[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[Robert Holland]

Gabriel Langfur wrote:

> Charlie Vernon talks about concentrating 100% on the note you are 
> playing RIGHT NOW ... if you can do that, you can be successful in 
> music or any other endeavor. This is much more difficult than it 
> sounds.

This is much more stupid than it sounds. I'll go out on a limb and call 
it demagoguery (appropriate when coming from a pedagogue who teaches in 
terms of meaningless rhetoric, using phrases like "breathe from the 
bottom"). In the performance of music, we're parallel processors, not 
serial processors. If all we thought about was sequence, from one 
moment to the next, there would be no way to plan ahead or to allow the 
past to affect the present, which are basic musical behaviors.

That said, it's true that concentration on what one is doing while one 
is doing it is an important aspect of performing. I once heard a 
concert where the first trumpeter fell off a long note in the middle of 
the range at mezzoforte for no apparent reason. I couldn't help but be 
bothered by it. Who DOES that sort of thing? Missed notes in other 
circumstances don't bother me too much.

Robert Holland, Publisher
Briar Music Press
publisher at briarmusic.com
http://www.briarmusic.com