Re: [Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 59, Issue 8

[Ken Deifik <ken@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard Hunter wrote:
> If you're not nervous before you perform, you're not paying attention. Not 
> paying attention is more dangerous to the quality of the performance than 
> a case of nerves.

I'm not nervous before I perform, ever, and I pay very strict attention.

That's not to say that nerves aren't good for some performers.  My wife is 
a brilliant actress, and she gets a big case of the nerves before a 
performance, and it's part of how she gets in the headspace that's right 
for her.  My old partner in the vonBrellas, Christie Houser looked deathly 
before we'd hit the stage and then explode with wonderful energy once the 
show began, and look like she never got nervous in her life.  We were a 
hilarious contrast backstage, where I'd read a newspaper, or sometimes 
write a song or read contracts, while she paced.

Like Joe, I do not like getting nervous before a show - it doesn't help 
either of us one bit, only I'm lucky that it doesn't happen to me.

The one time I got nerves it was damned close to stage fright.  I was 
invited to sit in on a gig that the union was paying for in downtown 
Nashville.  It was July 15, 1976.  The dead of summer, the band played in a 
plaza in the middle of four glass office towers.  It was noon.  The sun 
beat straight down on us.  Lunching office workers filled the plaza.  On 
all four sides people looked down from just about every office, watching a 
good show by a good band.  I was not told when I was going to be called up, 
so I spent the longest hour of my life waiting in this Twilight Zone kinda 
situation, totally weirded out by the crowds in the buildings, looking down 
at us.

When I finally got to play, at 12:55, I was made out of rubber.  I couldn't 
pay attention at all, and I have never played more poorly.

So though I rarely find myself disagreeing with Richard Hunter, I disagree 
entirely with the idea that there's something missing if you don't get a 
case of nerves.  It's important to point this out because there are enough 
musicians just starting out who read this list, and the ones who don't get 
nerves shouldn't think that getting nervous is anything to aspire to.

Ken