Tuesday July 26th Fundamentals
Joshua Clasen
Charles King
Thanks for sending that out, as usual, you rock.
Will you read my speech and tell me what you might change, It’s pretty rough and I’m not going to read right off the sheet but if you see any glaring flow issues I would like to know.
“Who has played in a district or state ensemble? Who played a sport in high school? Or plays Call of Duty?
Think to those experiences… did you sound better or play better or have a better ratio? When you are surrounded by more experienced or more talented people, you perform at a level that you weren’t sure you could possibly reach, but why?
Think to concerts in high school or band competitions, how much did you step up your game because you knew people were watching you?
In the same way, when you are playing with a bunch of people you know are better than you, you are on stage. Whether you realize it or not, you are in performance mode.
So what are you doing the rest of the time? When you are sitting at home playing your baritone or horn or cymbals or whatever, what are you doing?
What you probably think you are doing is practicing. Trying to get better. Well stop practicing, stop trying to get better and get better.
But this is totally different you say. No! No different, only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.
Okay, you’ll try
No! Try not. Do. Or do not, there is no try.
I won’t leave you with that, but I will bring up another quote
The one on the paper today,
“Never practice, always perform”
When you sit down to play your instrument at home, get better at it, perform.
Other people probably can hear you, your neighbors possibly, other people in your house, your animals, they can all hear you, so make it sound good for them, everyone is constantly critiquing everything around them so especially when you’re playing school songs in ohio you know anyone who can hear you is thinking “wow, ya that’s how sloopy goes” or possibly “oh wow that was a wrong note”, so perform it, make it nice to listen to.
More importantly though, perform for yourself. Every private instructor hopefully told you to play with a clean, pure and beautiful sound, but don’t do it for them, do it for yourself
When you come out here to summer sessions, you are definitely on stage. We all tell you “no, no, you’re not being evaluated yet” but if you haven’t already figured it out I’ll just let you know now, YOU ARE.
Not just by squad leaders, though. You’re being evaluated by directors, veterans of the band, the moms and dads on the hill and especially other candidates, the ones who are looking around trying to see if they’re beating you on flashes or not, or displaying better 8 to 5 than you are.
So perform! Come to the field every night ready to put on a show for everyone, but mostly for yourself. You’re trying out for a marching band! We entertain! We go on one the biggest stages in the country on Saturday afternoons and are on stage the entire time, so get ready for it!
If you’ve zoned out by now, hear this: stop practicing. Stop doing things just to do them, without any regards for how they actually turn out. Start treating every time you play, every school song and every summer session like an adjudicated performance. Most importantly, stop going through the motions in life and start performing!
Remember, never practice, always perform.
“
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T-Row, THE Row, THE Quali-T Row!
Joshua Clasen
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 3:29 PM
To: t-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: Tuesday July 26th Fundamentals
Joshua Clasen
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 3:56 PM
Charles King
Haha okay thanks Hoff. and you raised the suspense of everyone in a row! Also, should I do the Yoda quote in a Yoda voice?