by Tina Su

One of the most important things I have found in my career of teaching and playing horn is using positive reinforcement to help students build on what they already do well. 

At some point almost every student I have worked with has said “Oh, that’s just my old habit” to excuse a tendency in their playing that is less than desirable. Once they realize the tendency does not go away after a few attempts, they often jump to the conclusion that “it’s hard to break an old habit.” When I first started teaching, I made it a priority to come up with the best way to help them to “break their old habits.” I was successful with some students who were already prepared to break their habits, but not successful with other some students, who worked equally hard, or sometimes harder. No matter how many different approaches I tried, we would make little progress and the old habits would remain unchanged in the end. It finally hit me one day in a student’s lesson, and I suggested that the student “try building a new habit instead of breaking an old habit.” With this new goal, the student had an easier time focusing on building the new habit. 

Most of us are familiar with the power of positive thinking and how it affects our playing or life in general. I have decided to take this to the next level by reinforcing the elements in horn playing that the students already know and do well. In horn choir rehearsals, students often play with a timid tone when confronted with a technical passage. I found it effective to help them identify what they already know first, perhaps the scale patterns, intervals or rhythmic patterns, to establish the new/healthier habit, and then have them apply what they know with their best tone. By reinforcing what they know with the best tone quality they are capable of, students are more confident and are more likely to make the new habit stick. Tuning chords in horn choir rehearsals has also benefited from positive reinforcement. The quality of the chords is usually easier to identify when students play the chords with their best tone. I then proceed with the normal tuning procedure by building chords from the root followed by the fifth and the third. 

I find myself saying “play what you know” and “play  with your best tone” a lot more now in horn choir rehearsals and in lessons. The students respond to these comments with much more positive results in their playing. 

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Yu-Ting (Tina) Su is Associate Professor of Horn at the University of Northern Iowa and directs the UNI Horn Choir.  Prior to her teaching position, she was the third horn with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. As an active chamber musician, Su is a co-founder of the Wonder Horns (Taiwan), a member of the Northwind Quintet and the Northern Brass Quintet. She studied with William Purvis at SUNY at Stony Brook and the Juilliard School, as well as Verne Reynolds and Peter Kurau at the Eastman School of Music. Passionate about expanding the horn repertoire, Su has premiered pieces for horn and other instruments composed by Reynolds, Tsai, Lu, Schwabe, and Askim.  She also arranged several volumes of art songs for horn and piano; the first volume, Three Bizet Songs for Horn and Piano, was published

Professional players vs. amateurs - a scientific approach to the secret of a beautiful sound

Introduction by Takeshi Hirano

My name is Takeshi Hirano and I have a PhD in Medicine. I teach motor control to classical musicians as an assistant professor at Oberlin University, Japan. I am also an amateur horn player and have practiced the horn every day for more than 20 years. However, my horn skills are not as good as I would like them to be. I have always wanted to play much better, like the world-famous players. So there is a mystery that I want to solve; that is "Why can professional players create such beautiful sounds?" 

Even if a professional player and an amateur use the same instrument, the sound is different.

• What is the difference between an amateur and a professional?
• How can we practice to make our sounds better?

We have defined professional as a self-professed individual and amateur as all others for the purpose of this study.

Using a science-based approach, our team has deciphered a motor control mechanism for horn players. We investigated (1) facial muscle activity based on embouchure-related muscles with surface electromyogram (EMG), (2) mouthpiece force on a player’s lips while playing the horn with pressure measuring equipment we developed, and (3) the relationship between music performance anxiety and some physiological states; heart rate, EMG activity of embouchure and upper extremity muscles, and mouthpiece force.

I would like to introduce these studies briefly and share the results with IHS members over the course of our research. If you want to know the scientific truth, you haven't seen nothing yet.

By the way I have my own website which introduces some topics related to motor control for horn players. Please check the URL if you want: 

http://takeshi-hirano.com/indexEn.html

Welcome to our new (and perhaps regular) feature, the Horn and More Trivia Quiz! This month, we have three copies of Richard Watkins’ fabulous new CD, The Romantic Horn (Signum Classics). Send your answers via email to hornandmore@hornsociety.org by April 30. If you guessed all three correctly, your name will be entered into the drawing. Good luck! All the questions this month revolve around another English virtuoso, the great Dennis Brain.

1. Which one of these pieces was NOT written for Dennis Brain? A) Concerto for Horn and Strings - Gordon Jacob; B) Serenade for Horn and Strings - Benjamin Britten; C) Concerto for Horn and Orchestra - Kurt Atterberg, D) Concerto for Horn and Orchestra - Paul Hindemith
2. With whom did Alan Civil study? A) Leonard Brain B) Aubrey Brain C) Dennis Brain D) none of the above
3. Which of the following horn players, as a child, was present at Dennis Brain’s final concert in the Edinburgh Festival? A) Tina Brain B) Timothy Jones C) Frank Lloyd D) Fergus McWilliam

English version: "Why can professional players create such beautiful sounds?"

私は、音楽家の体の使い方を科学的アプローチで研究している大学教員の平野剛（博士（医学））です。大学では研究を行うほか、将来音楽家を目指す学生にこれまでに研究されている音楽家の体の使い方について講義を行っています。私は小学生のころからホルンを演奏していて、20年以上経った今でもアマチュア奏者として演奏活動を続けています。演奏はとても楽しいのですが、残念なことに私の演奏技術は自分が思い描いているほど上手ではありません。「有名なホルン奏者のように演奏できたらなぁ」と、私はいつも思っています。「なぜ、プロ奏者はきれいな音を奏でられるのか？」これは私が解き明かしたいと思っている謎のひとつです。

プロ奏者とアマチュア奏者が同じ楽器を演奏しても、出てくる音はまるで違います。

• プロ奏者とアマチュア奏者の違いは何だろうか？
• どのように練習すれば良い音色になるのか？

私は研究チームを組んで、科学的アプローチを用いてホルン奏者のいくつかの運動制御メカニズムの解明を試みました。具体的には、（1）表面筋電図を用いてアンブシュアを構成する表情筋の活動の調査（2）センサーを開発してマウスピースに加わる力の調査（3）演奏不安と生理反応（心拍数、アンブシュアと腕の筋活動、マウスピースに加わる力）との関係の調査を行いました。

次回以降これらの研究を簡単に紹介するとともに、International Horn Society メンバーの皆様とこれらの成果を共有したいと考えています。科学的な真実を知りたいと思われる方は、次回以降の記事を楽しみにお待ちください。

また私がこれまで取り組んできた研究を紹介している自身のHPがございます。もしよろしければ、このHPもチェックしてみてください。

http://takeshi-hirano.com/