"Play one wrong note and you die."
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Has anyone seen the trailer for the Grand Piano thriller with Elijah Wood? I'm sure glad no one leaves notes like that on my music. LOL.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Doing a televised Mass sometimes feels very similar to that... but without the death.
    Thanked by 1expeditus1
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    I imagine doing a televised performance must be a bit stressful. Where did you play?
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    JulieColl, just watching the trailer gives me the sick-stomach reaction. I wish I could tell you some of the things that I have experimented with to relieve performance anxiety, and the pitiful results. Recently, I was halfway through a postlude, when my brain started warning me that "you might blow this," and suddenly my left hand went into spasms, with my last three fingers twitching in the air, and there was no way I could make them touch the keyboard, for the rest of the piece.
    Thanked by 2JulieColl R J Stove
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    You have my entire sympathy, expeditus! I don't usually get stage fright too badly when I play, but sometimes when we're in the middle of singing a polyphonic piece during Mass, the thought will suddenly strike me that "You're the only alto, and if you mess this up, this will turn into a train wreck" and it's all I can do to keep going and keep my voice from going all wobbly.
  • Ally
    Posts: 227
    Wow, did you all watch the trailer?
    Running to the dressing room during your rests? Totally unrealistic.
    Thanked by 1futurefatherz
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 904
    Kind of reminds me of this movie:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_3XaaeRXI
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    What, are they running out of movie ideas!
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    What, are they running out of movie ideas!


    They actually ran out of ideas about 50 years ago.

    Stage fright: I don't get that so much, as people trying to talk to me and moving around me as I play. I sometimes want to yell, "Sit down, and shut up!" LOL
    Thanked by 1expeditus1
  • futurefatherz
    Posts: 36
    Running to the dressing room during your rests? Totally unrealistic.

    Glad somebody noticed that besides me...
    They actually ran out of ideas about 50 years ago.

    LOL

    The first fifteen (or so) Masses I've played the organ for, I would become so excited/nervous that my arms and legs would shake like I had Alzheimer's. I guess it didn't help that, for my first Mass, I was premiering a new composition of mine. I know it didn't help that my instructor (much scarier than an unnamed sniper!) was standing right next to the organ the entire time.
    Thanked by 2expeditus1 JulieColl
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    Charles,
    That behavior IS very annoying. I "get it" (still hate it, but it comes with the territory) when playing jazz at a wine bar - the folks are dumb, drunk, or both - but it never ceases to amaze/confuse/frustrate me when that happens at church. Really, people? I'm working all four limbs and making eye-contact/head-nods with the ensemble, with 4 out of 5 senses simultaneously engaged (I've never tasted an organ, but maybe that's worth future investigation), and PIPs want to come over and have a little chat during the recessional hymn? JUST WAIT. WE'LL BE DONE IN 2 MINUTES.
    Thanked by 3expeditus1 JulieColl R J Stove
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    Aren't PIP's supposed to come up to us and talk to us during the recessional hymn? Especially if we're doing a Bach piece with a lot of runs?
    Thanked by 2francis R J Stove
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    The title of this thread made me think of this:

    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    I haven't had exploding pianos, but I did have some ancient magnet switches stick and start smoking in the console one morning. Fortunately, I shut off the power before the console went up in flames.
    Thanked by 3JulieColl M. Jackson Osborn Andrew Motyka
  • francis
    Posts: 10,824
    I avoid plAying bach when i have the runs

    Manuals alone is a much safer way to go
    Thanked by 1ryand
  • R J StoveR J Stove
    Posts: 302
    There is a gentleman in Chicago called Dr. Gerald Stein who has written about performance anxiety and possible methods of keeping it under control. As a severe sufferer from performance anxiety myself while wearing my organist's hat (especially in complex pedal parts, though with manual-only music I'm okay and though public speaking presents no problem with me whatsoever), I read Dr. Stein's words with interest. His policies differ from most rival tips I have encountered - short version of such tips: "Start chugging down beta-blockers" - in that as far as I can determine, they cannot do harm. Make of his counsel what you wish:

    http://drgeraldstein.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/how-self-consciousness-misleads-us-the-rock-guitar-performance-anxiety-story/
    Thanked by 4expeditus1 JulieColl Andrew Motyka CHGiffen
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    I avoid plAying bach when i have the runs.

    Manuals alone is a much safer way to go.


    Francis, couldn't you take Imodium, and still play? Is it safer to play just manuals, because rapid leg/foot movement activates things?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    I avoid plAying bach when i have the runs


    I avoid playing Bach as much as is humanly possible. LOL.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,824
    CharlesW 6:31AM Thanks
    Posts: 3,996

    I avoid playing Bach as much as is humanly possible. LOL.


    Curious. What is your thinking?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,824
    Expeditus:

    lol
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    I don't like Bach!!!!!
  • TCJ
    Posts: 986
    I don't like Bach!!!!!


    There goes all your credibility!
    Thanked by 1R J Stove
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    I am perfectly willing to listen to others play Bach, but don't enjoy playing his works myself. My preferences in composers and instruments tends more to the French than the German. I don't think my credibility is determined by liking the works of a heretical German Protestant composer. And, my credibility certainly is not up to you.
  • TCJ
    Posts: 986
    Sorry, but I don't know how to use purple text. I thought it was quite apparent that I was joking.
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    I don't think my credibility is determined by liking the works of a heretical German Protestant composer.


    All good Protestant composers were closet Catholics. :)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    Well, hopefully they were closet Catholics. I actually liked the North German composers much more before I went to college. I had a strident organ-reformer as teacher for a while who kind of forced too much of that music on his students. We students talked about the day when we could get away from him and play what we liked. I played major Bach works in my younger days, but pretty much dropped them when I went to another school and worked with a teacher who emphasized French organ literature. It was more to my liking. Bach fell our of favor for a couple hundred years, then came back into favor. It will happen again. Musicians like their ears tickled with something new just like audiences do. It all runs in cycles.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    OK. No offense taken, TCJ. Blessings on you and on your house.
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