I had a blessed morning off from 9 am performances (in favor of 9 am classroom teaching), so actually got a chance to miss my horn today. As I began my warm-up arpeggios, I started thinking about something my former teacher told me about "legato"- that one can never attain a truly perfect legato. One can get very very close and spend many years thinking about what physical and mental habits can lead to connection between notes, but the ideal slur can never be reached by acoustic instruments. I simply love the idea that there is a musical asymptote that we can approach but simply never reach. In a technical sense, it helps me to stay truly connected to each note I play to think of this limit, think of my curve of air approaching it but never reaching it. (I was obviously a math nerd back in the day).
It also reminds me of that feeling I get when I practice the Alexander Technique. After a great lesson or lie-down when I have released this excess tension in my body, I sometimes expect that when I stand up, my entire body and life will be free of tension. But of course, each moment that we're alive and using our bodies in the world, we are creating and freeing tension. The question is not, "Who can I be?" but "Who am I becoming?" And we will only ever be becoming, we will never be. (Whoa.....)
And for tonight, it's a great feeling to have this really simple metaphor, a freaking C Major arpeggio, to illustrate something so beautifully profound.
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