Radovan and Dinka Vlatković talk to Sarah Willis live from Salzburg on Episode Seven of Horn Hangouts in the Time of Corona. They were joined by viewers from 39 countries - literally from all over the world. Great Hangout!
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
Hi everybody good evening from Berlin and good evening to Melbourne and good evening to Salzburg hi guys how y’all doing today [Music] another great morning another great morning you know what everyone it’s April Fool’s Day in Australia it’s now what time is it Tim 7 a.m. 7 a.m. yeah so when you send me a text about 45 minutes ago saying ok
I’m up and I said yeah but there’s no hangout today and oddly I was I didn’t know what to believe I stayed awake just in case yeah I know that’s really mean and happy to see all of you online this I’m blown away every time and how many of you are watching and from where you’re watching from but really really happened happy to welcome you to to the horn hangouts and
Dinka and Radovan it’s so great to see you and if from your house in Salzburg how are you guys doing with you again did you recover did you recover from the party was never ever so long at home so that’s true how do you are you gonna give us some advice tinker on out how marriages can survive the time of corona [Laughter] get to know each other again that’s that’s know interesting well you’re sitting very close so it must be going ok thank you for wearing your t-shirts
I’m I feel very very honored Tim how we doing is there is the audio okay can everyone hear us okay what audio audios good and I think we’re straining really well so far okay good we’re streaming also to Facebook live hi everyone on Facebook great to see you write in and tell us where you’re watching from and it would be great if you have any juicy questions for
Radovan pop over to the website because I’ve got the the chat from the website and they’re much easier for me to see them right now like Facebook is here on my left I can see I can I can see handsome Tim right now on the bill ayah and we’ve got everyone we’ve got Korea we’ve got all sorts of my good
Eric rouse keys watching hey Eric nice to see you good morning or a good afternoon what time is it there afternoon but here on the website Radovan we’ve got some questions for you but first I’ve got some questions for you what have you been doing all day well I spent the whole teaching and it’s a new kind of challenge it’s going actually very well and
I’ve discovered that new aspects of playing and teaching are necessary and I think we’ll all learn from this experience and I want to keep with the habit because I used to travel a lot good as weather when and when it’s going to happen again but I like to keep them in touch with my students on a more regular basis so
I think we’re gonna be using more of this anymore certain things work very well and other things work less well you know you can talk a lot about sound quality things like that we want you to try and cover as much repertoire and new things new challenges yeah what are your what are you using stuff on doors asking yesterday on the hangouts for some some online teaching tips with the equipment and stuff like that how do you how do you go about it well the different schools where
I teach have been proposing different platforms for this but I started teaching wrong sky and that seems to work quite well so I stuck with that although we’re on zoom’ today which I want to try also for teaching perhaps and there are some others like Microsoft teams and something our school and spangles can music that one so
I’m happy to try different things out but the sound quality is unfortunately not gonna be great but there are other things that are they trying to be more expressive on camera say what they think and so on and do use an extra microphone or what do you do no I don’t I just use the one built into the laptop and one of my students had one but that didn’t work out well because it was an anchor so we’re still luring and experimenting and researching and we’ll see so far it’s been very good
I have the feeling that this this virus is terrible it is as it is and how does destroying it is for so many things going on right now culture and and all things all facets of life there are some good things about it which is bringing people together on a scale like I mean look at us on the horn hangouts tonight there’s people watching literally from all over the world and also
I think is bringing us technology-wise so far so quickly because I mean who would have thought that you would have spent your time teaching online all day every day I mean that that’s really amazing no one on a more serious note we have a dear neighbor of ours who’s a doctor here at the hospital and then from him and from his wife we hear the terrible stories there in our it’s like in the middle of a war it’s on the front and they are really putting up a fantastic fight so
I can’t say enough you know how much I admire their work and how much they are to be admired in these difficult times it’s like living in a bubble even if we have our own difficulties not being to travel and so on many concerts canceled and so on it’s nothing in comparison to what they do and everybody else who keeps this so-called normal life going on yeah
Dinka for those of you who’ve joined I mean every horn player who’s joined in today knows exactly who ratified Radovan is he’s one of our horn gods rather than one of my favorite players in the entire world I think yours - well that’s good you’re not prejudiced at all there Dinka is a wonderful performance coach and how would you describe what you do think exactly well
I’m a psychologist and psychotherapist but I work with musicians on their mental skills thinking that this is also one important part of your job so just trying to make them more secure more stable in what they are doing working on their self-confidence and yeah a mental stability mental power that they need on the stage that’s I I have a secret for all of you with it’s not such a secret anymore
I have worked a lot with Dinka and without her I probably would have not set foot on the stage on many occasions it’s really true through you Dinka I learned how important it is to take care of all the mental side of the playing just as much as you maybe not as much I’ve never managed to balance it out that much but you have to practice
I learned from you you have to practice it like you practice your horn it’s through and that’s that’s easy with the musicians when when you say you can practice it then they immediately do it because yeah we understand what practice is we’ve done to great horn hangouts with you about all the way you teach and there’s really fantastic information out there about what you suggested even what you should eat
I remember you telling me grapefruit juice is really good to drink and what vitamins to take and and I mean really I I learned a lot not just about the mental side but also the body side you know about how to take care of your body as well it’s like you know you’ve studied with sports doctors haven’t you
I studied sports psychology and then I understood also how it’s really connected body and mind and how we need also this aspects of our lives and being a musician is I always say it’s a lifestyle it’s not only a profession and take the whole personality the whole day what you do how you think how you work and then you have a good results you mentioned you mentioned something really important on it was our horn party last
Friday even if you haven’t seen the horn party please go back and watch it on YouTube it was the most fantastic party wasn’t it Gail Williams has just joined us so Gail is there hi Gail lovely to see you we had a fantastic time at the party and we didn’t have time to say very much each of us because everyone what they were showing hamsters and dogs and it was really cool but you
I asked you how to keep our motivation and what you would recommend in these times because it’s especially if you’re on your own in this isolation and in this in this lockdown and we musicians especially horn players were such a gregarious lot we need to be with other people you know that’s that’s what we do that’s what we love and you said something really fantastic you said do your routine do your practice can you just can you just tell them how you like and just for the people that didn’t hear it yeah it’s a very important part of this isolation
I heard from from our children I heard like their friends are just all day in pajamas sleeping during the day you know all these things and after a while this is really deadly it’s it’s something that that really it’s not helpful so we all need a little bit relaxation and all these things but keeping the routine is a very important part of feeling in control because the times are so uncertain and it’s not predictable how long it will take and how it will go all together so this unsecured ’ti is is deadly and it’s losing of control of your of your life somehow and we
Need to keep this control so if we plan what we will do tomorrow if we keep our habits if we keep our routine your practicing if you put in your life now the things you never had time to do it and now you can some I don’t know exercise any time with your husband and your husband reading and things like that but planning it so the most important thing about it is to have a control in your life when everything is lack of control actually yeah and that’s the most important part of it that’s that’s why
I said keep em plan fantastic advice and this is why we kept the hor hangouts going all week because because it sort of gives us also it gives me as well it helps me to have something to plan for and it it’s a lot more work than you realize it’s sort of it’s not just sort of turning on the computer in ten minutes to nine it’s a it’s a lot but um
Radovan back to you there’s you spent all day tea there’s been some actually not so nice things happening that we wanted to movie felt mean we needed to mention one thing was the terrible earthquake that you had in your in your hometown yes week ago there was a major earthquake in zagreb and you know there was so much bad news about the virus that that somehow didn’t get noticed as much luckily it was a
Sunday morning very early 6:23 in the morning so people weren’t out and about and that probably explains were there casualties and I think there was only one person who had died as a result of this but there was a major damage and this is something that it’s going to take a long time to repair especially in the center of the city buildings that are very dear to our heart the university building where that ninka studied law also the concert hall of the
Croatian music Society where I played many concerts and which is probably the best Chamber Music Hall in town has been really damaged so it’s very sad to see those things and and of course we were worried about our loved ones [Laughter] sorry we were trying to be all serious and it is terrible to talk about but now we’ve got one of
Rada band’s best friends joining in Tim Jones and his wife Joe Hey Joe lovely to see you hello am I allowed to gatecrash a horn hang out watching I’m just remembering as I was coming on here just to remind us that the last time certainly in the in the Northern Hemisphere we had a lot with some because you couldn’t try anywhere 10 years ago so we were lost how we had lockdown we spent it all together so we miss you natural disasters save our marriage you see us nuts oh don’t start that would think a dick is so sad that her children have left how
Home oh no you still got one day I haven’t you we have to I told you how many other rules another six yeah gosh amazing yes lovely well done for getting on the horn hangouts I’m so proud of ya I’m really impressed and you’re invited to Julie landsman’s birthday party on Friday Friday brilliant who you invited to bring the wine we’re just gonna sort out the uniform
I’m not right no I I’m sorry I called a t-shirt I have to want from New York and one from well I just wanted I just wanted to surprise dink and Radovan with one of their Friday okay take care that was Timothy Jones principal horn of the London Symphony Orchestra I was a bit worried when he started off sideways oh they’re so sweet
I just wanted and this is the best thing about the technology of today you know people can dial in and dial out it’s great sorry rather than you were talking about the earthquake I do we’ve got lots of horn questions coming in so we need to get to those as well but before we get to that I just wanted to say my absolute condolences about
Pender etske because he was a very good friend of yours and he died was it yesterday day before yesterday yeah Sunday and and especially because you were just about to perform with him yeah the bad news that he passed away and we were supposed to be performing in Asia later this year in end of April and beginning of
May in Malaysia and Singapore unfortunately that happened did not happen but I was telling my family all the beautiful memories and souvenirs that we had from my time together and I’m eternally grateful for the music that he has given us the concerto facilities and the sixth eighth which we’ve been there 20 years ago so he was a great human being a fantastic artist and one of the greatest composers of all how is his horn writing
I mean we’ve played it in the orchestra it’s quite lush you know and he seems to understand the horn quite well yes very well and also with a sense of humor I think all of these things can come on many colors and so on and you know if you look incredible avant-garde music at the beginning of history - so versatile and yeah absolutely and if you can have a listen to his horn concerto is you’re right your violin it’s a piece for a violin and horn a violin and one double concerto but it’s not connected to it
I think it’s even on YouTube yeah have a look at maybe somebody maybe some of you can compose the link and and we’ll have that and think about him may I ask some questions from the online audience here we go this is fantastic oh yeah Gustavo I think he’s a student of yours he said we play the
Pender etske Concerto in badda-badda yours with Radovan yes Barajas hola Gustavo greetings from Lithuania from Calais Karolina from Vilnius yeah and Ruben is watching good on a good I Andrew Jason Friedman has a question for you Radovan when preparing for a big concert what does your preparation timeline look look like how do you organize plastic practicing listening score study and mental practice
I wish I was as organized to actually have that ideal preparation but since we all teach and travel a lot you have to make the best of the short time that we stay with that that means simply that it would be the short concentrated sessions if it’s old repertoire if it’s something new obviously it will take more time but taking opportunity of every 3 minutes if you’re on a train or on the plane with the score and listen to music acquainted with it and everything and then even sometimes teaching and going to the repertory by students
I wish I were as organized as the question has suggested in the real world you just make the best out of it and you try to start as early and on that note I think I never went on the stage having a feeling but now I’m prepared I always think I should have practice more but thinking knows more about these things we are a little dink is there a ratio that we could go by you know horn practice mental practice it is it good to visualize
I mean I’m asking you questions and I know the answer to because we worked on them but ok but this visualization process is there a ratio of what you would recommend well there is something I try I’m also learning through my job learning all the time something new and I realized you know you have so much to do like another one said traveling playing new pieces and all these things and teaching and and the idea that you can have everyday time for meditation or for your practicing your mental skills or something like this it is just the ravers unrealistic yeah so what
I in the meantime suggest is again about control to just do some exercises through the day just randomly just to have the feeling I can control it meaning it doesn’t need to be connected even with with the playing or with the music but I don’t know when you start to be angry or when you start the negative thoughts about anything then to to learn okay
I can stop it I can change it into what do I want what is the next step I want to do how I want to do it and and this is actually how we practice in a like small dosages the proportions our mental skills that is the way actually to do it so yeah yeah you’re so it’s sort of like almost a mantra
I must say that really helped me just now with the concerto that I played in the recording in Cuba because I had every practicing preparing but because as a Turkish shrine as a member of the section I wasn’t used to playing solo anymore so these thoughts would come in I was practising it would be going quite well but then these sorts was come in can you still do this you haven’t they taken shared over a long time
I remember you saying to me replace those sorts immediately so it’s sort of like you can do it while you’re practicing the horn you can also be replacing these thoughts do you do that rather than or do you even get nervous except now I remember I’ve heard a number of thinkers lectures and when she tells me that we are you know doing
Auto sabotage and that this voice of doubt you know comes to us it’s not that you can just think it away but I kind of tried to accept it as the first step on the way and that’s usually think was advice so I tell my students and I try to say myself although it always feels scarier then when you’re
T telling somebody else about it do as we say not as we do [Laughter] Justin in Toronto in Canada ask any books on performance prep anxiety are there any any ones we should have at home Dinka recently something which I found really good yeah unfortunately there is not so many books about it some I didn’t find helpful and but this one
I I really liked it it’s very practical in the chat to it Devon I know you’re watching can you find a link for that that would be great musician by Vanessa Cornett okay great thank you for that there’s also some good YouTube videos you said the one about self-compassion was very useful you remember I found that very very useful because how many of us do you do this right around to you try
I mean you just feel yourself sort of whipping yourself for the back saying god that’s not good enough and I’ve got to be better and it’s like you said accepting it you know sort of accepting that you’re okay I’m nervous okay I know you I know that voice benevolent well-meaning mmhmm yeah yeah it’s really so important um
Matthew Haislip asked Radovan you have the greatest horn sound out there hear hear who are your horn sound influences well I used to listen to Barry Tucker a lot which is passed also recently so another sad event for the whole world for the horn world I think singers increasingly so the human voice something the vehicle fastly sorry for the voice is also the voice is because it comes so you know straight from the soul and you see people touched by the human voice the closer we get to the emulating the human voice
I think the better yeah whether or without I totally agree horn playing is like it’s like singing you know I feel we have to be so free here and and it’s ya know I agree sometimes I have students come and play Mozart horn concerto you know and you know that very first page sometimes that very first page is the decision between most of the time of whether you get a job or in it or not and and and so you have to show everything you can show on the first page and
I say well which Mozart Arya’s do you enjoy the sink too and you wouldn’t believe well you know how often they go like mmm well not quite sure you can’t play Mozart if you don’t know his areas you know anyway sorry I’m saying too much it’s your hangout Sarah can I ask you a question I mentioned I would ask you a question it’s also about
Moe technician we admire your program and your engagement for this because you bring the community together you speak keep the spirits I the murmur morale high in these difficult times so how do you motivate yourself where do you find the energy to drive the direction the ideas tell us about that oh it’s your hangout Radovan but on your head
I think the secret is really from my bottom of my heart I love what I do and and I think you can’t fake that you can’t fake being enthusiastic you can’t fake loving what you do some people probably can I mean if they get paid a lot of money to do it then I’m sure people are practiced in it but
I can’t fake it I literally love it I endure the communication part I love playing the horn I love and and for me in this this day I mean especially now but since we started the horn hangouts and you are our very first one rather than your very first one I think it’s communication is that is the key word as you said whether through music or verbally as you do it so it’s yeah but if you know you wake up and you’d like one and dink has seen me in states of agitation that
I wouldn’t wish on anyone and and and of course we all have those sides to us but I think when there’s deep down a total love and passion for what you do and also a passion to communicate that for others I was the loneliest horn player ever when I was studying I was not a happy person when
I was studying when I went to music college and I never want any other horn player to have to go through that and if I’d had the horn hangers it would have been great so there’s the motivation I think just basically love what you do and believe believe that there you know that the communication part is there happy to see you today it’s your hangout so it’s your terrific as we were thinking about you know
I suggested also to think of it maybe we say a few words on how to go through these tough times I was thinking also what we musicians can try and do and I want to mention the digital concert hall of your orchestra which is doing a fantastic job and which allowed everybody to watch in for free for months you know so for another month for one more month
I’ve seen I get mails from the Paris Opera and from probably the Metropolitan Opera as well we had a concert in Iceland also I think last year in the autumn and they’re gonna be or I think they were already broadcasting that again just wonderful everybody is trying to keep you know I entertained and alive and not lose the contact with the culture music arts that we need so badly we were in sorry there was some many years ago after the the war in
Bosnia I think it was asking a person when do theater how did you go you know through these difficult times and how did you stay sane and she one person said the actors and the musicians would keep coming to the to the Opera building although we’re trying to maintain some kind of routine we were talking about schedule a routine sense of normalcy and how life-saving that was and also not to go crazy at those times so there are even worse situations
I mean it’s not inspiring to talk about them but you can learn from those difficult times yeah absolutely so Dinka we are allowed to go online and and fall into the Facebook hole or or Instagram or tock tick tock or too much says the lady made me put my iPhone out of my bedroom when I went to sleep because you know that wake-up something
I was listening to a creation radio after this earthquake so we had earthquake and Corona at the same time so people were on one hand at home in self-isolation the other hand they were scared and panicking and I mean the earth is still shaking every day and so it’s and and then something that this psychologist said people don’t know how to be with themselves and and this is something why i i told you put your phone out of your bedroom we need it’s time to be with ourselves so this is what i wish everybody not being afraid of that so it’s wonderful we do need
Each other we do need this communication it’s life-saving but we also need this time for ourselves so let’s do that now very very good advice someone said actually I think it was Stephen Fry said if you can’t live with yourself then no one else can live with you believe in education the arts are so read the books that you want always wanted to read are you doing that what are you guys reading right now
I’m reading something on psychology I’m also reading something on javonni Bootsy a horn player who worked in both in Paris and later on in Britain is very famous who’s an impresario and so on this is a PhD thesis and we were going through some of his pieces of the trio so over the early 19th century I’m also reading what comes my way through recommendations of friends there’s a article
I’d like to mention by the Israeli philosopher you know neurotic whose books think appreciates much and it’s an article in The Financial Times called the world after could honor just also you know because everybody is dealing with fear now and we should Financial Times sorry that’s in the Financial Times Devin can you post the link to that too please yes yeah the world after corona buy you body and he talks about you know how we should also try to not forget that it’s time to have citizen empowerment rather than surveillance and this global solidarity that we also feel as musicians instead of isolationism especially in
National isolationism because not everything that’s going on now and we don’t want power abuse in this situation now yeah absolutely not we don’t want anyone using it to get reelected right yes but let’s not get into politics it’s the horn hang out Jen Montone is watching Jen house bounce to the hammered ah that was such a great moment gentleman party with a disco light in one hand and a hamster and a horn hang out mug in the other
I just actually love that um oh good Devin’s just posted the link to the Financial Times article thank you so much yeah got that so oh that’s really you’re gonna love the chat in here everyone is really we’re in quite philosopher losev for long philosophical mood tonight gosh right yeah Francis asks how do you deal with stress before a concert what are the best ways to stay calm before performing
Radovan yeah again I’ve learned a lot from from Dinka she explains that there are people who naturally do pretty well with this and they shouldn’t be changing anything and there’s a group of our us who are dealing okay but we can learn to do things better and I learned for instance when I get cold sweaty hands and things like that that
I need to move you know not dance but stretch move you get all three yes I just need to move and stay active not being in the chair and try to meditate or anything like that because it doesn’t work so I just need to Marin and I thank thank you for the good advice and I’m trying to apply that in and whether it works or not it’s just the conviction also you know
I’m doing what is right and I know it’s gonna work and the more often it works and then sometimes it catches you by surprise I usually don’t have a dry month but sometimes it happened last time however in a concert I wasn’t expecting a drummer so I was thinking wow that’s interesting so you wait on it I threw it if
I throw at your tongue you do everything you blow like crazy you ignore the little mistakes that you make and you keep on writing the wild horse yes yeah we talked about some about food on the hangouts yesterday which Stefan and I’m saying you know bananas are good cheese sandwich mary-louise annoy NECA always recommends a cheese sandwich no peanuts before before a concert
Dinka what else would you recommend well I I try to tell people to drink enough not wine but water and and not exactly before the concert but but really that day when the concert is in the evening really trying to to keep on drinking all the time so one part of having dry mouth is also not enough drinking during the day so so
I’m sorry to say this a live online but I found you got to be really care full especially as a soloist okay Radovan you’re onstage for 20 minutes and then you go but it’s an orchestra musician if I drink too much before a concert already if I need to pee in the first movement of a mala symphony
I’m in trouble that’s why I’m telling that’s why I’m saying during the day not before the concert so that’s important so to keep the body hydrated through the day so thinking in advance that’s it’s a really one important thing to do okay what else what can we eat in your what wise opinion ex-premier there are things that calms you down or keeps you so it’s also important to know like rather one mentioned now the people who are with a high adrenaline and they are very excited and they need something to calm down so that’s the banana thing for example yes breathing exercises and things like
That and then there are people who are after they are so excited then then this noradrenaline comes and then they actually are tired then you need something to to wake you up vitamin C in all possible variations like lemonade juices whatever or even vitamin C the powders you can drink vitamin C or something like that so it’s for the people with the higher the low adrenaline they need it not the peace yeah so so if you feel if you feel excited and more shaky and things like that then the things that calms you down like banana cheese things like that yeah proteins as well it’s
Good oh you love cats oh yeah yeah what you shouldn’t be doing C 80s cats okay whole tobacco and sugar caffeine alcohol tobacco and sugar they’re all be bad before Constance it doesn’t matter what your except I don’t know well you have to have a coffee before you went onstage he just had to actually the thing with a coffee is unfortunately it really keeps you but for a short time so it’s good maybe for the other one like you said when he plays fifteen or twenty minutes but to to play to three hours long a concert it’s not good because after 20 minutes you start
To be very tired I remember I remember errand boy I’m telling me once he said we were we were we were doing Rheingold in the in the Staatsoper and you know Ryan go goes for two hours 40 minutes another break and borrow him said after one performance old man that was a really tough one he said by the eighth horn solo he realized that he had to pee in the 8th hole and saw the guts after like 2 minutes you have that’s coffee this time a night mr.
Manson yes please please please thanks a one wonderful sentence from bottom boy when when you mention him okay he was talking without his son who said oh well you need a and and our even said oh you need a really good horn player at the beginning and then Byron Boyd said you know who is a really good horn player it’s not a horn player who never makes a mistake but it’s a horn player who can play like a
God after he made a mistake an amazing observation that is so true how do we how do you do that if you I’ve never heard you split the crap out of anything oh pardon beep but um if you make a mistake which you didn’t like how do you gather yourself afterwards I don’t have a plan for it
I just remember hearing a well like a trumpet player who said that you have to be creative in trying to imagine the things went well and then just stay on that track imagine your ideal interpretation your ideal concert and then just keep on going like you would in a recording session you can always back go back and fix it later don’t blow the whole thing musically yeah you can go back and fix it later but like a
Bruckner for beginning you know you can’t really fix that if you yeah pretty much the beginning of things no Swan and Britain serenade and that’s a challenge yeah that’s to radarman what’s hard I mean I remember calling you when the Berlin Film needed Stefan was sick at the last minute I remember calling you you’re like are you crazy like
I’ll play that that’s way too hard but and I laughed so much because you play the hardest horn concertos and all this stuff written for you and you said playing first horn was just was just hard it’s just a different different thing like you said now when you were preparing for the concerto I remember when I left the orchestra and to change the needs that happened in the head talking of the book so we know the book of inner game of tennis also
I read at the time when I was 28 and left the orchestra so it’s the change that it’s here it’s not more difficult or less difficult or easier and so it’s just a different kind of thing so I think that you need to get into that mode and the mindset and then it works the mindfulness I’ve done my share of your
Orchestra but I wouldn’t dare doing here an important one so just like that oh sweet I’m so humble it’s unbelievable really Radovan the the mouthpiece question has come we’re allowed to ask mouthpiece questions because it’s the horn hang up what horn and mouthpiece do you use it’s better I use I use eight years now and recently also
I like the breathe horn that I tried out in China and kangan on several occasions and I own one and I have some other horns which I use occasionally the mouthpiece is a custom-made uno field and since as is too and I played a French made instrument a Selma with piston valves they had a different Selma mouthpiece so it was a little bit of copy of that with some adjustments and that’s what again
I’ve been music that for almost 40 years now when you say a custom-made tilts what’s important for you oh and I think it’s quite a wide rim which is good for endurance it’s not necessarily good for a sound quality I’m not happy recommending the mouthpiece to to many people because it’s I think difficult to play it has quite a deep cup and it has a small bore so those things don’t make playing let’s say in the high range necessarily easier but since
I do like the sound I stick to it and I don’t believe in fixing problems by changing mouthpieces only in extreme cases so that’s how I see it here here I mean I know there’s mouthpiece gurus out there that can find exactly the right hundredth millionth of a member of a millimeter to make you’re playing as great as it can but you didn’t have the choice no we didn’t have all different mouthpieces and our teacher who studied in
Paris himself he regretted not being able to have this collection of mouthpiece to suit everybody’s needs but he simply didn’t have them and you had to deal with what you had yeah absolutely um I don’t usually manage to get the Facebook questions as well as the other the website questions but one has just popped up that I really would like to ask because
I think it affects all of us at this time from Filippo Tramontana he says a question for both of you during this period of low activity and maybe we don’t have rooms with a good acoustic what horn elements do you recommend to focus on first which is which is that that’s the half the question the other half is
Dinky you talked about visualization could be useful especially now to try and visualize themselves in playing a concert during practice so that that’s quite I would offer some tips who for someone who is has difficulties in visualization so that that’s two things I think it’s a really great great thing one if you can’t really concentrate on the sound
I mean here I’m going crazy my you know I live on the top floor the rules are low I know all my neighbors are home all day you know you can’t really make an amazingly beautiful sound in your play as loud as I want and then would it help to stand up and visualize myself playing a concert what do you think both what do you both think of that
I just wanted to say that sometimes I played concerts and because I had something upcoming out a new repertoire I had to actually walk out of the concert and practice during the second half while the orchestra was still playing their symphony and in those occasions I noticed I sounded okay in the hall but now I sound terrible and the dressing room
I thought I’m not playing friendly and yet is it is the feeling of a small room so that’s an important thing to know that bad sound in a dry small room is not necessarily a bad sound in a great concert hall so that’s just experience yeah secondly trying to you said visualize but also imagine the most beautiful sound and play as if you were in an in a big space so things like that just from my sight but you probably have also yeah well
I work a lot with this creative visualizations and and all these things and I usually start with really train train the musicians to to imagine that now they are coming that they are bowing and they are seeing this audience and so really going into into this feeling of it and and we can do it I mean if
I if I start to talk about something beautiful like oh you know last Christmas it was so beautiful and then everybody starts to her so yeah we are really we have this possibility and we can use it a lot to imagine the situation imagine the atmosphere imagine what you can see what you can hear and how you can feel and then go for it to really produce the sound you want to produce that’s it very good time now when we’re all at home to sort of work on that quietly and calmly when we’re not when we haven’t got all this crazy everyday life of rushing
Around from appointment to appointment you know we we do have the time to actually sit and do this visualization while we’re practicing I think I’m gonna do a bit more of that so thank you thank you for that is it time what we could do recordings except it’s too late to organize it but we can do recordings for ourselves
I hear my students who are doing a fantastic job and there are really motivated and really practicing hard so I thank them for their attitude also not only for the fantastic results but now I get to hear them the way a sound engineer hears you in a studio you know and when I start complaining about the same things that the attacks are too hard that we should use more you know softer attacks and more air and think those kind of things whereas the small mistakes whether it’s information whether it’s a fluff note here or there don’t matter so much so it’s the general impression that
We get and that’s maybe not a bad thing so I actually find myself letting them play more and just commenting more positive and like you said when they’ve done something well then concentrating on what they’d done well and even asking them what they did well so the query in this positive mode no not be picky because it’s not the time to do that not on tape when you can’t really hear what’s going on in the room that’s that’s really really great advice so there is something positive coming out of this time
I’ve got two little questions and then I must you actually have to get you to you to are allowed to go to bed I know how it is 10:00 to 11:00 or my goodness it’s a few more questions though just because everyone is really loving this hangout they thank you for your feedback on on the website and also on
Facebook people are really loving it I am so is Radovan a quick one what do you have it always happens land on says do you have a favorite piece of repartee so the horn repertoire to play what does it change weekly what I recommend to my students do to practice that I’ve been mentioning that another Brahms tree of the
Britain serenade those are the pieces that I love playing and some pieces that I that have been really Khmer be practice or performed also I’ve come back to a Meister pendant it’s key we’re working on his concerto and another thing so there’s not only one composer like who was at Yale who said that Yale William said that the other day there’s not just one a quick question back to what we said about the dry mouth now where was it
I think that coming in so quickly now I can hardly I can hardly see them what can we do a Carolina says sometimes during the concert the mouth dries what can we do about it in the concert itself Dinko you mentioned during the day drinking as much as you can is there any other little tip if it happens in the concert as stupid as it is a visualization of lemon or something like this is actually helps
I know it sounds stupid but actually it does help I may add just it’s a terrible feeling as we know in the middle of the concert to have a dry mouth it’s scary yeah but it’s also important maybe through a recording or listening to it colleague who you know suffers from the same thing and just knowing from experience that outs out there we didn’t notice maybe we noticed that something is a little different but it’s not a catastrophe and they continue and they make more music so just concentrate on what is essential try to remember the amuse achill ideas lead you through the piece not
Ignoring what’s happening because think I always explains the more you ignore it the stronger the symptoms become so yes I have a dry mouth but I’m continuing to try it for my best possible sound best legato 10 for whatever it is you want to do that and keep on going and then hopefully it will go away sometimes it doesn’t sometimes it does yeah no fantastic fantastic
I agree ignoring it makes it worse that I learned that from you knowledge acknowledge it and keep on going absolutely thank you so much for all of these I mean there’s people call really writing in from everywhere and also what I love is they’re seeing each other in the chat and greeting each other from Toronto to Germany to
Auckland to I mean it’s really quite incredible it’s it’s it’s wonderful it’s really one rather van and Inca it’s it’s late here so I’m gonna let you guys go who knows how long these these this lockdown is gonna go on for but I would love to have you back at some time if you if you wouldn’t mind like we’re gonna see each other on
Friday night at Julie’s party and we’re going to tomorrow night Stefan’s back and on Thursday Gayle Williams is joining us which is great though many people are asking about air and blowing and in Gale it’s so but she’s tiny but she’s got it completely sauced she’s that she knows what’s going on yeah we were at New York at
Cornell University so we thought of her I and there was very mentioned for all the colleagues that came I had a little math class and they are all so proud of her she’s amazing I wonder if handsome Tim still there handsome Tim you still there handsome Tim there are you still here still awake everything still right on
Facebook it suddenly froze on mine but is that is everything all right sure it’s fine nothing ever goes wrong but do you think we can do we could think and Radovan selfie yeah we should do a selfie that’s very important selfie because this is something that we that we do every day as you saw on that you saw the one we did of everybody but
I’m sure people are dying to have a selfie with you guys and because Tim and I are here we’re just gonna smile as well okay so can we do that you guys ready for the selfie moment that’s all you look you look fine right everyone ready here handsome Tim he can’t get in who can anyone get more handsome than him okay you’ve had enough notice here we go run me selfie time yeah got your best smiles on great thank you so we’ll see we’ll see what cup we’ve had some wonderful ones with all sorts of animals with with
Sebastian the guinea pig with Africa the budgie with with somebody’s horses Maggie’s horses it’s been really yeah impressive what do you think of that Tim fantastic it’s great to wake up to such wisdom I think there’s lots of lots of really good stuff there and the chat was really going off so thanks everyone who has been watching on
Facebook and the website all your questions and all your all your comments and I will I will make sure that the ones we didn’t get to that we will hopefully get next get to next time we have these two amazing people two of my favourite people thank you so much Radovan and inker thank you for wearing the t-shirt good night from
Berlin good bye to all of you see tomorrow Mar 10 p.m. Berlin time same time as today back with Stefan door then Gear Williams on Thursday and then Julie landsman’s birthday party on Friday see you bye everyone bye [Music]
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