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Ain't no different than blasting and farting a rousing solo strain of 'Jada', 'Ballin the Jack', or 'Darktown Strutters Ball'. A solo is a solo. Doesn't matter if you're doing it for grades, money, or just for fun.... I always seem to choke up just a little about four bars before it's my turn!

My situation is similar.
The sudden need for fresh air lasts about until the first 1.5 bars. After that, it usually gets better.

Have you ever experienced this:
all of a sudden during a solo, you seem to let your body and horn do all the work, and sorta take a step aside in your mind, watching yourself and wondering what´s gonna be on TV tomorrow ?

Other than that, my only advice for you at this point (In case you need any):
Warm up thoroughly tomorrow, practise if you want, but NOT the pieces of that performance. What you haven´t accomplished by tonight, you won´t learn ´til tomorrow. It´ll just mess up your self confidence.

Don't listen to anything anyone says, including this.

I believe solos & ensembles are great learning/teaching tools. They help on several levels. First of all, they expose us for what we really are. In these settings, we are no longer able to "hide out" in a large ensemble.

Ensembles: good for learning all the ensemble performance techniques which are necessary to play well in any ensemble. We have to learn to listen to the other parts. We have to tune. We have to count. We have to carry our own part, independently.

Solos: especially good for getting over the nerves hump. When I played these in high school, my knees literally shook. I was a really shy person who had confidence in his playing, but still got really, really nervous. Those solo experiences really helped me out with my personality and my playing. Today, I wish I had more opportunities to play solos. It would help keep me sharp.

My theory about nerves is that the more times we perform under pressure, the easier it gets. Add to this, however, the fact that as time passes since the last pressure performance, we lose some of that ground. If we regularly perform in pressure situations, it becomes the norm. Being the norm is generally a good thing if we wish to be successful under pressure.

I well remember my apprehension leading up to my college senior recital was quite problematic. Thankfully, my teacher had the wisdom to have me perform publicly as many times as possible during that year. This made my recital much easier on the nerves, and it went pretty well.

This probably won't help Chris much this time, but I believe the thoughts are valid, all the same.

My advise to Chris would be to try your best not to make too big of a deal of your performance. Prepare hard. Perform with brain in gear, but relaxed. As you enter the room, try one or two very deep, relaxing breaths. Good luck!

the elephant wrote:Ray,

I believe that I met you at Solo and Ensemble at Churchill HS in 1981. The girl that introduced us went to John Marshall (I went to Holmes) and her name was Julie Martin. You invited me to play in a tuba ensemble in your dining room (I think) the following week. We did Classical Gas. I had never heard tubas play stuff like that! What a great experience for me . . .

I am glad that that occurred!

Wade Rackley

OOPS!

And I have a solo this weekend and, at 40, still get a little uptight before the first note. (Sorry about hijacking the thread!)

I remember that quite well. What ever happened to Julie? I believe she was in the Longhorn band for a while.

By the way, I still have that arrangement. It was actually for four tubas. I have also redone it for two euphs + two tubas. Now exactly where it is, I'd have to seach my filing cabinet.

well....how did it go? I was there, but didn't see you tonight.

February 20th is happening. Spread the word. Your band director was notified on friday, so you can ask him for the flyer! Starts at 9 AM.

the 20th is presidents day....you don't have school!

Solos, in a ideal setting and a perfect world should be so well-prepared and so exciting to the player that the soloist can sort of put his horn on automatic and project his concentration and sound away from himself to a chosen point or person far back in the room and communicate that feeling clearly and completely with as few technical considerations as is possible.
If the soloist pulls it off, the audience "gets it" and the solo lights them up. One can tell by the audience feedback immediately if the magic is there. A wonderful event when it all comes together-makes everybody smile.

Chris,

Congrats on the excellent rating. The piece you chose is a good one. Did you learn anyhting from the experience? What did you like about your performance? What would you do differently? Where the adjudicator's comments fair and helpful? Did they provide meaningful suggestions? Interested in your response either on the board or privately. Daryl

Daryl askes a good question. What did you think of the comments, Chris? I happened to be the one that was putting the ratings into the computer so I saw what was written on your sheet. Did you agree or disagree?