Re: Playing with too much tension.
Originally Posted by
JimKo
... or when playing with really good people. ... limits smooth playing and even causes me to occasionally miss notes.
Sounds familiar!
After decades of (on & off) rock bands, casual jams, and "'round the 6-pack" folk music, I joined a mandolin orchestra, playing guitar. That first year was pretty intimidating, reading from sheet music and believing that, unlike my rock/folk buddies, "these people ACTUALLY know what they're doing". Nervousness somewhat went away upon realizing that there's "anonymity in numbers", and that any mistake I made wouldn't be TOO obvious, so they actually happened less frequently.
By far the worst was a small gig near the start of my 2nd season, with only 6 or 7 playing and me being the only guitar. Didn't expect to be nervous hardly at all, but stage fright hit unexpectedly and my shaking hand actually missed notes during a guitar solo. Red face, much? BUT, it wasn't a disaster, and that was probably the turning point: where just realizing that it wasn't a disaster largely made the issue go away.
For me, it was also important to realize that "classically trained" is nowhere close to "all-knowing". We all have our own strengths & weaknesses and, besides, -across all genres- the others are too busy worrying about their own performance to waste effort critiquing mine, or yours.
Keep in mind that ALL of us have been beginners and/or have taken big steps forward, so we've all been there at sometime or another!
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
- Ian Tyson
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