Lesson 2!

I had my 2nd lesson with Manuel today!  Es war wieder sehr gut! 

I played the 3rd and 4th mvmts of the Brahms Horn Trio for him. 

This week, I've been working on really short, clean tonguing, so naturally I played it kind of short (the 4th mvmt).  The first thing he told me was to make my notes longer.  This was a recurring theme throughout the lesson.  I need to get better at breaking habits quicker!  I would play a different passage for him and realize halfway through that I was still playing really short! 

He had a lot of good things to say about how I played the Brahms though.  I feel like he's telling me a lot of things that are immediate fixes to why I don't sound totally professional.  He told me to lengthen the notes more,  "You have a very nice sound, but you can't hear it if you play so short on these notes."  So, I lengthened it and I think it sounded much better.  He also gave me some general phrasing ideas and he's getting me to do my own thing.  He asked me to play the repetitive parts in the 4th movement with a longer first note and taper the second one, instead of heavy tonguing on all of it with my phrasing, it just sounds less aggressive and overpowering.  I haven't listened to the recording of my lesson yet, but I think I'll hear the difference and agree with him.  It's all these little things that he points out that make my playing sound more professional. 

Thoughts of the day:

-full length notes, not tutty notes
-non-abrasive tonguing with taper
-Give more on the notes that change, not the ones that are the same in a pattern
-Longggg phrasing
-Don't twa-twa in long legato phrases (he actually plays quite smooth phrases!! I was very impressed with his legato.)


I think I can hear the Vienna style of playing in his teaching.  Longer notes, no tutty notes at ALL, lots of ring, tapering notes, it's all part of their sound and style.  I need to make sure I'm balancing what he's telling me to do that may be Vienna style and what I really WANT to sound like.  He might say some things that I don't agree with, like note length for certain things.  I need to be able to do it how he asks, but I don't need to do it that way.  In the 3rd movement I pulled the time back as I went for the high Bb and he said, "You're timing slowed down there," and I replied, "I wanted to," and he said, "Well if you wanted to then it's right."  :)  I meant it.  I did. 

I showed him all the exercises and books that I brought with me (Horn Yoga, Jeff's Routine, Mr. S's routines, Farkas Routine, and a Gallay prelude book) and asked him what exercises he does.  He said they are good, he looked at routine and I asked if he knew Jeff.  He didn't, but another Wiener Phil horn player was in the room when I mentioned Jeff and he said he knew him from Facebook.  haha.  They don't really seem to know anyone from the States.  He didn't know Dale Clevenger or Jeff.. I'm gonna ask about a different horn player every week. haha.  I asked what exercises he does and he said he doesn't do exercises.  "Wir haben Tonleitern, kennst du das?"  He played a scale for me.  He said staccato scales are very good and heavy tongue, mf scales for warming up are good.  He thought I was crazy when I told him I warm up at 6:00 in the morning.  Personally, I think it's more crazy that he's going to play Falstaff tomorrow with no rehearsals and he's never played it before.  He did the same thing with Walküre.  WHAT!?!?!!  He didn't know what I meant by "sight-reading?"  lol. 

This weekend is an organization weekend.  I'm getting a binder and putting everything in it, completely neat, organized, and ready to use.  My folder is dying, so I need something else.   This will help tremendously!!!!!! 

These lessons make me very happy.  Next week I'm going to see if I can get a lesson with Wolfgang Vladar, another horn player in the Phil, while Manuel is in Altösterreich for the week.  I'm very excited for this lesson!!