HOW TO AVOID STAGE FRIGHT IN STRING PLAYING!



When string players perform in public or at an audition, many suffer from stage fright. Performance is around 80% of what one achieves in practice.

It is due to the adrenaline effect which is responsible for the ‘ fright or flight’ body hormone coming into play. Effects include tremors, inability to do long bowing, good tone, inability to focus on the repertoire at hand, fear of making mistakes, inability to recover from mistakes, worrying about mistakes which result in more mishaps, shallow breathing, sweating and many more effects.

Anxiety is apparent more during a solo performance than playing in a group.

This blog is written to help the string players who have suffered from the above symptoms of nervousness and the inability to perform to the full capacity as in practice.

Here are some of the steps to avoid stage fright; some may overlap the steps to prepare for concert also:

1. PRACTICE PERFECT PRACTICE

Practice regularly and thoroughly. First practice the technique namely the intonation, the bowing, the timing and the fingering – slowly at first.

Remember, playing fast is impossible if it cannot be played slowly!

Perfect Practice means that the difficult passages have to be identified, and practice slowly with the above principles, and again practice in context with the preceding and succeeding passages before bringing it up to speed.

2. BE OVER PREPARED

Nervousness on stage costs approximately 20% from many players . So practicing the repertoire slowly at first, then at the correct speed and finally 20% faster than the actual speed helps.

3. PRACTICE WITH ACCOMPANIMENT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

Reading the music at first the accompaniment helps in understanding the phrasing. It is important to practice with the piano accompanist repeatedly both the easy and the difficult parts with reference to the intonation and timing is vital to achieve a perfect , tension free performance. More the practice with the accompaniment, less the tension

4. ADEQUATE REST THE WHOLE DAY

Certainly no alcohol. Maybe a beta blocker to ally anxiety.

5. ATTAIRE

External appearance matters starting with the choice of shirts, coats in men and dress in women not to mention the shoes. All these may help to allay undue anxiety.

6. LEARN YOGA




Yoga helps to make to control your breathing and improve blood supply to brain.

7. MEDITATION


Meditation helps concentration and improves focus. Hence less tension.

8. PUBLIC PERFORMANCES


Playing in front of your friends, grand parents, cousins, church congregation and other students builds up confidence. Get as many public performances of this sort under your belt , prior to an audition or a major performance.

9. STRETCH

Stretching exercises while waiting to perform helps to relax the muscles aound the shoulder, arm, wrist and back.

10. BOWING

Playing slow bows either as open strings or as scales to get a pure tone and good intonation prior to going to perform helps one to relax and warm up.

11. CONTOLLED BREATHING

In general deep breaths prior to getting on to the stage help to regulate your low heart rate and also steady your nerves by keeping your fight or flight ( sympathetic tone of the nervous system) down as much as possible.

12. POSTURE

While waiting in the hall, keep a positive confident posture and the rest the violin fully tuned with the scroll up. Check your tuning with the pianist before you begin.

13. FOCUS



With all the above, learn to focus on the piece at hand to be played. The audience should not be a distraction. Playing for relatives, hospital patients and friends will prepare you for the presence of the audience.

14. FOOD

Not a heavy meal, but 1 to 2 bananas may help taken half hour before performance. These have a high energy content, high level of potassium and beta blockers. Top performers in sports and music are known to consume bananas just prior to the event.

15. TALISMAN

Some believe in talisman such as particular socks, or shirt, etc for performances. These are of psychological boosts. Anything to elevate your morale!

And good luck!



WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU CELEBRATE BIRTHDAYS?

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU CELEBRATE BIRTHDAYS?

For everything, there is a season

And a time for every matter under heaven:

… A time to weep, a time to laugh

A time to mourn, and a time to dance..”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

This birthday is special to my batchmates and me. We are the batch of 1970 - medical students of CMC Vellore.

Everyone is asking, each other, ”How did you celebrate your special birthday?”

This question got me wondering what is great about birthday or better still why celebrate it all. Is it just the parties , which our parents arranged when we were kids, which our spouses did to gather friends and later the children do for us?

Birth is the beginning of life, and to enjoy the fruits of life, it is good to celebrate the tree event which bore the fruit namely the birth itself. This is the reason for celebrating the birthday.

All of us are thankful to the almighty, God, the force, mother nature that we are safe and sound one more year… ; for all the things we have in life so far. So birthday is yet another reason for saying to say,” Thank you” to the bigger force in life before we return to the earth.

My dad used to visit orphanages to feed during his birthday and my children do the same.

Friends of mine feed the poor by the roadside and do not wait for birthdays to do so- Rotary Texcity of Coimbatore!

What do you do when you celebrate?

In the younger years, one decides to be the best, competes and sets special goals in the occupation. Nothing wrong with this.

But after decades pass by, it is time to wonder if life is going the way you planned……. Are your goals in profession and life being achieved?

In my batch of classmates, most guys are now changing directions- in jobs, locations, habits. I did this a year ago.

It is time to decide if you want to change the direction of your life and the goals for the future. I see an occasional younger colleague changing  more quickly and earlier if this is indeed warranted . Good for him as normally wisdom only comes with age. You live only once and you must be what you want to be!

On this special birthday for my batch, the families gather around and arrange special surprise parties.  One spouse arranged a surprise overseas trip for the husband and the family.

I left the corporate practice, after 24 years for setting up my own ambulatory surgical centre for advanced laparoscopy and bariatrics, with the family.

I now serve the prince and the pauper…. Right  from ‘Redo Bariatric Surgery‘ on overseas patients to doing ‘Whipple’s radical pancreatectomy for cancer of the pancreas’ in the poorest of the poor. There is no need to turn away anyone who cannot afford, as we can always make provisions for most who need surgery, under this roof using the most modern equipment.

I continued with my surgical work on my birthday, as surgery is what I wish to do in my life. This is my forte!

I feel at last that I am doing justice to “ Not to be ministered unto, but to minister” the motto of my alma mater.

I also finish my 2 years of tenure of heading the professional body of laparoscopic surgeons of India; as a team, we have done a lot of good to a lot of surgeons and the feeling is mutually satisfactory.

So it comes to what do you do on your birthday…

• DO SOMETHING GOOD
• DO SOMETHING GOOD YOU NORMALLY DID NOT DO THE DAY BEFORE
• DO SOMETHING NO ONE IS COMPELLING YOU TO DO
• DO SOMETHING OUT OF THE  KINDNESS OF YOUR HEART
• DO SOMETHING TO EXPRESS HUMAN KINDNESS AND NOT FOR PROFIT IN RETURN

Cooking as a ‘man – hobby’

Cooking as a ‘man – hobby’

Hobby is something you enjoy. I do not do it for money….. just for the sheer fun of it. 

Cooking by a man, least of all by someone doing surgery is not the ‘done thing’ in India!

I used to make deserts for my boys when they were little as my wife had an evening clinic. I had plenty of time in the evenings… so the boys not only enjoyed the bread pudding, making chocolates with nuts, jellys, but also learnt table manners at home.

We had a book of table etiquette for the armed forces. Pravin, Mervyn and I used to read this together… we learnt how to lay the table, which spoon goes where,who sits where, etc.

Now my boys have grown up to fine men and we still talk about those times. I nearly choked when my son Mervyn now abroad wanted the phone to be passed from my wife so that he could get my bread pudding recipie for a guest!

So cooking improves family ties first of all. My boys are game for washing up after a meal- so the manners are easy.

When I resided in Chennai for a few years, away from my family, my resolve, as a novice, was to cook all on my own and that I would never venture out for food as a necessity.

So armed with cook book donated by the author Renuka Rajkumar my cousin, I ventured into the unknown.

My wife Neena donated an entire kitchen. My sister in law Lalitha donated her mixie. My close friends chipped in with bits and bobs whenever needed.

Cooking can be traditional sticking to the rules and regulations. But once you get the hang of the usual stuff, you tend to delve deeper.

 Like for instance, making dosas from the ready made flour was not good enough for me. I started grind the dough for idlies and dosa on twice a week basis.. which most housewives abhor.

Then graduated to Appams starting from the making the doughs as ingredients, different types of murukkus; then from Tamilian to Kerala Cooking!- to Goan Cooking; from Biriyani ( fresh made ingredients) to Chinese cooking. Google and hours of desperate  phone calls to my sister, cook friends, old classmates  helped!

From the regular to high protein, low calorie cooking…. From frying to grilling fish, chicken . And this helped my patients who understood me better while talking of food in obesity. After all obesity surgery is close to my heart, and food with exercise forms  the main chunk of advice before and after obesity ( bariatric ) surgery.

Once I returned to Coimbatore and got involved with our own hospital, there has not been much spare time. But we have an excellent maid who would cook as you tell her. 

Though those who know me well accept my interest in cooking. It creates a controversial curiosity  in those who  do not know me well.

The average Tamilian woman thinks it is below the dignity of a man to cook on his own! Most Tamilian men believe this!!

I have learnt plenty  in cooking, which I apply in life

• ·         Patience
• ·        Breaking tradition
• ·        Learn to ask for help or advice
• ·        Everyone can teach you something you do not know
• ·        Staying healthy
• ·        Never anyone tell you what you can and what you cannot do!
• ·        All of us have a good cook in us trying to get out!
• ·        Most important of all, – First ask’ “Why?” and then, “Why not?”..... This makes life and cooking   a great combination!

ALUMNI - WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

“Alumni - What does it mean?”

Alumni associations are common in vintage schools or colleges.

I belong to ‘St Joseph’s College and School Alumni Association’ as well as ‘CMC Alumni Association’. The former is a boys’ school where as the latter is a co education college.

Little did I realize when I searched for the origin of the word that 'alumni' was one of the misused words.

Male Sex

The singular ‘alumnus’ refers to one male graduate.

‘Alumni’ is the pleural noun which refers to a group of male graduates.

Female Sex

‘Alumna’ refers to one female graduate.

‘Alumnae’ refers to a group of female graduates.

So what do you call a group of old graduates consisting of men and women?

If you want to avoid confusion ‘Alum, alums’ would be the easier modern version to refer to a mixed group of males and female graduates. ‘Alumni’ is also used to refer to a group of mixed sexes      (though it is also used for a group of males).

What is erroneous to utter?

NEVER ever say, “I am an alumni of ….….” That ain’t good English! 

You hear this often enough!

Origin

Latin noun alumnus means ‘foster son or pupil’ and originates from the verb alere ‘to nourish’.