hey you "too shy to play in front of anyone" peopl

[mutepointe]

dear folks: every now & then, i read that someone is too shy to play in front of people. i have a few comments to make about that. do you know how old i was before i even heard/saw an irish whistle? none of your business how old i was but you could be missing a chance to spread some good out there by being too shy. imagine if you played in front of people and someone else picked up the whistle or even better, you taught them, and imagine if they weren't too shy and played in front of more people. pretty soon, everyone dog in the world would be running for cover. i can understand some people are too shy and i can accept that but for those folks who could manage it, maybe you could play in front of someone. maybe start at a cemetary and work your way up to living people. children, especially toddlers, will give a whistle a go. besides, no one really cares if you make a mistake. do you care if folks make mistakes? making a mistake in front of people might do a world of good for all of us.
thanks for letting me comment.

[Scott McCallister]

...maybe start at a cemetary and work your way up to living people...

I've played some gigs where a cemetary would have been preferable...

[talasiga]

TWO COMMENTS, mutepoint, in support of your topic:

1. An artist is not someone who doesn't make mistakes but someone who deals with a mistake artfully ......

2. The greatest downer a shy player faces is the prospect of an audience too shy to show appreciation. The failure of expression by the artist or the audience breedsa reversion to a latent, pre-expressive world analogous to the Chaos before Divinity summoned Logos.

Our capacity to express imagination is our condition in the image of God. Shyness will ensure future rebirths. Do it now and be free!

[Finn MacCool]

The failure of expression by the artist or the audience breedsa reversion to a latent, pre-expressive world analogous to the Chaos before Divinity summoned Logos.

I wish I could speak or understand the language of the Eastern Australians so that I could tell what the hell this person just said.

[Trip-]

I wish I could find someone to play with
at least one musician.

[talasiga]

The failure of expression by the artist or the audience breedsa reversion to a latent, pre-expressive world analogous to the Chaos before Divinity summoned Logos.

I wish I could speak or understand the language of the Eastern Australians so that I could tell what the hell this person just said.

I am sorry to confound you Finn. I am surprised thatt a Californian suffers also from the tyranny of literalism.

Let me explain the nature of my sentence tangentially by pointing out that
1. It is an attempt to say something that could take a book
2. Its theme is the importance of expression, not only in performance, but in day to day life including reciprocation/appreciattion.
3. The movement of all life is a movement from latency to patency and music and art (as well as healing conversation) are some of the pinnacle examples of this.
4. The untapped human sub-conscious is analogous to the biiblical chaos before the divine impetus EXPRESSED logos and shyness in creativity may be seen as an escape from expression and therefore feeds a movement counter to our likeness to the divine.

All thhis iis arguable of course. I am happy not to be shy about my passing thoughts. Enjoy!

Mac COOL

[Martin Milner]

I wish I could find someone to play with
at least one musician.

Trip, if you told us a bit more about yourself (such as geographical location), you may find there are Chiffers nearer than you think who would be only too happy to play music with you.

I love playing with other people, they help cover up my mistakes.

[Trip-]

Martin,

Thanks for the breeze of hope...

but I'm practicly aware of my surroundings - and allready talking about it in the local irish forum No luck yet... except some pub - pub is too stressfull - to start with at least

[fearfaoin]

1. It is an attempt to say something that could take a book

Good old tal. I think you've hit it on the head. I've often found myself
completely unable to fathom your prose, and you've just made me
realize the reason: You have a talent for expressing huge ideas
using tiny sentences that cannot possibly hope to contain said ideas.

4. The untapped human sub-conscious is analogous to the biiblical chaos before the divine impetus EXPRESSED logos and shyness in creativity may be seen as an escape from expression and therefore feeds a movement counter to our likeness to the divine.

I see. So, in the beginning the Universe was chaos, just a jumble of
atoms. Then some diety (let's say God, for simplicity) spoke the words
which brought order to the chaos, and built the universe we see today.
Likewise, our brain holds the building blocks for something we could
create. For example, a jumble of notes that have no order, so they
couldn't be considered a tune, yet. When we put them together to
create a tune, we have brought order out to the chaos that was in
our brain, which is analagous to the Creator's act of creation. This
shows how we are images of our Creator, which scares us, so we
subconsiously refuse to perform, because subconsiously we are
afraid to show people our divinity.
Something like that? Lovely sentiment.

[anniemcu]

I love playing with other people, they help cover up my mistakes.

Yes indeedy! Camoflage is good!

[BillChin]

Martin,

Thanks for the breeze of hope...

but I'm practicly aware of my surroundings - and allready talking about it in the local irish forum No luck yet... except some pub - pub is too stressfull - to start with at least

You can always go to the pub to meet musicians and then meet with them later individually. There are lots of musicians out there. Maybe only half are comfortable performing in front of people.

[straycat82]

Someone who is not shy cannot be expected to understand shyness. Don't be so hard on us shy folk. When I get up on a stage, my heart races, my fingers sweat, tremble and cramp. My legs get week and I can't feel my feet. My lungs hardly work and my airflow sounds like I'm taking small punches the gut repeatedly. I get dizzy and go into sort of a trance-like state and I hardly remember my time up there once I get down. This is how I am on a stage in a quiet room full of attentive people. Now, on the other hand, when I get on stage in a pub with other musicians and a noisy, occupied crowd... I seem to do fine. I'm still a little nervous but it is quite controllable and I am able to just go... and it gets easier the longer you're up there. Now, I also have to take into account that the few times I was up on stage in a pub, I did have a couple of pints prior. I was not drunk and I am not one of those who claims to "play better drunk"... I take my musicianship more serious than that. I do, however, think that this fact may have played a small part in my calmed nerves... I just need to keep playing in front of people until it's no big deal.

[Screeeech!!!]

TWO COMMENTS, mutepoint, in support of your topic:

1. An artist is not someone who doesn't make mistakes but someone who deals with a mistake artfully ......

2. The greatest downer a shy player faces is the prospect of an audience too shy to show appreciation. The failure of expression by the artist or the audience breedsa reversion to a latent, pre-expressive world analogous to the Chaos before Divinity summoned Logos.

Our capacity to express imagination is our condition in the image of God. Shyness will ensure future rebirths. Do it now and be free!

Marvelous.

[talasiga]

Thank you fearfaoin and Screech for saving me from having to further clarify my passing thoughts on shyness.

[Mitch]

... When I get up on a stage, my heart races, my fingers sweat, tremble and cramp. My legs get week and I can't feel my feet. My lungs hardly work and my airflow sounds like I'm taking small punches the gut repeatedly. I get dizzy and go into sort of a trance-like state and I hardly remember my time up there once I get down. This is how I am on a stage in a quiet room full of attentive people...

I know that experience quite well. The funny thing about it is that if you get that first note out clean and true, all the fear starts to melt. There are some tricks you can do:

1. Imagine the audience are blocks of ice. Say to yourself "They are blocks of ice." this gives you that clear space to get out a couple of clean notes. Then you can say to yourself "I will melt them with the music.", after a little time you will feel their support and the fear will no longer be an element.

2. Practice the performance with a trusted friend and have that friend attend the show in the front row somewhere - concentrate on your friend and direct the performance as if in the practice session. Once again, you will start feeling the support of the audience.

3. Take all the things you have said above and re-word them to the oposite - e.g. "When I get on stage, My heart quickens with anticipation, my fingers feel confident and sure. My legs feel connected down into the ground and I feel warmth entering my toes.I can smell the smells of the stage and the audience mixing a wonderful tonic that makes me hungry to breathe it all in. I enter a state of joy encompassed by the spirit of the music. I have never felt so awake".

4. Practice. You should be able to execute the performance easily, comfortably and even be able to execute cleanly at a higher tempo than you perform. Competence dispells fear.

Hope this helps.