Competing Priorities
Monday, March 20, 2023 by Billy Roberts | Vision
Eleven months ago, I wrote that singing helps my horn playing, and vice versa. In the past year, as I’ve juggled competing priorities, I’ve gone back and forth on whether voice or French horn should be my primary musical pursuit. A couple of months ago, as I was mulling over a David Crenshaw online course that helped me to sort out priorities, I realized that piano was a more valuable asset in terms of how marketable it would make me and how it could help me grow as a musician. As I prayed over this and sought direction, I soon found an opportunity to begin accompanying again. I have greatly enjoyed being back in a classroom setting with a choir.
Since that time, I’ve gained new appreciation for the role that piano has had throughout my life as a basis for all of my other musical endeavors. Now it is no big deal for me to set aside potential time with the French horn or voice in order to get extra practice time with the piano. I spend at least twenty minutes a day on piano fundamentals at the beginning of my lunch hour. When I started putting piano first in my music practice routines, I began to get clearer direction as to how to proceed with horn and voice. Although French horn has been getting the most attention for most of the past two years, I realized that returning to a short daily vocal routine makes more sense than trying to do a longer session with horn one day and voice the next day.
When I gave up the horn thirteen years ago to focus on voice, I felt that the French horn by nature demanded priority over other instruments, and that I could not play at a level I was happy with unless it was my only instrument. Since returning to the horn two years ago, I have come to a point in life where, for practical purposes, I can put piano first, voice second, French horn third and actually enjoy all three. Piano is the foundation, singing is essential, and the horn is a luxury, but regaining familiarity with the French horn has definitely enriched all of my other musical endeavors. Just as I’ve found ways to work my voice when I only have twenty minutes or so to spare, I’ve found similar ways to help my horn embouchure, which I will write about in a future blog.
After nearly a year of focusing on my day job and keeping music teaching in the back of my mind, my wife and I finally cleaned out our home studio this February so that I could teach the first adult student in our home. I had worked with high school students in a school setting, but having an adult student with a bit more musical experience than I was used to working with motivated me to examine my competing priorities. I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson, and it was confirmation that teaching private lessons is something that I want to do a lot more of. I’m thankful for how this past month of personal reflection has helped me to prioritize piano, French horn, and vocal work so that I can adequately practice each instrument on a regular basis.
