Played horribly today

[Jack Clark]

EVERYBODY eventually has a bad day at everything. Once when I was a very serious amateur baseball umpire, I had a game in which I could not do a thing right.

If I were your conductor and your reaction had been "Hey, what's the big deal?" I'd be looking for a new third chair. But your reaction was to kick yourself publicly. Good sign. If there were one guy who I could be sure would wood shed the heck out of his next concert, it'd be you.

[THE SAW]

Where was the solo that you played, and in what piece? Did God intervene so at least it was in tune?!

What I'm getting at is to have a sense of humor about these terrible days. We've all had 'em-in a few months you'll be telling some friends over beers about 'the worst concert of your life."

Seriously-look to the obvious: Is your vision OK? Are you having family problems or something similar? SOMETHING was seriously distracting you. From what you say, it was out of the blue, so a change in your preparation may not be necessary. I bet your next concert will be fine.


Best,
S.A.W.

[Mike Goodbar]

Was back at the scene of the crime last night...had a concert with the same orchestra (Wisconsin Philharmonic) and section I stunk up last Spring, and while I didn't play a flawless performance by any means, things went considerably better than May's debacle.

I have to admit, the thought of stepping in it again was hanging heavily on my mind. I felt well-prepared...spent a lot of time with the parts, but I could feel the apprehension creeping in as 7:30 approached. So instead of shedding the tough sections 15 minutes before the gig, I indulged myself in some long tones and just got into that relaxed "listener" frame of mind.

The repertoire was pretty tough...A Verdi overture and then an orchestration of Corgliano's Sonata for Violin and Piano. Not that tough technically, but the time sigs were shifting madly and there were some exposed parts. I missed a couple of entrances, but was solid on most. Second half was Enigma Variations. Again, not a perfect performance, but kept poised and relaxed through most of it (though Nimrod gets me choked up every time). My main focus was to be able to brush off my mistakes, and I think I succeeded for the most part.

Even got a personal "thumbs up" from the principal. Don't think I'll ever be the most confident player, but this helped a lot.

[Phil Rowan]

Good stuff, Mike! Congrats on your orchestral redemption.

I just skimmed through the whole thread and there's lots of good advice here. I'm a big believer in just not caring (so darn much). Your doing long tones instead of working on minute details with so little time before the downbeat is a form of not caring (maybe that's a misnomer.. it's more re-direction of care or focus). Long tones are also great because they slow the player down and provide mental/physical relaxation and focus. It's this mentality of not getting so worked up about things, accepting the challenge and just going in there and doing the best you can at whatever level you're at. I think getting worked up leads to worrying, leads to tension, leads to distraction, unfocused playing/reading, etc. For me the "I don't give a crap" column gets about 90 - 95% and the "I care very much about this music" gets the remaining percentage. At a month or weeks before the concert the balance between those two is a little closer to being even but when it's getting down to the wire it helps a lot to simmer down and just let go (even if you've prepared a ton or the weeks/months, read through the bass part and score with different recordings, etc). And always just make sure any mistakes that do happen get tossed in the trash can as soon as they happen.