Sarah Willis's Horn Hangout

I was privileged today to be interviewed on Sarah Willis's Horn Hangouts. http://www.sarah-willis.com/videos/ . As well as being an absolutely amazing low horn player in the Berlin Philharmonic, Sarah's energy, complimented by her charm, has lead her into enterprises other than just the Berlin Philharmonic, which is a pretty good start!

Horn Hangouts is just one of those projects.

Please go to the above site and scroll down to the Bobo picture.

Where the Sun Never Shines

The following essay came up just today for the first time in a few years. I promised a new blog this month called "Feedback". Too serious, my mood has changed, I hope this will make everybody smile:

  Perhaps this is a small step over the threshold into the direction low life humour but this one is too good to let slip by.

My apartment in Tokyo is a very fine one; it has two bedrooms, one that has been transformed to a studio with the presence of a Yamaha grand piano. There is a very nice kitchen and a spacious livingroom / diningroom area, a comfortable Japanese style bath and shower and two toilets. Every room is computerized and in the living room there are no less than 5 computerized panels on the wall, all in a row, that control lighting (with a rheostat for each of the rooms lights) heat and air-conditioning controls, two other controls, which I have finally discovered are for the hot water in the apartment, although I have no idea why there are two, and another circular remote control device, which is beautifully designed, which I finally learned regulated the preferred heating of the tile floors. And, of course, there are the two completely computerized toilets.

On the wall of the two toilets are remote control devices that look very much like a TV remote control device. There are no less than 16 buttons to press on these devices; it only took me a day to determine that the top button was to flush; it was absolutely necessary to learn that, since there was no other visible way to do it! It also gives the advantage that if you forget to flush you can reach in the door, remove the remote and push the flush button from the living room!
The other buttons were a mystery, that is until two days ago. There are two buttons which I can only guess are to choose where you want to be washed off after use; one button has a picture of a girl and a spout of water centered on her most feminine area and there’s is a picture of a unisex being with the spout directed at the rear of the figure. It was, of course, a bidet, that omni present bathroom fixture found in Europe that one can refer to with children as a “bottom washer offer”. I personally never used a bidet through the years I lived in Europe, but I was quite aware of its purpose.

Two days ago while using the famous porcelain throne and while placing my Japanese phrase book on the floor I accidentally pushed one of the 16 buttons, which I’m very sure was the bidet. After the initial shock I was amazed by the accuracy and the just warmer than body temperature of the spout, I even questioned if there was some kind of radar in the bidet. The water pressure was quite impressive and within 30 seconds I was absolutely sure that I was totally spotless. Now came the high drama; how do I turn the thing off? It just didn’t stop and that reservoir of warm water, wherever it was, was coming to an end and I was beginning to feel the reality that the temperature in Tokyo dipped below freezing for the last two days.

I really wanted that thing turned off and as fast as possible, I looked at the 16 buttons, all in Japanese, fearful that random button pushing might open a Pandora’s box of unwelcome hygienic experiences. Finally, I choose the bottom button on the right and mercifully it was the right one. It was a very long bidet, I’m sure over a minute, had it lasted any longer I’m sure I would have frozen that proverbial place where the sun never shines. But alas, all is well that ends well. 

January 26, 2006, Tokyo

Retierment? NO!

This isn’t the first time I’ve been in the position of leaving a location not knowing what the future will bring, but it’s the first time at age 75!

It was the same in 1964 when I decided to leave the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam; I was lucky, the Los Angeles Philharmonic job opened just at that time. And in 1989 when I left Los Angeles, under the image of a sabbatical, and fortunately got teaching positions at the Fiesole Scuola di Musica, in Italy, the Conservatoire de Lausanne in Switzerland and subsequently other institutions in Europe. After leaving Europe in 2006, I was lucky again ending up for eight years at the Musashino Academy of Music in Tokyo.

Now it starts to get scary finishing my work in Tokyo, but again destiny is kind; I’m fully booked with masterclasses and conducting for the next year with attractive part time situations in Mexico and Okayama, Japan.

Perhaps I’m just a wanderer; sometimes I long for a family and a stable life with the same wife, children, grand children and a beautiful house, but that wanderer in me always dominates.

After 35 years of playing the single line horizontal tuba parts hundreds of times in the music that I loved so much, I was enjoying it less, something previously magical was slowly disappearing. Although I enjoyed playing in a symphony orchestra and adored symphonic music, it was a great and beautiful surprise to me to discover that I love teaching even more.

Each student is a special situation and a unique challenge. Since I stopped playing my musicality was reactivated and continued to develop, with teaching I remain an active student; I continue to learn and improve.

There is, of course, another choice! I could really retire, But no! In passed years I used to spend my summers in the small town of Vatera, on the Greek island of Lesvos. The old pensioners, whom I imagined were all retired fishermen, sitting on benches facing the ocean, usually alone but sometimes with a friend, fascinated me. How I would like to know their thoughts as they watched the horizon line (that horizontal line again!). I could do that; I could go back to Vatera and contemplate that same horizon line. But still, what is there in that horizon line, the sound of the sea, the changing sky that feeds the thoughts of those fishermen, Aye there’s the rub! I fear I don't want to know, the curiosity is perhaps more interesting than the experience.

I have just returned from a beautiful festival called Instrumenta Oaxaca, which was a great experience. First let me say that the general level of playing in Mexico is very high and the potential is huge; they learn quickly, they seem to have the physical aptitude to realize a new idea and they radiate an eagerness and enthusiasm that is quite refreshing, especially just coming from Japan and making the inevitable comparisons. 

I’ve never thought much about going to a small indigenous town in the mountains of southern Mexico but I will be doing just that next September. It seems every country has a center, or centers, where brass playing evolves in a noticeably superior way. Oaxaca and especially the indigenous town (population 3000) of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, and the highly talented Mixes people, is just such a center. This will be a true adventure for a wanderer.

One could say that the culture shock of a quick change from teaching in Japan to teaching in Mexico results in severe whiplash.

But that’s another essay, (the next essay), it will be called “FEEDBACK”: a view of some typical frustrations of a western teacher in Japan.

November 10, Oaxaca, Mexico and November 23, Okayama, Japan, 2013.

Practicing Too Much is Dangerous

Recently, there was a major competition held in the city of Tokyo. As usual, several weeks before the event, a large number of students came to me to receive coaching on the required solo repertoire. Most of these students came very well prepared and only needed small adjustments on their very good preparation, however, closer to the actual competition something strange happened; the high level of playing they had shown only a few weeks before started to deteriorate. The good tones that were there began to sound strained, pinched and full of extemporaneous noises, the high register became undependable as did the low register and the general musicianship became labored and quite simply had lost all the beauty that was there only a short time before. The reason for this was not complicated; the dedication and motivation to be their absolute best on the competition had lead them to increase their practice times to the point that they were damaging their playing, the excess of hard work caused their playing to get ugly.

This kind of extreme over practicing doesn’t happen only before competitions but also before exams, auditions and concerts. Our embouchures; that meeting place where the moving air meets the lips (embouchure is a verb), is made up of blood and muscle and like all the other parts of the body, it can easily be overworked and stressed. Like a ballet dancer, who’s body is trained to be facile and fluid, our embouchures need that same fluidity and if, by over training, the embouchure becomes more like the rigid and stiff musculature of a body builder lifting weights, this stiffness in brass instrument performance simply translates a sounding bad. The similarities of playing a brass instrument to the voice are many. Singers, however, cannot practice long hours like some brass players are tempted to do; they have the advantage of pain, which tells them it’s time to stop, the larynx just won’t allow the voice to let enthusiasm rule over reason.

Enthusiasm, the will to win, the goal to be perfect, is a good thing, but it needs to be monitored by smart practicing.

Smart Practicing

Warmups

Warmups are to brass playing like stretching is for an athlete; working on the bar for a ballet dancer or vocalizing is for a singer. Warmups are part of embouchure care and if you are in preparation mode for an important performing event such as a competition, warming up is an essential part that preparation, this is smart practicing.

Taking Rests

In any form of exercise, breaks are needed; ten sets of ten pushups can work very well in developing strength, but 100 pushups at one time would be very destructive to the body for most people, plus it would be very painful! Another important kind of rest is to take breaks after two or three hours. If you’re going to practice all day, go for two or maximum three hours, then rest at least one hour; do something else and think about something else.

Mental Practicing

Much of our preparation can be done without actually playing the instrument. Phrasing, breaths and dynamic decisions can be done only by studying the part and making those musical decisions without fatiguing the embouchure. Similarly, singing the music can help to make these musical decisions. Finally, the passages that require rapid fingering can be studied by practicing only the fingering alone.

Diverse Practicing

When preparing for an important performance of any kind, there is always the tendency to practice only the piece or pieces that are being prepared for the specific event; this also will have negative result. An efficient embouchure requires diversity. If your pieces are high, practice low. Nothing destroys tonal beauty and embouchure efficiency faster that concentrating your work only on the high register. The situation with dynamics is exactly the same, if you are preparing for a symphony orchestra audition where most of the repertoire is fortissimo, practice an equal amount in a pianissimo dynamic range.

Avoid Last Minute Practicing

Performance preparation needs to be finished and ready ahead of time; the last days before the event are much better used by concentrating on maintaining the finest, most facile and beautiful playing possible. There are many sad stories of players panicking in the last days before the event and destroying the good work that was already finished.

Hard work and enthusiasm are good things when they are controlled with common sense.

September 16, 1013, Tokyo

Terminals of Excelence

I fear I’ve been slow in seeing it and I wonder how much I may have missed. We all can see, in abundance, how the Internet has changed, is changing, and with very little imagination project the changes, which will surely appear in the not too distant future.

When Facebook first appeared on the net I mistakenly thought it was a format for teenagers; I was wrong, within a very short period of time I had made contact with old friends from high school and conservatory that I hadn’t seen or heard from in more years that I care to count. Among other surprises on Facebook were numerous YouTube postings, which again, I saw as a medium for young people to show their garage rock bands or share their various modes of partying; it was that, but it was much more.

During the last few days I’ve found posted on my Facebook homepage several YouTube videos that represented absolutely superb performances of various types of music. As an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x53rKc1fY7c 

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DjnFl1q0IYTA&h=e7004

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUkXO6MZhD0&feature=BF&playnext=1&list=QL 

http://youtu.be/0zYqS48nIl8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO-umE9pecI

These five items are examples of world-class excellence found on my Facebook home page in JUST ONE DAY.

I have no intention of doing a review here but I can assure you of the superb level you will encounter at these sites and that these sites will be required viewing for all my students.

In music, the best method for learning is by listening to example and imitating it. It seems the examples of excellence available now on the Internet are abundant and far easier to find and experience than to research and discriminate the latest CDs. 

Learning resources are changing, we are able to experience new materials at a grater frequency than ever before; the results are already evident and it seems clear that this greater frequency is accelerating. Take advantage and enjoy.

Tokyo, November 21, 2010 --- Revised August 20, 2013

I fear I’ve been slow in seeing it and I wonder how much I may have missed. We all can see, in abundance, how the Internet has changed, is changing, and with very little imagination project the changes, which will surely appear in the not too distant future.

When Facebook first appeared on the net I mistakenly thought it was a format for teenagers; I was wrong, within a very short period of time I had made contact with old friends from high school and conservatory that I hadn’t seen or heard from in more years that I care to count. Among other surprises on Facebook were numerous YouTube postings, which again, I saw as a medium for young people to show their garage rock bands or share their various modes of partying; it was that, but it was much more.

During the last few days I’ve found posted on my Facebook homepage several YouTube videos that represented absolutely superb performances of various types of music. As an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x53rKc1fY7c 

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DjnFl1q0IYTA&h=e7004

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUkXO6MZhD0&feature=BF&playnext=1&list=QL 

http://youtu.be/0zYqS48nIl8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO-umE9pecI

These five items are examples of world-class excellence found on my Facebook home page in JUST ONE DAY.

I have no intention of doing a review here but I can assure you of the superb level you will encounter at these sites and that these sites will be required viewing for all my students.

In music, the best method for learning is by listening to example and imitating it. It seems the examples of excellence available now on the Internet are abundant and far easier to find and experience than to research and discriminate the latest CDs. 

Learning resources are changing, we are able to experience new materials at a grater frequency than ever before; the results are already evident and it seems clear that this greater frequency is accelerating. Take advantage and enjoy.

Tokyo, November 21, 2010 --- Revised August 20, 2013