Horn Playing Could be Fun

In the October, 2008 issue of Teaching Music (a MENC publication) an article on nerves caught my attention. The article addresses the topic of nerves and performance anxiety not only from the angle of performance but also from the angle of teaching music. On page 46 a passage quotes Robert Woody, an associate professor of music at the University of Nebraska. He

…has observed a troubling tendency in some college music majors. “All too often,” he says, “toward the end of their college careers, I hear from them something to the effect of ‘I can’t wait to be done with my senior recital so I don’t have to ever perform again.’ I think to myself, at what point did the performance stop being a rewarding opportunity to share music with others and instead become a punishing experience they are forced to endure?”

As teachers we can either be part of the problem or part of the solution. The article later notes on page 48,

One of the sad truths about performance anxiety is that it can easily be reinforced, and even heightened, by educators. “I fear that certain attributes of school music, including teachers themselves, can inadvertently train anxiety into music students,” Robert Woody says. “This includes the competitive environment represented by auditions, chair placements, ensemble contests, and festivals with adjudicator ratings. Also, teachers routinely ‘play up’ performances in order to motivate students to practice, pay attention in rehearsal, and have the desired ‘attitude of excellence’ about their ensemble membership. Although this approach may be well-intentioned, it can serve to make performance seem very different and special as compared to rehearsal. Such tactics can simultaneously have short-term benefits—students practice, work hard in rehearsal—and do long-term damage—students stop making music for its own sake.”

One of the reasons we started playing horn and stuck with it was because we enjoyed it. When it ceases to be enjoyable, this is not good! Time to reevaluate why you are in this field, there are a lot of easier things you could be doing.

And also, from the teacher side of things, if you are beating down your students you may be sucking any joy of music making they might have once had out of them, and this is not good! For some famous, tough (“old school”) teachers this is a part of their method, being tough so only the strong survive lessons with them, but this really does leave a percentage of their students broken and out of music. I had one of those teachers. I survived; not everyone did. There is a time to be tough when needed, but as a general tactic I could not get out of bed to teach every day if it were only to see who breaks this week and who does not break.

In short, I enjoy teaching and also enjoy playing. I certainly plan to have fun playing the horn tonight. I will be playing Mozart 2 with the Mill Avenue Chamber Players and on the same program conducting the best sounding ASU horn choir that I have ever led on two works, Le son du cor by Arne Oldberg and the Kerkorian Sextet, old standards of the horn ensemble lit that will be crowd pleasers.

If horn playing is not fun for you anymore, reevaluate your situation and this weekend for sure only play music that is actually fun to play, you will be in a better place mentally and physically.