A special Horn Hangout from the Peak Performance Horn Symposium, Evanston June 2016 - starring Gail Williams and Jonathan Boen with questions from the symposium participants.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
One 2 3 [Music] oh [Music] hi dear horn hangout friends we are in Chicago actually Evanston to be exact at the very first Peak Performance horn Symposium set up here at the beanan school of music by Gail Williams our wonderful dear Williams [Music] and she and Jonathan Bowen are the two teachers here at the um at what is it called the
Bea School of Music part of the Northwestern yes um and you guys have set up an amazing amazing week weekend for everybody we would love to have been live on the live on the horn Hangouts but unfortunately we couldn’t get our act together and get Tim or yakob over to do it but we’re doing a different version today we are taking questions from everyone in the room and there are a lot of them uh and they’ve got great questions this is how we decided to do it look at all those um so we just thought oh we lost one that’s probably the best one um
We just thought we’d go with the flow do a little horn hangout um ask your questions first of all I have a couple of questions for you Gail how did this all happen well this is the first year that this building has been open and the Dina music wanted some sort of festival and so after some thought
I thought this is something I’ve always wanted to do is show that there’s more than one side of having uh a good horn Symposium you can have all kinds of horn players and play play play or you can have some really good lectures so I’ve decided to do that just to explain to the people watching at home you you haven’t just had horn master classes you both done horn master class
I did as well you’ve had meditation um Alexander technique uh a sports psychologist came in amazing and food I’m not talking about the cake not talking about the cake last no no the cake that’s we won’t tell any we won’t tell anybody um so are these friend all friends of yours are these people you you there are um colleagues of ours from
Northwestern uh the phrasing person that came in is bassoon Professor the sports coach is a tennis coach from here and she’s had an extremely very successful record and the doctor is uh John’s doctor personal doctor and the Alexander teacher is here at Northwestern and David Brockett I met while I was playing in Cleveland and he uh does meditation and many other things in his life
John what did you think when Gail came and said you wanted to she wanted to do all this I I thought it was fantastic I mean it it really as she mentioned it’s unusual to have this mix of ingredients in the presentation and and uh for those of us who play the a long time you realize how important how essential that is when you’re young you know you can really abuse yourself and still do well in a number of ways but as you get older if you don’t if you don’t take care of yourself you know something like your horn playing is is one of
The first things to go yeah I totally agree I said that today in the M class I wish someone had even just told me when I was young to stretch out my arms after playing you know just even to get this little stretch here so you’re all very very lucky so today because we don’t have an online audience we we actually this
I really like this even better we’ve got Gail’s horn Bell and she’s told me to be careful with it not drop it which which I won’t so and and we have fantastic questions here which I basically let’s forget the chitchat I’m just going to fire them at you and and and some of some of them are are mine as well
I see so so let’s just go for it what do you say what qualities make a Great Horn teacher John short and snappy what would you say uh yeah to understand your student you a good teacher has to meet the student halfway and a good student has to meet your teacher halfway if that happens you can have a great relationship if that doesn’t happen it’s going to be a short experience here here
Gail question from Brianna how do you know when to stop practicing good question well stopping before you think you have to stop is something we all need to know and shorter is better than longer um so you never ever feel the fatigue so you can build strength upon that what method do you have to reach your Peak
Performance by the time of a recital or an audition for example not peeking too early Erica New Jersey asked that question oh that’s something you learn over the years I guess this pacing is a very important thing what would you say about that it is trial and error really you have to understand how you react in in
P yourself it’s not like a a test where you can stay up all night cramming for sure yeah that’s that’s right it’s sometimes you got to know when to leave it alone yes well I also think you can work backwards if this is your recyle let’s say on Saturday maybe your last heavy day should be Wednesday just like in in preparing for a marathon or something like that you taper and so you you know that this is where you are here and then you start coming down that takes a lot of courage to not play too much day before you you kind of have to
You can do all the mental work you want to and you can have lots of flexibility and that and drink and eat properly and those are the things that are going to help you have a success I also think if you think if you want to practice 3 hours a day and you divide the ratio between actually practicing and thinking about the music you can change that ratio as you get closer to the performance and maybe you’re start off with you know an 8020 mix and by the time you get the day before you’re maybe 20% playing 80% thinking about what you want to do
And that allows you to stay like invested in it but not visualizing is good for for those those times as well but before my audition at the Brin Phil I even visualized what I was going to wear which may sound silly but it was just something less one thing less I didn’t have to worry about you know
I knew okay that’s what you’re wearing that day you’re going on I knew that a few days in advance um it is quite important to look decent in auditions we get that all the time people come for Academy auditions things and their butts are hanging out of their trousers and and their girls with really tight dresses on or
Tops on they take a breath and my colleagues go it’s normal it’s normal try and try look nice do you don’t want to look too nerdy but try and look like you’ve made a little bit of an effort don’t you think that’s something you would never go to an interview down in a very important uh marketing firm no with kind of sloppy clothes on it so why do musicians think they can get away with it
Courtney Ree South Forth North Carolina where Stephanie Jil comes from how much does singing influence your horn playing a lot I mean I’ve been playing Opera for over 30 years it’s it’s it is my hor in play yeah yeah yeah not only the phrasing but also the the physicality um they do have they do they have they do things a little bit differently
I always I always like to watch the singers the great singers that come on stage and I watch them from behind you rarely see a lot of back action going on or or the going in like this I’m always quite amazed at that why is that again where do they where do they where do they store it all well they’re they’re the lungs expand this way they don’t expand in one spot and everything has to grow
I mean my one of my best breathing classes was standing backstage at ly uh during the first run of the Ring cycle and I’m not sure who was one of the big giants in G demron and I was just watching him and he had this great big huge leather coat on and you would take a breath in would go go up and it’ll come back down while it was singing he take another breath and went about 6 inches off the ground he like huh he’s just going and it’s just go all going
I don’t always I have I’ve noticed I don’t always see that from the back you see it at the front you see it going in but their backs I don’t know I I didn’t tend to see that so much with you I never forget the first time played with Chicago Symphony as a young young thing and watching
Charlie Vernon expand and then go back down he like could double his size that was the that helped me a lot I wouldn’t have got my job in the Berlin fill I don’t think if I hadn’t had this visit to Chicago and learned about all that I I took it down a step because I was splitting lots of notes you know it’s always a thing you learn something new it works great and then you do that nonstop and then you realize okay maybe it’s not perfect for me but um but anyway so thank you singing really do really does help and she also asked what
Sort of activities do you do outside of horn playing physical and mental well you do masses of sports well yeah because I love it so I want to be outside I’m counting the days so I can be out in the mountains and hike and bike and camp and get outside and enjoy the take your earbuds out of your ears that’s one thing listen to the birds
I agree jogging I cannot jog with earbuds I I understand you’re all going to be deaf we may we may be deaf because we sat in front of tany and the trumpets and trombones but you’re going to be deaf because you’re wearing those things in your ears that’s a mother talk I’ve done a lot of gardening in my life
I been my my father grew vegetables my mother grew flowers and starting at four years old I helped my dad I helped my mom so of course when I grew up I grew everything and so that’s been that’s your very connected yeah that’s wonderful getting your getting your that’s that’s fantastic I’ve got a roof Garden in Berlin and that’s just go out there and just sort of
I can never see down there though I’m always picking something off that’s good therapy you got to find you you got to find stuff outside the practice room that you love doing salsa dancing I don’t do it too much anymore but that really sort of got me out got me in touch with feeling my body and everything well
I’ve got little writing here but I like the question Andrew slami from Milwaukee when playing with horn players from all over the world do you find that you need to change the way you play at times if so how I’ll just start off answering that one because Gail and I played um together in the uh what do we call it the world world
Orchestra for peace and and and that was a perfect example of this you probably play in youth orchestras played in the European Community Youth Orchestra which has finally been saved I think thank goodness for that and that is the best thing about it playing with people that you know even Gail and I we play totally differently but to sit next to her that’s your job as a second horn is to play play with the first home player um and that that’s the that’s just really exciting how how you change you can’t change your playing but you can use your hand to change the sound you
Can use change your attacks to make them more like who you’re sitting next to um yeah I don’t know would you what sort of tips would you have for someone to adjusting sound it’s not only people from different countries it’s also Everybody Plays different I I think I think you still have to play your game if you fall off your game you’re going to lose you’ll be less possibilities to blend and just try to play with a beautiful approach be sensitive
G you’ve played first for most your life so you you’ve hadn’t we we’ve always adjusted to you with pleasure I hasten to to add well not not always in in the world Orchestra I would play third or first and it’s it’s fun to be having a a challenge to change your sound and to listen I mean that’s what your ears are there for not just just to do my thing but to to join the forces you know and and see if you can make color changes and that makes it interesting that’s why we play the horn cuz we can do that so much better than
Anybody else I mean you have you wear different hats so if you’re playing with a brass section you play with different articulations and all of a sudden you’re playing with Woodland section and then you’re playing with string section so you get an opportunity that’s much more challenging that way great question from Paul from Chicago if you only had an hour to practice every day what perentes of your time would you devote to warm-ups and fundamentals versus preparing ues and solos great question you want to go first on that
John well if I if I had an hour of practice and I was that was it I Was preparing for a show at night um I would I would start at the basic I always feel every day when I pick up my horn I don’t assume I know how to play it I would go over the very basic issues of getting the air to move freely into the horn creating a beautiful sound and then
I would expand from there and some days that might be faster than others but I wouldn’t go past the the basic Foundation before I started building the second floor because that was just crashing down so that’s a dayto day thing for me but I’d always start in the basement and then put the first floor on and the second floor on and if you don’t have much time
Gail you know because some people have proper jobs what what would you recommend for the because there’s so many great amateur players out there as well I find they work often I get I have a bad conscience sometimes when I see how hard they work and then do a full-time job on the top of that well I admire anybody that wants to continue playing the hor because they must really love it and
I think that um finding their their strengths and keeping the strengths getting stronger and not just work on the weak but get your stronger aspects and keep that stronger because the weak will come along so if you can always think about playing something uh Basics I think you I think we have to do our daily duties and making those stronger will make the music stronger but
I think was absolutely terribly important for everybody in this room at the end of the day you play something you love Yeah Yeah play A Melody play whatever you want to play but it’s got to be something fun instead of saying GH and putting away that’s not the way you want to end every day yeah even if you have a short amount of time and sometimes if you only have a short amount of time once or twice you could forget the warm up and just get in there and play something nice because there’s going to be days when you’re in a traffic jam and you
Turn up at 1 minute to 10 and you have to go on stage and play anyway so that’s worth you know if you do the same thing every day we get bored of it so mix it up a little bit spice it up a little bit Marina crickler Marina Marina Marin all right from Calgary or Boston make up your mind any tips on inspired building conf confidence inspir building confidence after a series of unsuccessful unsuccessful auditions that’s a tough run taking knocks in our businesses it’s not nice you know but that it’s got to
Keep On Believing in yourself it’s um if you have to believe in yourself otherwise you’re not going to be able to sell what you do and um if you’ve if you’ve played badly then it’s important to go back reflect on that say okay what how can I prepare that the worst thing to do is to go God you are terrible and
Bash and that’s just going to put you in a bad space for the for the next time um so you’ve also got to be you’ve got to be honest but you’ve got to be nice you can be nice but also honest you know it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a fine line to really look at what you could have done better um rather than just forget about it be honest like that but also just believe that your time your time will come you you never give up that that’s really important
I had a wonderful experience because I played in lyric oper before John got there and the oral player in the Opera cup saying to me how’d it go well I got semis and finals and it’s just not meant to be you’re not supposed to be there yet so that’s important just just to go okay you know the main thing is were you prepared for every audition and
I can say that there are some people out in the audience that I know are taking some auditions that are they totally prepared and that’s if you’re not totally prep then maybe you won’t have the right mindset but I think that’s one way of looking at it I also have I I have to say this that my first professional audition the three losers went out and we had a really nice dinner party we always spent the money so we had a nice dinner in
Denver yeah that’s that’s nice and you learn from what you did you learn from the experience but what did you did you enjoy what you know so you have to enjoy it too yeah it’s hard it’s hard hard to enjoy auditions but you can get positive stuff out of it I just add one more thing is get away from excerpts you know make sure that you just don’t stay an exer plan and go out and play a mini recital somewhere so you start connecting to something that’s longer than eight bar phrase that’s great advice that’s really great advice you’re right we get very much into
Our running Sprints yeah no that’s great that’s great advice although I must say excerpts are usually what let people down in auditions because they’ve played great Keras and they come along in their rhythm wrong um or you can tell that they haven’t they don’t know the piece you know that that happens rarely in in in an audition for the orchestra cuz my
Orchestra people usually have experience of playing orchestras before they apply but in the academy auditions you know we have sometimes 50 horn players and you can hear that all they’ve done is learned it out of a book they’ve never heard bethoven 9 they don’t know that when you play that movement that there’s woodw players in there and the jury can always hear that always you have to know your music you have to know everything so there’s there’s a lot of stuff to to keep you going in in and and if you spent too much time on one thing and you realize that didn’t go so
Well in the audition and concentrate on another area what went wrong but be nice to yourself too we’ll do a couple oh that I like this one there Aaron again oh well okay eron how do you handle The Yips Zips yippies Yips Yips is that the we call them the pearlies the the the Scaredy Cats those moments where you just think getting nervous
John couple of good tips on that preparation it usually calms me down um just uh you know if you get if you can have some I find some quiet time the worst thing for me is getting stuck in traffic showing up and not having time to kind of get in the zone and uh and sometimes you can’t control that but that’s where you some quick meditation ideas really help but preparation and just try to trying to squeeze in a little time for yourself seems to be the best for me that’s important home players are are very um a very gregarious
Bunch we like to be in packs and we like to be together and laughter is also I find a good um a good weapon against getting nervous um but we do need our quiet space absolutely yeah um what are your thoughts on bi brto and solo she asks as well I think his personal taste I think uh you know
I’ve been in situations where conductors will ask me to use the and others will say no don’t use it and uh so I I I think it’s I think it’s a good skill to have to be able to turn on and off yeah and I think if you’re taking an audition particularly around in our country here you need to be able to find the off switch if someone asks you to
I’ve had some some experiences where people cannot turn it off and then that’s kind of a warning system a warning sign um so you it has to be a an optional enhancement yes I like this what is the instrumentalist or singer whose musicianship you most admire G they’re hard it’s like asking which is your favorite child but
Elena C through this pardon even looks at me she was one of when I was in Lyric Opera many many many moons ago uh I had not had any experience in playing and this was my first job and Elena kis was a soprano that I just fell in love with I loved her voice I loved her musicianship and luckily she sang a lot at lyric at the time um but to hear singers um
I you just can’t choose one my goodness gracious it’s hard um I mean of course looking at hor players I’d say I mean my go-to guy is Dennis brain I that’s that was my first person I heard when I was a senior in high school my brother brought home of art of Dennis brain number one because I had decided at that point to go into music and he said you might want to listen to this oh was that what the hor supposed to
John do you have a particular person or I mean I remember when I was really young the first time I heard paparotti sing was when I was in the pit and I just was so live with him and many times and it was so electric uh it it’s one thing to listen to recording but it’s another thing to be with it to hear all that all that stuff in their voices and this huge huge moments and
I and when I was very young I I went to a a music camp out in California and it was kman Bowman’s first trip over here and I remember having a master class on a stage about like this I was working on the cariban Sonata and he kept calling it Z the atude he didn’t really like the take the take the atude and and his
English I was was not present yeah and so he would just play and the sound exploded out of his horn and that was like a real light bulb moment for me that was very very you know another nice question do you have a maner or any keywords that you use to summarize playing the horn mine would be blow yours too huh
I think Sing Sing he wins wind sing blow Wind Song Winden song in Chicago that is very very you know you guys there are just there’s so many really good ones um in here Dana from Wisconsin why did I choose the Yu from Taiwan because of the sound I I was told to play I was told to play the haror the clarinet and
OBO I didn’t want to do all that I was told the horn was for boys that interests me I thought okay I’ll have a go I picked up the horn I just love the sound of it and I’m sure that’s probably the same same with you guys it’s just the sound is everything actually mine’s a little different uh my grandfather said you should be in the band
I said okay so I went down to the band office and I looked at a poster of the instruments how they looked and I like the shape of the horn joined the band and they gave me E flat Alto marching horn so yeah so hey this is this doesn’t match um I wanted to play the flute in will got around to
W in the fifth grade they were all gone and my mother and my mother said you you she had a rule that we couldn’t play the same instrument and where I came up from there’s only a few instruments and luckily my father played the susf phone and my mother was percussionist and a brother played clarinet and a brother that played trumpet and
I’m left-handed so Mom said play the horn that’s not fair doesn’t feel on the bus I say this is going to be the last one Tori has written she said thank you for coming to PE performance you’re welcome I’m very happy another late start on the horn started at 16 she tries to um tries to play and teach professionally um how was
I able to become a part of the horn Community as quickly as as I did and where did I find that sense of community um without having other people in your year at school so obviously that that’s where are you Tori that’s uh that that that struck a nerve what I said about being the only one in in in my in my year at school
I was surrounded by that was at the college when I was at at school school I was the only home play in the whole school they thought I was just weird um but it was something I loved and I think I think you have to stick to your guns if you love something don’t let peer pressure get in the way and don’t let if that’s what you love that’s what you love and the best thing to do what what saved me at school was finding a
Youth Orchestra or finding a community Orchestra if you’re if you’re older than school um if you’re a professional you know obviously you you’re you’re with people that understand you but it’s often this feeling of isolation um when we’re studying and um we spend a lot of time on our own in practice rooms if I had had the horn
Hangouts when when when I was younger it this this feeling of feeling connected and feeling part of a community it’s important we need that these days we need to feel like there’s you know we’re not alone out there we’re on our own on stage we you know you have to come up with the goods by yourself um but
I think we can also take strength and courage in knowing that other people out there even you know amazing horn players go through the same sort of stuff that you guys go through um and just don’t give up there’s a lot of lot of lot of good people out there a lot of uh people to help build that
Community we have this amazing horn Community um online and offline as I see in the room it’s fantastic to come here and meet the faces who are online at the horn Hangouts um and it’s really great and I would just say yeah we’re a pretty cool Community us horn Community what do you think so thank you for that thank you thank you for all these questions thank you for your questions um thank you for watching our horn hangout and uh
I would say let’s get outside and play some music what do you say [Music] yeah one two one [Music] la [Music] yo [Music] la [Music] PA [Music] w [Applause] [Music] n
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