Performance Anxiety
Posting from: Tucson, AZ
I have this embarassing little problem, and I'm hoping that talking it out will help.
You see, I have this, um, love issue. My partner is gorgeous and has really nice rack, but sometimes when I go to, you know, play my "instrument" I get very nervous. I mean, I know what I'm doing, but sometimes I just get all wound up and can't perform all the steps in the right order or my timing is off or something.
It's not that I don't love her. I just worry that I won't be putting my stick in the right place at the right time, maybe not thrusting hard enough or maybe thrusting too hard at times, or perhaps I will accidentally hit the rim instead of the target at an embarassingly wrong moment.
I want her to be happy. I want to pull out all the stops and show her all my special moves. I want to play her perfectly, bringing her to a pounding crescendo and then setting her back down gently satisfied and spent. Well maybe not totally spent. There could be a few people who use her after me so I guess I should leave something for them. Anyway, as if that wasn't bad enough, now we're going to be doing it in front of about a hundred people!
Yes, that's right. I have my first and only public drum performance on 13 April. I am playing Morcheeba's Coming Down Gently. I know I can totally kick ass with this song. I just did it almost perfectly tonight, and I'm going to play it at least once a day from now until then so I will be very, very confident that I can do it. But when I was doing this during my drum lesson the other day, I kept trying to let myself picture people in front of me watching and listening and whenever thoughts of an audience crept in I lost it with the drums. So today I practiced with my eyes closed. I'm kind of wondering if I could just play without looking during the recital. I can do it with my kit, but Erik's is a little different.
I have this embarassing little problem, and I'm hoping that talking it out will help.
You see, I have this, um, love issue. My partner is gorgeous and has really nice rack, but sometimes when I go to, you know, play my "instrument" I get very nervous. I mean, I know what I'm doing, but sometimes I just get all wound up and can't perform all the steps in the right order or my timing is off or something.
It's not that I don't love her. I just worry that I won't be putting my stick in the right place at the right time, maybe not thrusting hard enough or maybe thrusting too hard at times, or perhaps I will accidentally hit the rim instead of the target at an embarassingly wrong moment.
I want her to be happy. I want to pull out all the stops and show her all my special moves. I want to play her perfectly, bringing her to a pounding crescendo and then setting her back down gently satisfied and spent. Well maybe not totally spent. There could be a few people who use her after me so I guess I should leave something for them. Anyway, as if that wasn't bad enough, now we're going to be doing it in front of about a hundred people!
Yes, that's right. I have my first and only public drum performance on 13 April. I am playing Morcheeba's Coming Down Gently. I know I can totally kick ass with this song. I just did it almost perfectly tonight, and I'm going to play it at least once a day from now until then so I will be very, very confident that I can do it. But when I was doing this during my drum lesson the other day, I kept trying to let myself picture people in front of me watching and listening and whenever thoughts of an audience crept in I lost it with the drums. So today I practiced with my eyes closed. I'm kind of wondering if I could just play without looking during the recital. I can do it with my kit, but Erik's is a little different.
posted by Kirsten | 3/26/2008 10:24:00 PM
6 Comments:
You're going to do it with someone else's kit? Dang.
Yeah, there are eleven or twelve of us playing one song each. I'm pretty sure I won't be last, but instead of sloppy seconds, I could be getting nasty ninths or something like that. :-)
I believe it will be the kit we use for drum lessons, so we'll all at least know a little something about her.
For a moment, I was even more confused than usual.
kel
My work here is done. :-)
Take a deep breath and remind yourself that you've done this hundreds of (or however many) times. You only have to do it one more time. Then remind yourself that you're doing this for fun and if you screw up, it really doesn't matter.
I usually get at most an hour of practice at a new rink before a competition, but I recognize that your case is more like having to compete in somebody else's skates. If it would make you feel better and if you have time, maybe you could ask to get a little extra practice on the set you will perform with.
If it would make you feel better and if you have time, maybe you could ask to get a little extra practice on the set you will perform with.
Thanks! This gave me an idea that I can actually do at home.
My crash cymbal is on the right side of the kit at home because it doubles as my ride cymbal. On Erik's kit, his crash cymbal is on the left which is the main difference I was worried about. So I just moved my crash cymbal over to the left so I can practice the same way at home as I'll be playing at the recital.
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