off topic, performance anxiety

[Tski1128 <Tski1128...>]

I had the most wonder full experience on Tue. at UofMD. I had a chance to 
give a joint lecture demo with Dr. Glenn Schiraldi, an expert on post traumatic 
stress syndrome and Faculty member in the Health and Human performance Dept of 
UofMD.  I have been finding, since my return to Academia, that the students, 
at this music school at least, are so stressed out that many are taking "beta" 
blockers to perform in most minimal stress situations(professional standards 
applied here).

I had the luck of taking a class Health285 with Dr. Schiraldi a few semesters 
ago and found this best class I had to take while finishing my degree. In 
this class we learned about the Physiology of Stress and many ways to nullify 
it 
through various meditation and relaxation exercises. I was such a believer in 
the benefit of this kind of training for musicians that I have been suggesting 
that this be added to the mandatory classes for all music students. It 
already count toward the "core" curriculum stuff that needs to be taken.  Well 
in 
the wisdom of the music Dept. they asked Dr. Schiraldi to give a talk on Stress 
and the performer and he insisted that I needed to be a part of it to insure 
that it was really tailored to the performer. 

It was a blast, the feedback that I got from the students was amazing, I wish 
he hadn't had to go back to his building and teach another class. 

My big contribution to the discussion was talking about the "self talk", 
those voices you can hear when you're having a bad moment on stage. I talked 
about 
some of the origins of those voices some of the things they say. I talked 
about that "downward spiral" that can occur after a "flow ending event," like a 
squeak or memory slip. The thing that I didn't have a chance to articulate was 
really meant for teachers. Those of us who teach need to be careful of the 
language we use with our students. How we phrase our criticism is the tone that 
"voice" will have in our students. Years ago when I first started studying 
human performance and the interruption of flow, I started listening to the 
things 
my voice was saying. I can remember the Teacher, and the exact lesson where 
certain debilitating phrases were uttered. If this teacher wasn't there to use 
them. I would use them on myself. All the years I spent in the army and the 
last few in school have shown me that I'm not the only one that has had that 
experience. So think, making judgments isn't being judge-mental.  In the words 
of 
the old desk Sergeant on "Hill Street Blues" "Lets be carfull out there!"

This wasn't a rant was it???

Tom Puwalski, Clarinetist with Lox&Vodka, author of the "Clarinetists Guide 
to Klezmer", former soloist with the Us Army Field Band, and now a Grad Student 
at UofMD