 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Aquila
Date: 2003-11-02 12:21
Hey everybody!
I play the clarinet in my schools band. I think we're quite good! This year, we're having two concerts; movie music, and a french version of 'Romeo and Juliet'. I love performing on stage, but... I have a couple of solos, and I get soooooooo nervous when I have to play for an audience. I start to shake al over my body, and then when I get to play, I lose my self-confidence and start playing those anoying squeeky notes.
Does anyone have suggestions to temper myself during a concert????
Thanks in advance!!!!!
Martijn
I'm 15 years old, live in Belgium and play the clarinet...
What more do you need to know? :-)
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Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2003-11-02 12:43
I don't know if this will help, but usually fear is from not knowing what the outcome will be for any certain event. For example, ask yourself this question; "would you still be nervous if you knew for certain that your performance was going to be perfect?" If your answer is no or probably not, then that is the basis of your anxiety.
The trick, if there is such a thing, is to then imagine yourself consistantly performing perfectly. Think through the entire event with the perfect out come. You really must convince yourself of this. It sounds trite, but you have to believe in your own ability. This is the same method that top athletes use to peak for top performances. When you practice, imagine the audiance there and let the tension and fear go away. In reality, the people in the audiance are most likely 100% for you. They are wanting you to do good, they are for those minutes your friends. No reason to get anxious around friends is there?
Once you reach a higher level of skill in vitually any endevor your ability to go above that level may very well depend on your mental ability to focus and eliminate self doubt and performance limiting fear. It is natural to be nervous and there is nothing to be ashamed of when you are nervous, you just have to channel and control it.
Good luck and knock em over!
Best
Rick
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Author: Amy
Date: 2003-11-02 12:47
I have terrible nerves also and hyperventilated just before I played my last solo! The reason, I think, was the build-up to it all. I could not stop thinking about it and only started to enjoy myself after my solo was over. I think if you think to yourself "I'm gonna mess up" then you probably will. You make yourself more nervous if you know you're going to be nervous, if you see what I mean. I know it's easier said than done, but try not to think about it, relax, and more importantly, enjoy yourself!
Also, make sure you are prepared. Know the piece well and make sure you can play it in your sleep whilst standing on your head (though I don't suggest trying this!).
Good luck!!!
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2003-11-02 13:38
What I told my daughter was that performances go just like the rehearsals. If the rehearsal went well, the performance will go well. Since her rehearsals went well, I had every confidence in her.
Everyone is nervous to some extent. Remember that all of the people in the audience are really your friends, and they all want you to succeed.
Regards
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Author: hans
Date: 2003-11-02 15:27
The key element, as Amy has written, is "make sure you can play it in your sleep".
Next, to reduce anxiety or nervousness, it is possible to desensitize yourself by experiencing the situation that is causing the anxiety in a non-threatening environment with yourself in control. In the case of public performance, you could play concerts for progressively larger groups of your family and friends at every opportunity available to you until you are able to perform well in a relaxed state in front of an audience.
Finally, avoid anything containing caffeine (coffee, tea, colas, chocolate) on the day of your performance. They are likely to exacerbate anxiety.
Good luck,
Hans
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2003-11-02 17:29
Besides the above, try recording your playing REGULARLY. It's amazing how nervous you can get in a room by yourself with your little tape player recording you. Record your practices and play them back. You'll hear how others hear you (except that the recording doesn't capture the beautiful tone of the clarinet). It's an inexpensive way of "playing for others".
What's helped me, besides recording, are the same as the above suggestions: Know your music inside and out. Play it over and over, section by section and then the entire piece two or three times a day. I've found that by using a computer program that provides accompaniment I can grow comfortable playing with someone else without panicking. Also I remember an interview with Itzak Perlmann years ago - he said that he knew his music was rehearsed enough for a performance if he could play it and watch television at the same time. So at the later stages of preparation, playing with some distraction going on around you would help you focus and not get thrown by whatever noise happens during performance.
Play in front of small groups of supportive people, not your little brother who'll laugh at anything you do.
Take advantage of opportunities to speak in front of groups - classroom assignments, at your work, etc. You'll get accustomed to public speaking / performance in front of many pairs of eyes and ears.
Depending on your audience, many of them don't know your music anywhere near as well as you do. A mistake might not even be noticed. If you just continue as if it never happened and can recover well, some will even say it was a flawless performance - imagine that! Or those who know the music will just recognize it for what it was, a small slip. Who cares?
Nerves will always be there. Use them to propel you to a great performance, but DON'T let the nerves or overconfidence cause you to speed up your playing. Hold yourself back to the pace you used in practice or you can de-rail your playing. Even well-experienced professional players or opera singers get nervous before performances, so view it as something positive. We're all chickens to some degree or other, some of us just have learned to deal with it.
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2003-11-02 23:34
I don't have any problems with performances; I love them. Auditions, on the other hand, have always caused me problems! The tape recorder/minidisc/other recorder is a wonderful solution! I always had difficulties with taped auditions to send in and think that this way of practicing will help!
Katrina
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-11-03 23:58
Look - if you're prone to nerves, nothing cures it better than a stint in the chorus of a community theatre group.
Weird costumes, shocking music, and audience members who will laugh at you at the drop of a hat
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Author: Markus Wenninger
Date: 2003-11-04 06:55
if You were n o t nervous before any concert, that would be a real cause for nervousness. One has to be nervous - players who aren´t, are petrified & too selfassured to produce a work of art; if a work of art ist not constantly risking to become ridiculous, it doesn´t exist at all, it is essential, this being on the brink as a playing situation.
& then: Breathing exercises, watching cartoons, doing literally everything but those hurried "one last rehearsing"-playing right before the concert. Reading helps me enormously, usually. Or sitting by myself, in a calm corner. Play concerts of every kind as often as possible - the "bad kind" of nervousness tends to wear off with time.
all the best,
Markus
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Author: deepriver27
Date: 2003-11-05 11:39
I gave up playing for many years for just this reason. I have been playing again at the age of 45 for about 1 1/2 years now and was invited to join a ragtime band. I posted here after my first gig - I was a nervous wreck. During the summer we did alot of gigs and I've decided - as Markus says ("Play concerts of every kind as often as possible") - that there is really no substitute for gaining as much experience as you can performing. I feel much more comfortable onstage now and I really look forward to performing, which I never did before. Ragtime can be a real challenge, and what adds to its difficulties is that the clarinet is really prominent. Now I love sharing this music with an audience. We practice scales until we feel comfortable with them - I think performing is no different. Good luck.
Bill
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Author: Aquila
Date: 2003-11-05 12:18
THANKS A LOT EVERYBODY
I'm really glad that so many people understand my problem!
Whilst performing, I will think of all your fantastic replies, and only that will make me confident! :-D
No really I'm gonna try all of this out and I'm sure it will work
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You made an (not so) old man happy!
Martijn
I'm 15 years old, live in Belgium and play the clarinet...
What more do you need to know? :-)
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