Brass Bulletin 18, II / 1977 (page 3–) · 1 min. read
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Is my mouthpiece the cause of my difficulties? Do I have a chance of overcoming them one day? Suppose I change the make of instrument? Do I practise in the right way? Is there a "trick" for playing effortlessly? Is there a teacher who can help me on the road towards success?

We all know this type of question. It is our reply to these which nurtures our hopes, ambitions and energy.

Our systems of teaching and social promotion, based on the spirit of competition often provoke a sadly ambiguous situation in the musician. Very seldom do these systems create successful players. The great majority remain the prisoner of false situations, be it above the real capacity or competence of the individual (it's hard enough to maintain it), or below his capacity and competence (how much bitterness is created here!).

We are constantly running the risk of over or underestimating ourselves. It is finding out the exact place within ourselves where all our faculties work together on the same wavelength which allows our personality the greatest chance of disclosing itself (rather like the ideal sound which we are looking for on our instruments).

How much more important it is to find this place than to run frantically after the technical and aesthetic criteria which changing fashion and taste dictate.

The music which makes us play is to be found beyond the discovery of our personality (and not the music which we have to or would like to play!).

This thought reconciles me a great deal with those free musicians who were shepherds, playing for their pleasure, in the exceptional dimension of space: nature, the sky, the stars, infinity. There where the thought succeeds finally in taking flight and where the inner peace establishes itself which enables us to attain so many things...

This editorial is a summer message. An invitation to take advantage of a moment of sunshine, of a moment of calm in order to seek our inner self and to express better and better the call of life and love amongst mankind by means of our trumpets, flügelhorns, french horns, trombones and tubas.

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