Lesson 2 - focus
Playing a brass instrument is tough. Teaching someone else to play a brass instrument might be even tougher.
If you play a brass instrument and want to get better at it, you might have asked yourself questions like, What am I actually doing when I play? Since I can’t see the vibrating part of my embouchure, how do I describe what’s going on in there? These are important questions, because we need to clearly understand a task before we can hope to adapt or improve it.
If you teach a brass instrument you might have asked yourself questions like, I can hear my student has a problem, but how can I diagnose it? How do I describe this strange thing I do with my mouth in a way that she can understand? You may have even made suggestions on how to fix a problem - even one you were sure you had diagnosed correctly - only to find that your wonderful suggestion seems to have had no effect (or even the opposite effect!) on your puzzled student.
The mysterious process of brass playing doesn’t lend itself to easy answers. Teachers often aren’t exactly sure what they are doing when they play, or how exactly to express it. Students are, by definition, even less sure about what they are doing when they play, or how to express questions about it. Because internal processes like breathing and buzzing happen where they can’t be easily viewed, efforts to describe brass playing technique sometimes become vague metaphors, ripe for misunderstanding and misapplication by the student.
Really fascinating studies using amazing equipment (like this one, in which hornist Sarah Willis plays notes from within an MRI machine) can help show what is actually happening on the inside while playing, but it can still be difficult for a student to be sure if s/he is actually doing that very thing, or doing it correctly, since many of the muscles involved in brass playing are not consciously “controllable” (for example, the diaphragm).
Consider some mystifying problems you may have encountered as a brass player that evade easy diagnosis or quick solutions. Do these sound familiar?
Why can I play [pick a note] easily in this piece, but not that piece?
Why do some passages seem to fall effortlessly out of my horn while other passages are a constant a struggle?
Everything felt so “right” while I was playing yesterday, why not today?
Why do I feel tight when I’m playing, even when I’m not nervous?
Why does my endurance evaporate within the first few lines of some pieces, but other pieces I can sail through with no trouble?
I believe that approaching brass playing from the perspective of gestalt theory can provide a path through the underlying problems attendant to the questions above, and others. I use the metaphor of a path “through” problems rather than offering solutions “to” problems because most issues of brass playing can only really be solved by the player him- or herself (though hopefully with guidance from a qualified teacher) through careful observation and dedicated practice.
While a thorough reading of gestalt theory will definitely not yield specific tips on how to play a Mozart concerto beautifully, an application of its principles to the process of playing a brass instrument can help prevent students from getting hung up on common issues, and teachers from getting too “technical” - or too metaphorical - with their instructions.
Gestalt brass playing is not a “method” unto itself. It offers nothing new from a technical perspective, and in fact relies wholly on good instruction from a knowledgeable teacher. While a gestalt approach is not limited to brass playing, per se, I focus on brass because that is my specialty and because I think the application is particularly appropriate. Gestalt principles applied to music-making are really a framework - an approach to leaning music which can help guide details of practice, and shape overall progress.