The “Geduld” (for “patience”) is derived from the Proto-Germanic word githult (8th century), which in turn comes from the verbal abstract ga-thuldis. This goes back to the Indo-European root *tel(ə)-, which means “to bear”, “to endure” or “to tolerate”. The modern verb dulden is related to this and also originally means “to endure”.
In our time, it seems to have gone out of fashion to endure something. To practice humbly without seeing an immediate effect. Investing with confidence without seeing an immediate improvement is not in keeping with the times. Advertising promises that you can get your package of (vital?) pleasures even faster, that you have to wait even less time to get a loan and so on.
Learn to play an instrument
You also want to learn an instrument as efficiently and straightforwardly as possible. Detours and dead ends are frowned upon! And yet it probably takes just as long for someone to learn an instrument today as it did 100 years ago. The path is certainly different, many circumstances have changed completely. But the time someone spends with their instrument until it sounds beautiful cannot be significantly shortened. Of course, there are people who are “talented” by nature. The trumpet doctor Malte Burba calls these people “somersaulting children”: some children can simply do the somersault when another child demonstrates it, but others have to learn it with great effort. Great if you are now an alphorn somersault child. But what if you’re not? Don’t despair! Be patient. Take your time and go step by step. Until you have a nice sound, you don’t need to play fast or even high! You don’t need to practise fast until you can play slow, clean leaps! An important saying from the aforementioned Malte Burba: You always practise too fast! Give your brain time to process. Neurology shows that the learning process only happens afterwards! Yes, you learn the most in your sleep!
Be patient with yourself!
When I am asked what the most important thing is when learning the alphorn, I answer: “PATIENCE”. Of course, someone can try practicing the alphorn for an hour a day from day one. But this quickly becomes torture for untrained lips. That’s why I think it’s important for learners to be patient with themselves.
People often ask me: “How long does it take to learn to play the alphorn?”. “That depends,” I usually reply. “On what?” “On how much and how you practise.” “I see, but how long does it take?” “There are people who can play quite well after a year, others never really learn to play the alphorn. Counter question: when can you “play” the alphorn?”
Alphorn beginners with a brass background clearly have an advantage. But that doesn’t mean that a brass beginner on the alphorn won’t always take longer to play “well” than someone who perhaps played the trumpet for a year 20 years ago. And as mentioned above, it depends very much on how diligently and focused you practise. I don’t want to judge that! To be honest, I’d rather someone who “just plays the alphorn” “because it’s good for them” than someone who asks after the second lesson when they can finally play the Bänklialp…
So anyone learning the alphorn needs to be patient with themselves. Unfortunately, the knowledge that the production of sound on the alphorn is much more complicated than on the piano or recorder, for example, often doesn’t help against excessive demands on oneself. “It can’t be that difficult now!” “Oh, but I’m being silly…” “You make it sound so much nicer…” and many other self-deprecating thoughts are often close at hand! I think it’s particularly important to be patient with yourself here. Do what you can: practise every day, both in good and bad times, repeat the exercises as shown by the teacher and always focus on what you want to improve. Learning to control the sound, breathing, tongue and lips with exercises helps enormously. But it also helps a lot if you can honestly and calmly say to yourself: I am doing my best. Progress will come! And the learning curve, as we also know from scientific studies, is never a straight line. It is more like a staircase. And just before the next step comes – the longer you play, the smaller the steps become – it is important to remain patient and keep going. I have often seen students solve their “button” at a stage when they were perhaps not at their most diligent. This is not a plea against regular practice, on the contrary. However, phases with less effort are completely natural and should be accepted as such.
Practicing frugality
I like to talk about a pupil who I like to describe as very frugal. She never had high expectations and never wanted to play at a high level. When, as a 10-year-old, she wanted to record a “CD” for her father for his birthday after about 1.5 years, she was satisfied with the three or four notes she could play beautifully at that time. She did not exaggerate when practicing. But she was very patient and worked continuously. At her last concert, she played the first part of “Kuhreihen der Oberhasler”. Anyone who knows him knows that this is a demanding piece. In terms of height, technique and stamina. But she played it very easily. Of course, she didn’t play it flawlessly or at a professional level, but she made a deep impression on me and showed me: If you have the patience to work continuously and don’t always just go for the high notes, you’ll get there more easily!
So be patient and “endure” in the original sense that you are not progressing as quickly as you would like…
Well, how patient are YOU with YOURSELF?
Be patient with yourself!
For teachers, of course, the best thing is when students have made a big leap every week. But is that normal? NO! So I have a big request for all teachers: Be patient with your students! They are doing their best. Imagine what it would be like if you were on the other side of the alphorn: you’re with the teacher and he’s giving you a moral lecture etc. about how you MUST practise every day and so on. How does that make you feel?
Stay honest: “I see your playing hasn’t improved much, why do you think?” If the student then confesses to not having practiced or almost not having practiced: well, that’s what’s happened now… But if he has practiced to the best of his knowledge and belief: How exactly did you do it? What did you understand? What did you have questions about?
I find one very difficult point with the alphorn is that beginners can hardly play any familiar pieces of music for a long time. Keeping adults – but also children – in line with three-note songs until they have the sound and breathing under control is not so easy. I think it’s very important to have the patience (both as a pupil and as a teacher) until the tone production, the support, the impetus and the looseness are in place before practising difficult or high pieces! As a teacher, I have a responsibility to point this out to my students if they want to “go too fast” and thus mess up the formation of a good foundation. That’s why, in my opinion, a teacher mustn’t push if it’s because of HIM and must warn the student if they want to move on too quickly.
Hoch spielen (k)ein Kampf?
The subject of height is also omnipresent in everyday teaching: whoever can play high is good! Well, I’ve often heard recitals or rehearsals where people are already playing high. The only question is: is it nice to listen to? Does it come loosely from the support? Or is it simply choked with a lot of struggle? Wouldn’t it perhaps be better to play the 2nd part, or a simple, very beautiful piece – such as those by Hans-Jürg Sommer, for example?
Yes, you need patience and someone who can show you how to do it without messing up. Of course it makes sense to me that, as described above, you can only make “real” alphorn music if you can play at least into the e”. In this case, Gaby Laetsch has written a wonderful
I encourage my students to have the patience to learn the basics until the time is right for that height. It goes without saying that you have to try from time to time to see how high you can actually play and “push yourself to the limit”. But please always use your head and not a crowbar. The body stores the information independently. If high notes are always strenuous, the body remembers that! It therefore becomes more and more difficult to reach the high notes easily. Especially those who have been playing for a long time have to work on a new way of playing (relaxed) with a lot of patience.
Patience & persistence = success
To summarize, I would like to say that patience paired with persistence leads to success and serenity much more often than a lot of talent and initial enthusiasm. Constant dripping wears away the stone – to use another proverb – also applies here.
Writing this article also took a lot of patience on my part. I spent over two months writing it, trying to be patient with myself and not publish it until I was happy with it! I hope I have worked on it long enough that it is now well-formed, easy to read and informative!
Now I wish everyone a lot of patience with patience!
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