I almost forgot about this... In my first few months back to horn, I was playing in a community band. I hadn't done any instrumental music other than piano for all that time, and my accuracy was a serious problem (not that's it perfect now!). But... one week my instructor gave me a very challenging assignment. I was to play in each key: first a two octave major scale, followed by a major triad arpeggio, followed by a minor triad arpeggio, followed by stacked minor thirds (I forget what that's called, diminished minor 7th?). Anyway, I had to do all this by ear/memory & it was killer hard for me, requiring super-duper concentration on fingerings & pitch. After only a few days of working on this assignment, my accuracy at band rehearsal was enormously improved. I assumed at the time, that the attention to fingerings & discerning the tonal differences between the different types of arpeggios was what helped, but now I know a big contributing factor was the boost in concentration I developed doing this exercise.
Steve wrote: <A chain is as strong as its weakest link. The job of a good instructor - in any field - is to find that weakest link and help you strengthen it, principles and philosophies be damned.> Good one, Steve. This instructor was amazing. I scheduled 60 minute lessons with her every two weeks. No matter what she assigned, she would sit there patiently listening to me struggle through the whole thing, note by note. I know she might have been tempted to stop me half way through and say, "keep working on that at home," but she never did. I knew that whenever she gave me an assignment, I was going to have to account for every single note, every dynamic marking, etc. What a gal, to sit through all that noise! -- 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
