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If you are ill-prepared to perform for an audience and dealing with high levels of anxiety because of your incompetence, then it makes sense to hit the practice room and just learn the material. But, if you are like many performers, anxiety reactions can escalate to the point that they seriously interfere with performance, and yet are not underscored by lack of preparation, poorly honed skills, personal insecurities or any other seemingly rational explanation.
Irrational fears of performing, public speaking, or just being looked at by a bunch of people are extremely common. Fear of public speaking ranks higher on the anxiety scale than fear of death. On second thought, though, being judged and scrutinized for your appearance, demeanor, and your never-perfect performance by possibly hundreds of your friends and peers and critics, being stared at and talked about -- maybe that's not such an "irrational" fear after all! Especially compared with clearly irrational fears like these actual real-life examples of serious phobias:
whale tails
butterflies
bathtub sharks
mermaids
aliens
windmills
rainbows
mugs
microwaves
walking up stairs at night
blueberry yogurt
music playing backwards
belly buttons
wiggling fingers
Hawaii
calling people on the phone
mushrooms
Musicians' performance-fears seem perfectly understandable compared to these! In any event, I'm not going to dissect the psychology of performance anxiety and the therapeutic solutions... I'm here to talk about the DRUGS.
Beta-Blockers were first marketed in 1967 for heart rhythm issues or angina. These drugs inhibit the sympathetic nervous system, the fight or flight response, and found their way into the performing-arts communities (music, dance, public speaking, acting) for that reason - though taken in much milder dosages. Back in 1987 studies showed that some 27% of Professional Orchestra Musicians had used beta-blockers, and these are considered conservative estimates! Who knows how many use them now!? I know a bunch, personally. Some use beta-blockers for every performance, more use on special occasions where anxiety is a particular concern, like for an audition or solo performance. They seem to provide a ceiling for the fight-or-flight response that just prevents your adrenaline reaction from going "over the top" to keep you from going in to the dry-mouth, sweaty hands, shaking feet, pounding-heart-phase that can destroy all evidence of your hard-earned skills. Some claim that they dull your senses, but many deny that. The most common Beta-Blocker is propranolol, marketed as Inderal.
Use of this prescription drug for performance is hotly debated and I'm not advocating for one side or the other. The debate rages about whether the drug inhibits your performance or reduces your emotional connection to the music. Some say you should deal with the Psychology behind the problem, others say that doesn't work or can take years if it works at all. Some say that a reasonable approach is to use the drug to learn to play free of uncomfortable anxiety and it is easy to phase it out later. Plenty of info is available with a Google search.
But Beta-Blockers do something else. Oxford University reports that patients using propranolol test with lower subconscious racial bias. It reduces Racism. As measured by the "Implicit Association Test" developed at Harvard. What that test actually measures is of course, up for grabs, but it is tantalizing to think that "racial bias" can be influenced by something that also has an influence on the brain's "fear center", the amygdala. Fear and racism .... of course! When I first moved to Salt Lake City in 1972, a fellow student who came here to study in the renowned Jazz Program that was here at the time, who was Black, had an impossible time finding an apartment to rent. It was pure fear-based racism, as there were very few non-Whites here at the time and nobody knew what to make of him. I had no problems in this regard. He eventually found a place but it took weeks and was a very sad and disheartening process.
Please research in detail and consult a physician before embarking on any path that involves drugs!
Here is a terrific article about the debate about propranolol and performance-anxiety from the New York Times worth reading:
First. listen to the classic Herbie Hancock "Maiden Voyage" entirely based on Slash Chords ( the easiest way to notate these chords). The first chord is C/D --- or in more conventional long-hand notation, D9(sus4, no 5)
In Maiden Voyage, the slash chord describes a simple voicing chord-quality that is most easily described with the slash symbol C/D. But slashing has a more important function -
The quality of a chord has a lot to do with how it's voiced, how the notes are laid out, spread out, left out and moved around. But even more so, it has to do with the choice of note that is on the bottom. This note defines everything about the chord quality - in fact, many composers of jazz will routinely write a 2 staff lead-sheet just so they can be in control of the bottom note, feeling that a simple chord-symbol is just TOO simplified. Music notation evolved to allow us to specify that bottom - note, short of actually writing out all of the notes on the staff. We call these chord symbols "slash chords". Slash chords also specify the exact notes that are to be included with the chord, just not exactly how to play them.
But there always seems to be some confusion about "slash chords".... I know this because I never know what note will come from the Bass Player when I give out charts that contain "slash chords". Back in the 17th Century (and still today!) music notation made use of "Figured Bass" to be very specific about what note to put on the bottom, or more accurately, what inversion of the chord was to be played. It is a very important component of composing and arranging. The bottom note progression defines the quality of each chord in the harmonic progression and allows music to be so much more interesting than when it always just has the root on the bottom. The manner in which the bottom note progresses is one aspect of music that brings it to life.
For example , this Figured-Bass notation on the left describes a Bb triad in 2nd inversion by laboriously describing the intervals that make up the inversion ( a sixth and a fourth ).
Nowadays, in the jazz world anyway, we use the some what less specific and less cumbersome Slash System to at least specify the bottom note, since the bottom note is so important to the sound of the chord and is heard as an important countermelody in its own right. We tend to leave the choice of actual voicing to the player, in jazz and pop music. As simple as it seems, there is still confusion about the system, however.
The most common form of slash chord is the one on the left - note the diagonal slash to denote the top CHORD, from the bottom NOTE.
One school of thought recognizes a second kind of slash chord ( on the right ) with a HORIZONTAL slash to denote the top CHORD from the bottom CHORD - a polychord. This is much less common and I would never assume this notation unless instructed by the arranger.
Back to the regular diagonal Slash Chords ---
Slash chords fall into 3 categories (examples below use F as the given Low Note)....
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FIRST Category - simple inversions of an F triad
F/F a type of F chord F/A a type of F chord F/C a type of F chord F/Eb a type of F chord (F7)
..... where the bottom note is just one of the chord tones but the root of the chord is still F.
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SECOND Category
The bottom note is functioning as the ROOT of the chord. Slash notation here is to specify a chord type or voicing in a simple way. Note that none of these is actually an "F chord" in sound or in function. F/G a type of G chord, G11(omit 5) or G9(sus4, no 5) F/Bb a type of Bb chord Bbmaj9(omit3) F/Db a type of Db chord Dbmaj7)#5)
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THIRD Category
Function is up for grabs on these more dissonant chords, completely dependent on context ( of course the F/D you will recognize as a Dm7, not dissonant, but in certain contexts writing it as a slash chord actually might make some sense). Tonality is ambiguous.
Here is a schematic of all 12 Slash Chords in the Key of F to visualize the 3 categories described above:
And I just have to mention - in writing Slash-Chord symbols correctly, it is often desirable to use a Cb or an Fb in the chord symbol - particularly when writing chords like Fm7(b5)/Cb or Bbm7/Fb . I have learned over the years, though, that this is an almost guaranteed way to hear a wrong note coming from the bass. Please be advised that Cb is B and Fb is E. Just for the record, because it is just plain illogical to write Fm7(b5)/B and I hate to do it just to increase the probability that the symbol will be read correctly.
And for an absolutely guaranteed wrong note I would write Ebm7(b5)/Bbb - pianists tend to read Double-Flats fairly often in Classical Music but this will trip up Jazz Bass players every time - no disrespect to Jazz Bass players!
Now, with that knowledge, let's look at what scales an improviser of Jazz might play over slash chords - understanding what the chords REALLY are can empower some good soloing...
F/A F major
F/C F major
F/Eb F mixolydian ( it's an F7)
F/D D aeolian ( it's a Dm7 chord, the vi chord in F )
F/G G mixolydian ( it's a G7sus chord )
F/Bb Bb lydian or major ( it's a Bb chord )
F/Db Db lydian, #5 ( it's a Db chord with maj7 and augmented-5th )
Take anything ordinary, something that we use everyday and take for granted, something that's always there and pretty much never changes....... something that's part of life, we get it, we know it, it is what it is, we think. Now stand back to really consider how we think about it. Accept the fact that, no matter what it is, we have already chosen a way to think about it, and we're probably not even aware that this choice has been made - by our parents, TV or corporate ads, convenience or just random chance.
yummy...
Take mustard -- we think of it as a flavoring, a spread, a condiment to smear onto a pastrami sandwiches ( or in this case, a tuna sandwich), or on a hot pretzel. But, now, let's make a conscious decision to think about mustard in a completely different way. Mustard is also an "emulsifier" - it acts as an agent to enable water-based foods and oil-based foods to mix together, much the way eggs do. Let's agree to think differently about mustard. Think function rather than taste. Just imagine, if every time you reach in the fridge you consciously tell yourself to pull out the mustard, and have a little conversation with yourself like:
"OK, what am I going to do with this stuff? Well let's see... I know it's an emulsifier....hmmm"
You will find, through choosing to think a different way about something, that you will begin to USE it a different way. Your habitual ways of thinking will give way to a world with more possibilities. Who knows, maybe you'll make some amazing mustard gravy then clean your greasy bicycle chain with a dijon slurry. Your salad dressings may never be the same after you change your thinking habits and people may start to comment about the yellow tint of your whipped cream toppings.
( Cognitive Psychologists think about how we think about things.)
So, consciouslychoosing to think a different way, causes you to behave a different way - what a powerful tool THAT is! To change behavior, change thinking. You can change how you act and feel by making a decision to think in a different way. That, of course applies to all of life, but that topic is a little out of my league so, onward to music and improvising music......
YES, BUT WILL ALL THIS MAKE ME A BETTER JAZZ MUSICIAN?
yes
A pentatonic scale is a series of 5 notes - you can think about those 5 notes as a linear series of notes, one higher than the next OR you can consciously CHOOSE to think about those 5 notes in a multitude of other ways. This intentional reprogramming of your attention will have everything to do with how you ultimately use those notes. When you're improvising, this "mental map" will guide you on your way to greater worlds of "melodic interest", if you're one of the rare people who feel that's important. And I assume you are, if you're even reading this blog at all.
Here are 8 different ways to think about a C Major pentatonic scale. Anyone who uses this scale ALREADY thinks about it in ONE of these ways - my suggestion is to reprogram thinking to think about it in a different way. And ultimately, this is not really just about the pentatonic scale, this is about Everything - the scale is just one small example to make the point.
At the end you will see a melodic line that resulted by thinking about the scale as a series of perfect 5ths.
EIGHT WAYS TO VISUALIZE THE PENTATONIC SCALE
THIS MELODIC LINE SEEMS COMPLETELY NATURAL WHEN THINKING OF THE SCALE AS A SERIES OF 3 PERFECT FIFTHS:
