[Trombone-l] airy sound

[Chris Tune]

This comes right back to that rather longish and psychological message I 
posted a couple of weeks ago.  The physical changes occur first and then 
almost immediately we notice and have any one of several reactions.  The 
trick is to have a "productive" and "helpful" reaction. . .not the 
"destructive" and "unhelpful" reaction.

The unhelpful reaction is usually fear or anger.

The helpful reaction is usually interest., . .wonder (interesting. . .what 
is this interesting change?) . . .appreciation of how good you were just 
before. . .(this change shows how very nice my sound must have been. . .).

These thoughts actually change the physiology of the body in such a way as 
to minimize the liklihood that out of control panic will take over.

Chris

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richardson, Timothy Mr. DAC USAG Ansbach DPW" 
<timothy.a.richardson at us.army.mil>
To: "Gabriel Langfur" <glangfur at yahoo.com>; <trombone-l at server5.samford.edu>
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 1:16 AM
Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] airy sound


> Perhaps I could add a small comment to the snip I left from the note 
> below.
>
>
> While I don't know if this applies to your situation, it is a common 
> problem
> in sports, and perhaps in music.  That is the phenomenon athletes call
> "choking." This is a performance slump caused by excessive 
> selfconsciousness
> and attention to a problem.  (It is sometimes called paralysis by 
> analysis,
> but this is not what happens.  Analysis occurs afterwards as anxiety 
> builds
> to panic, but it doesn't cause or worsen the problem.  Excessive awareness
> does.)  This quickly builds into a feedback cycle.  Anxiety builds,
> excessive consciousness increases, performance suffers as you try to do 
> with
> awareness something that must happen unconsciously, this increases 
> anxiety,
> etc.
>
> It is possible to focus on some minor aspect of your sound and magnify it 
> in
> your mind to the point where you really do start to play badly as a 
> result.
> Continuing to pay attention to that aspect would seem unlikely to result 
> in
> improvement!  But instead going back to basics and listening to what you 
> do
> well might break the cycle.
>
> Or not, I could be totally wrong.  Maybe one of your mute corks got stuck 
> in
> your tubing somewhere.
>
> Yes, I know the "Four Rules of Anything" require paying attention.  But 
> not
> excessive attention.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gabriel Langfur [mailto:glangfur at yahoo.com]
>
> 3. stop trying to fix a problem and instead focus on playing in a relaxed
> and natural manner.
> _______________________________________________
> Trombone-l mailing list
> Trombone-l at maillists.samford.edu
> http://maillists.samford.edu/mailman/listinfo/trombone-l