Klarinet Archive - Posting 000846.txt from 2003/04
From: "Patricia A. Smith" <patricia@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Stage movements and performance anxiety; was, Stage movements, redux
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:43:02 -0400
Neil Leupold wrote:
> For the most part though, bodily motion up & down, side to side,
> round & round ... this sort of thing reveals tension in a player's mind and/or body that has not
> yet been addressed during practice/lesson time. If this is the case, such a player would have a
> difficult time standing still, consciously restraining their movement while playing those passages
> of music.
>
> It takes practice, like anything else, to be able to play without tension...to, in other words,
> consciously invoke physical relaxation throughout the body, subordinating all elements of
> technique to musical considerations rather than sacrificing that concentrated energy to wasteful
> unconscious physical motion. What's remarkable is the real sensation of freedom that results when
> one *doesn't* flail & rock about all over the place. The associated dividends are enormous when
> one can relax the muscles and let the fine motor control (as opposed to needlessly involving the
> larger clunkier muscles) assume the burden of technique. Two things happen: (a) the technical
> part itself becomes a lot easier, and (b) the once-wasted nervous energy is now able to be
> channeled into the art of making music.
Thanks, Neil for bringing up this aspect of playing with tension-
tension that CAN express itself
as performance anxiety.
Some more ideas that come to mind - If a person suffers from anxiety
before performing: 1) Do you move a great deal while playing/performing?
2) Do you find yourself moving more during more difficult passages?
I don't pretend to have answers to all of these questions. However, I
AM trying to find all the questions I can apply to this pernicious
villain, since, as I posted earlier, like others here, I have been
plagued with this malady since my young days.
Another aspect of this "playing with tension" is to locate the part of
the body where the tension turns up: Do you become most tense in your
embouchure, or in your breathing? Do your hands and fingers sweat? Do
you feel excess tightening in your abdomen? Pain in your neck muscles?
It is important to localize the area of tension if at all possible.
Sometimes, if one has extreme tension, physical therapy may even be
warranted, if physical damage has been done to a part of the body
through excess tension. I know that I used to have a VERY tense right
thumb, and it took a great deal of time to simply shake out my right
arm, tense it up, then relax, then shake it out, then repeat the
sequence until it would relax. I don't recommend this to anyone without
consulting with both your teacher and a doctor -there are now better
solutions, such as the kooiman thumb rest, for one.
A technique I learned from a meditation center once, was to practice
tensing each group of muscles of the body, individually, starting with
each foot, moving up to the lower leg, to the abdomen, etc. hold for a
count of eight, then release. The inhale should also be done to a count
. I'm not sure where I read this, but I suspect it is a hatha yoga
technique.
Another nervous habit that seems to creep up at the worst times is too
much finger movement - Neil mentioned improved fine motor skill as a
result of relaxation. Slow practice of scales, watching my fingers in
the mirror, helped me keep them at a particular level and no higher. I
always felt they were flying all over the place and that I was losing
control. Again, concentrating on one's breathing while playing the
scales helps as well.
I hope I've not taken this thread too far afield. I simply find that
the more I read here, the more things come to mind that I've tried and
found effective to control my nerves over the years.
Patricia Smith
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