Fergus McWilliam, horn player in the Berlin Philharmonic, talks here to Sarah Willis about his book “Blow your Own Horn” live in Berlin on Sarah´s Horn Hangouts on February 22nd, 2013.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
Hi good evening from Berlin hi out there in the horn hangout World amazing where you’re all watching from today really incredible um I’ve been reading the chat and there’s quite a lot of is represented out there so thank you all for watching I am very very happy and very honored and it’s also a little bit strange to be sitting here with my colleague but more my friend
Fergus McWilliam welcome to the horn Hangouts thank you you can talk in that one there you go that one’s yours but I have to tell you fact this is also a bit strange for me too right you think how many years we’ve known each other and how it all started here down below is where the Berlin Wall
R there right over there is the and this is where 20 20 oh it was 89 when I came when we met was still standing it was still standing and I remember standing at a bit of the Berlin wall with a chisel do you remember when you and the kids and Carol and we went out to the to the wall and we we chiseled away
I’ve got those photos somewhere about 10 kilos of the stuff most people do at that time thank you so much for coming there’s so much I would like to talk to you about about um uh when we met and how we met and and what a huge influence man has been on my life no we certainly won’t um really
Fergus has been a huge influence um on me and my my horn playing career and life in general and um and to be now sitting in the same Orchestra with him is really quite a privilege and thank you for coming on but tonight isn’t about that tonight is about this book how to blow blow your own horn um now uh we have
I don’t know how many of you have this book out there but those of you who haven’t got it get it and um those of you who’ve got it I’m sure you’ve read it like I have and um we are here today just to find out exactly what’s behind this because it’s not totally uncontroversial Fergus I must say but you already say at the beginning you already say
You’re Expecting criticism just the title an antih horn method method I was yes I’m trying to be controversial um I was hoping to initiate or to ignite a debate at least a healthy debate but I’d be quite happy even if I got some nasty comments back from people have you gotone any yet unfortunately no failed utterly everybody likes the look and
I was hoping to upset a few people um because I’m flying in the face of the traditional way of doing things the traditional way of thinking and I’m encouraging or challenging all of us really to um turn things upside down look at it from a different perspective entirely it’s um has a lot to to do with if you will empowering students to take over their own training their own education their own discovery of how to
Le to play the hor indeed anything in life but to by definition of course to some to put the authority of the teacher in some question because there can’t be two bosses there can’t be two Chief Cooks in the kitchen who’s teaching the teacher or the student there’s an interesting thing in the book about how a child learns to speak yeah um a child doesn’t acquire our language way we learn our language in school we every child that’s born on this planet is able to learn any language
Chinese German German’s a German’s a tough one you know difficult languages and yet there’s not a child that can’t learn it unless they’re de if they’re born de unfortunately then they are missing one key ingredient that’s the ability to hear other people speaking around them and it’s the skill we use as a child it’s very infantile skill but we acquire language using neural
Pathways and so forth which we have abandoned in our learning of instruments and music and it’s time that we got back to that kind of learning again a quote from your book the way it’s supposed to be is rarely if ever the way it actually is this um I I admit I stole this idea from a book in a
Bookshop way back in the 70s that period of great uh upheaval termoil revolution in the student days it was um a book by I think an American author called Jones anyway he the title is what I I stole was called the way it’s exposed to be SP p o z i never read the book but I love the title because it stuck with nor life that there was implying there something about there’s a discrepancy there a cognitive break between the way things really are the way they’re supposed to be and da
I tried to start teaching other students that I was trying to teach them things which were at odds with the way I actually did it myself s do a lot of teachers do that do you think I Su we all do it so we tell the people to do this war to warm up and practice this and we because it should be like that because it should be like that because maybe we’ve been taught like that but that’s not necessarily what we do is that what you say exactly when
I had my very first student I was about 22 or something I was in panic because I just got the local solar horn J in the orchestra 3 days later I get the first phone call from a parent with the student Sun going to play the horn you’re the new horn player and you you must really know what you’re talking about here’s my son as a student and
I panicked I nothing I never knew anything about how to teach the first thing I did it’s what we all do was instinctively try to remember my lessons what did my teacher do yeah what can I remember what my teacher did and so already my memories are suspect you know they’re not exactly 100% so I start to inject ideas and maybe my teacher told me what
I don’t do is trust myself mhm I trust the tradition I trust the pedagogy was handed down to me my blood line and it’s like playing what’s that game called you whisper each other’s year telephone Chinese Whispers telephone yeah and after 10 or 20 reinterpretations messages changed horn hangout Whispers And so horn pedagogy is constantly being confused and messed up but with the best of intentions that’s true another quote the horn can be not be taught it can only be learned see this is all all tying in with each other yeah
I um that goes back again I think that ties into an early experience that I remembered from my childhood I would come home from my horn lessons about the same time as my sisters would come home from their ballet lessons and oh yes you’re right you right about itook yeah and my mother would ask us we said at the table have te or something she say well what did you learn today and my sisters could easily demonstrate you know legs and things we learned do this and we learn to do that we learn this and
Fus what did you learn today um I learned not to press to much I learned not to you know everything I Learned was negative it’s like backwards learning uh reverse learning learning backwards Le or peeling an onion and later on I start to think of that well that’s a process of discovery isn’t it it’s a personal discover as we go inside ourselves to learn more and more how we actually do it so right from the very beginning
I realized I I didn’t realize then I realize that from the very beginning we learn more very much the way weire language a trial and era person experiment personal observation until you get to a point where you become a beautiful surv well- intended hardworking loyal student like I was of yours nevery Loy yes hard working yes you always okay that’s another story but it was this this thing when we were kids we were never so smart and never so clever and we’ve got to really reactivate and reconnect with those skills okay you you came how long did it take you to decide to come out
With this because even even okay the anti an anti anti-h horn method method that title came a bit later it was actually the title was was um about the myths of the horn um eventually were you were you P were you setting out to put things right or were you basically were you so convinced in in in your the way you discover things that you dared to get out there do you know what
I mean or were you it was a bit of old I started in 19 years 6 with my first diary entry I came back from my rehearsal or concert a lesson or somewhere and I was perplexed by something I experienced something didn’t make any sense some colleague or teacher under said something and I listen to that thought yes correct that’s the way it’s done that’s what that’s we all agree but it doesn’t fit something it just didn’t quite feel right and
I made notes to myself over a period of a year started cing a lot of these notes and I suggested to an ex- teacher of mine back in ronto that we engage in a correspondence public correspondence who was that Eugene and um my idea was what if we had an open correspondence long before the internet and blogging we would write it all them by hand okay we write letters to each other discussing problems we had as teachers okay it’s soluable problems or not easily solvable problems things we’ notic in our students and perhaps we would publish or somehow disseminate our correspondents together well he backed
Out of that after a while and so never got anywhere but I kept I kept writing and I kept stuffing these single pages and sometimes 10 pages into I remember I remember you sort of dis sloping off and and writing stuff down I really do remember it’s been a process been going on for a long I learned it all from my students and and ultimately
I started thinking this could be I wish I had this when I was a student you know as start looking at this St I said you know you’re wish I had this when I was a I thinking myself well over well smart you know clever you to do it now but you don’t need this I should had student and maybe other students teachers to benefit and
U so finally I started forming it into a book form but uh by this time 22 or 3 years ago past and everybody knew about the famous book that would never be and the working title that I gave at the time is horn heresies yeah and um it was a good friends of mine you know who you are the ones who gave me that kick out the backside to get it published
I think you wrote about them in here you said thank you very much may I tell you who they are um you wrote you said the acknowledgements were Joan Watson Scott Irvine Roger Bobo Koo morama and Paulo munes Toledo thank you for guys you were the ones who held my feet to the fire slapped it by the side of the head and said get on with it and so
I did okay well we are very grateful that you are um we just had a quick question U from Andre Lipkin he said can you give us an example of a specific myth or teaching method that doesn’t work didn’t work just as an example of something I mean I think Andre if you read the book then you’ll find a whole book full of them um you know and and then fergus’s solutions to this but you know what would you what would you just pick out of let me start with the five heresies the five heresies uh the five heresies are essentially five words page 19
I should know this by memory five the five controversies five questionable subjects and before the five forbidden words okay well that’s page 18 sorry about that the five forbidden words the things I try to avoid mention at anytime in a lesson are practice lovely say it lovely practice warming up mirrors omore and diaphragm you never like to use these words ever actually this is very true he’s not just making it up he really doesn’t heavy okay practice how going to teach how going to have without mentioning these or using these these this is very controversial because there are a lot of students out there and
We come across them all the time in master classes and private lessons who are looking for a guru and looking for that person that will change their lives and give them PL a practice plan that will change everything and now you’re saying practice is a forbidden word okay you got to answer that we have to work we have to study we have to explore we have to investigate we have to research but practice is a word which has become imbued with terrible aspects you know that old phrase practice makes perfect
I have to stop you just quickly we just had a me message from Stefan and Andre Stefan D and Andre zeust our colleagues they’re in they have an interval it’s in the philony they’re just across the road hi guys and they just said we’re having an and are watching in the philony sorry I just had to inter hi guys okay sorry to interrupt but that’s what the horn
Hangouts are all about okay well practice practice you TR the phrase practice makes perfect uh actually practice makes permanent and it only makes perfect if you practice perfectly the problem is we don’t know how to practice we don’t know what to practice and we tend to practice the wrong things all the time but that’s what we need teachers for to tell us how to practice not
NE I’m just being the voice of adversity right okay then the five controversial subjects five we got to warming up no we got to got to go through the Forbidden I I think I have more support among other teachers on the five controversial subjects than I would have for the five forbidden words okay okay so mirrors Ure diaphragm that’s all it’s all explained in the book anyway the five controversies the five questionable subjects now these
These are really things you hear teachers say say all the time avoid mouthpiece pressure that’s normal I mean the more you press the more it hurts but why does it Hur and why are we pressing we’re pressing because we’re not glowing see I feel I feel like it’s student began all over today St yeah you have to have a counter pressure to make an air seit yeah so
I’m just the questions going questions going crazy here never raise the shoulders when inhaling not quite the same opinion as you on that told as children see most of these things are things we tell our beginning students yeah they’re important and correct at that time but very quickly we grew out of these things yeah and what we meant was don’t go ah yeah that’s what yeah but if you’re going to take a b deep breath into the chest oops they went up they go up so a lot of people are trying not to
R raise shoulders sit like this and prevent themselves from ining in I I remember sitting next to Dale Clevenger and Alice Clevenger and watching them take in air and those shoulders were not are you seen Carol Yan from behind no I actually only met Carol Yan on it’s an experience car watching this but remember the first time
I met you you played shum a d away from me I sat behind you it was an anatomical mystery to incredible expansions she is inredible bir always keep the throat wide open yeah that’s that’s what student a lots of teachers say why should not how how can you play with the throat closed are you saying play with the throat closed get confused yeah confus the mouth the back of the throat here here is where we can open or close but you can’t open your voice box it’s
SM cage explain that well a lot of people are trying to to stretch the V of them yeah exposable and they sound like this it’s a misconception it’s a fundamental anatomical misconception we Vol players are not doctors we’re not anatomist we do not understand what goes inside what goes on inside ourselves only very recently in fact I had a film of me with an endoscope going right down up my nose and down to my vocal cours filming my voice box while
I’m playing and did that in Japan you you really had something and several hundred other players and singers and it was extraordinary to see how small space there is between but I find still that you hear a lot of students doing that and that’s when the sound goes so it does I make them go and you can feel this movement going to to many people play try to to open and lose air compression okay and lose all articulation flen so there’s some great questions coming in here um
I just you know guys let me just talk to him for a few more minutes and then we’ll have five minutes of just questions I’m just going to shoot them at him okay because we’ve got to get I just want to finish the five controversies um in inhale and exhale without hesit ating if that’s a bit of about breathing in time right 1 2 3 which is fine that’s what you have to play but how many times do we actually get to piix something like that certainly not in my
Orchestra in the brilliant filo one two three bar or you’re in an opera or or you’re playing a musical or something where you have to wait for somebody else and you have to be able to just suspend an action for moment the business inhaling and exhaling rhythm is again designed to help the Young make make music to breath within a musical phrase as if it makes part of part of the phrase but then once we grow up proba work
I start have to do serious with performances we discover all the time that we cannot almost never get a chance to breathe like that we have to learn that there are other ways in it we have to learn to become comfortable with the space between the births you know I just I’ve just got to go back to the air because a
Fergus says something in the book that is so true you compare um the air and the Ure to a car um you Ure sorry I said that word but um you I think you said that if the Ure is the steering wheel then then the air is the the body and the brakes and the the rest of it so basically the engine um and that that the air does everything it’s not just the inhaling exhaling all whenever car was steing wheel is not very good idea but if you haven’t got the car’s not going anywhere you don’t dis yeah there there’s so much tough in
This book uh eliminate omisha breaks now that’s a favorite of mine because people seem to think you mustn’t have any breaks and I have I think about 10 do you know who said that who first thr players first thr players oh Stefan doesn’t say that I didn’t say all okay is unique yeah no what I mean is people who play almost always on the high side of the ball never need to change
I have no experience of it mhm those who work in freelance situations or in a in a changing position in their Orchestra having to play high and low and in the middle and all over the place people work in different kinds of ensembles Freelancers and so on have to be able to do really control at least three
OCT of the four which means you’re Crossing from Tuba to Trum and that’s when you’re going to do coun breaks in fact I exercise there’s some there’s some very there’s some very good exercises in here there is actually something Fergus um you you’ve made a nice picture of of uh uh page 91 um there is a little picture in here of of of aure and there’s a yeah um but then you said um
Phil farus which actually whose book I like very much um you said that he said later on in life he hoped he hadn’t ruined horn players by writing that book imagine that he really said that I hope you know the it’s quite a cult of fans surrounding fo his legacy but I was fortunate enough to know him and we were touring
Europe once together and uh I think it 1979 I think we were in Stockholm and I was with my ex- teer V lanso lans’s father and went a lovely evening and towards the end of the Phil finally saw us he drinking his beer kind snorted through his beer and said oh those books all those books I probably didn’t
I may have done more damage than well I’m thinking you all these these very confusing photos of of omur but actually he was right you know no smiling no this and you have got a picture doing the same thing but what he said it was very important he said at the time he wrot books he was much younger a less experienced teacher and he was writing this as much to convince himself as any students later in life yeah with with the perspective of those many decades of fug experience he then became much more pragmatic about it and realize that the book any book including this
One can have a dangerous side why because students are too good at being students well people are everyone’s looking for we’re looking for it in life as well you know everyone’s looking in life for for the way to happiness is why I put this little word down here an anti-h horn method method an anti-h horn method meth yeah okay all right but it’s still great to meet someone and be inspired by them and you know it doesn’t matter actually who inspires you it’s just finding that inspiration and wanting to work that’s so
I agree I agree I know exactly what it feels like it wonderful well you are that you are that for me I must I have my own Role Models but we’re dangerous role models are dangerous because we with the best of intention we benignly disempower our students we don’t set up to do so no of course not but to the extent that you hold me in some regard and respect not that much that’s good good but you see that’s the point that you have to stand up on your own feet and do it yourself in the end
Ricardo cero anyone know him in regard you’re listening in balen fantastic Fantastics and he’s the one said anyone who’s made it in this business anyone who survived who’s made it in professional or World of Wrestling is by definition selftaught they may not admit it to themselves one of my quotes I is fantastic it’s really it’s really really absolutely true the best players are the ones that can teach themselves but the ones that are also lucky to have had some inspiration along the way so enough enough compliments um but there’s something
I’m going to go back to one of your um one of your naughty words the diaphragm because Aaron has has has written he says probably means I have to buy the book it’s true Aon you have to buy the book practice warming up Ure are also different from person to person but diaphragm control seems vital yeah it’s vital but there’s nothing you can do about it
I mean you are supporting otherwise you wouldn’t be getting your nose out look every time we talk use the word diaphragm everyone thinks they know what we’re talking about I’d like everyone who’s out there right now to take your fist and punch yourself in the solo plexus right now all right instinctively tightened up to protect yourself what happens if you cough right yeah so you got the right geography there but you notice how you tighten up into an isometric muscle arm barrier
M and that’s designed to not let any air be driven out of your lungs that’s that’s when a boxer takes a punch in in the solar plexus and you have the wind knocked out of you the IDE is to protect so the the breathing mechanism so we go yeah and we think that that’s a support and that is not what support is but it’s a hugely popular misconception and therefore rather than saying oh you’ve got it wrong but let’s let’s work on how to do the diaph let’s get it the diaphram is an involuntary membran so you don’t talk about that in your lessons if
Someone comes up with a question like that so that’s why I’m glad they’ve asked this question support yeah support is a thing yeah and that is ABY rodri has just uh quoted Dale just do what you have to do you know there’s great wisdon in that really great just do what you have James told me what I was begging for lessons all we did was go to
PS and finally he said was you want anyone just get on with it get on with it that was one of the best things i’ ever heard in my life just go figure out but there is no no um you start to spend like hen hardenberg said in the Hang house he said you know these 10,000 hours that you spend lot in the practice room there you got to do it have you you know it’s 10,000
Theory there’s a theory that any skill that’s going to be to can spend about 50,000 I think but but it’s it’s CLE you need 10,000 out once you got 10,000 in you forget that or but how many years have you had your 10,000 well I met you publicly there was a time when I did eight or 8 hours a day that’s where you got your little six month for six months did 8 hours a day and then
I realized I was nuts and I never did that again can you see this little can you see this little scar now anyway um I think everyone every good student every good player has put in the practice the you’ll never get better without practicing but practice is not by itself going to make you any better yeah well it depends on how you practice what practice and and what you say time and time again it it depends on how well you listen to yourself you say this all the time in the book well that brings me back to the child again the chir language when we
Were very small we we had ears like elephants we obviously could hear amazing things we could hear so acutely we listen to the sounds around us we listen to our bodies we could adjust our tongues to make a mama sound and then we would notice how close did my sound fit my mother say oh look he said
Mama oh mama so I I Tred to a her again and so this is what we should be doing when when we work is listening to ourselves at all times and you know we just had this recently in a public situation where we all talk to each other listen to play fine but not listen to was quite clear all yeah and that’s very common very very common that you’re so busy trying to play the horn that you come death you can’t hear yourself yeah there’s there’s even a section called de uh horn deafness yeah had horn deafness eggs eggs and then after eggs which eggs
Eggs is a really good one but we won’t get into the eggs maybe here you can read the book um Morgan has asked about not seeing the forest for the trees if you could just um go into that just briefly I have got this down here not seeing the forest for the trees does that mean not doing all your practice and not listening basically no it’s the the problem that teachers have as well as students that we become fixated on a single issue um whatever the motivation might be by a student or teacher might decide that uh maybe the is not quite right and so
We become so fixated in our work with a student on the on the we forget we miss a lot of other things that are going on too we can’t see the whole Forest because of the trees as we say in English C The Forest of the trees there’s a similar phrase in German and it refers to describe this phenomenon of becoming too concentrated on in isolated details or single detail at the expense of the of the general larger picture which would be much more helpful and if you saw a larger picture the individual detail would very could be assum very low
I promised I would ask some of your questions so I’m going to stop blabbing myself and get to them if that’s okay um Hadley asks and I love seeing all these names you know you guys it’s so great because we’re turning into a real little Community you know Hadley yes you know Hadley it’s turning into a real
Community here and I’m so happy to see when you’re watching it it’s just fabulous anyway Hadley says hi Fergus hi Sarah Fergus you grew up in several places how did you discover a model horn sound to emulate and use for your own learning how did you discover this sound less well less is not exactly cultural capital of the world um we were listening to a battery powered radio had no electricity those days yeah gas powered gas fired
St and and eating and B gar most of our viewers don’t even know about those those sort of things far too young I was obviously although I had no memory of it I know we were listening to DBC and to classical music on the radio so I was hearing something there but it was my first orchestra conso that
I remember when I went to con the Ed festival and the horn group the horn experience the night which is so exciting so fascinating to me that I was just completely overwhelmed and my mother’s sleeve and I can’t imagine what she was thinking as I was saying mommy mommy when I grew up I want to be a professional
Walker just like those guys yeah well and that sound that I heard was section of Alexandre okay that’s the sound I heard first and that’s the sound I said about trying to en all my life okay well good advertisement again for Alexanders but they they they’re worth it um funny and for oh we’ve got two questions one’s actually for me
Kendall asks when did you when you when you first began studying with frogus how did you find him different as a teacher may I answer that what you better because well it’s I’d be very quick but when I met Fergus as a teacher I’ll just tell you about the very first lesson I had with him I was having a lot of problems with my plane and
I was on tour here in Berlin um and uh and Fergus we met Fergus at a rehearsal and we invited him to the show and and I remember thinking oh he doesn’t come he can’t come I’m I’m not playing well enough Fergus came to the show with his wife and um they both invited me over the next day
Fergus said bring your horn I was like I can’t do that I’m having too many problems because it was Carol my wife said she’s F she she really was she and and I turned up at Ferguson’s apartment and with all these excuses that I wasn’t playing very well I played two notes I think literally two long notes and that was all the playing
I did in the lesson that was my first lesson so that was the main difference is that Ferguson wasn’t actually interested in the physical problems that I was having he just wanted to hear he said he could smell it he just wanted to hear yeah I talk a lot you talked a lot that was the thing he wouldn’t so he doesn’t shut up he really goes on but it’s for a young student it’s great you never get a chance to play it wrong um so
Fergus was different in that he he he he just got cut through all this technical problems that I was having and just just just was just went for the inspiration and for some reason it just worked I had some really great teachers um uh but this just clicked and uh and I never for some reason my planning to started to be better the other thing that made him so different with the teachers he really really believed in me and that meant a lot meant a lot when you have the feeling that your teacher really believes in you that’s
I think the most inspiring thing that was right wasn’t I okay that’s enough Fergus oh no we W ask about that for a fantastic book everyone everyone said they love these books um where’s the opposition the opposition yeah you guys if there’s any of you that think it’s a total load of rubbish that we’re talking about and do
WR in and say dare you um Campbell would love some more insight in the famous Fergus warm up why it works for you and how we can apply that essence of efficiency to our own practice my Fus warm up is it one yes fergus’s warm up I wish we had a horn he picks it up and he goes
That’s a highy he puts it down and he goes and drinks the coffee I’m not kidding it’s a bit of a joke you know I do it because I have to that it’s part of my trademark but I also did it in the very first time just to see if I can prove something to myself could I do it it was so outrageous so absurd so pointless so counterproductive
I mean according to traditional thinking and I thought well let’s just see what happens and it became kind of a gag each day to see if I can just do that thing is it works all times but there a big big subject here on the issue War may I just mention the word Bellow Bellow in the car yes um well we’re students and have the time on our hands we warm up as if there was no tomorrow as if we the day had 36 hours and our chops had 25 hours of endurance in them once you get out into the
Working World the freelance world or even right here how many times have we stuck in traffic and race into a rehearsal the buring phenomic full sweat under breath rush into your seat it’s usually from the airport after a gig oh something like that and you have to hit the stage hit the hit the horn hit the horn hit the piece running no warm up pick up the horn and blow and go there’s no excuses accept no explanations no excuses you expected to be there 100% going this way it usually works when you can’t warm up you find a way to play anyway which raises the
Whole question is warm up necessary in order to play well and that’s that’s a big subject but as a general principle warming up can be done in matter of minutes even seconds but one or two minutes of very light and easy playing a few mons can be enough to to get you started what I was doing in car while
I stuck in the traffic jam was shouting screaming bellowing singing to get my lungs open to get blood in my brain to wake myself up like that and that I realized is what woman a lot to do it was getting yourself physically active absolutely agree mentally active proactive ready to go ready to fight yeah and when you sit there 7:30 in the morning 7:00 in the morning and it’s still dark and you some to settle in the sett settle of some ding music school and you have to warm up things an hour and half two hours waiting for some or blue say there there you
Have now warmed up enough you allow to St playing Andre ask would you really want to attempt till orang people with no warm up you would he would Fergus would I remember had to do it in concert back in Canada on first FL and I was late okay and you just turned out and played it was first piece in the program
I to be a genius like but it had to go yeah yeah sometimes like like FR says just got to do it anyway just got to do it anyway listen to what all these Old Pros say Jeremy in Chicago says she he’s enjoyed reading your book can you tell us a little bit more about mortification of the
Flesh in relation to practice I I forgot that bit that sounds quite terrible mortification of the flesh does it mean pressing as hard as where does that come I don’t even remember that um that’s the chapter I think of a practice addiction guilt and self abuse gosh that sounds really awful yes but see that’s what a lot of people do that’s what we really get off on we’re addicted to punishing practice we’re addicted to abusing ourselves because we hope that maybe if
I abuse myself enough I will be admitted into a blessed state of of acceptance I will have suffered enough to me I will be allowed to progress or progress will happen by itself and it really is self abusive practice makes perfect no practice makes permanent practice makes perfect only when you practice perfectly you won’t improve with without practicing but practicing won’t by itself make you improve it’s what you said yeah
I think that’s you know your book very well um so mortification of the flesh means really basically um doing it to pun yourself for no good reason other than thinking that you’re supposed to some people never refuse some people refuse to never miss a day of practice ah now that’s very individual thing it’s a very personal thing but um
I have been concerned over the decades now my career I’ve met brass playing colleagues and Brass players all over the place who some have never missed a day practice in their lives and when I mentioned this them I noticed this and I found it really quite remarkable and they said well I don’t dare take a day off because
I don’t know what would happen I have never missed a day’s practice therefore the risk is too great since I don’t know what might happen if I took it it off I’m never going to take it off very bad psychology it’s extremely negative and if that drip drip drip of negative information going on in the back of your brain all your life that’s got to do some damage something to your self-confidence uh uh someone just asked me there’s so many great questions
I’m so sorry you know what you know what we’re going to do at the end of this session um when we’re not filming when we’re not live on camera anymore Fergus is going to stay on the chat for 10 to 15 minutes and try and answer your questions I’m giving him an iPad and he’s going to get working and um so keep the questions coming even after after we’ve stopped filming because
Tim and yakob are getting very nervous because the longer the video the longer the interview goes the more editing they have to do so we can’t go on for too much longer um just a couple more things thanks Tim for doing the link um uh Luke in the USA says I wish I had a student who that was addicted to practicing
I have the opposite problem should a teach a lecture the the student about the importance of regular practice or not very very good question Luke it got me on that one um because as you can see my comments have been addressed the ones who practice too much um but here’s a question for you a reverse question could it be that some of these students are resistant to practice because they iner sense there’s some discrepancy some some problem there that why is practice so good come on just because you were saying it show me prove to me where can
I improve why should I practice so maybe the only unfortunately on you has to go that extra distance to not only to force them to practice but to convince them MH what they have to practice and why I think a lot of young people want to know why to what purpose show me how this works and if
I can be convinced that it works or that there’s a there’s a reason for it they will make the effort but the simple authoritative command ctis in the Navy says it’s not like taking a shower for a day maybe you smell a little worse but you can still make it work thanks Curtis about practicing every day RealD absolutely is that what you do in the
Navy um so you I think you’re saying okay you don’t have to lecture the student but regular practice every student has to put in the hours just they have to discover for themselves where the benefit lies that’s the thing they need to Discover it themselves yeah that’s a very good point um quick question look quite a few people this has nothing to do with your book
I want to just know just a few words about your mouthpieces um if you go to my own website fagus m.com one word see this little story that I give you the background to how I developed these math pieces they were Richard Fisher just said my teacher charged students more if they didn’t practice that’s a great idea
I’m going to try that one good I like that idea sorry no explanations just just penal um the monpiece was a again a pragmatic sitution I needed something for myself none of the single Market actually suited me and when I finally you can see the story about how I managed to finally get one right with all the yse clear but um then people started playing on it my colleagues grp have a blow on that oh that’s great can
I want the copy and they start going to G and asking for for to make more custom copies and they got so tedious making all these custom mouthpieces that the idea was then first mentioned of going to production I have no idea why it’s so popular because there’s nothing about the which is not just average I play on one as you know they all know
I play on MC William one um but because of my th thick lips I put a Paxman rim on there just to keep a bit of britishness about it you know one also yeah it’s yeah I wonder why um anyway so listen all these questions this is really quite quite incredible oh oh Curtis says no we’re all squeaky clean in the
Navy so thank you for that um hey we’ve got a few more a couple more things I just wanted to put on we have um has really nothing to do with your book but it has to do with Fergus I think we’ve had so many um horn questions I just wanted yacob to just show us a little bit of your
Quint your beloved quintet your quet is your actually your quet is more than your more than your family in a way you see them more often than you see your own family carol sorry Carol um the wives have really been incredible over the years in fact our qu been together for 25 years and some of our marriages haven’t lasted anything like that long yeah yeah well we have
I just we have these wonderful little videos that we’ve done here at the filon Claus valendor and I did ours in a in a in a elevator at um Berlin main train station and Fergus was on the roof in a very special place like this have a look [Music] h [Music] great great so we saw that so it was pretty cold up there that day wasn’t it it was fry um
I have a last question for Fergus as I say Fergus will stay on the chat so keep keep the questions coming he’ll answer as many as he can Fergus in the book you said something that I want to just throw back at you if you only had 30 seconds of playing time what single Lasting Impression would you want to [Music] leave
I would like to have the most number of listeners feel a sensation of not loss but remebrance of some kind of j z if I could play I think my last note would dissipate into the air and they could all sense something like a remembrance from long ago something distant and almost mythological what would you play [Music] them the
B no there’s a lot of BS in different keys in the book you know one of my favorite little things is [Music] the something like that something romantic okay I just wanted to turn the tables back good question good student see taking the authority and hitting me yeah well that’s so
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