Tips against overblowing due to nerves?

[HaveTrumpetWillTravel]

Other things:
-Visualizing helps. Picturing yourself playing in front of everyone, being attuned to how you hold your body, the light and sound in the auditorium, etc. This all helps.
-I also found on some things you can practice types of playing, for instance, high note entrances, or strong attacks.
-I also found I have some things that show me I'm tensed. If I relax my hands and throat consciously, both of these help. I also found that practicing embouchure consistency helps (for me I anchor on the lower jaw).

Good luck!

[gstump]

There are some very good posts here but I wonder if some are missing the point.

1. When you are sitting in a familiar place in the orchestra you are feeling comfortable and "at home". Change can lead to nervousness and even panic.

2. Playing an Ab (above the staff) piano or pianissimo solo entrance on trumpet is hard. Panic results in playing louder just to hit it.

3. Practicing with the performance in mind is great advice.

I used to imagine my teacher was in the audience along with some not so nice critical trumpet player "colleagues". That really helped.

Incidentally I have a Bachelor of Music in trumpet and studied with lots of different teachers in NYC. No one ever showed me how to play p to ppp on higher notes.

The first time I experienced this was with Jimmy Underwood during a week of American Ballet Theater. A# ppp with clarinet, flute and trumpet. Jimmy played it like it was easy. I was in awe and still am.
_________________
Schilke B5
Couesnon Flug (1967)
Funk Brothers Horn Section/Caruso Student

[Steve A]

Some people will disagree, given that this is one of the perennial debates, but I find that the first note of an entrance has a critical role in establishing the basic playing form for the whole passage, so making sure the way you breathe - your "backswing" - matches the physical model for how you want the rest of the phrase to go is a key part of getting control of your relationship to the instrument.

If you take a measured and calm breath, overblowing will be less natural. If you take a tense and pressurized breath, anything but overblowing will be unnatural.

[Andy Cooper]

Would the music leading up to your solo allow you to "ghost" the note an octave lower just before your entrance? (I guess it could be any lower note that you can internally hear an interval.)

[shofarguy]

Hey, Sandals, it's been awhile! Good to see you on the boards again.

For me, it was the fear of embarrassment that made the most nervous. We call it Fear of Failure most often, but we fail often when we think no one is looking at us and it isn't bothersome. We crack when we think others will laugh or reject us.

What can we do that we can write about on this forum? Well, stand in front of a full length mirror naked and look yourself over for a good five minutes. Redirect your negative thoughts and assess your value honestly. Find good things about your personality, your character, your talent and see the good in that image. Get to know and like the person looking back at you.

Make some "horrible" mistakes and find out you survive them. Feel the embarrassment and then go laugh about it with your section members, afterward. Find out that they're not going to ostracize you. Heck, they'll probably like you more for your goof-ups, if they see you handle them with honest humor.

I learned that embarrassment was my best friend, because it opened the doors to friendships that had been kept closed by my pride and fear.
_________________
Brian A. Douglas

Flip Oakes Wild Thing Bb Trumpet in copper
Flip Oakes Wild Thing Flugelhorn in copper


There is one reason that I practice: to be ready at the downbeat when the final trumpet sounds.

[cheiden]