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I recently had a thought, that playing the French horn well favors people with a strong sense (and need for) routine. Let me explain.
I have mentioned at various times in this site, my son has Down syndrome and autism. It is at times a challenging combination, with a central need of his being that we have routines and we do those things consistently. Many elements of life are the same from day to day. Recent family conversations have only emphasized how his need for routines has impacted our lives in the entire family in various ways.
Routines and me
I grew up with parents that were also very much into routines of life. Both of them grew up on farms in the 1930s, and they knew what was called a routine – with the chores to do every day, and the various seasonal routines of life.
The benefit for me as a horn player was that I also got into various routines in life. Practicing being one of them!
If your life is on the other hand very free form, very spontaneous, I suspect that you are not likely to be so consistent with practice.
Did you practice every day over the entire pandemic?
A little story. My son has his routines, and part of his routine is for me to practice after dinner around the time of his bath every day. Over the entire pandemic I think I practiced every single day other than about 10 days. 6 of those days I was on a road trip with my son. I did not have much specific that I needed to practice, so I had to come up with projects for myself. Thankfully, I also enjoy the process of warming up as well; many days were just an easy warmup and a few random etudes. The benefit of all that pandemic practice was my chops came through in great shape.
Is it the “spectrum,” or just routines?
At one point someone asked me very seriously if I was on the Autism spectrum. I really don’t think so, but then again, the spectrum is a very broad term. I do have some preferences in various areas of life — but I really don’t think any of them are serious enough to put me on the spectrum.
As a horn player though I can see some potential benefit of being on the spectrum or at least the fringes of it, as part of the diagnosis of Autism involves a deep need for routines. My son can melt down badly when his routines are too far from normal, and that is not the case for me, I am pretty flexible. But I do in the big picture have life routines, and that is good, as I think a case can be made that you really do need a good sense for and need for routines to excel on the horn.
And to the bigger topic of horn player personalities
It might end up being a little hard to study, but I’d still be interested to see if some motivated DMA student would study this general topic, that of high-level horn players and the spectrum. I think some general trends of horn personalities would come out, in perhaps unexpected ways.
To close I will go back to the opening thought; good horn players likely also have a strong sense of routines in how they organize their life. I’m sure there are exceptions, but I suspect that many of the top horn players do crave routines on some level.
