by Arkady Shilkloper
I played in orchestras for twelve years in Moscow, and while that was a great experience, it made me want to find my own unique voice in music and in horn playing. I mostly now play music that I write or improvise—even if I’m playing a piece someone else wrote for me, I’ll put my own stamp on it.
Every horn player can find his or her own voice on the instrument. I like to have students get away from printed music, but of course telling a student to just start improvising is very unhelpful. A good starting point is to imitate, on the horn, sounds that you hear in the real world. It could be whale sounds, or car alarm sounds, or sheep, dogs, cats, wolves, trucks, screams, or anything else. The point is to make your horn sound like something else instead of trying to play notes that someone else wrote.
Another great exercise is to imitate the intonation of human speech. By “intonation” I don’t mean playing in tune, but rather the ups and downs we make with our voice as we speak. For instance, you might say, “I learned something interesting at school today.” When I say that sentence, my voice goes a little higher on the words “interesting” and “school.” Also, there is a rhythm to the words: they don’t all come out as even eighth notes—not even close. You can use pitch and rhythm on the horn to imitate that sentence or any other sentence. Start by saying what you want. Next: repeat it with your voice, but without words, just with rhythmic pitches. Now play it on your horn, in the same way. This is a way to give yourself permission to just play, without playing something that someone told you to play!
There is an interesting practice called sound painting developed by Walter Thompson. It comprises a large set of hand gestures that the Soundpainter (who is the composer/conductor) gives to the players. You can look at the gestures on the website or develop your own. Get into a group of players who want to improvise, and develop gestures for long note, short note, high note, low note, do something different, faster, slower, and so on. The gestures, in other words, give a context and direction to the players, which is easier than just making music up from scratch.
As you do this in a group, start responding to what each other is playing. And start paying attention to what you are playing. What kinds of musical gestures come out of your bell? What kinds of sounds? You are developing your own musical voice!
You can also work on your body’s sense of rhythm. Think of a slower tempo in 4/4 time. Sit in a chair and tap beat 1 with your left foot. Then add beats 1 and 3 with your right. When you can do that, use your left hand to tap quarter notes on your left knee. When you can do all three of these things together, add eighth notes in your right hand on your right knee. It’s hard, but you are learning to coordinate your body according to its sense of rhythm.
As you develop your body’s sense of rhythm, you can apply that sense to the music you improvise. You are becoming more and more coordinated: experiencing rhythm will become a full-body experience. The music that comes out of your bell can be informed by that sense of rhythm, so that you aren’t playing random notes at random times, but notes that flow with your own rhythmic logic.
At this point, you will be finding your musical voice. And all of this work will make you a better horn player, too, no matter what kind of music you are playing.
