Posted by Rick Denney on October 03, 2001 at 17:09:27:
In Reply to: Re: Adrenalin posted by Dr. Tuba on October 03, 2001 at 16:38:09:
Thanks, Jo--er--Dr. Tuba, that is good advice and simple also. It seems obvious but it escaped my attention completely.
I'm reminded of something Patrick Sheridan said at a master class. He said that he was glad he wasn't in the audition game--including auditions in school (he was talking to a college-student guineau pig)--because everything rested on a single performance. Because he performs so often, he can shrug off a concert not up to his highest standards because he knows he'll be able to do it again the next night.
That rings true with my own experience in the TubaMeisters. With 8 shows a day, mistakes were inevitable and you just had to take them in stride. Now, I perform on tuba in public with that much exposure perhaps once or twice a year. I listen to recordings of the pros, can't even approach that level, and fail to meet the standard. So, in some wierd way, I'm playing for a bunch of pros who aren't even there. Psychotic, or what?
There is one pro there--the conductor is a pro tuba player. I can't meet that standard! So why try?
I put those beta blockers in the same category as Matt's "embouchure juice." It's a mental problem that I'd prefer to solve mentally, rather then treat the chemical symptoms with chemical solutions.
Rick "sometimes the most seemingly complex problems offer the simplest solutions" Denney