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The Usability of Data and Feedback

Horn Practice

Bruce Hembd

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Jan 22, 2010

Usability is a big buzzword in web and computer design.

With empirical data, countless reports and studies can guide developers towards making better, more user-friendly designs.

In preparing for an audition or other employment, a portion of this process too is dedicated towards usability.

Have I played this audition for my private teacher?
Have I performed this audition for friends, colleagues and passers-by?
Have I dutifully used practice tools?
Did I participate in group practice sessions with other horn players?
Did I record myself and listen back to the recordings?
Have I kept a journal?
…and after the audition, did I ask for comments?

Why are all these questions important? They all amount to feedback.

As mentioned a few days ago, studies show that designers lose their objectivity after a few days of working on a new project. One could easily argue that the same principle is true for music students.

It is all too easy to get wrapped up in one’s own thoughts and get a little lost.

A story

Once in a lesson long ago, my teacher asked me to play a passage louder. I obliged – or so I thought.

“I didn’t hear a difference, please play it again louder!” demanded my teacher.

I gave it my best – over and over. In my mind I was blowing down the walls, so I was utterly perplexed by my teacher’s insistence that I wasn’t playing any louder.

The lesson for me that day was that my perspective of loud playing was askew. It needed readjusting.

Awareness increases potential

Audition committees are not only looking for candidates that are musically and technically strong; they also might be asking questions like:

Is this candidate flexible?
Will this player fit in?
Is this player savvy enough to thrive in our ensemble?

Flipping this around to the player’s perspective:

How can a potential employer use me?
What can I do to make myself more employable?
In what arena is my style of playing or entrepreneurship best suited?

To be successful in music one cannot be passive – take charge of your future! Good things happen to people empowered with good information and skills that other people want and need.

How to Make All-State — Insider Tips

Auditions

John Ericson

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Jan 21, 2010

0

Lurking in the archive are two posts from my original HTML blog that remain very timely. Written in a period when I heard a lot of auditions, these are the insider thoughts of a judge. This post is dated 3/18/05 and there will be a follow-up post on Saturday.

I have had an extremely busy spring break. Today I am playing the “Three American Tenors” show, yesterday I rehearsed the Schoenberg Chamber Symphony for a performance next week and got my new Paxman compensating triple horn (more on that here), the day before that I played the Josh Groban arena show (along with “the horndog” Bruce Hembd–looking out at 30,000 faces is always impressive), the three days before that I was in Kansas City visiting my dad who is having chemotherapy, and on Sunday I played a concert of Latin music with the Salt River Brass Band and guest soloists Dos Amigos. Whew! But kicking off the break for me was judging All-State auditions here in Phoenix.

In judging anything like this you are first of all not expecting to hear perfection but you are hoping for excellence. With that in mind, as I judged I made a list of notes which I will leave in the random order which I originally put them down in. These items will help any horn player to ponder but will especially be of use to the advanced high school player.

First, a quick positive item; tuning was not that bad on the whole. A few players did however have their horns way out of balance, sharp on the B-flat horn. I have more on this in my site at tuning your double horn. [UPDATE: That article is no longer online, but my updated version of this may be found in my warmup publication].

Noisy Valves. There is no damage you can do to your horn by oiling the valves; be sure to get oil on the top and bottom bearings and fix this simple but annoying problem. Part of the issue is, of course, we get used to how our horn sounds so we “tune out” the clanks. But judges can’t.

Scales. Know your scales!! We started with scales and they were not meant to surprise anyone. These are foundational and should be “old friends” for you. Have them worked out to a high default mode!

The “Easy” Selection. One interesting phenomena was that some of the best players stumbled the most in the selection that was the easiest of all the selections they had to prepare. Don’t get so hung up on the hard ones that the easy ones are under prepared.

“Play a Couple Notes.” This is something we asked of every audition as the student came in but actually it is a part of the audition in a sense as well. Make sure you play a few easy, mid-range notes that are comfortable and good sounding. Don’t play uncomfortable, odd stuff and don’t play more than a few notes either. More below.

Too Covered. A number of the players we heard must not take lessons with a horn playing teacher. Opinions vary as to what is an appropriate amount of covering with the right hand but by any standard several players were vastly too covered, hopefully from an outlying region but I have no way to know. This also brings up the point of studying with a horn playing teacher. This is the sort of thing that would be sorted out in literally the first five minutes of a lesson with almost any horn teacher.

Rhythm. It has to be right!! Don’t be lazy on this. It is easy to chip a few notes and judges can forgive this kind of error but you won’t just happen to “chip” a rhythm, it shows that you are just not well prepared.

Sing! Make a good sound and make some phrases. Don’t get harsh or blare away sound wise but do make phrases with peaks and valleys of dynamics that sound like a fine singer making phrases. Don’t be bland/dull/colorless.

The First Note. This is sort of a side note to the “play a couple notes” item above. Play a solid first note with a centered, good sound. This sets the tone for everything to follow. You should have warmed up somewhere earlier; these first notes are mainly to just get settled and quickly adjust to the room.

On the whole I enjoyed what I heard, and the other judge was very positive that the overall level of horn playing was higher this year in Arizona than it was when he judged last year. Hopefully my students are making a positive impact on horn playing in this area and will continue to for many years.

Of course, some players were weaker than others. One in particular stood out to me as the sight-reading was among the best we heard but the prepared works were among the worst. I suspect that person probably has a good natural ability for horn playing but does not put in much effort to practice. A bit of a shame, really.

Besides noting the various points above, I would finally answer my original question of how to make all-state with the need to practice, working with a horn playing teacher, and a little hard work. But also be aware of all you do in the audition room and don’t fall into any of the above traps. Good luck!

You Know More Than You Think

Thoughts & Inspirations

Bruce Hembd

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Jan 20, 2010

3

I am not a huge proponent of Freudian psychology but I do appreciate some aspects of Jungian theory.

For the unitiated, Carl Jung pioneered the application of spirituality and the unconscious mind in the field of Analytical Psychotherapy.

A few Jungian concepts that I find fascinating are the collective unconscious and archetypes. A few commonalities are for all intents and purposes, built into our human DNA and are universal to society in general, according to Jung.

In playing and improving on the horn, we intellectualize and analyze our playing in a variety of ways:

metronomes, tuners and other practice aids
listening to recordings
taking private lessons
getting a music degree

These are all important things, but let’s not forget the X-factor.

It is an unknown quantity from a mysterious source. Once tapped, it can lead to a heightened experience that reaches people – your colleagues, audiences and audition committees. This unknown energy source can lead to great things and moreover, an improved and more enjoyable performance.

The good news for students and beginners is that (I believe) the older one gets, the greater this fount becomes. So even if you don’t feel it yet, it will come in time. Experience is a great teacher.

So in the meantime try to remember – you know more than you think.

Bad Page Turns: A Thing of the Past!

Random

John Ericson

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Jan 19, 2010

5

Or at least they should be. Over the long weekend I spent quite a bit of time working on Finale files for a new publication project. An element of this editing is layout and making sure the music has no bad page turns and reads easily.

First, please do not comment that I should use Sibelius instead of Finale. They are both fine programs capable of making very clean music notation for publication. The arguments for or against each seem to me about as pointless as the Mac/PC debate. I got started in Finale and will stick with it. But I digress.

Publishers should be correcting the page turns before they get to you

The main point I would make is there is no reason to have a bad page turn in any music. If there are bad page turns they should have been fixed in editing. The editing to do so is really simple, too.

If you buy music that has bad page turns that basically just screams that the music was not notated well, that not enough effort went into editing. Cheap edition/bad edition/etc.

We have all seen the horrible Finale/Sibelius parts that show up on our stands periodically. Bad page turns really should be a thing of the past, and in my publications I make every effort to avoid them. If you see bad page turns in a publication by all means complain, as all it would have taken to fix them was a little more care and time taken in editing the notation.

To give readers the scoop what I am working on, my weekend editing was on a collection of low horn etudes. More on those another day.

Black and Blue

Humor

Bruce Hembd

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Jan 18, 2010

3

From the Oh Get a Grip blog (viewer discretion advised on this link), a story:

From dance I went to band.

My favorite cousin played the French horn in her school band, and I just had to play too. I had a good ear for music, so I signed up for my school’s marching band and spent the next few years struggling to play as well as everyone else. You see, I had the ear for music, but not the mouth. French horn demands a hell of a lot on the muscles of the lips and face. Some days, an hour of class would leave me with a throbbing mouth and cracked lips. Not a pleasant way to go through the rest of the school day. Plus I always got so damned nervous during auditions and exams that I bombed every single time.

I was the worst French horn player in the school, and I knew it. By the end of my junior year, I figured I’d suffered enough, so I didn’t bother to sign up for marching band the next year. When my instructor found out, he laid into me like nobody’s business. “You’re a quitter!” he screamed at me. “A lousy quitter who can’t commit and can’t finish what she started! And you’ll never amount to anything, ever!”

You better believe I never looked back when I walked away from that conversation.

[Updated 2021 JE from a Random Monday post]

Professor Schmutzig and the Schmutzone 19 Valve Horn

Humor

John Ericson

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Jan 13, 2010

4

One of the classic method books for the horn is the Complete Method für der Waldhorn oder der Ventilhorn by Professor Eric Von Schmutzig. Schmutzig according to the method was “Professor of Ventilhorns at der Borscht Conservatory of Lower Hamburg (mit onions).” It is, as you might guess, a book of horn humor. One running gag in the book is a series of advertisements for some product or other.

First, as to the book itself, it is a must have item for every advanced hornist! Lord knows we all need a good laugh. Published in 1949, it [UPDATED–and also see update at end of post] is still in print and modestly priced at $5! [Publisher link]

Although the book says that “Any similarity between persons or products mentioned in this book, and real persons or real products, is certainly coincidental,” I have long thought that the Schmutzig character and publication was based loosely and hopefully affectionately on Lorenzo Sansone, the subject of my previous post on Horn Matters. As noted there, he was a very enterprising hornist, and as a part of that did promote his instruments and other products in his publications. In the Schmutzig Method the advertisements start with a text advertisement to “Buy der new Schmutzig 19 Valve Horn!” of which it explains,

To play mit der utmost facility and beauty of tone, no hornplayer should be mitout this wonderfully marvelous instrument! This horn, which is made from the finest imported Czechoslovakian Copper and stained steel will be completely illustrated and explained later in this book.

Manufactured by der Schmutzone Horn Manufacturing Company, makers of the famous Schmutzone 16, 17, and 18 Valve Horns.

Next we have an advertisement for their line of mouthpieces including their “famous patented Schmutzone Double Mouthpiece model 22 for der famous Schmutzone double horn,” and finally the advertisement which illustrates the 19 valve horn, which has an “electrical spitvalve mechanism.” It looks a bit like the horn Dennis Brain used, no?

This is not actually the only Schmutzig publication. Willem von Schmutzig, “prize pupil” of Eric von Schmutzig, later published the Incomplete Method fur die Holzblasinstrumente, described more fully here.

If it the horn method was inspired by Sansone I don’t know [Sansone/Schmutzone] but it is one to ponder. While you ponder, check out this useful exercise.

UPDATE: For other sources for purchase of this book, this is the listing from Sheet Music Plus, for example, and the cover image and music above are linked from their listing. Also, for your string-playing friends there is in the same series Der Completely Abridged Method Fur Das Bass.

The Lorenzo Sansone Fan Page

Players, Teachers, Makers

John Ericson

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Jan 12, 2010

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A hornist who was much better known 50 years ago than today is Lorenzo Sansone. I saw on the IHS Facebook page that a relative of Sansone has started a Facebook group for Lorenzo Sansone. On visiting I see he has posted several archive photos and items to the page but there were actually no fans! At all! So I joined!

Lorenzo Sansone (1881-1975) was recognized as an Honorary Member of the International Horn Society in 1971 and was quite a horn entrepreneur, being not only a player but also a publisher and manufacturer. A native of Italy, the bio of Sansone in the IHS website provides this information on his career, and this photo is linked from the IHS site.

Sansone’s orchestral career included virtually all the major orchestras in the US in the first half of the 20th century (some now defunct); Los Angeles Symphony, Denver Symphony (1909-1910), St. Paul Symphony (1910-1911), St. Louis Symphony (1912-1915), Chicago Symphony (1914 summer), Cincinnati Symphony (1915-1918), Detroit Symphony (1918-1919), New York Symphony (1920-1922), Beethoven Symphony (1927), National Broadcasting Orchestra (1929), Metropolitan Opera (1931-1933).

Sansone was on the faculty of Juilliard School from 1921 to 1946, where he taught nearly 300 students. He also taught privately at his shop and later at his home. He often said, “You are your own best teacher.” He taught primarily from method books and stressed learning transposition by clefs rather than intervals. He often played for his students to illustrate his ideas. Sansone published etudes, two method books, editions of standard repertoire, and French Horn Music Literature with Composers’ Biographical Sketches. Southern Music took over his publications. He published a series of articles in The International Musician in the early 1940s.

Sansone played a Kruspe double horn for 11 years but switched to a five-valve B-flat horn in 1914, while he was playing in St. Louis, and stayed with the B-flat horn for the remainder of his career. The horns were manufactured to Sansone’s specifications by Wunderlich in Chicago from 1914, by Kruspe from 1916, and finally, from 1954, by Sansone at his shop, Sansone Musical Instruments, in New York City [but see UPDATE II]. The shop was established in 1925, with most of the business in publications in the early years. After 1954 he manufactured the five-valve B-flat horn, other brass and wind instruments, mouthpieces (metal and Lucite), woodwind reed tools, and mutes. His son Lawrence, who was also a professional horn player, eventually took over the business.

It is an interesting idea to have Facebook groups for famous players of the past.

UPDATE: The good news is I have a bit more on his 5 valve horn model here and also that Nicholas Caluori published an extended article on Sansone in the February 2005 edition of The Horn Call, pages 47-57. Also note a detailed response to this article by David Sprung in the May 2005 edition, pages 101-103. Thank you to Nicholas Caluori for this information.

The bad news is the Facebook fan page is gone. Perhaps this article can serve as a fan page of sorts, his name is one that clearly is slipping into the past but is one worth remembering of our horn world.

UPDATE II: I was contacted as well by a former Sansone student from the late 1940s. The major update being he took lessons from Sansone at his shop from 1946-50 and in that time frame Sansone was definitely making horns in the USA in that shop (from straight bell sections and such). Sansone was at the time playing a lot of jobs, teaching, publishing, and producing a good quantity of horns; again, he was quite an entrepreneur and is a name that should be remembered in our horn world.

UPDATE III: And now there is another Lorenzo Sansone page on Facebook.

The Buzzword

The Business

Bruce Hembd

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Jan 11, 2010

1

Greg Sandow makes a really good argument for music programs at institutions of higher learning to start teaching more classes on entrepreneurship in his Top Ten Changes in Classical Music. See #4:

“Entrepreneurship” — that’s a buzzword at music schools today, as the schools realize that classical music careers are changing, and that musicians (see “Classical music goes online,” above) may need to book their own concerts, and find their own audience. The schools, of course, are learning this in part from their students, who’ve been doing these things on their own. Not every school is doing this, of course. But some are talking about making this the center of their curriculum.

And look for other changes, coming soon enough. Schools might stream their students’ concerts (which would help the students find an audience). Or they might put their teachers online, with videos of sample lessons, which would help prospective students decide where they want to go.

And when students trained in these new ways go out into the professional world, the professional world will change even faster.

[Updated JE 2021 from a 2010 Random Monday post — and striking how true the above words played out.]

Two More Horn Player Tricks

Lists & FAQs

John Ericson

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Jan 9, 2010

3

Following up on the post from Bruce yesterday (on playing notes out the valve slides–check that video) I have two more horn player “tricks” that may or may not mean much but mean something.

One is about the “pop frequency” of mouthpieces. Take a mouthpiece and “pop” it against the palm of your hand as in the photos. Turn it over and over and pop both sides repeatedly. I like mouthpieces that pop an octave apart the best. If it is far off an octave one way or another I tend to not like it on the horn. It has something to do with the relative cubic volume of each side of the mouthpiece (cup relative to backbore).

The other trick is the “high C trick.” On some horns if you play written C on the third space on the F horn and slowly put down the first valve, when it is down ½ ways a C an octave higher will magically pop out. You play the written note but the harmonic is also solidly there. On some horns it quite in tune and projects pretty well, and on some it is there but somewhat out of tune, and on yet other brands nothing unusual happens besides the original half valved note. I tend to like horns better that will do the high C trick. It has to do with the wrap and the exact placement of the first valve in the air column.