Chicken soup for the hurt soul?

[electricninja]

Has playing the sax ever brought any of you through the hardest moments of sadness or depression?

:cry:

[stitch]

On the contrary, sax playing has plunged me into the slough of despond. It's my teacher's practice to put on a performance by his pupils for friends and family at Christmas time, and last Xmas we did half a dozen swing numbers. I've been playing a couple of years, and without any false modesty I know I'm not a good player - I have a feel for the music, but that doesn't translate into skill, and I don't practise enough (time!), don't know my scales, don't have chops, am terrified of improv. etc, etc. Anyway, come the performance I sucked big time - I already knew I couldn't play some sections, but some of those I thought I could went horribly wrong. Now nobody in the audience could tell, but I knew, and I just hated the whole experience. Even worse, a guy who's been playing for about the same time as me took a solo and really smoked.

I was seriously all ready to give it up, but as I love playing I eventually decided to carry on (couldn't face selling my horns either :cry: ). Now my teacher wants to do another one at the end of this month, and I was getting down about it. However I've had a revelation - hey I'm a grown-up - I don't have to do stuff I don't want to!!

Of course I haven't told him yet...

[stitch]

Sorry ninja - I seem to have put a hex on this thread; maybe people don't like to talk about their personal rough patches.

[Dr. Love]

I can go both ways. Sometimes, if I'm feelin' down, but decide to practice and sound good, it'll put me in a better mood. But if I sound bad, it'll kill my mood the entire day.

[max]

Yes - it's helped carry me through some very tough times. (listening also helped...).

At the same time, serious depression isn't something to take lightly. If you think you may need some extra help, please seek it out... I know it can be hard, but it might be needed.

Hang in there!!

[MS]

Stitch, a way to deal with performance pressure is to Perform. Play for anyone who eill listen: fammily, friends, in church, school, jam sessions. It helps you figure and evaluate things that have nothing to do with your preparation. Concentration is a big thing. Learning to figure things you need to focus on, and get rid of the rest.

I've heard educators say things like:
"if you think you can, YOU'RE RIGHT"
"if you think you CANNOT, you're probably also right"

If you've assimilated and ingrained information at home where you can play something well 9 times out of 10, you're in good shape. If you have information in your head which doesn't translate out of the horn yet, probably organized practice routine will help.

Music (the Arts) can help you focusyour attention to an abstract world for a few minutes or several hours. Often when you get back to the practical world, your worries may not be so intense, and the vacation may allow you to consider different perspectives to evaluate a problem (problems).

For stage fright, a good antidote can be routined preactice (and concentration focus) until you feel optomistically confident that even if you have a concentration lapse, your horn and body will still play fine. A recording of the event might show thatthings you remember as terrible - may not be so bad after a couple of weeks. Also things may pop up on the recording that were much better than what you remembered in you adrenaline aroused state of performing.

[stitch]

Thanks for the input MS. Thing is: I know you're right, and the theory's all well and good, but that doesn't translate into real life - not for me anyway. Truth is I am kinda regretting telling him I wouldn't do it - but in practical terms I really don't have time to put in the practice over the next few weeks (just too many other things to do); I know also that I shouldn't compare myself to my comtemporary who took the solo - for all I know he has time to practise for 3 hours every day - I'm lucky if I can snatch half an hour... the bottom line though is that I got pretty down about it last time, and I'm in no hurry to repeat the experience.

Anyway, I shouldn't really hijack ninja's thread... :!:

[MS]

stitch, I understand what you're saying. Playing should have some elements of fun. You needn't get down if you do the best you can do under your particular circumstances. Hard to compare with others who may have more time.

Play when you can and have some fun! :D

[AuntSaxophone]

I think taking up the sax is what kept me halfway sane through the later years of elementary, middle, and highschool. It was something I could be proud of despite my other classes that I was failing horribly because of lack of being able to concentrate on them or just hating the class in general. Music was the one thing I could trust in, even if I was forced to take up the nearly my sized Bari in the first bits of middle and high school.