interior states
Imagine a gradient of psychological states on stage: At each end of the spectrum is an avoidance technique. Both ends are used to avoid accounting for your real abilities. Arrogance avoids reckoning of skills because they’re too little. Aloofness avoids reckoning because a person fears the freedom of their total capacity. This is a lopsided…
anxiety busters for musicians
Over the years playing half-prepared music as a collaborative pianist, I’ve developed a toolkit to start addressing anxiety and distraction while performing. I often get stuck in a loop thinking about something other than clean playing. While I don’t have a master key to focused performance yet, here are the cognitions I cycle through to…
two kinds of thinking
In practice we are trying to get a whole bunch of notes crammed into our hands/brain, and often on a short-ish timetable. So the question is how to do that. I’ve experimented with two modes of thinking and will share my thoughts on them. It’s my belief that they solve different problems. Mode 1: This…
uncollaborative piano 