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When I concentrate...

At risk of the horrible ribbing I know this will get me, I was aware that I tilted my head back and half-closed my eyes when I was really concentrating on getting a particular refrain "just so." I was learning some new stuff with a friend last week, however, and he observed, "it's not just the half-closed eyes, but they kinda roll back in your head. My wife, she does that before she, you know...um...in in bed. You know?"

:eek::help::eek:
 
A friend of mine breathes extremely deeply and irregularly when playing fast alternate picking runs on guitar. It actually sort of scares me because it doesn't sound healthy.

I'm able to stay relax and am conscious of my surroundings and my body when I play.
 
I stick my lips out and pout. Sometimes I stare off into space... gets me into trouble with my singer being out front (I wasn't looking at her like that! C'mon guys!). What's really funny is when playing hard lines unamplified, I tend to grunt the notes when I can't hear them loud enough. I actually feel really anxious for some reason when I want the notes to be more powerful, so even through an amp, I grunt a lot. It's a lot better than screaming them, which I have a very strong urge to do when this happens.
 
Even if I'm not singing backups, I like to sort of talk along with the beat in a "ooh-cuh-choo-bow-buh-choo" kind of way. It keeps me on the looser side so that I'll have more fun, lock in better with my drummer, and maybe stay a little more animated and ridiculous looking for the onlookers. Ah yes, the business of... show.