Day 203: Lows, highs, and lip slurs
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
203 — Lows, highs, and lip slurs
21-February-1972
(Montag–Mon.)
TRANSCRIPT
Another exciting—boy, am I getting the blahs—day.
Seven hours electronic. Half the equipment is broken,
but managed to get something done. Then practiced
horn for only an hour. I’m really discouraged because
even though I’m playing so-so well, it never “feels”
very easy, and when it comes to high range tone,
slurs and lip slurs, they are very difficult, which
means I am doing something wrong. In trying to find
this out, I’m not getting anywhere.
Then typed some letters (to music school) for a
couple of hours.
REFLECTIONS
Lows.
Well,
seven hours in an electronic lab is perhaps a bit too
much. I need to learn moderation. I’m not complaining
so much about the horn, just that it doesn’t “feel”
easy.
Highs.
All
instruments take a lot of work to master, but the
horn is notorious for being one of the easiest with
which to make mistakes. That’s because the range of
the horn is wide and as you go into the high
register, the notes are closely spaced and difficult
to precisely
hit. I had
troubles with the high A’s to high C. I could hit the
A’s and Bb’s but would also miss them. I could almost
never play a C. I blamed it on my embouchure.
Remember, I even had the Philip Farkas embouchure
book and metal “mouthpiece ring.” The Siegfried Horn
Call from the other day is a good example that shows
why the horn is difficult to play. The pros make it
look easy.
Lip
slurs and wide ranges. Transitioning
legato notes in the upper register also gets tougher.
Wide intervals, as in Richard Strauss’
Ein
Heldenleben are also
difficult.
So,
what do I do nowadays? Today, I
actually miss playing the horn and especially playing
in orchestras. Maybe when I retire, I’ll pick it up
again. I do play keyboards and write music when I get
a chance. That’s my creative outlet. Not as often as
I would like.
John
- - - -
