Wendell wrote: >Geez, these discussions really do get off track at times. ... Why do all discussions these days seem to head to zero sum games? Why all or nothing all the time?<
HAH! You are soooo right, Wendell. It's easy for someone's sentence or phrase to be twisted so completely when out of context, that the original meaning is completely lost. It's happened to all of us. That's why I try to give others the benefit of doubt! If we were to extend some of the out-of-context sentences we read in here to their logical conclusions we could believe that some people: -play the horn w/o even breathing because of their superior chops -play the horn by simply blowing on it w/o using the embouchure -advocate starting and stopping all notes with the tongue -never use the tongue at all -advocate playing the horn with an alternate orifice... wait a minute, I think Hans was serious about this one. ;o) I believe 99% of what we really mean to say is in agreement, but we get into trouble attempting to describe in awkward words something that can not be seen and can only be felt through subjective experience. I guess the ultimate challenge of brass discussion is to describe the unseen in a manner that can not be misunderstood. I remember being stunned the first time I saw a cross section X-ray of a human tongue. I had always imagined my tongue as being a flat flap of flesh no thicker than 1/2". To see that inside the mouth, the tongue is actually thicker and deeper than it is long was shocking. I also imagined the "tip" of the tongue as being small & pointed like it is outside the mouth. But inside the mouth, it's actually blunt and round. Sheesh! How can anyone accurately describe the tongue's action during horn playing in a way that can be understood and useful? -- Valerie Wells The Balanced Embouchure Method http://bebabe.wordpress.com/ http://www.beforhorn.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
