[Trombone-l] Books related to performance

[Daniel Pliskin]

I’ve got two things that I use for performance anxiety.

One comes from my cousin, a fairly successful actor, who also teaches 
acting.  He says that the audience knows whether you're thinking about the 
part or you're brain dead, but they don’t know what you’re thinking about.  
Let’s say, it’s a romantic piece, you’re playing.  You could be thinking 
about that girl that you had a crush on in grade school.  The audience 
doesn’t know the particulars, they just know that your playing is very 
romantic.

The second thing that has helped me a lot, came from someone on this list.  
The word “impress” has a circle and a line through it and above it is 
written the word “express”.   As long as you’re trying to “express” 
something, you’re concerning yourself with the music and what you’re 
playing.  As soon as you start trying to “impress” people, you’re worrying 
about the audience and worrying is what you’re trying to avoid.


Back in the daze when I played R&B, I would be anxious until I made my first 
major mistake.  Now, maybe no one else knew it was a mistake, but I’d break 
out in a cold sweat.  After that, I couldn’t blow it any further, and my 
anxiety disappeared.

Jeers,

DanP

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