What's going on in your head when you're playing?

[GC]

GC,
It’s pretty boring, but - if you can play a piece well enough to play along with a YouTube recording - you’re not going to get lost in it… and – when you screw up playing along with YouTube – the only person that hears the screwing up is you.
The tuba is pretty loud, so you might need some fairly serious amplification coming out of your phone or computer.
I am handed some pretty kooky stuff more often than once or twice a year, and thank goodness most everything has been played at least a few times before, recorded, and uploaded to YouTube.

Not at all a bad idea. I probably need to do that with this year's NABBA test piece. It has a lot of high speed runs I'm struggling to keep up to tempo.

[bloke]

Not being a brass band player – as there is not one around here, if there are any “runs“ in orchestral music, I’ve probably already encountered them. The main challenge with complex/new/kooky orchestral music is sitting quietly for a minute or several minutes of and keeping precise track of where I am in the music, particularly if it’s not just hopping along at some predictable time signature - and not composed in such a way that just thumps every downbeat for the listener.

November a year ago, I played a brass choir concert. I’m a competent tuba player, and I’m not even sure that I even misplayed one note in any of the pieces – and even played a little solo work in the midst of it, but all of that occasional-to-routine gymnastic playing was child’s play compared to very complex counting - keeping track of others’ playing while not playing.

It is far easier to practice and master traits difficile in a piece than it is to practice and master counting through others’ confusing-sounding passages in a piece (reminiscent of an autistic close relative of mine excited about and rapidly explaining the intricacies of some complex video game).

[GC]

Complex rhythms aren't too much of a problem for me. Distractability is. I can read a complex part pretty well, but on subsequent playings my mind can drift, and I make stupid mistakes. It's getting worse as I get older.

Repetition is also both a problem and an aid. I get lost on highly repetitive parts. Counting long rests is rough if my attention drifts. On the other hand, repeating a difficult passage over and over so that muscle memory takes over gets me through the technical stuff.

[the elephant]

What's going on in *my* head while I play in the orchestra is a little *ding* once every minute to tell me I made another 66¢…

[windshieldbug]

What's going on in *my* head while I play in the orchestra is a little *ding* once every minute to tell me I made another 66¢…

How mercenary of you!

[bloke]

What's going on in *my* head while I play in the orchestra is a little *ding* once every minute to tell me I made another 66¢…

In the past, similar types of things occurred to me, but - were it that they still did - I would not go at all, would (simply) stay home, and would only slick out horns to sell and fix other folks' horns.

OK...I'm admitting that I enjoy tooting with good groups, but (and yes) not enough to do it merely "for the love of it".
...yet being paid - (at least) something - is a requirement of mine, and indicates that those for whom I'm playing actually care whether-or-not I'm there playing for them. Otherwise, there are several others - in this little region - who own tubas, and a few of whom play pretty darn well...certainly plenty well enough to do a fine job of covering "tuba parts"...and possibly some of them (per the game that I regularly play) without a conductor/music director uttering the word, "tuba".

[the elephant]

It's a theoretical 66¢ ding I hear, as I am actually on an annual salary. I get paid when I work. I get paid when I stay home. It's all good.

[bloke]

Theoretical dings are always easier to remove than analog/real-time/3D dings.

Most people - when they hear them - say to themselves (after taking a look), "Thank GOODNESS nothing happened", but - when bloke looks at their ding-place (yup) there's always an actual ding, rather than a theoretical one.

...and now, a word from our sponsor:

[Dopey]

I had a conversation about this a few months ago and walked away a bit concerned :)

A fellow musician(better than I) made a comparison to the skill for kicking a soccer ball vs reading/playing music. I didn't understand that comparison as I felt kicking/aiming a soccer ball happens 99% unconsciously and it is just 'magic' that your foot knows ends up contacting the ball in the precise right spot to send the ball where you want it. Same goes for throwing a football, etc, etc.

Playing music I very very very much need sheet music to read. I also do not tend to be that far 'ahead' reading vs what i'm playing. I look ahead to remind myself of a lick or passage coming up, or when sight reading where things are heading. However I am very close to looking at whichever note I am playing.

My friend was a bit surprised, and for him the sheet music was more of a reference but his mind/ear/instrument generally knew what to play next without having to be so close to 'real time' on the sheet music.

I consider myself to have a terrible ear, and while I can transpose melodies I know on the fly and relatively good theory (or back when I was in college anyway), I cannot for the life of me pick out a common melody on a piano from ear/memory. Even something as simple as 'marry had a little lamb', since I don't know it, I can't figure it out. Amazing grace I can play in any key, on any instrument that I can be told a note and how notes change based on keys. This is because i 'know' it - 5(F) 1(Bb) 3(D) 1(Bb) 3(D) 2(C) 1(Bb) 6(G) 5(F), etc.


So for me, when I am playing it is mainly being aware that other thoughts are not creeping in. Specifically work or other life stressors. I try to be conscious if I start drifting about a meeting tomorrow, or an email I need to send and bring myself back to the music. If I have not drifted away I am thinking of the tone and style I am creating in relation to the piece.

[the elephant]

I suffer from dyslexia, so I read note-for-note, just very quickly. I am unable to read ahead, and I must SEE each note as I play it. However, I memorize things very accurately (through hard work and repetition, not because I am good at memorization) and tend to perform things by memory much better than when I use music. When I played the RVW Concerto with the MSO in 1998 I played it from memory and it went very well. I cheated in rehearsal and used the music "as a reference" and it pulled me into it and suddenly I was having all the same issues. I put it away and things went much better for me. My dyslexia runs in waves that last years at a stretch, so sometimes I am nearly unable to read music at all for a whole nine-month season. In such cases, I have memorized everything, all year long, for upwards of 150 services/many different programs. I have played Mahler 1, Shostakovich 5, and Tchaik 4 and 5 all by memory in years past. All were excellent performances. So in my world, what goes through my head while I am playing is a note-for-note reading of the music at speed. This takes a ton of concentration. This has been my reality since I first learned to read, so I am very good at it by now, but I hate it. I live my work-life very stressed out because of it. I do not have the time normally to dedicate to memorizing everything I play, so this only happens when I am really having a bad time and I have important (exposed) stuff to perform, and these days I only memorize passages where I would drag if I read note-for-note.

[Charlie C Chowder]

First of all, I am happy to just get as chance to play, with or without pay. Not good enough for a regular paying gig as I try to play too many things. I have no speed and my sight-reading sucks. (I go to a sight'-reading group once a month for flutists, to improve.) But I love to play music anyway I can.

As to what do I think about while playing, I am very in the moment. How do I sound, am I helping or hurting the group? Listening to where I am in time and the acoustic space of the group. Am I an important part to the sound of the group or just doubling up with another instrument in that space? How can I help the total sound? When playing alone, it is still about the sound, timing and rhythm. It must be pleasing. When practicing, that is different. I can watch TV while working on fingering on the guitar or bowing on the cello. But I play to please myself, to wash out the troubles of the day and reach a point I like to call the "Zone". Everything is good, I am relaxed, and floating.

And then my wife tells me to take out the trash!
CCC

[Doc]

And then my wife tells me to take out the trash!
CCC

It sucks when reality sets in!