A Horn Hangout with a View! Sydney, Trombones and Mashed Bananas. Michael Mulcahy - trombone with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra - returns to the Horn Hangouts in a special edition live from outside the Sydney Opera House.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
I say good day to everyone Tim are we on live we are we are on live welcome to this incredibly special first open air hangout ever with the one and only Michael McKay Round of Applause going on all around the world from our audience here and from our wonderful trombone players all from the Sydney con all of you more or less no
Sydney con con Northwest yeah got a few Northwestern norw and we’ve got a guest euphonium thank you for coming we’re happy to have you um I thought we’d start off with some music M what do you think absolutely yeah what do you think let’s rock the Sydney Opera House can I join in please do haha I think you might recognize this [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] ho to thanks guys what a way to to start this morning we got anything else uh
I think we should uh discuss matters at hand let’s discuss matters at hand thank you for that we will uh we will be calling on your services later on thanks what a way to start um it’s early morning here in Sydney very early morning and believe it or not it’s winter this is a bitter Winters morning in
Sydney July the last day of July unbelievably warm is this normal um I would say it’s uncommon and normal what do you call this Aussie hat well I actually it’s a Canadian hat it’s a Tilly a Tilly it’s a Tilly and they are indestructible and guaranteed for life okay good but it it you need a hat at least in
Australia the sun is very powerful it is and um and you’re already covered in sunscreen yes yeah I forgot forgot the world leaders in skin cancer yeah well we don’t want any of that this morning you have to be cautious we don’t want any of that anyway welcome again everybody we want to know where you’re watching from we’ve also got some um yeah clap clap people are clap clapping on the on this chat already
Toronto Canada hello Benjamin thanks for writing in we want to know where you’re watching from um what time of the day it is and what you’re drinking at this moment cuz we were we were going to be having breakfast but then told me he’s a Ardent flosser yes I am so you wouldn’t eat anything I would be flossing all the way through the interview which is unseeingly we certainly don’t want that my students have seen me eat and floss in lessons and things but
I think on camera it’s not so powerful well you did the most wonderful hangout uh when we started you were one of my very first victims um it was 2013 I think or maybe even before that I have to check that one um anyone knows exactly when that was please write it in cuz I forgotten um oh my iPad keeps going off that’s not good it’s really hard to read an iPad in this in this sun out here but uh anyway good good not supposed to do any advertising but that’s just um not possible today
Houston and Diet Coke says James odor mat Houston Houston and Diet Coke thanks for that anybody else out there what are you guys drinking today this morning water H prot protein shakes yes so were they all your students um there are some of my students there I’ve given lessons to many of them um Mitchell back there is from
Sydney studying in Sydney but recently just now in the summer in America just completed his Masters at Northwestern Ash Carter is about to start his next fall start his Masters at Northwestern so we’ve had many uh foreign students uh in uh school there in the trombone class from Europe in Scandinavia Asia Canada and uh do you teach when you’re here um not this week because there’s a big project going on tell us about this week tell us what’s going on this is this is also exceptional you know this is the place
I grew up this is where I first you know worked as a a very young green trombone player due to the generosity of the uh my teacher and his colleagues in the Sydney Symphony and um I come back here frequently that was in the’ 70s uh now it’s 2015 many many years later when we were kids and we were we thought we were hot shots but we were just you know arrogant little kids basically we dreamed of having an orchestra consisting of the best talent that
Australia had and the the the the problem with a lot of our talent was um it was dispersed all over the world the diaspora of Australian musicians hits just about every country where classical music exists so it was a pipe dream and then um the conductor Alexander briger decided that he was going to try and mount the very project that all of us have been talking about and dreaming about for years but not doing it single thing to make it happen and uh with uh his sister
Gabby and uh Neil Thompson they’ve put together an unbelievable team to bring people not only from within Australia but beyond uh from Europe from Orchestra the best musicians the orchestral musicians no matter where they are in their world are all flown in they’re here right now they’ve been here all week this is our third awo season as
I understand it um ma Simone young and Alexander brigger were the directors of the first year and then 2 years ago zuban Mata did a season with us and uh this year we delighted to have Sir Simon Rattle your boss is here isn’t he great he’s Absolut breathtaking um very unique uh he is challenging us and uh inspiring us
I have to say the rehearsals have been extremely stimulating and I was very fascinated because I’ve been to so many of your concerts but this is the first time I’ve seen him rehearse he’s never have you not played with him in Chicago he’s he’s rarely only once in his life’s been there many many years ago and I’d heard about his unique workways and in fact
I had a conversation with him when you guys just after yesper joined your Orchestra hello yesper if you’re watching I think he is Morgan yesper and um we had a conversation uh and about Orchestra personalities and characters and their work habits and and and he’s he self-described his work habit as being a little unique and I we didn’t pursue that any further and
I was curious since that point and now I know and now I know what he was referring to he’s very personal very informal and very um uh image image based in the way he expresses himself he doesn’t just say I want that shorter he will say something much more interesting and he will use an analogy or some kind of uh uh conceptual description of something that really stimulates your imagination and you have the feeling that it’s a very relaxed and loose way of working it’s very informed but it’s very specific and when
I hear the transformation of the orchestra from one rehearsal to the next we’ve had one concert we played the Brookner eth again tonight in that building um think you got a new member of the audience oh yes the Ibis is coming over here M Ibis is smell that’s right no it’s it’s been I heard the concert uh
Wednesday it really the most incredible incredible experience to energy of this Orchestra there’s such a range of MYRY around the world not only musically but their personalities you think of um my boss is Ricardo miti Southern Italian um formerly we’ve had people that you are also familiar with like High Tink and baron boy we were extremely familiar with shty was where
I began in this particular or and then you have other big personalities like tan and GV these are people with with very unique stamps musically but the way that they work with the musicians is also quite unique and uh not only do they have a personal impact on the musicians but the impact that they have varies in effect from
Orchestra to Orchestra because orchestras themselves have their own traditions and their own personalities and they may be more reative or more responsive to a particular kind of working than another some musicians might prefer formal separation some are very comfortable to be drawn um informally into a collaboration that’s more like a conversation than a dictation um so I you know
I I found it very very fascinating and what I love about what he’s doing this week is the tremendous care for sound every time we don’t fully realize his expectation he just stops in a very relaxed way urges us to dig deeper to play more refined to to to nurture the sound more so that’s the first thing the second thing is we’re playing
Brookner and Brookner is very tricky music to interpret he is not very explicit in the score so much if not most of what he intends is is implicit and it takes a conductor of depth and insight to understand how to Pace the music how to control the tension and how to uh produce an architecture that will endure for 80 minutes of music that has a lot of repetition a lot of sequence and can easily peek too soon and once that
Tiger’s out of the cage there’s no getting it back in there you guys Tigers you really are this week you really have to you really have to manage that tiger and he’s magnificent yeah it’s it’s been an amazing week um Mitchell has just kindly asked am I playing with awo and am I Australian I wish I was and no
I’m not Australian even though my dad was but I had an Australian passport for a while and awo makes me want to get it back because it it just I I was feeling quite sort of redundant this week just sitting listening to rehearsals and doing a few interviews but I wanted to play well yeah it is infectious in that way and the the character of this work is very much a celebration of being together in a way we normally can’t be together so those of you who grew up or are still attending
Summer music camps uh are participants maybe with the Australian Youth Orchestra or the National Youth Orchestra in the states or in wh Secondary College Victoria class they’re all watching today great good day um yeah that character that you have I remember from my music camp days in this country from Australian Youth Orchestra in this country and I see it when my students now in
Chicago they go off to the summer festivals in Tanglewood or Music Academy we just had all exactly prop out all these people uh there’s there’s a there’s a there’s a tremendous Joy uh in music making in that environment now I try to I try to continue that joy in my day job the difference is in your day job you are required to be there most weeks of the year you are sitting with exactly the same people every year who we love who we adore but it is a lot of exposure and so like a marriage when you’re together with someone that much you have to
Work to uh make sure that let’s say that the relationships are very well oiled and that you care for each other because if you are not thoughtful in in your work Manner frictions and and problems can arise and whether you like it or not you will be sitting next to this person for 10 20 30 40 years so it’s in your interest to find a way to be accommodating to each other but it’s harder to do in your day job because you’re so exposed and so it’s inspiring to come here and remind yourself music making is this joyful music making should be this joyful and
If it is to be so it’s your job to make it so it’s not the Management’s or the employer’s job to make you happy it’s not even the conductor’s job to make you happy that’s your job we can all bring things like like a week that we’ve had this week or the pmf week or whatever weeks you’ve been doing we can all bring some of that back into our day job it’s really important to do that yeah it just doesn’t happen it’s you know nothing nothing of value just happens cuz you’re a good person you make it happen nothing nothing convenient is of
Great Value any anything that you really treasure is the result of sacrifice and investment and care and it’s exactly the same with sitting in an orch M there’s a lot of people can I just sort of on your last hang out I I ignored our online audience I’m because I was so excited to to interview Mick myself that
I I I asked him all my questions and uh didn’t ask many from online I me to say yesper is here yesper is watching it’s very late I am very happy he’s watching hi yesper thanks for that so we had um oh my my cousin is watching Emily and Co Winnipeg Canada Chanel 6 p.m. the the the
Whitt Z Secondary College we said North Carolina Cameron is drinking sweet tea my aunt in Edgecliff is is drinking a piccolo soy good morning Susan a piccolo soy like Brendan says Australian trombone royalty always exciting when Mick is in town McAn royalty are not words you commonly hear together Rob is in haogen BOS Holland drinking organic red wine organic very important wul
Malo harp oh just down the street Ron wants to know have you ever tried to play the digy doo there seems to be an affinity between trombone and digy doo is this true you know I have and uh you would think I I was exquisitly well prepared to do it and and my brother-in-law Glenn rych who’s on another
Safari in the outback with his my sister-in-law Hillary um he acquired a few diery dues out there he taught himself to Circular breath and uh he he sits out at our lake house in Victoria and meditates there playing the Dig do of course he handed it to me and I very confidently picked it up and got absolutely nothing out to be easy yeah
I I can neither circular breath nor make much of a sound on it and I have to admit I haven’t pursued it I was a little bit disheartened can any of you guys play the digo online and you guys here I think if the digo had a lead pipe I might do better but and a mouthpiece yeah
I’m ashamed to say that so far I’m uh disappointing failure on the D oh I’d like to have a go I’d love to have a go if anyone’s near the Botanical Gardens and has a digy do could you bring it down here in the next hour we would like to have a go William Barton are you around here you go um
Fred has asked and we’re getting down to the we’re gonna oh someone wants to know James wants to know where he can obtain a shirt like this I love horn Hangouts I think we all do we love horn Hangouts Mitchell has has one on you’ve got one on Tim has one on there you’ve got one on too thank you anyway we can we will be posting where you can get these t-shirts we’ve been very uh it’s a bit tight yours isn’t it we’ve ordered a lot for the international horn
Society roughly how many Hangouts have you had this ballpark Tim 30 35 30 35 so this is an incredible it’s not only I find it very stimulating and very entertaining but this is a a really amazing repository of information and experience of people who make music with brass instruments um and the musical gamet with contemporary music jazz symphonic music classical soloists um there’s a lot of uh tremendous uh history
Heritage culture and Technical information on these person and Tech absolutely so you should you know I urge you all to look at all the all the uh programs that have happened thus far yeah whether it’s singers we have singers horn players trumpet players jazz players it’s been amazing I’ve learned so much me too from my guests and
I’m learning a lot today and people want to learn more and yesper because we love yesper we’re going to start with his question dear Michael can you please explain the Double Buzz and how to get rid of it ooh yes steroids no I’m joking don’t you start I had that was a joke okay no no we we we we we we we do not uh
Advocate the abuse of prescription or other drugs in any way whatsoever on horn Hangouts just except if you’re filers now I I have to say I have to say a few things firstly yes but bu senson is your colleague in Berlin he is a Danish native um I met yesper when he started visiting Chicago as a young man and he would study the with me privately um he joined the uh the orchestra in orus in
Copenhagen very beautiful Concert Hall there I think orus might be the second largest city in Denmark um and at the time that yes came to me he was a very uh accomplished dromone player and he wanted to develop specific things specific things but I want to say something about yesper I’ve I’ve said this about him he’s probably dying right now many people but
I’ve never said it to yes’s face and not online to thousands of people on the day that I met yesper I met an artist a and yesper is an artist on the trombone he was before he met me he didn’t become an artist because of me or with me he was an artist and I hope that I helped him and
I’m very happy to have an artist playing the trombone but that was in yesper from the first day that they ever met him he is an elegant human being and an elegant artist and you’re lucky you’re lucky to have him as a colleague I would come him as as far as the Double Buzz goes it tends to happen in registers where there’s a certain ambiguity in the uh energy and structure of the person’s tone production so frequently it happens in the middle register it almost sounds like a flut tongue or something it is where the omuser in my opinion is not fully engaged uh the
Diamond shape of the omisha which I will show you like this you can see my flat chin there firm Corners so the main engagement of the is on the sides what we call the corners and if you touch me here Sarah sorry to put it so indelicately you’ll feel that that is if you forgive me for saying rather firm right it’s rather firm it’s rather firm thank you very firm and we think about the omuser being strong now
I want you to touch the middle of my amure because we think of the amure as the lips but really it’s the shape surrounding the lips touch my lips and I want you to compare the firmness if you like the stiffness of this with this tissue oh you can see that this is not rigid no it’s it’s totally relaxed this is what the french have a beautiful word for soup
Supple right Supple is the character of the vibrating tissue so it is formed in a very specific way but it is not tight we don’t hold everything up here If We Hold this diamond shape firmly anchored in the corners here the chin flat but the lips themselves have to be free enough to easily respond to air movement the easier they respond the more pure the sound is so if you are under engaged on the corners here there has to be some way of organizing the air and typically people that don’t fully form this omuser shape then play with too much mouthpiece pressure and then this
Can’t be relaxed anymore and this cannot be relaxed and you may have an ambiguity at this point cuz there’s so little form in your omuser the air doesn’t know whether it’s trying to vibrate this partial although or those so between here and here now if I go to make a double Buzz I can’t do it because I’ve learned not to do it but there was a time when
I had the same problem and I was already in my second job I started in tazzy and I was there for half a year and then I got to do first time my job in in Melbourne and that’s a very good Orchestra and it was a very good job um I got the job not very not very not very
I I I went to tazzy in 76 so that means I was 18 and I got the Melbourne job during that year and I started in Melbourne in 77 so you were still you were still sorting stuff up I find that I I got my job very early as well and I there was nowhere near ready so
I was dealing with something I got a Double Buzz as well but I had to work you know you can’t say oh sorry I’ll just practice that for a few weeks you have a choice I was terrorized by this and those that have this problem are I took a lesson from uh a very famous person in your world
Barry tuckwell and Barry is not a trone player but he’s one of the smartest brass players that’s ever walked the planet that guy is very cluke as they say CL and he and and and he said play me The Double buz and and I couldn’t do it on demand and he had me pursue it until I could get it and as soon as
I could make the Double Buzz magically I didn’t have to do it anymore I knew what not to do so I actually practiced buzzing that on Q and getting that horrible bewildering distorted sound and at that point I had control because I knew exactly knew what you were doing I knew what I was doing and I was able not to do it but my recommendation uh to to people that have the
Double Buzz is to do some soft mouthpiece buzzing don’t overplay um get used to really fully engaging the Omer when you are buzzing softly there is a modest amount of air going through the mouthpiece [Music] it’s not my Anthem but it is a beautiful Anthem it’s mine and yes now I’ve always loved that Melody um buzz it softly and you’ll find when you don’t have much air going through there you really rely on the structure on your brass players
Diamond here sheer air mass won’t accomplish it and this is some something of a problem when you get so air obsessed that you underestimate the importance of your omish structure you need both you need a formal structure of the ambusher where you have the proper tension on the sides and the proper suppleness in the middle the flat chin that needs to be organized and then the sound should speak very easily if you if you are in the habit of forcing the sound because you don’t have good air movement or you don’t have enough uh structure in your omo you’re not going to have any soft
Response and that’s terrifying playing softly in an orchestra can already be terrifying and if you can’t is easy yeah playing soft is really the the scary stuff yeah I would do this uh soft buzzing and you’ll feel this um you’ll feel this formation here and you get strength here and you realize that the strength in the omuser is not in the lips it’s in the muscles that surround the lips that’s very important good well thank you for that question
I shall uh that’s good the horn as well I’m not famous for my brevity that’s okay I’m just going to just going to get a couple of quick ones in here now um actually this you can’t even you can’t even start is doing this one quickly this this is a really nice question I don’t know what what your answer is going to be
Wally and um be uh bingan bingan says the late Arnold Jacobs was one of the greatest players of the last century but do you think his focus on the air and musicality was the at the expense of technique it was almost as if he seemed he didn’t believe in the direct definition of a correct technique uh that would be a distortion okay um
I did take lessons with him and I play with PE people who Jay Friedman played with Jake for decades um a lot of people have strong opinions about things that they haven’t experience firsthand I’ll give you an example Chicago Symphony loudest Orchestra in the world strongest brass section in the world not actually true it’s a very good brass section and it’s loud when it needs to be but if you go to a
Chicago Symphony conert you’ll hear many things some of which will be strong playing for sure but you know remember we had a b as our principal guest conductor if you play for a he wants P so you remember this yeah absolutely uh that was his usual if there’s something if there’s something distinctive about play playing in the
Chicago Symphony is when you start the mara second corala figure 10 the piso is a true piso it’ll scare the living you know what out of you um so that is an example of in popular culture Chicago Symphony equals loud not actually true um in terms of Arnold Jacobs it is true that he emphasized very healthy air movement and when he worked with players physiologically he didn’t do it in a sterile way he didn’t say like
Sarah you have to engage those corners and flatten out the he didn’t get into the physiological in a very sterile mechanical way but he was a very Wy guy and while you’re playing a [Music] Melody you you might you might be singing this s of wals there meanwhile he’s proding you to adjust here and there and without you knowing it he’s made some little adjustments with you without you getting self-conscious and this is a very important point
I coming to get us yes we’re being observed by the security services uh it’s very important when you are working with a student that you get beyond the students consciousness of themselves because when you’re thinking about yourself you’re really what you’re thinking about is what are other people seeing what do other people think about me and as soon as you start thinking about that if you’re in a lesson or especially if you’re in a concert now you’re looking back at yourself and trying to uh accept what you infer is the reality of other people looking at you and you’re no longer being yourself now you’re
Acting as you expect well Sarah is interviewing me so I better sit up straight because she expects that I have good posture and now I’m trying to see me through her eyes that doesn’t work self-consciousness is our enemy so as a teacher he was a master at getting people beyond their self-consciousness um it’s true that he he had a reputation for fixing people people and actually some people think he was like an omisha fixer but he he didn’t work that clinically he worked in in in in more conceptual ways and in more creative ways and um what
I what I found was that he had a great love for anatomy he was fascinated by how the body worked and he would love to talk in um medical paragraphs about the body but not as uh a way of fixing your Double Buzz for example he would have you try this now try this and and I I
I’ve adopted a lot of that stuff a lot of experimentation and you’re not actually saying we’re doing this and this is you know 1 + 1al 2 what you what what you’re often doing is say we’re going to try a bit of this now try this now look at me do that now what do you hear there now copy this and you’re exploring and you’re trying to uh dissolve the habits and the uh conceptions that a person has about themselves because we limit ourselves a lot we we we think we can do this we think these are our strengths we think these are our weaknesses
So we come to all kinds of conclusions about ourselves that are actually usually very self-limiting and the truth is we don’t really know how much we’re capable of but we are very good at limiting ourselves because in some ways by limiting ourselves um we limit the amount of failure there can be you know if you never take a risk then you can’t really fail but of course if you never risk you can’t succeed either so the idea of would be a trombone player either if you never took a risk you you really you really have to uh get
Beyond yourself and it teaches me a lot about myself when I work with others and I observe them and I really try to feel what they’re feeling you know I’ve had like uh students come to me and they their High register doesn’t work Beyond a certain point and it’s very frustrating and to me as a as as a musician listening to someone and they can’t do something that frustrates me too and and then but but
I think yeah but that person is actually experiencing that so then I have to imagine something I can’t do um so I imagined myself you know when I was uh younger and my kids were younger we would go to the snow and we would you know take a skiing lesson and there’s like 20 people and the ski you do this you do this and then we’ll just go down this little
Hill so everyone did this and they made do this this and they all started skiing down the hill and I just fell over and there’s 20 people gone down the hill and I’m there by myself stranded and marooned and no idea how even to get up with two skque around my feet so I imagined myself as a virtual in that way that’s what
Jake used to do Jake used to put himself in the other people’s shoes do you think um I think he did but he was more I I I can’t say that I I never met him I I had a phone call with him when I was playing with you guys all those years ago and I said could
I could I meet you um you know how many times did he get that phone call could I come and breathe with you and he said oh yes I would love to but I’m not feeling very well and two weeks later died it was really just tragic I no he made well have done that but but but what
I what I remember from my lessons and I actually helped him with some foreigners take lessons who didn’t speak um a lot of English um what what I noticed was that he worked a lot with imagery and conceptual and Imagination um so to the extent that he could um get someone to stop being so self-conscious yeah that was what what would what would your number one tip be to stop people being self-conscious while they’re playing because that that’s something
I struggled with I think that’s something everyone strugg we all do worry having said that we are we’re trying not just to think about you know if you’re playing a concert I remember the first time I met Dennis Wick I was in the Melbourne Symphony I think it was my first year in the orchestra we’re playing Manfred
Symphony of trovi and someone walked into the audience just before we started the second half I thought my God that looks just like Dennis Wick and then someone said to me oh look there’s Dennis Wick Dennis Wick is a very very famous British we all know that one when you go out and you just see one person in the audience and you yeah and you know it’s
Spooks you and now what are you thinking of are you thinking of trosi are you thinking of your part if you thinking of how youing no what do you want to do you don’t want to disappoint Dennis Wick right what a stupid motivation but that’s how human beings react and we have to work against that your question is how to get past that yeah there’s two very good answers firstly when you play a musical instrument your medium is sound that’s your work stuff and therefore your understanding of exactly the sound that you love to make the sound that you think is the most appropriate everyone
All of us have been exposed to many many sounds all of us can probably name their top three favorite sounds for their instrument who who’s sound do you love you know in my case uh my first love was Derek James who played in the London fonic later the Royal fonic I think he started in the Kream guards
I believe his wor I didn’t meet him till many years after he was my fantasy tro BL but he had orchestrally the kind of sound to me that easily soar over the orchestra without being particularly aggressive I just love that sound and I spent years just coping snipp from lpo records trying to get that sound and then at
International competitions I met Michelle Beck who has this golden tone production this this this glowing just comes out of his instrument I can name people who have a particularly warm sound another person with a pecly warm sound is Randy hores who’s the bom bonus in Detroit who teaches with me at Northwestern but he’s a very he play in world or with
G GE and Jean he just has a uh you know a golden warm sound you could almost go up to it in the winter and warm yourself sorry sorry guys it’s hard for the it’s the second the second security round coming through sorry about that so sorry that’s hard to those descriptions think about the top three people whose sound you love imagine elements of that person’s sound in your sound then it’s your job as an instrumentalist to cultivate to develop to refine this sound and every time you go to play you are trying to make this specific sound everything you conceive is based on the
Character of this sound so when you’re playing and Dennis Wick walks in the audience you kind go oh my God oh my God oh my God I’ve even got a mute here of Dennis Wicks uh what you have to do is to hear your sound you’re playing this phrase here all right that’s Manfred Symphony all right I don’t expect many people know that but they should uh when
I think about that music I have to think about it in that sound that’s the first thing that’s the first part of getting beyond that self-consciousness the second one is an even holy I I know what’s going on they really are coming to get you um can you let us know if you can hear everything all right let us know if we can turn up the volume
Tim is on his knees behind the camera and if we should pause if we should pause give us a timeout yeah we’ve got a squadron here they’ve heard they they’ve heard you’re here I mean who doesn’t want to come to a horn hanger all right here they come Tim show our audience can you get a get a good view of our audience that’s you lot
NICE T-Shirts Boys [Laughter] Hey we’ve also got Mick’s lovely wife Gabby behind the camera good morning it’s all right don’t panic but you’re there and she played the most fantastic tuba Vagner tuba solo in the Brooker eight the other night congratulations it was fantastic um AJ is still filming on his iPhone is your battery still okay cool t-shirt you got
AJ as well there you go say good morning Mom at some point that man’s going to save your life in heart surgery God bless him yeah absolutely okay to continue yes we’re getting past our self-consciousness and we spoke about the preeminence of sound cultivation and you are responsible for this and every time you work every time you practice that has to be uppermost in your mind you can’t be careless or
Reckless it it doesn’t happen by itself you make it happen it’s specific the second thing is every time you play a piece of music there is an ideal way for it to go you have to go to the trouble of thinking about studying listening experimenting finding a convinced interpretation of everything that you intend to play when um if
I look at uh if I look at this [Music] piece hopefully most of you know that’s brahm’s First Symphony and that’s the money four bars for the trombone section now what do I know uh that’s about 34 minutes into the symphony at that point most of the orchestra thankfully a few horns to still playing with us there uh
I think it’s let us see what’s the dynamic piano soft but is anything else playing no so it’s neither Meto Forte nor pianissimo it’s the theme first trombone uh it’s marked Pato so there is a phrase Mark over it and there are dots what does that mean that means Legato tongue some people play particularly based on M players like to do that’s natural
Legato it’s not actually written natural Legato so I tried to do exact what the composer intends very smooth not separated some people see that and the dot I don’t believe that is separation I believe that is legato tongue on the trombone so there is a very specific way that that goes it’s a warm sound it’s written Dolce so it’s not a fragile piano it’s a warm what does p what does do mean sweet warm canab and when
I go to play I can’t just think oh I’ve been sitting here for 34 minutes getting colder and colder getting flatter and flatter I hope my note speaks blah blah blah Isn’t in the audience hope Dennis Wick’s not in the a you know so you have to constantly form the Habit I’ll say this Australia’s bird life is fantastic
I love it we had the over this morning you walk through the botanical gardens here and you’re thinking in the zoo we’ve got an we got an Ibis trying to steal stuff he’s trying it’s sorry I don’t mean to keep it’s just fun just so that people know and understand what’s going on um we are here totally in the middle of wildlife talking about
Brahms and how to how to overcome your self-consciousness yes so people have been writing and thank you so much protect the sound and know exactly how it goes and by the way students of mine that have survived studying with me and students of mine that are about to have to survive studying with me they know they have to be in the habit before they go to play this is the sound
I want to make this is how it goes and if you can’t answer those two questions you have no business putting the mouthpiece anywhere near your face amen amen we say to that demonstr yeah absolutely MC Barry says Barry says beautiful Brahms wherever Barry is watching for everyone can hear us loud and clear Howard pink from Nashville says we can hear you well um a couple of shorties okay um if this is even possible some
I love short people Mary and Brisbane says what do you think about practicing with a mute do you think it’s a good idea to do it on a regular basis good question uh you know it’s a good idea if you’re in a hotel room that’s a very good idea yeah um and you have to be comfortable playing with the mute but you wouldn’t want to generally mostly play with the mute because it’s vital as you play to have a realistic idea of what the outcome is um if you have a mtin a lot of the time you might be missing some
Vital Information about how you’re playing so the Vital Information is the sound it’s all about the sound it is it is really about that so I think that’s very important but I will say this about practicing and and so on the technology is so great now the students and uh the instrumentalists can record their lessons they can record their practice sessions relatively for a few hundred or maybe even less you can get a digital recorder or even digital video and you can get a very realistic representation of what you did and if you are in the habit of
I would say weekly monitoring uh of your playing um I think that your practice quality and your practice efficacy will be tremendously enhanced yeah so less mute more digital recording yeah but sometimes you need the mute just the way it is I’ve practiced on airplanes in airports on wvs I spent six weeks in Japan with Stefan Schulz in the room next to me and stepan
Schultz didn’t seem to possess a practice mute that was a long six weeks and Stefan is one of the most int intense and unselfconscious and Unapologetic practices and that’s why he’s such a great Bas Dr player so God bless him God bless him I don’t think he’s watching he’ll be asleep um we would love to know where you’re watching from if you feel like tweeting with ashorn hangout send us a photo of where you’re watching from
Mick will get to see all the all the tweets and all the chat and everything you’ve written even if we haven’t gotten to your question which I’m sorry about I just saw Brendan’s tweet thanks for that Brendan Brendan there you are thanks for your Tweet he tweeted you wearing your hat and Waring up is that great so give the
TW TW out there or post it on the Facebook pages we just love to know where you’re all watching from that’s the whole point of these Hangouts is you know we can’t change anybody’s playing in an hour but we can make them feel included and part of the community isn’t it fantastic just think about this right this is my hometown
I’m back in my hometown visiting my family and my friends and my colleagues and we’re talking through your orices to the world you know we’re talking to people in Europe and and you know this is like the Australian World Orchestra on steroids we have a world community of people who love music who love brass instruments and and they share this uh kinship and my
God if if there was more of this in the world there’d be less of all that other stuff in the world and we mustn’t forget that you know music is one of the great healers it’s one of the great unifiers and it’s one of the great companions in life and we are so blessed to have the Australian
World Orchestra we’re so blessed to have classical music and we’re so blessed to share all this so you know kutos View for the horn Hangouts there a tremendous you know tremend me and him there behind the camera there’s there’s Tim back there doing his magic it’s you know it’s a tremendous uh unifier of people I mean you can’t say anything better
I mean if the pope can if if the hope you know that might be the last thing he hasn’t yet done but he would be happy to have the impact of horn Hangouts would Francis I’m pretty sure he’d be into it I’m sure he would I’ll ask Moody yeah yeah to him he does doesn’t he I saw a nice picture of you and
Moody on your Facebook page yes well we just had him in Berlin we’re very blessed to have him as our music director and I I’ll say this uh he’s a very Noble Southern Italian he’s a Music musician of exquisite refinement and depth and he’s a a very lovely and thoughtful person and the Chicago symphon is incredibly fortunate to have him uh as his music director but here’s something interesting he has a very similar care for sound in in the manner of
Simon Rattle and they are as personalities and their backgrounds are so different and yet their passion for cultivating refined uh War War sound is is so uh intense and their care for the music um one of the greatest Orchestra concerts that I’ve ever heard was when you guys came to Chicago with s Simon and you played the great
C maor Symphony Schubert which is one of my favorite Symphonies and like Brookner architecturally quite difficult and there is a a real connection between L late Schubert and Brookner and the Berlin philarmonic uh I think more than any other visiting Orchestra sounds fantastic in our Hall it’s a it’s a fantastic Orchestra anyway but Orchestra Hall in Chicago it can be a challenging
Hall to play and it’s not the it’s not flattering in the way that the music for iron is for example but the Berlin Phil playing shoit that night that was the best orchestra concert I ever heard um the the the Resonance of the orchestra and the subtlety of the orchestra and the way that s Simon um managed the architecture it’s a very you ask any string player it’s a long
Symphony it’s physically uh grueling for for string players they they they bit about it frankly that was my Dennis Wick moment in the Chicago Symphony Hall just about to play the beginning of Shubert 9 you know how it goes the two horns are sitting there and the conductor does that I went like this and I saw Dale cler right opposite me
I yeah I would have liked your advice then before the concert then cuz I just oh that’s Dale cler bom we all have these problem but let me make the point whether you’re Simon Rattle or whether you’re Ricardo muy or whether you’re Joe Blow you should care for the sound and you should know how it goes they do you should also do yeah there’s no shortcut to that none at all so um how are we doing for time
Gabby’s keeping look out on the time 10 minutes we doing all right cuz you’ve got to go what have you up to today I I free till 8:00 oh good well we’ll just keep going con for hours I thought you had an appointment later on ah couple couple more trombone nerd questions um the class the vce class said hi
Michael the the class that are watching um I can’t remember their full name they’re way down here you know you are um asked from the students watching do you still get nervous and what do you do to combat this do you have a routine you follow on the day of a performance I I I would like to be stupid enough so
I didn’t get nervous yeah me too oh this is important oh I didn’t know oh that’s a famous conductor oh I didn’t know him oh this is difficult no I don’t know I’m as stupid as I am I’m not even I’m not that stupid so if you care you may well um anguish or or worry a little bit and absolutely
I do get nervous uh because what we do we do in front of 2,000 people and I mean if you have to crack an egg in front of 2,000 people you’re probably going to screw it up so um it’s a particular form of concentration so conceptually what I said about preconceived the sound and knowing what your musical plan is every time you start thinking about yourself and you worry about do my lips feel okay every time you think oh
I’m playing Bolero I hope I don’t miss the first note every time you have a destructive thought you have to replace it with a constructive thought you have to so I’ll give you an example um there’s a piece it’s not actually for the trombone but it starts like this it’s written for the tenet tuuba it’s the marer 7
Symphony I’ve played it many many many many times and I’ve generally had good success with it but I’ve had a couple of occasions when I got off on the wrong foot and it’s devastating and it’s happened when I’ve worried about the possibility that something wasn’t going to work and when I am about to perform and I’m nervous
I keep projecting in my mind how I want it to go I sing it thousands of times and I’m urging myself toe can see the pitch pom pom can I hear that pitch if you hear that pitch even if your instrument’s not in the right place you’ll put it in the right place cuz you are dictating you’re dominating you’re dominating physics with the power of your thought um and you are projecting the way that it goes so
I over and over again if people hear me downstairs in the practice room they’ll hear me just practicing the beginning of that I I count it same with Bolero you’ve got 8 and 1/2 minutes of sitting there like an idiot waiting to play and then you have to come in by yourself so you have to practice that you have to practice coming in cold and when
I’m coming up to Bolero I do I practice it and do all the things to prepare it but then I do things like um I’ll put a CD on of the bolero and I’ll play the woodwind solo there’s a tuty woodwind solo right before the TR solo and I’ll sit there for that and I’ll do that for a five times and then
I’ll actually make myself listen to the recording from the beginning and I’ll sit there like an idiot for 8 minutes and then I’ll play and come what may I’ll just keep playing whether it’s perfect or not you have to practice that if you have to if you have to sit there with the burlin philonic and the fony for sorry guys sit there like idiots just like me and they have to come in just like
I have to come in you have to practice that skill and it’s an odd skill but it’s it’s a it’s an important skill now some more things be well hydrated because when you get tense some people get dry and some people are very uncomfortable playing with a dry mouth so make sure that you are well lubricated not just 10 minutes before the concert but generally speaking you should be drinking eight glasses of water a day anyway drink more water drink frequently if you don’t need if you don’t have the urge to pee you’re probably already dehydrated sorry put it so costly but you should really
You be drinking a lot of water some other things uh some people take beit blockers I think they’re originally designed to manage things like heart problems and stuff like that um our medical experts can yeah we’ll have a talk to you about that later tell uh about this but they can be effective in uh uh calming your um your your your pulse your heart rate and so on cuz sometimes you have this feeling that you know uh you’re shaky and and your heart’s racing and all that um
I don’t use the beta blockers but I do believe in the power of bananas so if I have a bolero that’s a three banana day if I have a recital it’s a five banana day that’s true but don’t you find ban they sometimes make your mouth a little bit sort of yes they do so what do you do you mash them okay they don’t call me the
Professor for nothing no mash yourh them and you don’t get that kind of yeah you mash them and even put a bit of yogurt nutmeg on there very nice um but I will you know I probably have a banana or a day but I’ll you know if I have a big recital that means let’s say uh Sunday is usually my recital day that means
Saturday might be a three banana day and I’ll have bananas for some days before that we’ve just got the title for the hangout to it’s going to be Sydney Opera House ibises and mashed bananas yeah we’ve all Gone Bananas at the Opera House fantastic great advice thank you Mick um what about that last second before you’re about to play when your brain tends to go a little bit crazy and cuz it happens to me people think just cuz we play in great
Orchestra doesn’t means it doesn’t happen to us but I’m guilty of sitting on the stage picking up my horn knowing actually that I’ve done the work that I feel okay that I’ve eaten my bananas I’ve drunk my water but my brain will still say ooh you don’t want to miss that one yeah Ready Set Panic yeah Ready
Set Panic yeah no it’s look it’s it’s a very real thing and there’s no point pretending this doesn’t exist it’s it’s part of being a human being you know we are we’re flawed we’re we’re vulnerable that’s how human beings are that’s what makes us so adorable um when you actually about to make your entrance there you need to key into what’s going on so let’s say you were playing the
Bolero I don’t want to play the Bolero no so you have a very constant pulse going on you have to be part of that pulse that train is going to come by you at a certain speed you have to get on that train at exactly its speed you can’t get on too slow or too quick you’ll miss the door you have to be right there so key into the
Rhythm and then urge yourself um at this point in time it is an INE inevitability that I will enter at this point and you urge yourself and use time so you don’t have that feeling of when am I going to make that entrance what is it going to there’s nothing nebulous about it sing there’s my there’s my [Music] click so it’s right there it’s like just get on get on and get yeah get on there hear the pitch there and commit to that point in time at that point it doesn’t have anything to do with you that’s predetermined now one last reminder you’re nervous and
When you’re nervous you tend to hold yourself stiff it’s almost like you are anticipating something bad so for example if God bless you you’re waiting for a medical result and they’re saying yeah you’ve got it or you don’t have it at that point on the phone you’re dying right you are so uptight you’re as stiff as a board okay if you get good news you go and you’re nice and relaxed which is how you would like to be so my advice is don’t for get to breathe because when you’re holding yourself tense like that you’re not breathing you’re just holding yourself you are a ball
Of tension so not only breathe but practice breathing a little bit before your entrance so you could already be going and you’re already in the process of moving air and The Sensation of moving air is going to free you up a little bit it’s very hard to move air when you’re tight it’s impossible right so just have some good breaths in and out in bolera you can do it in
Tempo one bar in one bar out you’re nice and Loosey Goosey and and and then you know make sure make sure you take at least a second or two to breathe if you’re playing the opening of tuam 2 seconds Bolero I would say 2 seconds don’t rush that breath there’s no point to be don’t take a little snip there uh as you’re trying to sustain that’s going to be a thirsty phrase you’re going to need a good effective breath so be in that habit the last moment don’t forget to breathe that’s what a lot of people do the heir is your best friend on stage
Yep probably your only friend yeah Todd Bower Master’s watching ah hi Todd just with him last week Matt femer is watching said wonderful to hear you both passion um Elise B B from Chicago great I’m glad to see you’re getting some home time she says she has a question for you is there anything more amazing than sitting in the middle of an amazing group of musicians and helping to make some of the most incredible music in the world the answer to that question would probably be no no that’s a it’s it’s just incredible and and your section this week my section this week
I’m very proud to say uh uh of course Aussies because uh being the Australian World orchestra that is a prerequisite that so we are not only among the nicest orchestras in the world but we are the most racist Orchestra in the world you have to be in austral Australians so you’ve got to be able to drink a lot these guys can pack it away my goodness at the
Opera bar stay hydrated well you didn’t see the drum section there by the way no actually you’ve been quite uh quite absent yes I’m not a big drinker I I love very good beer and if I’m in Germany or Japan I drink beer every day whatever whatever the local brew is I I drink but generally speaking I only eat good food
I only drink good beer or drink what and if it’s not good I don’t have to do it the horns could take a leaf out of your book well I I don’t feel that the the quality is elevated by the quantity at all no but but there’s an answer there somewhere what was the question trombone section ah yes um
Scott kimm the associate principal of the Sydney symphony is playing with me he studied with me in camber and then uh came over to Northwestern and did his Masters there and Shannon hway who’s now in the New Zealand Symphony formerly at the Singapore Symphony they wanted to be here but they have a quintet on AB also um also studied at
Northwest and uh so they’re former students of mine or what you might call recovering students of mine uh Dave crib who plays in the livant house Orchestra is in the tuer section and I’m happy to say they’re they’re a very good team and um as far as trombone playing goes you’re either a team or you’re nothing you know it’s it’s not like a concer master or principal over it’s not like your the
Primadonna you know waiting for their soul it sorry Nick deuts you’re not a primadonna you’re a lovely fell a beautiful IO player but it’s all about teamwork generally uh you know brass playing in Orchestra is 90% of the time teamwork so you really have to work cohesively and they’re a very good team and they play with a lot of control
I don’t I I I I abore rough playing um and unfortunately U too often the trombones are not um selective enough about how they share their uh intensity and it’s really important that when you make a big statement that it mean something and it doesn’t it can’t mean something if you’re always shouting you know do you really want to be with a person that speaks like this all the time good morning how are you today you don’t want to be anywhere near that person so don’t out all the damn time and then when you raise your voice then it has an impact trombone playing is
All about teamwork I think that’s a great moment to get our team back together what do you think okay team we um we officially we’d be at the end of our hangout um it remains for me to present Mick with one of our very new and very special horn hangout t-shirts it might be a bit big what do you think uh
I’d be flattered if it was yeah it’s had a very indulgent week with the food the food are you food I’m not no no I’m not a cricket tragic ah there we go these are coming with us to La we’re leaving for LA tomorrow to The Haun mum it looks pretty cool we’ve had people asking where they can get them and you you’re the first person we’ve actually given them to there we go so yeah
Round of Applause do you guys want to come around this way a little bit otherwise got the sun in you may I just say on behalf of all musicians not just brass players not just uh not just horn players not just trombone players but Mick is an inspiration to all of us and I’m so grateful that he’s taken time out for us today to come and talk to us do a second horn hangout really
I’m I’m totally inspired I’m sure you guys are too you do look very nice standing there look at them all so come a bit closer what should we play Nick thank you I would say we’re going to play some uh brilliant music let’s do some BOS we’ll start with this gu some BOS we going to say goodbye can
I just have Tim quickly in front of the camera just one second Tim this is our astonishing handsome Tim yes he makes it happen he makes it all happen he makes it all happen it’s fun isn’t it it’s fun thanks everyone for watching and you know what it’s the first time we have ever been in the same place for a hangout wow the first open air the first one in this amazing place and the first time we are on the same road
I think we should do it more often I think we should I think we should so thank you all for joining us keep writing in send all the messages in for Mick I’m sorry if I didn’t get to your questions see you in La bye guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] Yay see you soon bye from Down Under
Horn Hangouts are created by Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic. Brassbanned is a proud long-time collaborator and streaming partner.
