- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
In a recent article there is a section talking about hobbies, which I know generated at least one comment out there, wondering why I went there. I believe hobbies — real hobbies! — are a key to having a healthy success as a hornist.
Note for amateur hornists
First, if you are an adult amateur especially, I hope sincerely that horn playing is a fun hobby! Because horn playing can and should be fun!
But for the professional or serious student, horn playing and music can be a source of stress.
“I’m too hard core for a hobby”
There is a line of thinking some espouse, that to achieve success in music you need to eat, sleep, and breathe music. I remember the first person I met who really was trying to do this, a flute player at a summer music festival. She puzzled me a great deal and I suspect that she did not ultimately make it in music, the mindset was not healthy.
That summer, in Aspen, I went hiking several times a week. The combination of hard work on the horn and hiking was great, you need that break to reset mentally and the mountains there are just breathtaking. I made tons of progress as a hornist the 3 summers I went to Aspen. To this day I love getting into the mountains when I can. I suspect a lot of the faculty there felt the same way.
Professional musicians, stress, and hobbies
In a recent note from my Horn Matters colleague Bruce Hembd he mentioned that he recalled an article that talked about how outside interests/hobbies can help with stress from work leeching into personal life. The article he pointed me to, “Why They’re Not Smiling: Stress and Discontent in the Orchestral Workplace” by Seymour and Robert Levine, may be accessed here (go to page 10 of the PDF, page 22 of the article). They write that
It is no coincidence, we believe, that musicians gravitate towards hobbies which provide a high degree of control. For example, it appears that far more musicians hold pilot licenses than one would expect in a randomly selected group with similar incomes and educational levels. In some orchestras, five to 10 percent of the members are pilots. Gardening, writing, and home improvement are also pursued with surprising intensity by many orchestra musicians. By contrast, team sports are not as popular with musicians—with the possible exception of serving on membership representation committees, an activity which participants also pursue with a great deal of intensity.
These strategies can successfully reduce the effects of workplace stress in musicians’ lives. However, they are less successful in reducing the levels of stress experienced at work. A very sharp bifurcation can develop, therefore, between work and the rest of life.
Horn players with pilot licenses? How about Philip Farkas. Gardens? How about Verne Reynolds. Etc.
Without revealing the names, years ago I was at a horn conference and two of the featured artists were chatting about birding. I was like, birding? Was this some euphemism? But actually, they both really were deeply interested in bird watching. What a great activity, and total opposite of horn and the stresses of performing.
The list of hobbies not yet mentioned that I have observed in the music world is long and would include especially activities with pets, bike riding, running, photography, model trains, restoring horns, sports cars, collecting various things, etc. Frankly, if you don’t have several hobbies, think about what else you could be doing to expand your interests and friendships beyond your current circle.
The end of the quote above mentions a “very sharp bifurcation can develop.” I think actually some of the healthiest orchestra musicians I know have that division worked out well. Orchestra is orchestra, and life is separate. Outside the orchestra they live like normal people with hobbies and such. Aim for that, rather than eating, sleeping, and breathing music.
Closing thoughts
When I was young, I puzzled about my parents and their hobbies. In particular my dad, a chemistry professor, he spent TONS of time working on our farm, 40 miles south of where we lived. Especially over the summer and on breaks. Now I totally understand, it had to have relieved so much stress of his job and enhanced the quality of his life. I certainly am glad I have developed a number of hobbies and recommend that readers do the same.
