Bugle playing and maintaining focus

[rockliveson1980]

Hi there
 
This is my first post so apologies if it has been answered before or if I have posted in the wrong place.  I am currently learning the trumpet and have also started on the bugle, playing calls for my local regiment.  When I practice the bugle calls sound fairly decent – the notes are clear and it sounds as it should. 

However the trouble begins when I go out to play in public.  I don’t find myself getting nervous but I do find it difficult to keep full attention – usually I close eyes to block everything out! An example of how the call goes is as follows – I start and play the first line and it sounds pretty decent.  Whilst playing I mentally think ‘okay, not too bad keep going’, at which point I crack a high note.  It is then that I begin to think ‘okay this isn’t going as planned’.  As I continue to play my lips get tighter and it is a battle to reach the end – I always finish but it is a struggle and I find myself forcing air through the horn past my now tense lips.  When I practice I do not have these issues!

Does anyone have a practice regime for the bugle and any thoughts/ideas to overcome these problems?

Thanks!

[Don Herman rev2]

Anxiety is a part of performance. Focus on the music. Fill your mind with the sound, and think only of the notes you are playing. The notes played are gone, forget about them and focus on the next one. Follow the sound in your mind and focus only on that, staying as relaxed as possible. All else will follow.

HTH - Don
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"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley

[snichols]

I like what Don said about focusing on the music, and I'm going to take that one step further. Try putting all of your focus into just one element or aspect of the music/your playing. Perhaps only focus on playing centered pitch, or only focus on your articulation, or whatever. Something that you can direct your attention onto so you're not "checking out" and having that internal dialogue with yourself. Bob Rotella's book "Golf is Not a Game of Perfect" talks about just picking one swing thought when you go to swing the club - keep your hands low, smooth swing, slow takeaway, hit down on the ball, etc. His teaching about golf is very transferable to trumpet because it's mainly about the mental aspect and how to practice a skills-based activity. In practice, sure, you may work on a number of different elements of playing, but when you go to execute just pick one thing to think of and pour your focus into that.