davewerden

The second part of Arthur's Lehman's article about euphoniumist Harold Brasch is now online. Here is an excerpt:


When I finally did become a member of the u.s. marine band, and I started taking lessons from Harold Brasch, not once a month as I had during the summer of 1946, but once a week, then my skills really blossomed. But it wasn't without a lot of hard work. Harold had to help me eliminate several faults in my playing as well as in facial contortions while playing some particular things such as octaves. I really spent a lot of time  hours in front of a mirror until finally I got rid of those lousy contortions. But, whatever the problem, Harold had the solution immediately. While it could take me a long time to affect a permanent cure, it took him only a few seconds to identify each fault and to suggest a way to eliminate it. His suggestions never failed to work well in eliminating whatever bad thing I had to contend with.


While it took Harold but a few seconds to identify and explain a fault, it took me a long time occasionally to correct it. While I was working to eliminate the fault, Harold was giving me certain exercises out of Arban's which I needed to drill on to strengthen the positive and to weaken the negative of the countermeasure. It may have taken weeks but eventually, everything worked out splendidly. Naturally, I was as happy as I could possibly be. No one else, I am sure, could have helped me eliminate those faults so positively and so permanently as Harold did. That fellow was a genius as a teacher. No doubt about it.


Look for the complete article here:

Harold Brasch Remembered, part 2 (by Arthur Lehman)