Dear Prof. Pizka,
True enough. My point was simply this:
Healthy intelligent discussion, from different viewpoints is,
hopefully, something that can lead the world to become a better place.
While I neither agree nor disagree with the information as it has been
presented and explored (regarding the topic of the shorter second
valve slide), I am a dispassionate pragmatist and, from a pragmatic
perspective, it is appropriate to prioritize the information into two
categories: need to know, vs. nice to know. It is all too easy to fall
into the "paralysis via analysis" trap, and squander much time as well
as mental energy dissecting information to the "nth" degree, with no
discernable benefit.
I agree completely with your position as expressed in your last
paragraph-- focus one's practise time on difficulties, and "things
needing improvement". After that task is completed for the day, any
time left over can be alloted to researching the history of valve
development, listening to music, studying scores, or, (one of my
personal favourites) tasting different beers of the world.
My salutation "happy practising" is meant to encourage one to approach
one's practise obligations with alacrity-- not an exhortation to view
them as some form of entertainment.
Sincerely,
martin
On 12-Feb-09, at 11:07 AM, hans.pi...@t-online.de wrote:
Martin, if you just read a horn forum to become a better player, you
might reading at the wrong place, as there are just very few
professionals as contributers. Contributions by non professionals
might
be interesting for discussion, but they are not designed to make you a
better player.
We have a similar case in the recent horn call, where a Non-specialist
with nearly zero experience on the particular field write wrote an
article or book about the use of Wagnertuba. He has received a strong
critic for that by the long time expert Shelley Civil.
William Melton (on the other hand) wrote extensively about the
history &
the use of the Wagnertuba & was lauded for his great & true effort.
Martin, following a discussion does not require that you agree or not.
It is also a brain game. The whole thing about the shorter valve & the
assembly history was also initiated & continued by colleagues missing
the required informations. They also seemed not to understand the
acoustical & physical relations between horn construction, intonation,
pitches & available pitches due to inadequate informations (studies) &
experiences with related instruments. It seems to me, that a lot of
folks look at things just from a very particularpoint of view.
One thing comes to mind reading your last sentence (happy practising):
isn´t a lot overpractised ?? Isn´t it much better, practising just
things needing improvement ? Isn´t it more important, to practise
less,
but very thoughtful. So time remains for reading music & listen to
music
- or reading other stuff too (art history, biographies, music theory).
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-----Original Message-----
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:29:34 +0100
Subject: Fwd: AW: AW: [Hornlist] Re: Horn Digest, Vol 74, Issue 17
From: Martin Bender <em...@magma.ca>
To: The Horn List <horn@music.memphis.edu>
Begin forwarded message:
From: Martin Bender <em...@magma.ca>
Date: February 12, 2009 9:20:45 AM GMT-05:00
To: c.j.l.w...@newcastle.ac.uk, The Horn List
<horn@music.memphis.edu>
Subject: Re: AW: AW: [Hornlist] Re: Horn Digest, Vol 74, Issue 17
Just a thought here-- try and imagine how much progress one might
achieve by re-focusing the same amount of (extremely valuable!)
mental energy expended in debating this pedantic issue, to
practising orchestral excerpts. In utmost deference to those
involved, I believe that one's time is better utilized pursuing a
more result-oriented line of thought, rather than a tangential
exploration of arcane, esoteric minutia.
Leave the epistemological exercises to the musicologists; apply
Occam's razor to this "shorter second valve slide issue" and answer
two questions: will it make me a better player? If so, how?
Happy practising,
martin bender
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