that I’ve been practicing in for the past three weeks. Wouldn’t it be funny if my whole recent sound problem is the acoustics in the room I’m using. Overall I think this change is a slight improvement that still needs to be tweaked.

Practice room acoustics –>

Before continuing one moment reading this blog post I would like for you to read David H. Thomas’ post at The Buzzing Reed. David, who I met online via Twitter, is Principal Clarinetist of the Columbus Symphony in Ohio. You will enjoy his thoughts and writing. My post will have more meaning after reading his post My Practice, My Life. Breathing Clarinet Air.

Behind the bars looking for freedom

Thank you for coming back. I do hope you enjoyed David’s posts, as I know I did. Please check out his other blog posts, videos, and audio files as his thoughts and openness on playing and the “behind the scenes” world of practice are rare. Musicians do not often share their thoughts on practice and preparation. This world is somewhat intimate as we bare all working on the music for performances.

David has found something that I feel is quite elusive for many musicians. What he has found is something I gave up on some 10 years ago. This elusive item is not something a musician needs to perform, but I feel it is something we need as a person, as a musician, and as a being in this world. I know what is running through your mind, “What is so elusive for musicians and is it really important”. Yes!! It is elusive and important not only for musicians, but for all of us.

David wrote two thoughts that struck me. Let me address the first one where David states:

I began to sheepishly admit to myself: as much as I enjoy performing, I actually enjoy practicing and playing music for myself even more! Who needs an audience! I find myself by losing myself practicing a deeply challenging Jeanjean etude, or a musically rich Bach unaccompanied cello suite. Performing almost ruins the spontaneous beauty of it all, with the accompanying high standards one must meet to be approved; and with the perfectionist expectations most listeners have nowadays from hearing so many artificially perfected recordings

Musicians spend countless hours practicing and preparing for performances. The expectations are extremely high in the professional music world. Perfection. No missed notes, beautiful phrases, gorgeous interactions as musicians exchange musical thoughts. Perfection. The expectations are so high and we musicians become so entwined with doing what we do. We perform because it is what we do. Just like you get up each morning, grab a quick shower and something to eat while driving to work, and then work. You do what you do. I, too, fell into this so many years ago and gave up trying to cross that line from doing to being.

The other thought of David’s, which I have eluded to above is beautifully stated:

I had performed because it was what I was supposed to do. I am a clarinetist after all. It’s what I do. Please don’t misunderstand. I have never hated performing, only misunderstood the larger picture of why I do what I do.

The above statement hit me like a hammer. We musicians do what we do and that is perform, but there is so much more and I see how this applies to my past, present, and future musical world. Eyes wide open I now see. I also feel you are wondering what this is all about. Is this not some reiteration of what David so eloquently wrote?

This applies to my own world with this brief bit of my past. In December of 1998 I awakened one morning and did not wish to go to rehearsal. After 10 years with the Air Force Band program I wanted to stay in bed, sleep, and not do anything. Being in the Air Force Bands is quite prestigious and I did not want to go rehearse on the instrument that I had spent my life studying. After 10 years of traveling the world and being honored to perform for so many leaders of our world, and most importantly, performing for the people of the world. What an honor.

I was tired. I just wanted to stay home as I was the hornist behind bars unable to cross that line. Unable to cross that line into being all that is. Music and the musician world is so much more than practicing perfection. We have lost so much in reaching for this goal. I lost. I gave up on the climb to that mountain top that David mentions by letting the stress of perfectionist practice and performance, hundreds of performances each year, and the hours of travel grab hold and throw me down the mountainside.

I had given up on climbing the mountain and placed my horn in its case. I left the mountain growing smaller, and smaller in my rearview mirror. So much has happened in the years since that day. After reading David’s thoughts I am now looking for that mountain that I left so many years ago. Yes, I have played since that time as a professional but still with the thought of it being what I do. Each year I would accept fewer students and performances. Now, I have turned around. Want to face that climb and I am looking for that mountain. Ready to fight and cross that line. Being a musician and being a person in this wonderful world is so much more than doing what we do. We must live every moment. Remove the perfectionist thoughts and enjoy.

David stated:

Follow me if you like. See you at the top.

I am looking for my mountain from so long ago. With arms wide open to embrace that which I let toss me aside. Ready to enjoy all that is. I hope that you too will open your mind. Do not do what you are suppose to do, but love what you do. I am going to breath horn air, and I hope that you breath that which is yours, and enjoy all that is around you. Happy day to everyone.

A Devil to Play:
One Man’s Year-Long Quest to Master the Orchestra’s Most Difficult Instrument

Jasper Rees
Some people solve their midlife crises by buying a motorcycle – Jasper Rees decided to face down his childhood enemy: the French horn.  Now available in paperback, Rees’ account takes us from band camp to the concert hall and back again.  Along the way, we visit with players from biblical times through to the guy who played with the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper band.  The horn is notorious for betraying even lifelong players, but Rees’ efforts are inspiring.

Rees visited Studio 360 last spring — and he brought his horn:

- Jenny Lawton

{Disclaimer: The below is very basic information and not intended to be the right thing for any individual person. We are all different and need different thoughts and techniques to reach the goals we seek. I believe that every music school should provide a class that is required of every music student. This class should be about the world of music, expectations, number of jobs for number of job seekers, and basically telling the student what they are getting themselves into}

Reading through tweets on Twitter today my mind began to wander. Not that what I was reading was not interesting, informative, humorous, or enjoyable, but some tweets tweaked my minds thought processes. Those individuals, fellow musicians, I follow on Twitter that have such wonderful minds. So open, fresh, thought-provoking, and they just seem to be good people. Today, especially, the posts from these individuals brought to mind some thoughts on the job as a principal horn and what takes to be a professional hornist.

Holding the principal horn position in an orchestra is quite thrilling, but also quite demanding mentally and physically. Every little thing that happens to you health-wise or in every day life can affect your performance. This is not just an issue for the principal hornist but any performing musician. Health is the utmost importance and I can say that I have played through colds, flu, strep throat, headaches, and myriad other maladies.

In speaking with other principal horn colleagues there are some that feel our necks are on the line each and every time we put horn up to play. Some expressed they felt this even when practicing at home. In the back of ones mind is the thought that one must not make mistakes. Mistakes happen, but as principal horn with the numerous solos, playing only in the upper tessitura, long periods of not playing (where are we? Rest 124?) and then being required to peg some stratospheric note out of nowhere, and so much more the expectations are quite high.

Life as a musician is quite grand. To perform music is such an honor. So many times I found myself listening to a colleague during a performance and becoming so enthralled with their expression that I felt time had stopped. It can be so glorious.

So, do you still want to be a professional hornist? Let me provide some thoughts. Most of these have been garnered from my teachers or colleagues. This is not the end-all method for anyone to become a professional hornist. Just some thoughts on the topic.

Typical Daily Regime for the serious student which was garnered from Kendall Betts, former principal horn of the Minnesota Orchestra during a master class:

• 20-45 minutes F horn warm up such as Farkas.
• 30-60 minutes etudes, some or all on F horn, such as Kopprasch, Kling, Gallay, Belloli, Reynolds, and others.
• 20-45 minutes technical routines such as scales, arpeggios, broken arpeggios, chordal arpeggios, Clarke, Arban, Singer, or other technical materials.
• 20-45 minutes long tones: pp<ff>pp; ff>pp<ff: holding pp, holding ff. (Long tones should not be performed higher than current capability. Slowly add a half-step every couple of weeks or so.)
• 30-60 minutes repertoire: solos, excerpts, orchestral parts, etc.

After that master class I lived by the above regime. Even today I work on these areas each and every day.

As with any muscle-related activity one must be very cognizant to not overdue. If you are currently not practicing regularly do not attempt to use the above regime. One must also consider rehearsal and performance schedule. It is also very important to log your practice. As a student logging your practice regime will allow you to analyze your routine, when you are tired, when you feel fresh, and work to change your routine so that it meets your needs.

For young students work on the F horn is extremely important. Work on this side of the horn truly aids endurance, more natural slurs, better intonation, smoother piano not attacks, and more tonal color due to the sounding overtones. Truly, work on the F horn will provide one with some difficult practice After one has work through the first four or five Kopprasch Etudes the results will be clearly evident.

Kopprasch, Etudes, Op. 6, etude no. 29, mm. 1-18.

The above only provides some basic information on the time involved each day for a hornist. This will vary depending on the needs of the individual. There is so much more to being a professional musician on any instrument, and this is only the beginning. These are just thoughts from one hornist on a cold, snowy day who had a little bit of time in between playing scales and arpeggios, and going through a few Kopprasch etudes on F horn.

Let me leave you with Sir Simon Rattle’s thoughts on hornists:

You never eyeball a horn player. You just don’t. They’re stuntmen. You don’t eyeball stuntmen when they’re about to dice with death.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. This is mostly because I don’t have that much to say at the moment. I’ve been practicing sporadically and my chops are suffering for it. While I had expected to have time during this break from my normal routine to practice a lot, I’ve found myself caught up in family stuff. I’ve been averaging a meager 45 minutes to an hour a day and I’ve missed a day or two as well. So I’ve managed to lose lots of endurance over the holiday break. Sigh.

I’ve also found myself a bit bored with what I’m practicing and I think this due to several things. One, I’m not playing very well and that’s depressing and frustrating. I like the music that I’m working on a lot but it really isn’t fun when I miss more notes than I get. Two, when I’m only playing for 45 minutes most of that time is taken up by my warm-up which I’m getting pretty sick of. I’m going to have to, at the very least, change the order of what I play for my warm-up. Part of my problem with my warm-up is that it’s turned into something I do by rote just to get through it. Not good. Then there’s my latest problem – D above third space C through G are flat. I’ve been doing something differently over the past two weeks that’s causing this and I can’t figure out how to fix it. I don’t think it’s an air support problem but who knows, it could be. The rest of my range is okay.

Perhaps bored isn’t exactly the right word. Maybe saying my enthusiasm has waned just a bit is more appropriate. Hopefully when the holidays are over and my schedule gets back to normal my horn playing will also get back to normal.

Happy holidays to everyone!

Breakthrough? –>

I find it very enlightening and useful to compare the various aspects of horn playing with other disciplines, some similar, some (on the surface) not similar at all. I’ve done this mostly with sports/athletics and some with business, but more recently I was thinking about the parallels of what we do as classical musicians and what actors in a play do. In short, we recite. We recite texts that others have created for us to perform for audiences. It’s up to us to infuse the bare text with life so that the audience is captivated by our performance (and, hopefully, clamors for more, and wants to shower us with praise [applause] for a job well done).

We don’t think about it much, but  if we were to read plays or screenplays, we might be a bit amazed to note that the texts that actors read are very bare bones. It’s a huge help for the actor to start with excellent writing, but a great actor can take very few and very (seemingly) ordinary words and make them rock our souls and emotions. Sometimes their work seems so effortless that we might not even give them credit for their craft. Actors can seem like “normal” people reciting their lines, but to appreciate what they do, think of the times when you have see “real” people on TV speaking. They move us not at all and their words come across as stiff, wooden, unmusical, lacking in art or appeal.

How do actors do it? What tools do they have in their toolbox to inflect the bare text and bring it to life so that it moves and captivates us?

A quick list: tone of voice (register, rises and falls, phrasing of tone), pacing/rhythm of delivery, volume, timbre, facial expression, movement/gesture, lighting, make-up, costume, timing (in relation to other actor’s lines). The more experienced the actor, the quicker they arrive at the most appropriate and effective combination of these “tools” for each line. Unless it’s a one-person show (and often even then), the actor has help from a Director, who has a unifying vision of how the text show be delivered and fit together. The combination of a great actor and great direction (plus all the help from everyone else involved in the production, such as make-up, lighting, and costumes) can create magical performances that move and/or delight us deeply and that we may savor in memory for a long time.

Let’s see what happens when we translate the actor’s toolbox to musical performance in general and playing the horn in particular.

Our text is the printed page. The composer is both playwright and director (unless we’re working with a teacher who is to some degree the director). The bare bones are the notes. We get some help from the composer/director in the dynamics and other expressive markings. Is that enough? Many players stop there, and it usually shows. A whole region may be marked p, piano; but if we play it all at that one dynamic, it likely sounds dull and lifeless. Fine detail often brings life and interest to works of art; the nuances and fine shades of color, texture, and other such features can make all the difference.

What else would help besides the composer’s ink? A modicum of research is a good place to start. What do we know about the composer: his life, era, influences, style? When was the piece written? Was it written for a particular individual or for a particular occasion? Knowing these things can help us be true to the general style of the piece.

It’s easy to see that composers almost never leave us enough detail, and if they did, the “text” would be nearly indecipherable. We need to a general feeling for the music and its style to be internalized. Then we can recite our text so that it is the most effective, just as learning to speak a foreign language to some degree and then speaking freely is a better way to communicate than just memorizing phrases. And just as we listen to foreign language recordings of native speakers to learn all the micro-detail of language pronunciation that can’t be recorded in any useful way with ink alone, we need to listen to recordings of our solos whenever possible and absorb the richness of the phrasing and texture aurally, even though we possess the printed notes.

Once we have heard enough (different!) performances of our particular work (or works in this style), we can begin to work out each phrase of our solo. Where is the high point? Where do we increase and decrease volume and how much? Is there any rubato? Where? How much? Can we locate where our line assumes a “background” role so that we can adjust our dynamics accordingly? For this part of the process of working out and mastering the musical phrasing of our solo, it is usually a good idea to begin with exaggerated dynamics, i.e. starting much louder than will done in the end. Start with a big block of “marble”, then gradually sculpt it down to where the differences are clear and not too much or too little.

The last stage might be to listen to a recording of your playing. Is the phrasing that you feel you are be obvious about coming through in the cheap seats? Will every phrase have a clear (i.e. audible) goal to someone who has never heard the piece before? Are there still passages that suffer from what sounds like “drive-by phrasing”?

Take notes. Make changes. Record again. Repeat until your finished product is full of detail, nuance, and texture that are audible to all in the hall.

Then take a well-earned break. Put your horn away and go see a stage play. Don’t let it spoil the enjoyment of watching the play, but do ask yourself: how do the actors invest their lines with meaning and emotion? Are there further ways I can learn from their performance and bring their process back to the horn?

 Julius Watkins and John Graas was one of the first jazz French horn soloists. Julius Watkins won the Down Beat critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for “miscellaneous instrument” with French horn named as the instrument. Watkins recorded with numerous jazz greats, including John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Gil Evans, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Randy Weston, and the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra. He co-led, with Charlie Rouse, the group Les Jazz Modes from 1956 to 1959, and he toured with Quincy Jones and his band from 1959 to 1961.

John Graas had a short but busy career on the West Coast, known primarily as one of the first and best French horn players in jazz. Graas recorded a few albums under his own name, including French Horn Jazz (1953), Coup de Graas (1956), and Jazzmantics (1957). His “Jazz Chaconne No. 1″ was an example of his ambitious attempts to fuse jazz with classical music. It appeared on International Premiere in Jazz (1958) with his “Jazz Symphony No. 1″, which, despite its title, was far more classical than jazz.

Julius Watkins

John Graas

The past couple of weeks have been tumultuous to say the least. Finding time to practice was difficult but I did manage to put in around 40 minutes daily except for one day when I didn’t play at all. Just one day. Well you’d think I hadn’t picked up the horn in months by the way I played for several days after that one day of rest.

I think I’ve discovered a trend. If I back off my usual two hours of practice per day, or heaven forbid, skip a day, I play poorly for several days after. Then I get a bit better than I was before my lapse in practicing. When I read my practice notes from way back I noticed that every time I missed a day or more of practice I suffered for it. What’s hard to understand is how some of my fellow band members manage to play quite well – decent tone, only a few missed notes, etc. – each week at rehearsal without picking up their horn during the week. They walk in, toot a few notes as a warmup if they aren’t late, and get through an entire rehearsal. And this is band so we play non-stop for the whole rehearsal.

I was talking to my horn teacher last week about this and we thought this might be a ‘the more you play, the more you need to play’ problem. In other words, the muscles in my chops are used to playing a couple of hours a day every day and consequently, need to be used a couple hours a day. This is different than the typical weight training schedule of working one group of muscles one day and resting them the next day. For most things rest is usually helpful. This doesn’t seem to be true for me when it comes to playing the horn. Do any of you experience anything like this? Will I get to a point where I can take a day off and not pay for it with several days of poor horn playing?

My schedule eases off after an orchestra concert tonight so I should be able to practice everyday and stick to a plan. When I have band rehearsals I don’t practice for more than 40 minutes, if that, in order to save my chops for the rehearsal. I don’t have rehearsals again until the first week in January.  It will be interesting to see if several weeks of very consistent practicing will make a noticeable improvement.

Quiet time –>

The Marines are back in the studio. Andy has some acoustic songs to record and Lou and Marty are up for some percussion. Also The Marines are looking for someone who owns a french horn – and preferably knows how to play.
Tonight The Marines are watching the final of swedish Idol at producer Todd Michaels place.

Part I talked about the fun and benefits of working together with another player, as coaches, mentors, and playing partners, especially in playing duets with the great benefits of sight-reading and transposition, among others.

There is another kind of duet and another kind of benefit to be had if you make up the duets yourselves. That is: improvising them.

Improvising means “thinking in music,” something that is nearly never done is traditional pedagogy of horn or any other instrument. More’s the pity. Now, why would you want to do something like that?

One great thing about improvisation of any kind is that brings together all elements of music: performance, theory, history, composition, ear training – you need it all to invent music on the spot.

What, me, improvise? [you say] I can’t do that! I can’t play 16th notes at MM=220!

Neither can I. But what I can do is revise my definition of what improvisation is so that I can do it.

First of all, improvisation does not have to be jazz. I’m not a jazz player. I’m a classical player. So I’ll play something that is like the stuff I play all the time. You don’t have to be able to play Donna Lee to make up your own music. A sarabande will do just fine. Start with some long tones. Start with one long tone. Listen to it. See where it wants to go next. As a duet, perhaps start with a common scale and listen to the interval between the two voices. Consonant or dissonant? If it’s dissonant, hold it a moment, then resolve it up or down. If it’s consonant, hold it until you take a breath. Then pick a new note and start again.

You very quickly find out two things when you do this: 1) It’s easy. 2) It’s fun.

And perhaps 3): why didn’t I do this years ago?

You discover that improvising duets is like having a conversation, except in music. You use what you know to discuss subjects that interest you in ways that are familiar and comfortable. Conversing doesn’t have anything particular to do with playing fast; if it did, auctioneers would be the most sought-after conversation partners. It just matters that it’s interesting and that it makes sense. If you recite something, you just need to know how to pronounce the words. If you converse about something, you also need to know what the words mean, both individually and in context, and you can use everything you know – vocabulary, grammar, history, jokes, expressive speaking ability, etc – to make your content and delivery more interesting. In a conversation you must also listen, and spontaneously react to and develop what your partner comes up with in the moment. It’s really fun, and improvising music is just like having a conversation except that at no time in our music training did anyone every give us training or encouragement to have a musical conversation.

But you don’t have to wait for someone to give you either permission or training.

Just do it. And get in on the fun and musical and technical benefits of making up your own stuff.

Making up your own duets is a perfect complement to a session of reading duets, both musically and technically. Here are a few more ideas to get you started:

•Player 1 (P1) plays some kind of I-V repeated bass (like an oom pah tuba) and P2 makes up a march. Here and forever more, always switch parts and do it again.

•P1 plays one low long tone – a drone. P2 experiments with making melodies using one scale above it. Start with the drone being the tonic, then see what’s like for the drone to be other scale degrees.

•Pulse the drone: give it a rhythm. Put some pep in your step!

•P1 plays a simple bass line, e.g. C-B-A-G, or in minor: C Bb Ab G. P2 solos over it.

•Players make up a piece based on the rhythm of their names.

•Players choose a familiar (and simple!) tune and figure out the melody via ear & error. After you can play it in C, play it in all other keys. Then repeat in minor. Then repeat, with P1 on the melody and P2 on 1) harmony 2) chord roots 3) countermelody.

•Just start playing: there are always rules, but here you have to figure out the rules as you go. Hint: arrive at a common pulse and key as quickly as possible. Hint #2: Recycle material. Find one simple, strong idea and develop it in all kinds of ways.

If you need more ideas, check out my book, Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians (GIA).

Have fun!

Yesterday was both a frustrating and then a very rewarding day. My practice session in the morning was pretty bad. My warmup routine was okay but it usually is. Then I rested for 20 minutes and began practicing the etudes I’m working on. This week they are in the Preparatory Melodies book by Pottag. They don’t look hard but I always struggle through them. Yesterday I couldn’t play the stacatto notes cleanly and I just missed more notes than I got.

After the etudes I moved on to the Gliere Concerto in Bb. I’m about 1/3 through the first movement. Usually I don’t have range issues with this piece but I could barely play the E at the end of the opening arpeggio and the F at the beginning of the main theme just wasn’t happening. After that it only got worse. I moved on to working on scales and even they went poorly. I took another 20 minute break and then persevered playing in the middle range to get my hour in.

I wasn’t expecting much for my afternoon session but what a surprise. I played better than I have since I started playing again, maybe even better than I used to play. Every note was clean. Range was no issue. I got to the D above high C pretty easily. I was able to actually play musically instead of worrying about just getting the notes. I always try to play musically but when I’m constantly splatting notes it’s pretty hard to play a nice phrase. I can’t believe I’m saying this but the part of the Gliere I’m working on was almost easy. I moved on to Strauss 1 with similar results.

I’ve had my share of horn misery over the past two months but it’s rewarding practice sessions like this one that keep me going. I know that someday I will play like I did yesterday afternoon more often than not. I just hope that ’someday’ comes sooner than later.

Passing on –>

I practice in twenty minute intervals with, typically, a twenty minute rest in between each session. I do this twice a day playing for an hour each time. I’ve always felt that the twenty minute rests weren’t long enough to settle into doing something else so I put on the TV or do some crossword puzzles on my computer or do both.

I practice in my living room sitting about 5 feet away from my piano. Earlier this week I had one of those ‘well duh’ moments and realized that I can do something very worthwhile as I wait twenty minutes for my chops to recover. I can practice the piano. What a concept. It makes a lot of sense to do this. For one thing, I enjoy playing the piano even though I’m close to a beginner on it. I took lessons when I was a kid but stopped when I started the horn. At this point my horn playing capability is considerably better than my piano playing capability. But more importantly, by playing the piano I can improve my sight reading and get better at reading the base clef without using my chops.  Although I haven’t tried it yet, I imagine I can work on transposition as well. It’s too bad I didn’t think of this a year ago.

Rewards –>

Four days ago I wrote about how I thought I had finally gotten through the mouthpiece fiasco. I was wrong. Monday morning’s practice was pretty bad and at my band rehearsal that evening I could barely play. I would have chalked this up to a random bad day except that Tuesday and Wednesday were just as bad if not worse. I’m playing the horn to have fun and enjoy making music. I haven’t had much fun during the past six weeks. Yesterday morning I was practicing and I was so frustrated that I felt like throwing the horn through the window.

I’ve been using my Laskey mouthpiece since the end of September. I went back to the Moosewood for a day or two here and there because I was struggling so much with the Laskey but I have been, for almost the whole time, sticking with it. I know that using the Moosewood at all during this time was not a good idea but it’s very hard to keep sticking with something that’s not working.

Yesterday afternoon I took the Moosewood out again and made a decision to stick with it no matter what. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and mine has been telling me to use the Moosewood for weeks now. I’ve been sticking with the Laskey because it is ’supposed’ to be a better mouthpiece for my Otto horn with it’s bowl shaped cup and I promised Scott Bacon that I wouldn’t change back to the Moosewood until I saw him at my next lesson. Well, I’ve broken my promise but ironically he called me today to ask about the mouthpiece problem and, after I went through telling him about all the trouble I’ve been having, he told me to switch back to the Moosewood. (I didn’t mention that I had already done that the day before.) What a relief. I feel like a huge load has been taken off my shoulders.

As I expected, I played very well – ‘very well’ meaning that I was happy with the way I was playing – yesterday afternoon and today. It’s so nice to just pick up the horn, especially since it’s a brand new horn, and just enjoy playing. I expect that I will experience a set back in a week or so but I am just going to have to get through it.

Adding piano –>

On Monday, November 16, 2009, The Lesson Studio (TLS) will begin its Winter/Spring Semester registration!

The dates for our Winter/Spring Semester 2010 are: January 9 – May 21, 2010

TLS has instructors for guitar, piano, voice, drums, bass, violin, viola, saxophone, clarinet, trombone, trumpet, tuba, euphonium, ukelele, oboe, cello, flute, mandolin and banjo! We also offer music therapy, a free workshop series, and summer music camp. We have an in-store drop-off/pickup for instrument repair. Included with your semester tuition are weekly instruction with the teacher of your choice; supplies including weekly goal sheets, staff paper, CDs, and music charts; assistance from three administrative staff people; free Wi-Fi in the reception area; 10% off coupon for a local music store; and best of all, an end-of-semester recital! Our Fall recital is held at the Old Main Chapel at CU and our Spring recital is held ON STAGE at the Boulder Creek Festival!

If you are a current student, be sure to let our staff know if you prefer the same day/time or a new time slot for your music lesson. If you are new to The Lesson Studio, please call 303-543-3777 for your FREE CONSULTATION today!

As always, please visit http://www.thelessonstudio.com for more information.

I think I have finally turned the corner from my mouthpiece disaster and lower lip bite. Just under two weeks ago I settled on using the Laskey mouthpiece even though I didn’t really want to. I decided that I had to trust Scott Bacon who I bought my Otto horn from and who really wanted me to use the Laskey with this geyer wrap horn.

After about four days of pure misery, including numbness and pain on top of the awful playing and biting my lip three times on Friday and Saturday, last Sunday things started getting better. I had a band concert that afternoon and I played really well despite the lower lip bites and the changed mouthpiece. I couldn’t play at all Saturday but Sunday morning I warmed up and didn’t feel too bad. Then I did some flexibility exercises before the concert. We did a two hour program with a 20 minute intermission and I was okay, with some occasional pain, through the whole thing.

During this week I’ve had a few revelations as I struggled with the mouthpiece and the bites. One had nothing to do with the either of those. Our conductor brought in two extra college students for the concert bringing our horn section from five to seven. One doubled me on 4th and I asked her to sit to my left so she wouldn’t hear me and my inevitable mistakes and so I could hear her. I learned what playing the horn loud means. Now I understand why my teachers tell me I’m not playing loud when I think I am.

I also think that a large part of my mouthpiece struggle was due to endurance. A new mouthpiece uses, to some extent, different muscles. My first 20 minutes of warm ups were always fine. The awful playing started after about ten minutes into my second practice session and I really couldn’t play after about 45 minutes (this includes the first 20 minutes). That’s about where I was a year ago. Now I’m almost back to my usual two hours. On Thursday I made it through an hour and ten minutes of practice followed by an hour long lesson later that afternoon.

I noticed that once I start playing poorly my bottom teeth start digging into my lower lip. With the bite injury I have there it gets quite painful. When this happens I can barely get to middle C when I try to do a low C arpeggio. Usually I can get to 3rd space C easily and many times to the E above that. If I pay very close attention to how I set my horn on my face I can then play those arpeggios to 3rd space C and when I go back to what I was practicing my tone gets much better. So somewhere along the way as my endurance lags I must be subtly changing my embouchure in a bad way to cope with it.

I’ve had my share of lip injuries – tearing skin off with ice cubes, banging mouthpieces and water bottles into my lips, biting the inside of my lower lip – since I started playing again. Reading Julia Rose’s blog about her recent injury reminded me of them and how I deal with playing while hurt. Julia talks about first getting a more minor injury where she expected to play after a day or two followed by a significantly worse injury that demands a solid rest from horn playing. I always try to play through the pain, which I imagine is a bad idea, because I worry a lot about taking breaks from practicing. When I was sick back in June and didn’t play for close to a week it took a few days to recover from not playing. Plus I actually enjoy practicing and I don’t know what to do with myself when I have those extra hours. I’m retired and I play for fun and if I don’t play well the only person it effects is me. Concerns about injuries must be a lot worse for professionals.

I use Vitamin E and ChopSaver lip balm when I have an open wound on my lips. ChopSaver is the best lip balm I’ve ever used and my non brass playing family swears by it too. (I promise I don’t own stock in the company.) I’ve been putting ChopSaver directly on the wound in my lower lip and it is really helping. It should have gone away by now but I keep re-biting it. I did try Ambesol on it but it also got on my lips and I learned what feeling numb really feels like. I think I wasn’t as numb as I thought I was using the Laskey mouthpiece. I thought briefly about playing while the Ambesol was doing it’s thing but I’ve used up my being stupid quotient for the month.

Mouthpieces again –>

Curling and coiling it slips against itself, opening at the end with a gleam of silver, beautiful brilliant shine, no matter if he polished it or not. His tanned hand is blocking some of the sound, while his other arm holds it close to him, it’s snuggled into his arms. I hate that instrument. His lips press to it and his eyes squint in slight concentration, he raises them, opening the dark brown orbs more, so he can watch the bouncing baton. His back is straighter than I’ve ever seen it, and his foot taps in and out of beat while notes caress his finger tips. He is quite possibly the most amazing person I have ever seen. I can’t help but be jealous of the hunk of metal he holds on his lap, I can’t help but want to be there, with the instrument aside, but I can’t.

His friend notices me watching him again, but my love does not acknowledge me. I wonder if he knows I watch him. He doesnt let on, so I have to assume his concentration is too intense. I’m happy in a detached way. This is how it was before. I would watch him, I would long to be that god forsaken french horn on his lap, I would long to be that blonde clarinet in front of him who never once turned to look at him, who never once, in my eyes, appreciated his greatness. Now he is mine, he sits behind me, behind the flutes, and he is mine. I love him, and he knows it, he loves me, and I know it.

I still can’t help but get jealous when he softly presses his lips against the mouth piece, when he licks his lips before playing like he does before he kisses me, when he holds the silver closer, and carefully cradles it.

No pictures, ’cause I couldn’t bring myself to …well, yeah. There are lot’s of new things going around there.

Boring: Maintaining Gold status for eco-school.
They did not remove the banner above the main entrance that says “Celebrating 50 Years”
More lockers are screwed up.
Nothing changed in the Wong or Sutherland classrooms other than the people.

Obvious: Wongie is teaching Grade 6G.
GS is still teaching grade8G
Datoo now on the other grade8G
Huismans still on grade7/8G split
There is a new music teacher.

Astounding: New, Japanese grade7G teacher
GS changed Survival to incorporate drama mark (they are singing and dancing SO DAMN MUCH) and are now on Galapagos
GS found my pencil case. xD
The new music teacher sucks shiz. Like actually: he tries to act buff and manly, and fails miserably. He removed the computer and the drum-set from the room, plays only the clarinet, trumpet and bass trombone, lets his students puff their cheeks, and conducts weirdly, saying ONE TWO THREE PLAY every damn time they are not playing.

Sorry, had to rant there. Seriously, I don’t even think there is band anymore. OH and he added the other instruments like French horn, oboe, bass clarinet, and the percussionists are so screwed.

Everybody died for posting. I suppose that is to be expected, with all of our work. Damn, I can’t wait to find the card-reader. Then you guys can see all the photos I had taken. -sigh-