Day 9

1. What is the best advice you ever received? Why? And did you follow it? (University of Pennsylvania)

I sat in a little wicker chair in an old cabin in the ”middle of nowhere”, New Hampshire. I was at a French horn camp, waiting for my lesson with one of the faculty members who taught there. I sighed deeply; I was exhausted from receiving so much criticism, but I knew the feedback would help me. However, I felt like I was at a breaking point, like I couldn’t possible do everything I needed to, and like I couldn’t get better. As my teacher walked in, I worried about everything that could go wrong in the piece I was going to play. That note, that note, that note… I could see the errors before they even happened.

I told my teacher that I wanted to play the Larsson Concertino, a modern piece by a Scandinavian composer. So, I took a deep breath and began. I scanned the page nervously as I played. I knew the high B flat was coming, and I had no idea how I would hit it. To put it bluntly, I thought my high range on the French horn sucked.

I played the measure before… the notes before… and then I played that note. Or tried to. Nothing came out from the bell of my horn. There was a little silence where the note should have been, and I just kept playing until finally, the song was over. I took my horn from my lips and pouted angrily.

“So, what went well in that piece?”, my teacher asked me, the first comment he made. I couldn’t think of anything. Anything. I sat there for a minute… thinking, thinking. Finally, I mumbled something about tone and rhythm. Then, my teacher asked me how I would improve by only thinking about everything I had done wrong.

I had no idea. Suddenly, I realized that by always thinking negatively about my playing, I would never be able to improve. By thinking positively, I could build on my talents. Thinking negatively would only destroy the foundations I created. Those words really inspired me, as I always used to find what I had done wrong in my playing. Now, I think about that advice every day when I practice. As Lewis F. Korns once said, “One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction.” To construct and create beautiful music, I needed to focus on how I could take my strengths and improve them, not knock myself down.