Klarinet Archive - Posting 000808.txt from 1997/07

From: Gary Young <gyoung@-----.com>
Subj: RE: Inderol
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 17:01:02 -0400

Jerry Korten's advice about breathing exercises and talking to (with) the
audience is right on target. Another thing I've found that works for me
(and I think no one has mentioned this, at least recently) is to remember
and feel in your bones that when you play you are sharing fine music with
the audience, not exhibiting your marvelous/abysmal self for their
(dis)approbation. Then lose yourself in the music. This feeling is easiest
to come by when you're playing something truly worth sharing, say Mozart or
Brahms, or anything else you truly love. Even if you have an abysmal self,
you can still share K561 with others. (If you're playing something you
hate -- for instance because your teacher requires it -- then try
play-acting the role of the confident clarinetist who loves the piece, as
someone else has suggested.)

I've had the opposite problem to stage fright -- call it stage torpor. I
sometimes go to a music group in town where everyone takes turns playing
(lots of pianists). Several times while waiting to play, and wondering
what state my reed will be in when I finally do, I've become entranced by
what others are playing and then started drifting off. Then my name is
called to play, I'm the only one who hasn't played yet, and I have to rouse
myself from a semi-comatose state, my breathing V E R Y S L O W, and my
mind pretty much shut down. It's been disastrous. I prefer stage fright.

Gary Young
Madison, Wisconsin