Re: Unselfconscious but self aware?

On 5 Jul 2005 00:33:09 -0700, "Hamish" <donotusethis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Jim said:
>
>> It struck me that to "perform" you have to be entirely unselfconscious. You have
>> to get out there and just *be*. Annoyingly and conversley, you have to be self
>> aware, and do all the things you practiced "in the kitchen".
>
>Which was a pretty good opening to thoughts on the state of mind and
>preparedness for successful gigging and floor-spotting I thought.
>Here's another couple of pence relating to the thread - and I'll ovoid
>all eggsasperating references. Er.
>
>There are loads of folk acts who get fully into the performer state of
>mind where the adrenalin kicks in and the years of practice and honing
>of the skills and material pays off. I guess it's like driving a car or
>riding a bike - hard when you're learning, but when you have mastered
>it, it becomes second nature and you don't think about the mechanics.
>
>I saw an interesting programme about muscle memory where they took
>sports students and asked them to kick a football in a lab so that they
>could analyse the action through slow motion photography. Then they
>took the same students and told them that Gary Lineker (or someone of
>that ilk) was behind the one-way glass panel and would be giving
>feedback. And these same people couldn't kick so well. They'd started
>to use the conscious parts of their brains instead of the sub-conscious
>muscle-memory parts.
>
>And that's why whenever I/you/one gets lost playing a tune and has to
>start thinking "Where am I? What comes next?" it's much harder. And the
>same sort of thing happens with remembering words, too. The trick is to
>know your stuff well enough to never have to slip into the
>(self-)conscious mode.
>
>Much harder in front of Gary Lineker, or millions of Live-8 audience,
>or a singaround audience than it is "in the kitchen". But there are
>some who clearly enjoy the extra adrenalin that such a large audience
>gives. But they've got to be good and on top of their material before
>the adrenalin helps.

Another thing which springs to mind is that many, but not all odf course,
professionals are actually delivering an extremely limited list of songs. In
fact in any given set they will be *expected* to sing their top songs and golden
oldies.

Floor spotters and local artists on the other hand tend to have a repertoire of
dozens if not hundreds of songs, and are expected *not* to roll out the "same
old stuff".

You are quite right, I have a few songs which I love, and which I am absolutely
confident doing, conversley, I have a long list of songs that I can sing
perfectly well, but they're not up to that top line quality, and especially if
I sing them in unnerving circumstances, might make me uncomfortable.

There are yet others which are metaphorically speaking, like shooting the rapids
in a barrel, but I *still* try and do it ... why oh why?

>
>Or was that fourpence-worth?

four-pennyworth tha means ... nah, it were nubbut a groat.
--
Jim
"a single species has come to dominate ...
reproducing at bacterial levels, almost as an
infectious plague envelops its host"
http://tinyurl.com/c88xs
.

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