Canadian Brass - FEATURE STORY

Random Thoughts on Performing Music

By Gene Watts, Trombone, The Canadian Brass, December 1999

Let us consider the purpose of music and performance. Is there a purpose in music beyond our own technique and satisfaction? Is success in music judged on our own personal comfort, or are there higher forces at work? A bee thinks he is gathering honey for food but in that process he is actually pollinating the world. In the same way, a performer may think that he is entertaining an audience while in reality he is changing the frequency of his audience. Music, which is a frequency, has a definite effect on both performer and audience. Every person resonates at a certain frequency. It is this frequency which creates his personality and his relationship to the collective consciousness. These are loaded words but stay with me for a moment.

A musician spends years practicing to develop a technique to enable him to present the music which he hears in his mind. He is learning to focus his awareness in this practice at a very subtle level to produce pure music or vibration. Practicing to focus allows him to experience the level of silence at which music is created. The music that is created at this level of silence is in turn presented to the audience, effecting the audience in a profound way: it realigns the audience's frequency to that of the performer. The energy of the audience's attention is then transferred back to the performer giving him even more energy to focus his attention on his music. This creates a free flow of energy between audience and performer. This experience is the greater purpose of music.

If we can understand all of this, or at least accept it, it is very easy to understand what we call stage fright. When we are in front of an audience, a change in our perception of ourselves takes place because of the energy exchange described above. When this is resisted the nervous system goes berserk and we seem to lose control. If we use this energy to enhance our focus on what we are doing, a successful performance will ensue.

This energy exchange is what performers live for. It is the joy of performing. It is what the audience expects when they pay money to hear us perform. Both performer and audience will be changed by the performance. They will feel lighter, exhilarated, and will actually experience a more refined state of consciousness than before.

This is the magic that music held for people in early times. Now, with the changes that seem to be happening during Y2K, we as musicians have a responsibility and privilege to become again an integral part of our world. This responsibility requires complete devotion to excellence, not only technically, but in the purity of our approach to the music we present.

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