Physical changes to performing during a performance
Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2023 9:59 am
This is (maybe) an interesting bit of self-reflection to share: observing how my body changes over the course of a long performance, in particular, multi-hour gigs. Context:
- I had a 3-set bar gig a couple of days ago, playing fairly aggressive big band music on lead trombone.
- I don't typically do much warm-up, by choice. Sometimes on gigs there simply isn't opportunity, and when that happens I still gotta play. I warmed up for maybe 1 minute, about 10 minutes before the downbeat.
- This gig was after a fairly typical day: day gig/work for 9 hours, normal meals, and waking up around 6:30am; plus ending the gig around 10pm.
- I was able to get a quick 30 minute nap before heading to the gig.
Anyway, the first tune was fairly loud and fast, so not always the best "first". But it was fine. My warm-up regimen definitely works well enough for me.
Around the halfway mark of the 1st set (about 20 minutes in) came the first physical feelings of fatigue, which really only means that I felt the muscles working as they should. However, I'm in good enough playing shape and have good enough technique that I never got tired in the sense of not being able to play. It's a point of pride for me right now - this has not been the case for much of my tromboning career. I credit a combination of factors: a couple of great lessons from Doug, some really good work by my orthodontist, spending the time to really practice efficiency in playing/breath control/etc., having equipment that works well for me (including a very nice Wedge mouthpiece) and I'm sure other factors that I'm not thinking of now.
Even so, I do definitely notice as the gig progresses into 2nd and 3rd hours, that my body changes, and actually, it seems like my tone changes. It's kind of impossible to describe exactly how it is changing, except that maybe there is a general sense that everything keeps getting more efficient. Obviously, I will be burning calories and getting tired. But the buzz, the general swelling of the lips that always happens to everyone, kind of dials in its conformity to the mouthpiece, if that makes sense; the buzz gets "cleaner" and it even can take a bit less air to get the same result as back in the start of set 1.
All that said, I know that historically this was definitely not the case for me. The general pattern would be: start strong, start to get tired, then things just stop working as well. Range and endurance decrease. Tone suffers.
Perhaps another way to look at it occurs to me, however: bodily response to playing quality as something like a "normal" distribution curve. Playing starts bad, gets better as one warms up, reaches a peak, then playing gets worse again as fatigue sets in. The goal here being to get past that initial "low" start of the curve as fast as possible (i.e., smart warmups) and to get that dropoff to be as late as possible and to be less severe.
Anyway, this change on tone that I feel I experience over the course of a long gig may not even be anything that an audience would be able to hear; it may just be my own little brain interpreting things in me-brain-ways. I was wondering if other people experience something like this.
- I had a 3-set bar gig a couple of days ago, playing fairly aggressive big band music on lead trombone.
- I don't typically do much warm-up, by choice. Sometimes on gigs there simply isn't opportunity, and when that happens I still gotta play. I warmed up for maybe 1 minute, about 10 minutes before the downbeat.
- This gig was after a fairly typical day: day gig/work for 9 hours, normal meals, and waking up around 6:30am; plus ending the gig around 10pm.
- I was able to get a quick 30 minute nap before heading to the gig.
Anyway, the first tune was fairly loud and fast, so not always the best "first". But it was fine. My warm-up regimen definitely works well enough for me.
Around the halfway mark of the 1st set (about 20 minutes in) came the first physical feelings of fatigue, which really only means that I felt the muscles working as they should. However, I'm in good enough playing shape and have good enough technique that I never got tired in the sense of not being able to play. It's a point of pride for me right now - this has not been the case for much of my tromboning career. I credit a combination of factors: a couple of great lessons from Doug, some really good work by my orthodontist, spending the time to really practice efficiency in playing/breath control/etc., having equipment that works well for me (including a very nice Wedge mouthpiece) and I'm sure other factors that I'm not thinking of now.
Even so, I do definitely notice as the gig progresses into 2nd and 3rd hours, that my body changes, and actually, it seems like my tone changes. It's kind of impossible to describe exactly how it is changing, except that maybe there is a general sense that everything keeps getting more efficient. Obviously, I will be burning calories and getting tired. But the buzz, the general swelling of the lips that always happens to everyone, kind of dials in its conformity to the mouthpiece, if that makes sense; the buzz gets "cleaner" and it even can take a bit less air to get the same result as back in the start of set 1.
All that said, I know that historically this was definitely not the case for me. The general pattern would be: start strong, start to get tired, then things just stop working as well. Range and endurance decrease. Tone suffers.
Perhaps another way to look at it occurs to me, however: bodily response to playing quality as something like a "normal" distribution curve. Playing starts bad, gets better as one warms up, reaches a peak, then playing gets worse again as fatigue sets in. The goal here being to get past that initial "low" start of the curve as fast as possible (i.e., smart warmups) and to get that dropoff to be as late as possible and to be less severe.
Anyway, this change on tone that I feel I experience over the course of a long gig may not even be anything that an audience would be able to hear; it may just be my own little brain interpreting things in me-brain-ways. I was wondering if other people experience something like this.