Grace Notes Music Studio

Spring has arrived and for many student musicians, this usually means playing a Spring recital. My students have been preparing their solos for Solo Commonalities for a little more than a month.

Preparing for a concert can cause otherwise calm musicians to become jittery, obsess about their future performance, and practice inefficiently. When the day of the recital comes around and you are about to walk on stage, you may get that feeling of butterflies in your stomach. For some, they are more like a pack of hyenas! It is hard to enjoy your performance with feelings like these.

There are a number of things I do on the day of a show to help me enjoy myself more. Some have evolved through trial and error. Others are based on advice from fellow performers. I’d like to share all of them with you and you can choose what might work for you on your next gig.

Physical Preparedness

It is vital to get a good night’s sleep the night before. This becomes more important when I am performing in the early part of the day. For evening performances, try sleeping in a little. You don’t want to be yawning in the middle of a song.

Eat a good breakfast. With proper fuel for your body, you’ll be physically ready to play. What time you are playing will impact when to eat that last meal, whether it is lunch or dinner. You don’t want to go on stage feeling full. Not only will your energy be diverted to processing your meal, you’ll also find it difficult to take a deep breath and produce beautiful sound.

Drink water. Keep yourself hydrated with delicious, room temperature water. Avoid sodas and other sweet drinks. These will introduce sugar-laden moisture to the inside of your instrument and gum up your reed.

Stretch your body. In the previous issue of Musician’s Motivator, I described a great way to stretch and get your breath moving. Review that article.

Mental Preparedness

Listen to your music. When you have been practicing your music regularly, you’ll find that the music is in your head, ready for you to listen to at any time. So go ahead, sit down and listen to your performance. Read the music as you listen or not – whatever is comfortable. This is not an exercise to see if you have memorized the music. This is a way to relax. Hear the music played excellently in your head and feel the joy of a successful performance.

Take a guided visualization. Before my students went on stage at last Fall’s recital, I led them through a guided visualization designed to tap into the great store of self love we all hold in our hearts. When you feel nervous on stage, you can revisit the wonderful feelings evoked by the visualization. Read the full text of the visualization here. Try using it before your next performance.

Technical Preparedness

Practice lightly. Play an abbreviated version of your regular warm-up routine. My regular routine includes longtones, scales, finger exercises, altissimo patterns, chromatic and wide leap passages, vibrato studies, and intonation work. Select the foundational warmups, such as longtones, scales, and finger exercises. Always start at relaxed tempi and gradually increase as necessary.

Selections from solo. Perform a light practice of challenging technical passages at slower tempos; gradual increase of tempo is optional. Overdoing these passages could induce feelings of insecurity. Have faith in your weeks of practice that have brought you to this moment of performance. (See Take a Guided Visualization above.)

Reed selection. If you are using cane reeds, you will need to select one reed for performance and have at least one more to use as a backup on hand. In the days and perhaps weeks leading up to your performance are when you need to be breaking in your reeds and keeping a chart of their individual performance strengths. This subject will be delved into more fully in a future edition of Musician’s Motivator.

Ready to Perform

I’ve addressed physical, mental and technical preparedness for a performance. By taking these suggestions into account for your next show, you will feel more successful, enjoy your performance more, and best of all, have more fun. See you on stage!

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To play a wind instrument, you take a breath in and then exhale into your horn. But the exhale is more than a sigh, isn’t it? It’s a directed breath, a supported breath. In the same manner in which you push air out of you when blowing up a balloon, you push air into your instrument. And the diaphragm – that muscle below your rib cage – is a major participant in this process.

Take a moment and focus your attention on your breath right now. Is it shallow or deep? quiet or noisy? fast or slow? short or long? are you breathing through your mouth or your nose? Now attend to your posture. Are you slouched? leaning back? sitting forward? up straight? Are your arms resting in your lap? down at your sides? propping up your chin?

In the normal course of your day, we usually don’t think about our breath and breathing. However, come time to play and breathing is front and center of your attention.

I’d like to share with you a couple of exercises that will strengthen your breath and improve control of your air.

Stretch and Breath
This exercise loosens stiff muscles and warms my body in preparation for playing. Yoga practitioners will recognize parts of the Sun Salutation (a series of yoga poses) in this sequence of breathing and body movement. Perform all movements gently. Do not over stretch or move to the point of pain. The goal of this exercise is simply to move the body and move the breath. Read through the instructions completely to familiarize yourself with the order of movements.

Begin in a standing position. Feet placed about hip-width apart. Arms at your sides. Gaze straight ahead.

Take a deep breath in as you raise both arms up over your head.
Exhale as you stretch a slight bend in your back, moving your arms back with your torso.
Inhale and come back to center.
Put a slight bend in your knees as you exhale and fold forward from your hips.
Inhale as you bend your knees and slowly come down into a squatting position. Stay here for a few breaths, then stand erect on a deep inhale.
Continuing to hold the arms overhead, on an exhale lean to the right stretching the side body. Inhale back to center.
Exhale and lean to the left, stretching the side body. Inhale back to center.

After going through this simple series of gentle stretches and breathing, you can approach your practice session in a more relaxed manner. You may find that this stretch not only loosens stiff muscles and warms your body, but also helps bring focus to your music practice. Through awareness of your breath and your body you become more present and attentive. You will notice a difference in the level of enjoyment of your practice.

Pinwheel Breathing
This exercise helps me build control and strengthen my breath. You’ll need a prop for this activity – a pinwheel. Read through the instructions completely to get an overview of the exercise.

You can do this activity either standing or sitting. Hold your open hand in front of your face about four inches away from your mouth. Purse your mouth and exhale onto your hand. Take note of where on your hand your breath is hitting. Replace your hand with the pinwheel, positioning the pinwheel in the same area where your breath is directed.

Take a deep breath in through your mouth. Purse your mouth and direct your breath onto the pinwheel.

What happens to the pinwheel when you exhale all your air quickly? What happens when you puff gently? How long can you make the pinwheel spin continuously? Does the side or the face of the pinwheel spin more smoothly?

Try it again, this time take a deep breath through your nose. What is different? Can you exhale longer?

Variations: Move the pinwheel closer to your mouth. Move the pinwheel further away from your mouth. Experiment to find what combination gives you the most control of your breath. Use different postures – sitting up straight, lying on your back, leaning back in an easy chair or couch, leaning forward from the edge of your seat. Make a game of it!

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