Hornmasters: Farkas and Schuller on Practice

Horn teachers have always wanted their students to practice.

Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing divided practice for purposes of improvement on the horn into three categories; what to practice, how to practice, and how much to practice. The overall point being that

The foundation of a performer’s musicianship and technical proficiency is practice. Upon the quality and quantity of this practice depends his entire success. Of course, talent and natural ability play an important part in musical development, but even the highly gifted player must devote tremendous amounts of time to careful, arduous work on a chosen instrument.

Gunther Schuller had a similar thought when he advised in Horn Technique,

While on the subject of practising, I should like to utter a word of warning to those who propose to take the horn seriously and make it a career. If you wish to achieve a position prominent enough to assure you the kind of livelihood you think you deserve, there must be some time in your student years during which you put in the six to twelve months of brutal hard work without which an enduring successful career is not possible. This ‘basic training’ period is necessary not only in order to refine your playing to the highest professional level, but to build up the easily underestimated amount of resistance, both physical and mental, that the nervous tension of everyday professional playing demands. Any short cuts in this respect will sooner or later lead to trouble.

Farkas returned briefly to the topic of practice at the conclusion to The Art of Brass Playing. After noting that the brass player needed two essential attributes, “moderately normal teeth, lips and general physique, and a feeling for music,” he notes

There is a third one—willingness to practice! Without this one, all the others are completely worthless. But, having these attributes, make use of them, and the final result will profoundly enhance and enrich your life.

Out of these I think the quote to ponder the most is from Schuller, where he wrote “If you wish to achieve a position prominent enough to assure you the kind of livelihood you think you deserve, there must be some time in your student years during which you put in the six to twelve months of brutal hard work without which an enduring successful career is not possible.” (Italics original to the quote). Straight talk, and I would echo that it is very clear that talent alone won’t get you there.