Common (useless) Clichés
Throughout my experience in music education as a student and as a teacher, there are quite a few useless cliches that I hear people repeat from time to time. I want to make a list of them and give a brief explanation as to why I don’t like them.
The List
“Use more air.” - This is used as a catch-all to fix whatever problem someone is having with playing their instrument.
“Who’s leading those notes?” - Many people will say this and won’t even clarify this statement. They’ll make some reference about listening down to the lowest instrument, but that’s normally the most clarification you’ll get.
“To play softer, you need to use slower air, not less air.” - I just believe this is wrong. Recently, I’ve been of divided mind regarding exactly how someone plays louder vs. softer on a brass instrument, but this cliche is used as a very lazy teaching tool from what I’ve seen. Most people just need to practice playing softer to get better at it.
“Use/push from your diaphragm.”- Another lazy teaching phrase. I don’t know what to think about the actual role the diaphragm has when playing since many people can’t even agree on if it’s voluntary or not, but I believe people ascribe way too much importance to it given how often they reference it.
“Always play what’s on the page.” - The reason why I don’t like this is because there are many times where the composer/arranger/typesetter wrote something that isn’t ideal. I’m definitely all for practicing the discipline of observing exactly what’s on the page, but the composer isn’t Jesus. They’ll sometimes write things in a less than ideal manner, and there are times where it makes sense to break up a particular slur or to ignore a decrescendo that’s happening on a fairly high note.
“Play more musically.” - What most people mean by this cliche is that they want the dynamics to be exaggerated. There are many times where I don’t think that is even an appropriate thing to do, but if that’s what you want, then you should just tell someone to “exaggerate the dynamics”. I don’t understand why people have such a hard time talking literally, and this platitude is a great example of how most music educators can’t communicate effectively.
“The orchestral sound isn’t brassy.” - For those unfamiliar with the term, many people describe the sound that a brass instrument makes when it’s loud as “brassy”. Some other commonly used terms would include “bright”, “piercing”, and “laser-like”. I have to seriously question the intentions of someone who says “Don’t play brassy; play orchestrally,” because even a complete idiot can listen to a couple brass sections from professional orchestras and hear that they play incredibly loud and with a fairly bright tone.
“Don’t play bright.” - There are definitely times where this is an appropriate thing to say, but there are also many times where it’s not. If you’re playing a shout chorus in big band jazz, that is definitely not the time to be saying this. Moreover, it’s a good idea to specify to a section that you want a bright sound during musically appropriate moments.
“It’s better to take things slower so you don’t make mistakes.” - This is a good thing to tell people when giving AUDITION advice, but I don’t believe this is great advice for practicing. There are definitely times when you should do this in practicing, but I firmly believe there are many times where you should push the upper limits of your speed, and that will require you to take things at a tempo that will cause you to make a lot of mistakes.
“When practicing with a metronome, leave out a few beats.” - I’ve heard this countless times in my life, but I don’t believe it’s a good thing to do. I’m a big fan of having the most amount of subdivisions that you can stand to listen to.
“When swinging, accent the upbeats.” - Said a lot by those that are teaching Big (jazz) Bands. I could dedicate an entire post to this, but what I’ll say for now is that if you want to “swing” on a wind instrument, it’s generally a good idea to articulate the upbeats and slur into the downbeats. Accents don’t really add much. I’m not saying they don’t have their place, but if you slur everything and accent the upbeats, you’ll sound fairly stupid when you play.
“When swinging, accent beats 2 and 4.” - I don’t know where this comes from. This is just stupid, and I’ve played with bands that do this and have wondered why they think it’s a good idea.
“Have you listened to the recording?” - This might be the best example of lazy teaching. There are many things you hear where you can’t tell what the person is doing at first (circular breathing is a great example); you have to be taught what they’re doing. Also, many band directors will say “Have you listened to the recording?” but will then proceed to gaslight you as to what is even on the recording. Additionally, recordings should not be immediately held as gospel truth; they were made by imperfect human beings as well.
( Not a cliche) There are many times where someone will make a small mistake just because it was an accident and a teacher will criticize said mistake as if there was a deeper meaning behind it. A lot of band directors love to do this when brass players miss partials, but missing partials is just part of life when playing a brass instrument. Ignore the mistake - or let the student try it a 2nd (or maybe a 3rd) time - and move on.
Closing Thoughts
I’m not entirely sure why all of these useless platitudes exist; I suspect it’s a combination of 2 things:
There are people out there who are too intellectually lazy to think about how they’re going to teach a particular concept, so they rely on familiar sayings without thinking about them.
There are narcissists out there that want to ruin future musicians.
Regardless of the reason, I despise most of these cliches. I think many of them are outright harmful, and the time of students and educators alike is better spent thinking about tangible things to say when giving feedback. Speak clearly and honestly.
If there is any cliche you can think of that I haven’t put on this list, feel free to let me know.
