A Musician's Greatest Fear

[timothy42b]

My family watches the Great British Baking show and it was a Halloween special.

Consequently one of the contestants was asked what his greatest fear was. He replied, "same as any musician. Child prodigies!"

[RoscoTrombone]

I saw that, it was a great line & made me laugh because it was so unexpected but also very true

[Burgerbob]

I saw it too. Just remember that most of them burn out early

[Kbiggs]

Yes, that was a funny quip.

For me, it’s the fear and performance anxiety before playing an orchestral trombone solo in the middle of a piece. Pieces like Tuba Mirum, Russian Easter, or Mahler 3. You have all that time playing on stage, and then—the moment when the spotlight turns to you. The lead up to the solo—the racing brain, the jittery hands and arms, the shallow breathing, etc.—can be overwhelming sometimes.

[hyperbolica]

aaaaahhhh!!!! Spoiler Alert!

I haven't seen that one yet.
My favorite part of the show is trying to figure out what they are saying.
I'm not a baker, and I don't eat the kind of stuff they bake, but for some reason it's a fun show to watch.
My wife also watches Derry Girls. Watches, I say, but we turn down the volume. Makes the ears bleed.

My biggest fear as a musician, though, is to be subbing at a gig kind of anonymously, and then just before intermission, the band leader calls out my name and points at me. He's just introducing the band, but I somehow think he's calling on me for a solo, so I start playing and it's just nonsense that comes out. When I realize what was happening, I pack my horn up and just walk out. On the way out the door I grab one of those bulletin board ads for people to sell knives or something. Kind of a recurring nightmare, I guess.

[JohnL]

The most terrifying moments for me are when the conductor does something in a concert that he or she hasn't done in rehearsal and I have to guess what the concept is that they're trying to get across (or, indeed, if there is any concept at all beyond simply being inconsistent).

To generalize - I fear having to guess, and guessing wrong.

[RoscoTrombone]

Ah Derry Girls, I thoroughly enjoyed that. As I was also a teenager in the 90s I could totally relate to the humour plus the music brought back some good memories. The Northern Irish accent is pretty harsh though!

If you want to delve really deeply into the British humour & more specifically Scottish then try Rab C Nesbitt. You will probably need subtitles though

Slightly off topic...

[elmsandr]

The most terrifying moments for me are when the conductor does something in a concert that he or she hasn't done in rehearsal and I have to guess what the concept is that they're trying to get across (or, indeed, if there is any concept at all beyond simply being inconsistent).

To generalize - I fear having to guess, and guessing wrong.

Oh man… had a conductor give a really weird motion for the last chord change in Finlandia when I was subbing for principle trombone. Was a series of multiple concerts and did not do that same motion before or after… so I moved when he motioned, got the biggest turn and surprise I’ve ever seen from the podium. He cue’d again and I re-articulated it, no idea what he was trying to tell me the first time. The rest of the brass was as confused as I was afterwards. Still felt and sounded odd.

Cheers,
Andy

[robcat2075]

The most terrifying moments for me are when the conductor does something in a concert that he or she hasn't done in rehearsal...

Years ago I got a call late on a Saturday to come and play an Easter Sunday service in a large church. No rehearsal, just play it. OK...

I'll note that all my musical life I've been trained to expect ONE preparation beat from a conductor and that's pretty much what it has been. Not two, not three, not a whole measure...

So you can guess what happened when there was an occasion for all the brass to begin a piece together, forte, and the conductor gave TWO preparation beats. I had not noticed him doing that for anything else, but this piece got two preparation beats.

And I never got called for that sort of thing ever again.

[BrianJohnston]

My greatest fear is orchestral managements sinking musician's jobs across the country.

[imsevimse]

My greatest fear is to forget a horn on the underground or commuter train. I'm used to have the case so much that when I sometimes have reason for travel that not includes to play the trombone I get moments of panic and wonder where the horn is.Then I realise I did not bring the horn this morning. That short moment before realizing I have not lost any horn often give me the shivers.

/Tom

[MKtuba]

I mean my greatest fear is a dog walking on its hind legs for an extended period of time (weird, I know). I guess that doesn't relate to this at all though.

[imsevimse]

I mean my greatest fear is a dog walking on its hind legs for an extended period of time (weird, I know). I guess that doesn't relate to this at all though.

It could. Does the dog know how to play trombone?

/Tom

[MKtuba]

I mean if it can stand on it's hind legs with no trouble I suppose anything is possible.