What’s your point of view?

[VJOFan]

Especially when improvising, but almost all of the time when playing, I feel like I am more a 3rd person observer. While playing , I mostly hear some trombone sound and how it fits with other sounds around it. The control I have over it, would be akin to directing a waking dream. “It would be cool if next the player would try a run up to a high note… cool he did, now he should contrast with rhythmic cells…”

To that, I can correlate my biggest performance disasters to times when I was thinking about me and feeling the moment (usually overwhelming, crushing nerves!) and not just hearing the sounds around me and monitoring how it was going over with other people.

[Side note: this might be one reason I’ve had trouble with screen auditions. It helps me a lot to know how my listeners are reacting.]

[tbdana]

I am actively present in the moment. A note is gone and music is over the instant it is played. So my POV is staying mindfully in the moment. Nothing before this note exists, and nothing after the next measure matters yet.

Fear and ego are the enemies of music. If you're fearing you're living in the future, not the present. The only thing that matters is what I'm hearing and playing right this instant. Nothing else is real. And for that reason, I have no fear. When I've played something, whether spectacularly or poorly, it no longer exists the instant my bell stops ringing, so there's no reason to have anxiety about it. It's gone. Besides, I always throw caution to the wind and go for it. Caution is a guarantee of failure. I'm also not afraid to crash and burn, because no musician is perfect, everyone fails, and no great music is ever created by someone afraid they're going to screw up.

[BrassSection]

As far as playing improv, the more you play with the same people the better it gets. Played with another trombone player for awhile before he moved on, mostly played trumpet with him, but we sorta knew what the other guy was thinking and it worked well. We sometimes discussed how we were gonna flow with each other. Ditto the bass player we had for several years before he moved on, barely any discussion, we just played our own style and we played off of each other well. Currently have a pro trumpet player that occasionally joins us. Not bad first time or two, but the more we play together the more we mesh. Original plan was for him to take trumpet and I’d be on trombone. One song we did begged for 2 trumpets, after we did that song he requested I play the trumpet more. About 50/45 trumpet or trombone now, but have thrown my euph in the mix, once to his flugal for a nice effect. No discussion except for which horns we play, he knows where I’m headed and I know where he’s headed.

[cmccain]

Fear and ego are the enemies of music. If you're fearing you're living in the future, not the present. The only thing that matters is what I'm hearing and playing right this instant.

I learned this lesson through a major POV shift that helped me become a more "mature" musician.

When I was learning and playing all through high school, I was usually focused on what I was doing and how my playing was coming across. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does tie you to your ego a bit. At some point in adulthood, I completely shifted how I thought when I was playing. Now, especially when I am playing in a group or improvising with a backing track, I view the music as kind of like a running river or a current in the ocean and I'm paddling a boat through it. My ultimate goal is some combination of A) riding along the current and not fighting it, and/or B) pushing more water/sound along more forcefully, and/or C) navigating the current to get to where I want to go (typically when improving/playing solo).

In this extended metaphor, I'm constantly propelling myself forward, since going backward simply isn't an option. I also know I can't paddle the water in front of me, so I have to mentally keep myself where I'm at. A wrong note or bad tuning is going to get me a little afoul of the current, and it makes a little hitch in the sound like sticking your paddle sideways in the water. Getting back in rhythm with the current means jumping back in to where the music is at right that instant. And sometimes, I do want to make a splash or a sharp turn, but I know I have to do it carefully to avoid getting stalled.

[Doug Elliott]

Especially when improvising, but almost all of the time when playing, I feel like I am more a 3rd person observer. While playing , I mostly hear some trombone sound and how it fits with other sounds around it. The control I have over it, would be akin to directing a waking dream.

Ordinarily I feel in the moment and in control of my own playing, but one gig I was right in front of the speaker and my sound was coming out loud and clear. It definitely felt like listening to somebody else playing. Especially since it was a 4 trombone Latin gig and I was sightreading the lead part.
It was really crowded, and I caught Covid on that gig.