 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2006-04-18 20:26
Because I have a concert tonight, I'm wondering how others handle the "day of" preparations. Do you practice or not? I find if I practice more than just a short time (maybe 30 min.) I have mental fatigue and don't have the fresh "edge" that I want for performance. I get my reeds ready to go and try to get in the ball game about difficult passages, going through them mentally. Also, I kind of kick back and relax and try to eat a balanced diet. I know there have been discussions about this in the past, but perhaps there are new people to the board and they would enjoy giving some pre-concert suggestions.
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Author: marzi
Date: 2006-04-19 03:00
I play not at all the day of,, however I make sure I get some practice in the day before or else I get very nervous.
I've heard of a violinist in a local pro orchestra who went for a long bicycle ride before their concert that day, I can't imagine..but i suppose if you're in good shape ...
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2006-04-19 14:39
It's now the day after and I'll have to say that we sounded better than ever and I was on my game the whole program. Perhaps it was because I didn't obsess over the difficult passages and over-rehearse them the day of performance. Who knows? Everyone has their own thing, so whatever works.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-04-19 15:05
I generally do nothing special on concert day. I do my usual practice session(s) and get to the venue early enough to help set up.
My teacher, however has some critically important preparation advice:
**Know your part.
**Be certain that you can it perfectly enter on time, hold the rhythm.
If you want a bit of rubato, confine it to the space between the pulses. (He frequently trips me up by calling for subdividing measures in not-obvious ways, 3 pulses in 6/8).
**Practice even the not-so-hard spots if you will be under pressure as you pass through them.
**(He has the ability to play short (1 beat) riffs repeatedly with a metronome; and I often hear him repeating a single beat's rhythms like 20-50 times, non-stop.)
**Record yourself playing at random times of the day: just pick up the horn and play. Make written notes (grade yourself) after each playing but before listening to the recording. Listen to the recording and make more notes, re-grade yourself. If you have three "good" grades going into the concert, you have a good chance of doing a "good" job at the performance.
I'm glad you were on your game for your concert last night. Your confidence in the next should be bouyed by this success. Kool
Bob Phillips
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Author: Ebclarinet1
Date: 2006-04-19 15:29
One thing I've found over the years is FASTING some the day of the concert is especially helpful, especially for nerves. Tha way at least your stomach is not in knots. If I have an evening concert I will eat a good lunch but a light or no dinner, for example. Sometimes just getting a bottle of water and drinking it about an hour before is good. That way you're hydrated but not digesting food.
On the way to the concert I will mentally go through any difficult parts and even will sing them to myself in the car. (with my singing I definitely need to be ALONE for that exercise!) If there's a recording of the pieces we're doing I'll slip them in the car stereo and get in the mood for the piece as well. Sometimes I go through fingerings of the passages in the air too, although not while driving!
Eefer guy
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Author: frank
Date: 2006-04-19 16:19
I've seen a few players overworking passages. My feeling is that if you don't know them at concert time and need to reahearse, you will never get it anyway. By concert time, I have the reed I am going to play on. Since I play in different halls all over and in different climates and altitudes, I get a few strenghts to choose from. I blow a few notes and warm up my fingers on scales and noodle a bit. In order to play relaxed, you must BE relaxed. So, I would recommend having a day like any other. Go shopping, eat, do laundry. Then, when it is time, get on stage and focus on the task at hand. Sometimes this is easier said than done. I definitely try not to eat too heavy before a performance. It makes me sleepy and bloated! lol
I do get nervous some times though. When I do a concerto, I get a huge adrenaline rush. I have to control it or otherwise I will be a mess on stage. Backstage, I pace nervously. I only think positive. I NEVER think "oh man, that one passage is hard" because if I do, I will obsess on it and most likely mess it up. I never practice a "tough" passage ad nauseum either before a performance. It creates a mental doubt in your subconscious that you cannot do it. This is assuming that you have prepared the music well enough. I've done my fair share of last minute panic practice though! I also think of how easy this thing is going to be and how fun it is. When I get onstage, I am mentally ready. Time slows down and I feel as though things are in slow motion. This affords me with time to not worry about technique or sound, just the musical message. Anyone else experience this? The nerves wash out and I am only left with excitement and positive energy. Do I sound too California? 
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Author: Llewsrac
Date: 2006-04-19 16:22
My routine is simple and the same for performances either conducting or playing the horn. I eat a light lunch, retire to my private studeo, lock the door, turn off the phone and lights. Gather my scores or solos before me on the piano, sit in silence, eyes closed, and rehearse a complete mental performance of the program.
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Author: DressedToKill
Date: 2006-04-19 16:38
I always go to the gym or for a run for about half an hour that afternoon, I don't eat, and I always have a quick cocktail a couple hours before curtain. (Even though I've been on a stage in one capacity or another since I was a child, I have TREMENDOUS stage fright, and I find that a drink takes a bit of the edge off...the adrenaline keeps me from being anything even remotely resembling tipsy, but the drink keeps my head from exploding off of my shoulders.)
I DEFINITELY don't play that day, any longer than to check the reed(s) and remind myself that I in fact *do* know how to play, and there's no point in worrying about it.
Most importantly...I remind myself to have fun!
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-04-19 17:34
I have some problems with drinking and performing (particularly since I don't drink myself), as there are those who (like in everything else) go to extremes and get themselves tanked. Usually, they have been vocalists (in my experience), but I've had to work with any number of folks in all of the branches of music who "get lit up" during a performance. Playing clubs, restaurants, weddings and the like, where alcohol is being served and readily offered to the relatively privileged musicians just adds fuel to the fire.
Having said all of that, I too am of the opinion that some (note emphasis there) performers benefit from a single alcoholic drink prior to performance. I list the following examples:
• A karaoke-trained singer, one who has a beautiful voice and great stage presence, but who has a mild case of "stage fright". One half of a drink in her, and all is fine.
• A dynamite trombone player, classically trained, who plays his horn wonderfully right up to the point where he has to stand up and take a solo chorus. He can rip through the worst of a Bernstein score like Candide with aplomb, but ask him to do the six bar I've Got You Under My Skin solo, something so easy that I can almost choke my way through it on the Posauen (and I can't play trombone), and he locks up tighter than a PC compatible trying to function with out of date software. In his case, that one cocktail dulls his sense of fear just a tiny bit, just enough to make it all better.
When my group does our rock and R & B sets, I have found that the women singers ( both the lead and the backups) invariably give a better performance (with more "action" and emotion) after they've had that one magic drink. There's just too much extroverted activity that has to take place in their performances for most to deal with.
(My male R & B guy, for some reason, needs no such help. He does, however, sanitize his hands constantly. There's a moral there somewhere.)
So, even though I'm personally dead set against drinking in any situation, I can understand where it might help some.
As for me, I seek out the catering manager and find out if there are any chaffing dishes of crab rangoon laid on for the evening. It's usually easy to reach some sort of understanding on that topic toute suite, and then I'm set for the rest of the evening. How such a tasty little treat missed out on being a main course is beyond my ken...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2006-04-19 20:48
I don't want to drink too much water, soda or iced tea (a southern favorite) before the concert because that means a quick trip downstairs to the dressing room before the curtain. Since I don't use alcohol that's not a consideration for me, either. And as for fasting, I like a light meal about an hour before the concert--but if I fast I really can't concentrate as well. Over rehearsing is counter-productive. I agree that one needs to know the material QUITE well before a concert. If not, you're sunk.
I've played in orchestras overseas that rehearsed all day before an evening concert or recording session--and that is tough!!! This was due to a very tight schedule and having members coming in from other countries with a short rehearsal schedule for the overall event. That isn't something I like on a regular basis. I like to kick back and relax a bit before playing (maybe because I'm getting old).
I used to use Ginko Bilboa before rehearsals and concerts, but had a bit of a stomach problem develop that caused me to have to give that up. I did find the Ginko to help--at least I thought it did.
Post Edited (2006-04-19 20:51)
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Author: GBK
Date: 2006-04-19 21:00
Terry Stibal wrote:
> I have some problems with drinking and performing
> (particularly since I don't drink myself), as there are
> those who (like in everything else) go to extremes and
> get themselves tanked.
We had an interesting past thread which is now in the "Keeper' section of the bulletin board, archived for all times, entitled "Drunk at Rehearsal?"
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=20&i=642&t=642
...GBK
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2006-04-20 02:42
GBK,
I remember that thread. I wonder where Dano is today. As I recall, he was the one that seemed to want to play Devil's Advocate.
HRL
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Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-04-21 01:25
Alcohol is a strict no-no for me before I play...I derive more detriment from an increase in clumsiness than I gain in self-confidence.
I play enough to make sure that all of my reeds are alive and well.
I hesitate to mention this but......
Some folks with severe stage fright benefit from the blood pressure pill propranolol (inderal)...my clarinet teacher, who used to accompany us on the piano in our recitals, was terrified of playing piano in public and use to get a script before recitals....it's a good drug but it is also powerful and should only be considered after a long, frank discussion with your doctor, and only if you have paralyzing stage fright. You have to take it a few days before you play for it to work, you can't (or at least shouldn't) drink, and you'd better find out how it will affect your playing prior to a performance. It does drag people out quite a bit.
I AM NOT a physician or other health care professional, and making decisions solely on my advice could be hazardous to your health!
[ We've had two very long threads about drugs & performance - see the Beta Blockers threads in the Keepers furum, an article on Valerian Root, and there are a number of other references in the Klarinet Archives (available via the Search link). Please - no followups here. Mark C. ]
-Randy
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-04-21 02:58
Well, I have to confess that I too take a drug to allow me to play woodwinds. It's a Japanese product that costs about $2.74 per capsule, isn't carried on many approved drug formularies, and is only affordable to me through my medical insurance.
It causes me no end of trouble when I travel (even when carried in the prescription bottle), when I get my regular physicals for work, and if I try to fill the prescription out of town. All of this is simply because virtually no one knows what it is
It's called Evozac, and I have only encountered one doctor to date who even knew what the stuff is. And, without my two to three capsules per day, my clarinet, bassoon and small saxophone playing days would be over.
It was prescribed following the partial shut-down of my salivary glands, which appears to be secondary to my Type II diabetes. At first, the symptoms that I was showing were consistent with Sjogen's syndrome, a particularly nasty affliction that accompanies a number of different medical conditions. The old HMO was very worried about this, and much medical attention followed.
I was worked up (by a rhematologist, of all people) with all sorts of weird imaging tests (even running into one of my vocalists, who was checking on one of her MRI machine clients while I was shoved into the machine; she was so considerate that she sat in the room, unknown to me, for ten minutes until my imaging session was over), and all checked out negative. She then suggested that Evoxac would be a far better solution than the various spit supplements on the market.
It is, by a long shot. Prior to taking the little white capsules, I could take a drink of water, pop a bassoon reed in my mouth, and maybe play three bars before the seal between my lips would dry out. Clarinet playing was impossible, and even eating and sleeping were both horrid experiences.
After Evoxac, all is well except when I play ice hockey; then the trouble is too much spit. Honestly, it's always something...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: William
Date: 2006-04-21 03:44
Chance favors the prepared mind. If you have to practice on the day of the concert, its too late. Good perfromance is a result of good preparation in the practice room.
For me, some simple long tones, a couple of scales in thirds over the break, and a good rubdown of my reed is usually enough preconcert prep. Just enough playing to warm the instrument to A=440 and set my embouchure for the "long haul".
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Author: Carol Dutcher
Date: 2006-04-21 03:44
I don't play regular "concerts" but have subbed with Trad Jazz bands on occasion. I don't eat the day of the performance but fortunately these are in the afternoons from about 1 to 5 p.m. My stomach has a life of its own and therefore, I am kind to my stomach. I keep bottled water close at hand. The morning of the performance is when I check my reeds, all my supplies I may need. Anything I can think of that might come in handy, I will take along.
The day before is when I practice, practice, practice, especially if I have a song list. Sometimes I don't. Scary but true.
The day before is when I get my clothing ready so I don't have to rush around in the a.m. looking for that one particular shoe.
A pen and a little tablet is important in case somebody wants to hire you to play at Carnegie Hall, you will have something to write the date on!
If you have some business cards you might need for the Carnegie Hall gig, well take some along. Cell phone is important to have handy.
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2006-04-21 13:22
The orchestra I play in has a full rehearsal the day of the first concert of the two concert series due to time constraints (we pull it all together in the week before because our conductor is from Europe and we are on the west coast USA). That first concert I am plenty warmed up, so I will usually get my instruments warmed up to pitch and then sit quietly going through the scores mentally. For the performance the next day I do a light practice session early in the day and then a longer warmup before the concert with the same quiet time mentally going through the music.
I find I do much better with the mental warm-ups since it puts me in the right frame of musical concentration.
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2006-04-21 13:59
Terry, I used to have to keep a small piece of Trident gum (sugarless) in my mouth to have enough saliva to play. That was due to some stomach medicine I take all the time. Lately I've had enough and haven't had to use the gum. I know, I know...who in their right mind would keep a piece of gum in their mouth? Well, if kept between the cheek and gums (like a Texas cowboy does his tobacco) it works just fine. The problem comes when you forget and start chewing during a concert. Thanks for the info on your situation. Interesting.
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