What Really Makes the Embouchure?

As some of you may know, I've been having some trouble with my facial muscles lately. A few weeks ago I overplayed, and this was followed by a very intense week of rehearsals and performances which caused me to overplay again. I think that somewhere along those two intense weeks, I injured something in the right side of my face, and continued playing demands have continued to stress the muscles since. I've tried ice and massage, neither of which was very helpful with swelling or stiffness. I have had some success the past few days with heat.

Because of my Alexander Technique course, I've started wondering what muscles we use and how they work when we're playing. The injury to my muscles that I've been dealing with for the past couple of weeks has also fueled this desire for knowledge. I was astounded by how many muscles and layers of muscle go into playing the horn. If any of us hears a muscle name, it's the obicularis oris, but that's just one of many muscles we use. Other muscles we use include the masseter muscle, which allows us to drop the jaw, the buccinator, which tightens the cheeks towards the teeth while we play, and the triangularis (depressor anguli oris) and zygomaticus major and minor muscles, which create the tension that allows us to play as they pull contrary to the obicularis oris. I'm discovering that refining my body map of where the muscles in my face are and how they work is making me more aware of how I use them when I'm playing. It's also helping me to pinpoint the source of my trouble beyond the vague awareness of jaw or lip pain. If you'd like to get more acquainted with your facial muscles check out this website. It has links to information on nerves, muscles, bones, and anything else you can think of that is on your head.

Try a Hand Strap

If you have small hands and a large horn, that can be tricky. If you stand and play you may be likely to lose your grip on the horn. For a lot of players, the pinky hook is in a bad place that doesn't fit their hand. Even when it does fit well, all of the weight of the horn is resting on that one little finger. This can create excess tension in the outer muscles of the left hand, causing not only tendinitis problems, but also limiting the mobility of the third finger. A good way to alleviate these troubles is the use of a hand strap. Permanent straps can be very expensive, and require soldering new pieces onto the horn. Another option is the flipper, but those can be uncomfortable and also require the addition of new pieces to the horn. A non-permanent strap has been made, but it attaches to the horn with Velcro straps and doesn't always stay in place.

I have developed an alternative combination hand strap and guard that is not permanent, so there's no need to add new parts, but still provides the stability of a permanent strap. If anyone in the horn studio is interested, I'm donating one of these new straps to the studio as an alum, so that anyone can try it out. If you do and you'd like to buy one, I'll be happy to help you. If you want to see what they look like, check out my horn or Leah's, she purchased one last week. I'm currently developing a new model that will not require a pinky hook. A website and photos of the strap are on the way, and I'll have a new post when it's all up and running.

Verne Reynolds

I came across this quote about large ensemble rehearsal and thought it was advice worth sharing. This quote comes from Verne Reynolds' Horn Handbook, pages 44-45.

"Being bored in a large ensemble rehearsal says more about the player than about the rehearsal. Orchestral brass players do not play as often as woodwind or string players, and percussionists, happily, play hardly at all. During these non-playing times, we can choose to be mentally active or drift off into dormancy. Why should a horn player choose not to look and listen while the strings are being rehearsed? Is it because the possibility of musical growth ceases when the orchestral contract is signed? Why would a horn player choose not to observe how the composer, woodwinds, percussion, and conductor all combine to produce a magical sound? Is boredom really more attractive than curiosity? Why would an orchestral player not want to know more and still more about music? Why do orchestral players take pride in not remembering what was on last night's program? Apparently there is a point where "professionalism" can block artistic development. Not to participate fully in all rehearsals during the training years is the first step in forming an apathetic attitude toward the very thing we have chosen to do. Full participation includes observing how the conductor tries to shape a phrase in the first violins. Does it matter if the phrase starts up-bow or down-bow? Why? How do the horn parts contribute to the seamless sequences of the first twenty-three measures of second movement of the Brahms Third Symphony? Why does the music of Debussy and Mahler sound so dissimilar when their life spans are nearly identical? Questions never end if they begin with a desire to discover."

Discipline

Last night was the last orchestra rehearsal of the semester, and our concert tonight will be the last of the season. For some like me, who are graduating, it will be the last of their career at the University of Iowa. Dr. Jones left us with some parting words last night. I don't know if you'd call them parting words or a lecture, it was somewhere in between, but I think it was a good message, and we all needed to hear it. He spoke about discipline and how far it can take you when you have it and how disappointed you'll be in life if you don't. When I came here, I was one of the people who didn't have it. I didn't practice enough, I complained about long rehearsals. When break came, my horn went in the case for two months. I wasn't a career focused musician.

Despite what you may think, discipline is not an inborn quality. I changed my attitude. It was time to put up, or shut up and get out of music. I decided to be a musician. My horn doesn't stay in its case on break, I practice every day of the week, and I am patient in long rehearsals. Even when we work hard and learn discipline, it will still be a struggle. My weak spot is weekends. It's very hard for me to practice over the weekends because it's time to catch up on work or spend with my husband. It's hard for me to have the discipline to put the horn over him.

Discipline isn't just something we have. It's a choice that we make. It's something we do for ourselves to become better. Sacrifice is involved in greatness. Discipline is accepting the sacrifices you have to make in order to achieve your goals. If you're struggling with the discipline to practice, then reconsider your priorities in life. I know now that my husband is more important to me than horn, and that the level of sacrifice and discipline it would take for me to be in a major league professional orchestra is more than I am willing to give. And that's okay. The sacrifice this semester of a 12 hour schedule on Mondays so that I can get two hours of practice in is worth it for the recital performance I'll give in a week and a half. Know your priorities and know yourself. Discipline. The farther you want to go, the more of it you need to have.

Finding Value

Finding value in unpleasant or stressful situations can be a real challenge. I just went through comps a couple of weeks ago, and that was one of those situations. They're so stressful, and require so much work, it's hard to maintain a positive attitude. Honestly, though, it was kind of nice to stretch my legs in the world of horn pedagogy. I discovered just how much I have learned up to this point. It also reaffirmed that I am ready to be turned out into the "real world" and will be okay. I think maintaining a positive attitude during these tests really helped. Sometimes we don't see the positive in unpleasant situations, and we choose instead to focus on the stress or unpleasantness. I know I've experienced this in regards to rehearsals or ensembles that I didn't necessarily want to be in at the time. It's always important to stay focused on a positive attitude and making music. It can make otherwise unpleasant situations more enjoyable, and will probably help reduce your stress level as well. Negative thinking can be really detrimental, both to our playing and our health, so try to stay positive!

Meifred Translation

In my research of historically important pedagogues, I came across Meifred, who I've already given a biography for in my Horn History post. Meifred's horn tutor was the first comprehensive tutor for the valve horn, but our library doesn't own a copy. Well, we do on microfilm, but who wants to deal with that? Luckily, I came across a translation! In his DMA dissertation, Jeffrey Snedeker discusses Meifred's contributions to the horn world at length. He also includes a full translation of Meifred's "Methode pour le Cor Chormatique ou a Pistons." The full dissertation is available on ProQuest through the music library's website.

Go Hornless

There's more than one way to skin a cat, or so they say. I don't know who they are, but they must not like cats. It's a true enough statement, though, however mean it may be to our feline friends. There's also more than one way to practice. For example, you don't need a horn. Most of what we do as musicians is mentally based. Our brain is coordinating fingers and lips to produce a sound. Our mind is also processing and remembering what is on the page. We're building muscle memory. This is the reason a hard to read passage with lots of accidentals gets easier the more you practice it: your brain has learned to remember how to read it, what it is, and what has to be done to play it.

Armed with this information, imagine how much you can get done without wasting your lips. Scales? Done. Arpeggios? Done. Crazy hard scale on page two of your solo? Done. Whether it's rhythms, scales, articulation patterns, or specific intervals, you can work on it without the horn. Thinking through the fingering patterns, hearing it in your head, and thinking about what you'd be doing with the embouchure to play it can be very helpful. It's a nice way to occupy boring bus rides home or time waiting for a bus to come. You'll still be committing difficult passages to memory, increasing coordination, and building muscle memory. When you actually go back and put it on the horn it will be much easier to play, you won't have killed your face to get the results, and you'll have made otherwise useless time on the bus very productive.

Facial Massage? Yes Please.

So, something we can do for our faces that feels great and helps relax our muscles is massage. I have a lot of muscle tension problems, especially when I have to play a lot. The biggest trouble I have is that it's hard to massage your own face. It takes a lot of pressure and muscle to work out the knots that can develop in a horn player's jaw, and quite frankly, I just don't have that much muscle. I tend to get cramps in my arms and hands. Lucky for me, my husband bought me a cute little personal massager. It's cute, meaning reasonably compact, and very affordable for college student budgets. I found mine at Walmart. It keeps the tension out of your arms, gets the tension out of your face, and is relaxing. It also comes with several attachments, so you can use it for arms, back, etc., and a plug in cord means you won't waste tons of money on batteries. It's also great for getting the blood flowing and loosening up the embouchure muscles after a heavy playing load.

Alexander Observation

This past week we focused on the arms in my Alexander class. It was very interesting for me because I've had so many problems with my shoulders and hands. In learning to release the hand and arm, I discovered a pleasant effect on my horn playing. It actually got easier. Weird that your hand can affect your embouchure. Releasing the excess tension in my left hand on the keys in turn released the pressure between my mouthpiece and my face, and my facility on the overtone series went through the roof. Everything felt so light and easy, and shifting between registers was a cinch. My finger dexterity is also improving because I don't have all that excess tension. Remember to look into your whole-selves on occasion. You can discover some great benefits by checking in and inhibiting excess tension.

Horn History: Pedagogues

I had to do a lot of research for my comps, and I thought everyone could benefit from my findings on a few of the most important pedagogues in the history of the horn.

Anton Joseph Hampel (1710-1771) was one of the first teachers to make landmark pedagogical strides in teaching the horn. He is credited with the development of the hand-stopping technique in the 1750s, though others had been experimenting with altering pitch through the use of the right hand since the early 1720s. In an era of natural horns, the ability to raise and lower the pitch increased the versatility of the instrument and made a new realm of tonal coloring available. This newfound ability to play diatonic and chromatic tones between the overtones made virtuosic solo horn performance possible. Unfortunately, Hampel taught within the context of a teacher-apprentice system, so he wrote no method books detailing his theories.

Louis-François Dauprat (1781-1868) also made a significant contribution to horn pedagogy. Dauprat was a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 1824, he published his Methode de Cor Alto et Cor Basse. This method remains one of the most detailed and comprehensive tutors on horn technique. The method has independent lessons for cor alto and cor basse appearing side-by-side (cor alto on the left page and cor basse on the right). He precedes preliminary exercises on the horn with detailed discussions of the role of the horn orchestrally, mechanical subjects, such as the use of crooks, music notation, embouchure and mouthpiece placement, breathing, and the alteration of pitches according hand horn technique. With the acceptance of the modern valve-horn, Dauprat’s method, which concerns primarily natural horn, has become a history book and is little used as a resource today. Nonetheless, the thorough and articulate treatment of a variety of subjects and developmental exercises concerning horn technique is something to be admired.

Joseph Émile Meifred (1791-1867) was a pupil of Dauprat at the Paris Conservatoire, and eventually became a colleague on the conservatoire staff. Meifred is most well-known for his contributions to the improvement, teaching, and performance of the valve horn. Given his strong advocacy of the valve horn, it is unsurprising that he gave the first known solo performance on the valve horn. He served as the first valve horn professor at the Paris Conservatoire, and during this time he produced the first comprehensive valve horn tutor, Méthode pour le cor chromatique ou à pistons. In this tutor Meifred advocates the use of the full range of the horn, rather than the restricted cor alto and cor basse distinctions which were prevalent at the time. He also developed a complex technique for combining hand-stopping practices with the use of the valves. Despite his strong advocacy, the valve horn class at the conservatoire was disbanded upon his retirement, and it was not reinstated until 1903. Meifred clearly saw the potential of the valve horn in both solo and orchestral contexts, looking towards the future while others continued to cling to the use of the natural horn.

A modern pedagogue, Philip Farkas (1914-1992) was a prominent orchestral horn player in the United States of America. Farkas was well known for his prominent positions in several major orchestras, including Cleveland, Boston, and the Chicago Symphony. His writings on both the horn and brass playing in general resulted in several books, including The Art of French Horn Playing, The Art of Brass Playing, and A Photographic Study of 40 Virtuoso Horn Players’ Embouchures. The Art of French Horn Playing is an excellent resource, and is a required text for almost every college horn student. Farkas discusses common problems encountered on this very difficult instrument, and he provides solutions to these problems from both his experiences and those of his teachers. Farkas succeeded in bringing the influences of symphonic orchestral horn playing to future students, and by doing so, helped to define the expectations of what being a modern symphonic horn player entailed.

Douglas Hill (1946), who is currently Professor of Horn at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is one of the leading pedagogues of our time. He has explored the many ways in which the horn can be used, and in doing so has pushed the boundaries that define what is possible on the horn. His book, Extended Techniques for the Horn: A Practical Handbook for Students, Performers and Composers, explores and teaches the many extended techniques possible on the horn. Some of the presented techniques are fairly known, such as the flutter-tongue, but other, more exotic techniques, such as half-valve and vocalization techniques, are also addressed in Hill’s book. One really fantastic feature of this book is that an accompanying audio CD provides examples of what each effect sounds like when performed correctly. Rather than being satisfied with the current limits, Hill has pushed the envelope of what the horn is capable of doing, and has opened a whole new series of possibilities for horn use in the future.

Rehearsal Etiquette

Our generation is known for its extensive technological advancements. What does this mean for music rehearsals? Lots of distractions. Meet the blackberry, iphone, or other device that gives us instant internet access and texting capabilities wherever we go. Fantastic devices that let us check emails and stay in touch. Unfortunately, these devices don't seem to have an off switch. I see a lot of people in bands and orchestras, especially at the university level, who text their friends or check internet sites like facebook or email in the middle of rehearsals. Some people just play games.

I understand that sometimes our part will tacet for a movement or two as horns, especially in orchestra, and in that situation I think it is understandable. As long as you're ready to play when it's time, there's no reason not to read a book for 20 minutes while they rehearse a piece you don't play on. There are a lot of students, however, that take out the phone as soon as the conductor starts rehearsing the clarinets or a 10 measure rest comes up. It isn't appropriate. What he is telling the strings about phrasing will apply to our part when we have that melodic material. Even in rests, it is our responsibility to be in the moment, actively pursuing the music and giving the conductor our full attention.

Take a Deep Breath

I had the pleasure of playing for another masterclass this week. Today the horn studio had Lin Foulk in from Western Michigan University, and her work with me on Les Adieux (Franz Strauss) was very insightful. I think one of the most challenging aspects of a lyrical piece like this is maintaining breath support. Of course, Lin noticed my bare-minimum, inadequate breathing from the start. Though I've always known I needed to spend more time focusing on breathing because it really is the root of most of my problems, I've never consistently taken the time. The breathing exercise she offered today was very helpful, and I think I would find great benefits in doing it every day. Her comments also fit remarkably well with the latest topic in my Alexander Technique class: breath and the ribs.

I was reflecting on my breathing last night during class, and I find that my greatest challenge in breathing lies in the hype. As young musicians, we're taught to "tank up," which may not be the most effective imagery. Breathing deeply and fully shouldn't be work, but the idea of tanking up creates tension: we must work to inhale more deeply than in everyday conversation. I find that I create a great deal of tension in my neck and chest when I think about taking a deep breath for a musical phrase. The greatest benefit I would gain from regular practice would be the ability to stop my habitual tensing and choose to take full and relaxed breaths. I know the more practice I get at slower speeds, the more reliable this process will be when breaths must be much quicker. Happy breathing!

Ellen Smith

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of performing for a masterclass with Ellen Smith. She's currently playing third horn with the Minnesota Orchestra, a group she's been with since 1993. I performed a movement from Aesop's Fables by Anthony Plog, and I found her comments to be very enlightening. Much of what she encouraged me to do involved playing through the notes to create an entire phrase with my air. Though I knew that it was what I should be doing, I had never experienced what truly playing through a phrase felt like until that masterclass. The experience has opened a whole new use of air that I had never considered before. I think I was always so concerned about getting the notes that I've never quite made it to the phrases. These kinds of epiphanies are the reason you should never pass up an opportunity to play for (or go to) a masterclass!

Be Prepared

Preparation is a key to success in almost any venture. If you take a test and don't prepare, you aren't likely to pass. If an athlete competes without preparing, he'll hurt himself or lose the competition. What does this mean for a musician? I suppose the obvious would be if we don't practice, we don't perform well: nerves, mistakes, and an inability to adapt mars our performance. But practicing before a performance isn't the only way we can prepare. Before practicing begins we should always prepare. Planning out practice sessions before beginning them can help keep us focused, make sessions more effective, and increase our awareness of our progress. Taking a few minutes before you start practicing to pencil down a practice plan for the day is also a great way to focus your mind on the task at hand and not your half finished grocery list. I've found keeping a practice journal to be very helpful, and I would recommend it to everyone.

The Sport of Music?

So we don't have extreme physical activity and exciting violence like football, but musicians are athletes in more ways than one. We must develop mental focus, build endurance, and undergo years of devoted training, just like top athletes. The biggest difference: we sit in a chair all day. Despite the fact that the movements of horn playing in the embouchure and left forearm and hand muscles are very refined, it's still a heck of a lot of activity. Being an asymmetrical instrument, the horn also stresses shoulders, elbows, and wrists.

This level of activity, combined with the relative inactivity of sitting in a chair for six hours a day while you play can be really hard on your body. A simple proposition (besides varying your routine, e.g. stand and play, take breaks, etc.) is to stretch before you play. I never realized how much of a difference it could make until I actually began to do it everyday before I play. I have mostly alleviated the pain in my hands and shoulders by adding stretches to my warm up routine, and when I get lazy and skip it, I feel the burn later.

The routine I go through only takes about 5 minutes, and it preps me for the rest of the day. Most of these are the kinds of stretches you learned as a kid in PE class, so you're probably already familiar with most of them. Make sure to hold each stretch for at least 15 seconds, or it won't be effective. Never push too far when stretching or you may injure yourself. Huge disclaimer: I AM NOT A MEDICAL DOCTOR! That said, stretches I like to do include:
1. Roll your neck clockwise. Repeat counterclockwise.
2. Circle your shoulders forward. Repeat circling backwards.
3. Draw one arm across the front, palm towards you and thumb up. Repeat other side.
4. Raise one arm above your head, bending at the elbow and placing your hand on your back. Gently apply pressure to the elbow with the other hand.
5. Roll your wrists clockwise. Repeat counterclockwise.
6. Stretch the muscles of your forearm by gently applying pressure with the opposite hand as you bend your wrist in towards your body, then away from your body.
7. Extend your arms above your head, keeping your hips centered and leaning to one side to stretch the side abdominal muscles. After stretching each side, pivot at the hips and extend downward to stretch the lower back.
I feel like stretching has really helped my energy level throughout days with many rehearsals. It reduces my overall level of fatigue and is a great way to get focused on what I'm about to be doing, i.e. practicing. Pausing during practice for a quick re-stretch is also a great way to refocus. You can take a break for your face AND recenter your brain all at the same time. We may not be athletes, but performing music can place great demands on our bodies, and preparing for those demands will make them easier to meet when they come along.

Honor Thy Band Director

It's not exactly one of the ten commandments, but if you're a musician it should be. We had a wonderful guest conductor in the symphony band this past week, and it made me reflect on how student ensembles tend to react to their conductors. In my years of college ensembles I've noticed two things that usually happen: 1. When student conductors take the podium they aren't taken seriously, and 2. when a well-known guest artist comes in, every nuance he/she could ask for is not only given the first time, but committed to memory as well. Oddly, this impressive level of response and musicianship isn't present nearly as often when the band's normal conductor is on the podium. This lack is not from an inability to perform, but from a choice made by the students in the ensemble. We don't have to impress anyone, it's just our band director, he hears us every day. The same choice is made when a student conductor stands before the group. It's only a student, he/she doesn't know what he's doing yet anyway. It's very easy to have a bad attitude when it comes to being in an ensemble. "It's only (fill in the blank), it's not like it's a big deal." Whether it's an ensemble, concert, or conductor, we should always give our best. Regardless of whether it's an ensemble you want to be in or not, we're in the business of making music, and we should always seek that goal with everything we have. So next time you're in a rehearsal with the same old band director, decide to pay attention fully and give him all you can. It's much too easy to take our directors for granted, and they really deserve better.

Change Isn't Easy

I finally figured out how to be a good student, and I'm graduating. When faced with my impending graduation (barring something going terribly wrong) I find it makes me quite flustered. I've never known life without school ensembles and lessons. It occurred to me last night during the orchestra concert that I'm not ready to graduate. It's like I'm finally getting somewhere, and now out I go. There's a real sense of finality this time, one that I didn't get when I left undergrad. There is no more school this time. I keep looking into other degrees that I don't have a substantial interest in, just so I can keep going to school. It's hard to get turned out into the real world, especially when you've gotten a music degree. Change isn't easy, but it is necessary sometimes. I know that I've learned all I need, even though I don't feel ready to leave school behind me.

I think the saddest thing for me at this point is that I will no longer get to play with a symphony orchestra. My time will be spent in one-on-one lessons with students or individual practice time. Maybe I'll sucker someone into some duets on occasion, but the regular rehearsals and performances of a large ensemble will be gone. Because my husband is still in school for another three years, I'll likely be in the Iowa City area until he finishes. Does anyone know of any community orchestras in the area where I could continue to play?

Alexander Technique

There's a class in the music department that some students don't know about and others aren't interested in, but everyone should take. It's called "Movement for Performers" and it teaches about the Alexander Technique. For a long time I didn't really know what the Alexander Technique was all about. I guess I had heard of it before, but it was something for string players with shoulder problems, not people like me. I was incredibly wrong in that assessment.

Alexander Technique is for everyone, and almost anyone can benefit from applying its principles, though many of the people who study it are dancers, musicians, or athletes whose careers rely on proper bodily functioning. It cultivates an awareness of the way we move our bodies in our daily lives, which in turn allows us more freedom of movement and a more natural state of existence. In Alexander Technique you begin to learn how all of the parts of your body are connected, what your habits of creating tension are, and the means to say "no thank-you" when unnecessary tension begins to creep in.

Already in just two classes (it meets once a week) I have discovered something of which I was unaware that impacts my performance on horn. By learning to allow my head to balance, instead of holding it where I think it belongs, I've freed the muscles in my neck and shoulders, allowing me to breathe deeper and more fully than I ever have before. It's done amazing things for my lower register and tone. I'm very excited about the possibilities which this discovery opens, and I can't wait to see what else I will learn over the course of the semester. It almost makes me wish I wasn't graduating so I could take it again. If this has sparked your interest, you're in luck. You'll all learn much more about the history and main concepts of the Alexander Technique at the end of March when I give my seminar presentation. If you're here next semester, you should consider taking the class if you've got the time because it's a good one.

In the Beginning

Lately, I've been working on an article for the horn call about working with beginning hornists. My first experiences of the horn were anything but average. I was a flute player, part time bass clarinetist, and wanting to be well rounded I decided to take up a brass instrument. Low brass, for whatever reason, didn't cross my mind, and I was dead-set against the trumpet. My dad says, "Well you could play the french horn. I have your aunt's old one in the attic." I had no idea what it was, but it wasn't a trumpet. He brought down an incredibly old, green single F, and I actually tried playing that gross thing. I knew it was the one for me though, and my parents said OK with one stipulation: I was having private lessons. I had a wonderful teacher from day one on the horn, which most students don't get until college. I also had the very good fortune that an affordable double horn went up for sale after I'd been playing only 3 months. With the admonition "You'd better stick with this" my parents bought it, and needless to say, I've stuck with it.

Practically speaking, then, I began on a double horn and with a private instructor, which are luxuries few students have. In working on this article, I'm beginning to notice that I don't really know what it's like for the average person to begin on the horn in a normal band setting. It takes a lot of imagination for me. If anyone has things they feel they wish they'd learned earlier, they thought were frustrating about how they learned horn, or they thought were helpful in how they learned horn, please let me know. I'd love to hear other people's stories so I can get a better idea of what starting on the horn is like for others.

Sometimes...

ice can be your best friend. When you're walking in the Iowa Winter and it's been raining/sleeting all day, and the roads are covered, not so much. But when you've played entirely too much in one day, ice is amazing.

I find that I have fewer academic obligations this semester, which leaves more time for practice. (Hooray!) Unfortunately, this means that most of my schedule is made up of ensembles. Sometimes, playing beyond your means isn't all that avoidable, especially in an academic situation. You're obligated to be there, be prepared, and play to the best of your abilities whether your face is tired or not.

What's a player to do? Take it easy in rehearsal if at all possible. If it's too high and a thick texture, take it down the octave. If there's a big unison, blow-your-brains-out part, sit it out. Most importantly, when you get home, if you've overplayed and are feeling fatigued, then ice your face. If you have jaw troubles, alternating with a heating pad may help that as well. Ibuprofen is not only a pain killer, but helps with swelling as well, so for major face beating, you may consider it too. I've also heard that some professionals use Preparation H to reduce swelling, though I've never personally tried it.

Last night after my many hours of rehearsals I neglected to take my own advice. I was so happy to be home and focused on what to do tomorrow that I forgot to take care of myself. I was rewarded with quite a fat lip this morning. The muscles in your face react just like any other muscles, and overuse tends to lead to swelling and tenderness. It's much better to preempt a sore face by icing it when you get home, than to wait until it's two or three times its normal size the next morning.

I find that the longer I play the horn, the "lower" my aspirations become. When I began college I wanted to be a high paying, exciting studio musician. The idea of being a part of the incredibly powerful movie soundtrack for a film like Robin Hood or Pirates of the Caribbean was very tantalizing. Over the next few years, I decided a well-paid professional symphony would be a better place for me: less stress and still awesome. As I entered my junior year of undergrad, I took a lesson with Jim Wehrman who plays with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. His advice in that lesson made me begin to think even more about my chosen career. I decided that perhaps teaching at the university level and playing in a smaller, but still professional ensemble would be ideal.

After a year in a masters program, I have once again set my sights on something else. My primary goal is to publish at least one book about the horn and how to practice, as well as starting a private studio. I am particularly interested in beginning young players on the horn. It's interesting that the more I mature as a player, the less fame and money are important. I realize now that the greatest reward I could receive for all of my efforts studying the horn is a genuine thank you from a student I have helped. A good friend of mine told me last year "There's a place for everyone in the horn world, you just have to find where it is." This past summer, I think I finally found what my place is supposed to be. Thanks Pat for the good advice. If you haven't quite figured out where you want to be in the horn world, don't sweat it: there's room for all of us!