Interesting Experience

peanuts56

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As I've gotten older (63)I've begun to sometimes experience a bit of anxiety or stage fright. In my previous musical life as a trumpeter I rarely ever had issues with stage fright. I've played the National Anthem solo in front of 4 to 5 thousand people and never gave it a second thought.
I sometimes play solo uke at church, mostly during communion or for the postlude. We have no musician on staff due to $$$ issues and several members have stepped in and volunteered their musical talents.
I was scheduled to play solo during communion this past Sunday. I recently had cataract surgery on both eyes. For the time being I can't wear the glasses I usually wear as the prescription is too strong. My doctor told me I would need to wait until the end of May to get a new prescription. By then everything in both eyes would be healed. I'm legal to drive without glasses but will need a much weaker prescription. For now I just need reading glasses.
I had the readers on while I was playing even though I memorize everything I play. I noticed that I could barely see the congregation with the readers. My anxiety level pretty much disappeared and I played flawlessly. Out of sight, out of mind! I wish I had discovered this a few years ago.
I also sing in the choir and our director plays finger style pretty well. One choir member just started playing ukulele after 50 years playing guitar. We played Gordon Charr's Roxy's Waltz for the postlude. The convert from guitar doesn't finger pick so she played the chords in a nice rhythmic waltz pattern. Roxy's Waltz has two melodies played simultaneously. Samantha played the A melody and I played the B section.
There's a video on the church's Facebook Page if anyone is interested. Google St. John's Episcopal Church Facebook Page, Waterbury, Conn. I'm the bald one!!!!!!!!!
 
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Well done. Roxy's Waltz sounded great on your video. My goal for the year is to play a solo at church. I've worked up a short chord melody to How Great Thou Art. Normally our piano guy plays the prelude, but when he's out of town, others step in. I told our band leaders that I'd like to give it a try sometime this summer. I've played it for all three of my uke groups, and everyone loved it. My nerves do go through the roof though. I can play it cold, without the music, at home or just noodling around at my groups. But the minute I'm in front of the room full of people, my heart rate soars & my brain goes a little bit fuzzy. Funny thing is, afterwards people come up to me and tell me I looked so calm while playing.
 
As I've gotten older (63)I've begun to sometimes experience a bit of anxiety or stage fright. In my previous musical life as a trumpeter I rarely ever had issues with stage fright. I've played the National Anthem solo in front of 4 to 5 thousand people and never gave it a second thought.
I sometimes play solo uke at church, mostly during communion or for the postlude. We have no musician on staff due to $$$ issues and several members have stepped in and volunteered their musical talents.
I was scheduled to play solo during communion this past Sunday. I recently had cataract surgery on both eyes. For the time being I can't wear the glasses I usually wear as the prescription is too strong. My doctor told me I would need to wait until the end of May to get a new prescription. By then everything in both eyes would be healed. I'm legal to drive without glasses but will need a much weaker prescription. For now I just need reading glasses.
I had the readers on while I was playing even though I memorize everything I play. I noticed that I could barely see the congregation with the readers. My anxiety level pretty much disappeared and I played flawlessly. Out of sight, out of mind! I wish I had discovered this a few years ago.
I also sing in the choir and our director plays finger style pretty well. One choir member just started playing ukulele after 50 years playing guitar. We played Gordon Charr's Roxy's Waltz for the postlude. The convert from guitar doesn't finger pick so she played the chords in a nice rhythmic waltz pattern. Roxy's Waltz has two melodies played simultaneously. Samantha played the A melody and I played the B section.
There's a video on the church's Facebook Page if anyone is interested. Google St. John's Episcopal Church Facebook Page, Waterbury, Conn. I'm the bald one!!!!!!!!!

I'm so far from Stage Fright. I start freezing and making mistakes if I just try to record myself.
 
Until i was about 19 I had terrible stage fright, I'd stumble through a book report in class in a sweat, or be in a play where I couldn't say my opening line (I joined the class because Suzie Mitchell was in it), or get up in front of synagogue and do the closing hymns and freeze. At 19 I applied for a job as an usher at TV studio in Hollywood only because my friend couldn't take it and I needed to make some money.

I passed the interview and reported to work the next day. The manager gave me and the other usher a blazer and lead us out to the sidewalk where the audience was waiting, when I suddenly realized that I would have to get up in front of a couple hundred people and tell them what to do, but in that same instant I got over it because my sense of obligation to the job was stronger than my fear. I've never had a problem with stage freight since.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 9 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 34)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
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Stage freight, eh? I'm glad you've shed that burden.:shaka:
 
Until i was about 19 I had terrible stage freight...



This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 9 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 34)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers


In surveys, the fear of speaking in public is often greater than the fear of death.
 
I've always had a fear of performing or speaking to a crowd. My wife on the other hand loves to participate in community theater and sings in fine arts groups. One of the several goals I had when I started playing the ukulele was to overcome that fear. I just have always admired people like my wife who can get up in front of an audience and play. Especially solo players who play coffee shops or busk on the street corner. You have to be pretty brave to put yourself out there like that. I really wanted to be that person all my life and I wasn't getting any younger. It has worked pretty well, but I have to admit that it hasn't always been easy. After five years of it, I still get real anxious in anticipation. I did an open mic last Sunday and my heart was pounding just sitting there waiting my turn. I've just come to accept that is part of it. I have also come to realize that just forcing myself to get going is the hardest part. Once I start singing and playing I'm good. If I can, I'll always start out with Mercedes Benz. For some reason I can belt that one out cold. Once I get through Mercedes Benz, I can go for hours. But I'll admit, I feel like puking just sitting down to play it. Honestly, if I can get up in front of a room of people and sing songs while I play my ukulele, anyone can.
 
Speaking in public (or on the phone to strangers) and recording myself (speaking or playing) are the things that trip me up. It's not so much fear as knowing that inevitably I'll mangle words/sentences/notes when doing so. I know it's because I'm concentrating too much on the physical actions involved at those times than just "letting it flow", but knowing that's what I'm doing is a far cry from avoiding doing it. I'd call it a severe mental block.

However, I have no problem whatsoever playing at church. I'm in a small group - normally 3 of us, but often just 2 if one has to work, and sometimes we are blessed with a fourth. I play viola in that group, and have been doing so for around three years. We play all the music in the services. Even though I'm not a morning person, I'm not the slightest bit phased and in fact enjoy it, very rarely mess up, and when I do, it's so slight that the group are the only ones to notice besides me, if they even do. We don't rehearse, but just do a run-through before the service to warm up.

Don't get me started on the red recording light, though. Last time it took me at least 20 takes just to record the simple out-going message on my answering machine - which only consists of "Hi, you've reached (xxx) xxx-xxxx. Please leave a message." I was totally tongue-tied, and couldn't get through my own phone number without garbling it or saying it wrong, even with a script in front of me! But then, I'm the quiet type and don't speak that much in general. Fortunately, in my life there is little talking to do on a day-to-day basis. I've always been better at expressing myself in writing.

bratsche
 
I've always had a fear of performing or speaking to a crowd. My wife on the other hand loves to participate in community theater and sings in fine arts groups. One of the several goals I had when I started playing the ukulele was to overcome that fear. I just have always admired people like my wife who can get up in front of an audience and play. Especially solo players who play coffee shops or busk on the street corner. You have to be pretty brave to put yourself out there like that. I really wanted to be that person all my life and I wasn't getting any younger. It has worked pretty well, but I have to admit that it hasn't always been easy. After five years of it, I still get real anxious in anticipation. I did an open mic last Sunday and my heart was pounding just sitting there waiting my turn. I've just come to accept that is part of it. I have also come to realize that just forcing myself to get going is the hardest part. Once I start singing and playing I'm good. If I can, I'll always start out with Mercedes Benz. For some reason I can belt that one out cold. Once I get through Mercedes Benz, I can go for hours. But I'll admit, I feel like puking just sitting down to play it. Honestly, if I can get up in front of a room of people and sing songs while I play my ukulele, anyone can.

Congratulations and don't forget to give yourself kudos too. Since last summer when I started to play I've thought about heading to the park by the beach and just playing while looking at the surf. But as soon as the thought of how I will sound comes up I decide, to wait until I'm better. I should probably just head out when there are fewer people out.
 
Congratulations and don't forget to give yourself kudos too. Since last summer when I started to play I've thought about heading to the park by the beach and just playing while looking at the surf. But as soon as the thought of how I will sound comes up I decide, to wait until I'm better. I should probably just head out when there are fewer people out.
I didn't do this by plan to play for people, but the first summer I would go out and sit on my front deck playing my ukulele and singing songs, actually I was practicing. People would walk by. Some people acknowledged me, smiled or waved. But most people just walked by. In the mean time I was up on my deck in my relative safe place. After a few weeks a couple of regulars would stop and listen. After a while I put out some chairs for them. I still do that and the same people still walk by between the three and four in the afternoon and sometimes if I remember to put chairs out they sit down. So I think your plan of going out to the park and playing is a good one. People just walk by. It is like busking. Small doses at a time.

As far as waiting until you are better, you are always going to be getting better, so if you wait to get better you will be waiting forever. I've always been of the opinion that I don't have to be great, I just have to be good enough. Also I'm old. I don't have as much time to make my musical mark on the world as some. I need to take every opportunity that comes along, ready or not.
 
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