String/note buzz during solo runs

Willie

This is not about string buzzing, but related to the posts above: stage fright 😨.

Although I've been on stage for 58 years now, stage fright still is a "familiar" phenomenon for me. The first seconds or even minutes on stage sometimes I am just a bundle of nerves; this differs: guitar is worst (my hands and fingers can tremble); saxes are similar; brass instruments are better (less fingers involved, trumpet being more sensitive than trombone because of the smaller mouthpiece); singing is almost without any phenomena. Everything I performe for the first time is rather thrilling. I remember really big shows with me almost perishing of stomach cramps shortly before the performance - and forgetting that I was about to die when the first song had started. I try to prepare backstage with gymnastic, yoga, breathing exercises, depending on what kind of performance it is.

My teachers (who had stage fright too, like almost all the professionals I got to know have admitted it) have incalculated in me to

STAY UNDER YOUR LIMIT!

And almost every time I did not, it was an at least strange and sometimes even very bad experience. So I try to play things faster at home than I have to do on stage, play higher notes on my wind instruments at home than needed for the show - and so on.

When I was a young man, I thought that stage fright would disappear with experience. That was a mistake.

pdg

I think that hearing everyone playing live alongside you, and hearing yourself through monitors (or not hearing yourself so well) messes up your sense of how lightly or strongly you're picking. I've noticed sometimes playing live that the strings were digging into my left hand fingers; later, by myself, the only way I could replicate that feeling was by picking way too hard. But it didn't sound that way to me when I was playing live, even though that's what I had been doing.

So maybe the live situation can ruin your "biofeedback" that you've gotten used to at home. One solution might be to warm up on stage with your group (maybe before the gig starts) and experiment with playing more lightly, turning adjusting your monitor, etc., until your actual proper playing level matches what you hear (like at home).

Buco

I can't call it stage fright, it's a much more subtle for me. So little that I conscientiously ask myself during the gig if I'm feeling nervous and my reply is not really. But now that I have been pondering over this just recently, I can kind of see how subtle this low stress is. I wouldn't get sweaty hands or an elevated heart beat, or hand tremor (which when I started performing in my teens was super bad) or anything that makes it obvious for me. But I'm aware that there is a difference between my safe space or if I'm just jamming with a couple of friends at somebody's place vs actual performance.

When I watch the best of the best, they always seem so supremely relaxed and nothing ever shows in their playing that points to nerves. To me, it's this aspect that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to reach, not the technical side. Although I was in a master class with Kurt Rosenwinkel and he said he'd guess on a good night he's about 70% as good as he is when in his room. So you practice for %120 percent, I guess.

Willie

"Stage fright" is a very strong word. The German expression for the phenomenon is "Lampenfieber", "lamp fever"; better "spotlight fever". It means various kinds and characteristics of nervousness connected with being on stage, from a bit excitement up to sheer panic. "Stage fright" to me seems to emphazise the panic side more. Maybe some of the phenomena described in this thread can be summarized under "spotlight fever". If you had panic on stage, you would not make the strings buzz but poke holes in the fretboard with your fingernails ...

Buco

Very timely, as if Martin knew;

https://youtu.be/pvLmHt5DA6M

Willie

Fantastic! Had some problems with that heavy scottish accent, but what I understood is, that you can switch the feelings of nervousness and anxiety to a positive excitement, looking forward to perform.

Buco

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/110836#Comment_110836

Same feelings describe the nervous state and the state of positive excitement.

I'm gonna write about this more when I have more time but it has to do with breathing. Lately one of the things I've been doing is playing slowly enough and making sure I'm breathing slowly and deeply at the same time. Because I believe good chunk of this low stress is coming from shallow breaths or stopping to breathe for a second or two completely.

crookedpinky

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/110836#Comment_110836

Seriously, if you think that's a "heavy Scottish accent" then you'd be totally lost if you heard a genuine Glasgwegian or Aberdonian accent. I am Scottish and thought that the guy on the video spoke really clearly but then I have the benefit of being born here so I can understand your difficulty in understanding him.

Willie

@crookedpinky

"... so I can understand your difficulty in understanding him."

At school we were used to some kind of Oxford English, with audible German accent. So I am glad if I understand "normal" British or American English.

I grew up in Munich; when my parents talked the way they did at home in their small north Bavarian village, people had the impression of someone barking more than speaking in a German dialect.