A lovely lesson to learn

When you play well - and with enthusiasm -  the money comes in a fair lick - £6.67 for the Lantern Procession in less than an hour - when you play badly and forget the script - - nothing.  In fact one 'friend' who rarely smiles - ever - offered to pay me to stop playing - it hurt her ears.

Lose your confidence, try something new that you haven't practice much and you go plummeting down and hit endless bum notes.

Good job you had those lovely experiences at the beginning!

Today, Saturday Market has been excellent for me.

Arriving at 10:20 am ready with my clarinets and equipment to play Peter chess in the Market Square in response to his 9:30 phone call to check my availability.

Fortunately for me, Neil turned up for a challenging game with Peter which last two hours, leaving me free for clarinet playing in 'my' doorway. Better still for Peter - he won which is recent occurrence
The town was unusually full with visitors - of course it was the beginning of half term - many were out to see the 'sights'. They come for the experience of a very friendly town something we do naturally because many of us actually like people , particularly strangers who bring us news from foreign places.

With my confidence building up steadily I'm beginning to enjoy myself and not be too concerned at what I consider to be rubbish playing. The minute you're confident then you play better, so I ventured into tunes I hadn't played before in public. I gave the tunes loads of enthusiasm which communicates well, particularly with young children who showed loads of interest and big smiles. At one point I had an 'audience' that clapped in time to the music and both children and parents broke out with spontaneity at the end of one of one tune. It felt as though I had arrived.

I have!

The playing in Ulverston Market went well

For the first time a few people joined in with the playing of Streets of London using the microphone that can supplement the backing track of the sound on the portable amplifier.

People were a little startled because they found it difficult to understand this new inovation - music to be enjoyed by the general public by participation, rather busking for cash. It will take a while for people to appreciate the idea. At present most people are a bit apprehensive of a lone clarinet player because they assume he is doing it for cash rather just to give pleasure!

Ultimately the aim will be to get people to dance in the street! That will take a while. Meanwhile the clarinet player needs to keep improving!

Practicing today was difficult

Standing up and deep, strong breathing were being developed. This will become easier, the more one does it! Trying to drum in some the tunes so that i did them without thinking. The Benz power reed number 2 was impressive compared with the equivalent comfort.

Very puzzled

I told myself earlier that I would keep playing until I squeeked but I didn't squeek at all.

So I changed reeds and again and again - still no squeeks.

What's going on?

When I play in public on the market I spend a lot of time just avoiding squeeking and do so repeatedly.

So:

It could be nerves or it could be the air /temperature conditions . I'd love to get the the bottom of this as then I would have far more confidence - and thus feel less nervous!

I ask my teacher and he doesn't seem to be able to explain squeeking reliably !

Looks like it's a matter of just getting on with it!

Later Saturday evening

Chris and I practiced carols. It was really surprising how my brain could play tunes straight off even though I didn't really know them! Playing tunes from such a range of keys on a regular basis seems to train you to be able to play anything.

Just need the quality of the notes and to produce fewer squeeks - improving all the time and slowly getting the hang of playing well. Quite encouraging - if only playing in public could be so easy!

The beauty of playing by ear - you don't have to fuss with music - well worth it in the long run!

Today was tough

But mainly from my perspective.

 Many people were appreciative  and several gave money in a generous way.

 I'm slowly getting the hang of what I can do well and what I do with great difficulty. I can improvise fairly easily but doing things that required built in 'muscle memory' that is learnt by repeating an operation many times is very slowly learnt. This is why I don't join a band who have a set routine as I would find this very difficult to remember. If I'm left free to make it up on the spur of the moment; that's much easier.

Furthermore I'm only slowly developing the skill to avoid squeeking, reliably - it's a hard learning curve.

A lovely song to help us value what we have.

So beautifully and sensitively sung.

Why do tears come to my eyes when I listen to it?
Mary Hopkin - you're brilliant.

This will be one of my favorites for the market on my clarinet.

Breaking new ground this Saturday

Somebody joined me to singalong with my backing track and clarinet. Jack was impressed!

I'm hoping that this will be a regular occurrence. The amplifier will take:

A backing track
A microphone
A guitar or other electronic musical instrument

All at the same time with my clarinet needing no such help.

I was told that my playing was good: I certainly pumped plenty of emotion into my playing. This registers with people and got a fair number of smiles. One long held high note raised a laugh and a donation of £1from someone standing on the far pavement.

My aim is to inject enthusiasm with as high a level of skill as I can but the the belief is that the first is by far the most important. Does the music come across as though it is FUN ?

The result is that when I get home I feel emotionally exhausted with a tendency towards depression which then takes a few hours to dissipate as I get on with 'ordinary' activities like a walk. This quickly energised me with the sight of autumn leaves and the sound of  my feet brushing through them.

Playing at home is a different matter

This is what I can describe as "pure joy".



This is the regular high in my day- Often less intense because the playing is more demanding, the allotment is another. The low, and it can be very low, often happens at 3 am in the morning. I sail up and down between high and low. I feel as though I pay for the highs by experiencing the lows. Objectively I believe that's a fair deal. I prefer to be like this than chugging along on the 'level' as others can. We're all different. On the other hand the lows of some are incredibly low and a nightmare for several weeks at a time: I only hope that they at times experience a high to compensate.

By nature, I'm a loner

At the moment I play my clarinet weekly on our local town market day. Playing in public, for me is tough. Never-the-less now that I've established a place where I can play I can get used to the same kind of happening each Thursday when I play. It's a type of conversation that goes on between me and all the pubic walking past. I 'talk' using the sounds I make with my clarinet. I can watch people's faces as they walk past, sometimes within two feet of mine. It's fascinating. It's both very challenging and very rewarding in that sometimes I get a reaction. Other times I get none yet it's OK for me to look at them very intently as they walk past - they don't seem to notice. I'm a very obvious fly on the wall, that is readily ignored.