Random Monday: Commitments, Getting Rattled and Yodeling

• Now that’s commitment
  Getting a tattoo of your favorite thing. I guess this person really likes mellophones .. or that blue horn thing?

• Where is your diaphragm?
  Pip Eastop shows us with detailed, hand-drawn illustrations.

• African American symphony players
  At The Horn the question is asked – “Why Aren’t There More African-Americans In Our Symphony Orchestras?“

• Cover art
  Eclectic musician Holger Czukay’s Moving Pictures.

• Don’t rattle my cage
  Sir Simon Rattle quoted in a recent interview:

Actually you never eyeball a horn player. That’s one of the real rules. You just don’t. They’re stuntmen. You don’t eyeball stuntmen just before they’re about to go near death.

That’s really true. You also never tell a horn player you played beautifully last time just before a concert. You see that look. They look at you and they’re always thinking, I could die now. And you know there’s something else behind the eyes.

That’s really a truth. And so you have to let them do their very difficult thing without too much disturbing.

Random Videos:

Hakan Hardenberger – Trumpet Masterclass. (Buy the whole masterclass for about 18 euros.)

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Even tenors can have an attack of the yodel clams. In this case it is a bit like Tarzan yelling in the jungle.

Tarzan’s call:

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Musicians are like actors, many times having to quickly switch gears and play a new character – just like this.

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Some things just go together like bread and butter.

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You know your child is going to be a horn player if this happens.

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Maynard Ferguson gives us wise words on high notes, endurance and accuracy. My favorite quip is ‘don’t be a 5-minute hero.’

View the entire 13-part series at The Brass Musician.