A very warm and appreciative public

Thank you for all the warm contact with people of all kinds as they pass. The sound the clarinet was superb for most of the time. Only when a tentative approach with new pieces did the playing take a dip.

A lack of nervousness makes a marked difference to the playing. It's great to be aware that the performances are clearly improving. Playing without a a backing track went well . The accompaniment needs to creative and interesting - a lovely challenge.

Practise at home leads to a lovely interaction- young children are particularly curious.

Another £3 for the Lantern Procession! And great fun doing it. This is a lovely way of making contact with the public.

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!