Não vou jogar para sempre, mas ...

Questão:

Mr. Johnson,

Eu sei que essa é uma pergunta para todo tocador de trompa. Não jogaremos para sempre e com a idade as coisas ficarão cada vez mais difíceis. Qual é o seu conselho para manter pelo menos a mesma qualidade de antes?

Muito bem sucedida

Ricardo Matosinhos

Resposta de David Johnson:

Ola Ricardo!

I was not expecting to get a question from a hornplayer that I already know personally. I will try to answer your question as best I can.

I am 53 years old and certainly do not play as well technically as I did 20-30 years ago. I do try to practice a bit every day to maintain a standard of playing that is both helpful to my students and still musically acceptable to me. I still do gigs with orchestras and play chamber music and for this type of playing a professional level is required, especially now that I am once again a freelancer.

I would say that an embouchure like mine, that has at one time or another played most large orchestral works, needs more maintenance than actual hard practice. By maintenance I mean a good 20-40 minutes of warming up before actual practice, depending on individual needs, and then 30 - 60 minutes a day comprising etudes, orchestral passages, solo repertoire work(s) and chamber music. More practice than this per day will actually improve most hornists, but, quite frankly, as a full time teacher, I rarely can afford myself this luxury. I do, however, play during some of the lessons, so this is also a bit more playing a day as well.

I think slow legato passages on the horn are more helpful to an older embouchure than technical acrobatics. Most of what we do on a daily basis with the horn is not super technical, ergo it seems logical to first cater to the daily needs before the exceptional ones. I hope this has helped you in some way.

David W. Johnson