Today I had a 'weird' experience....
I was 'rehearsing' my grade 1 pieces (yet again! ) and I was thinking of what my teacher always tells me:'Play with confidence! if you make a mistake MAKE IT BIG!!'
I thought that 'sometimes' I was already 'playing with confidence' during my practice sessions but today....I don't know what got over me but I felt so confident like I have never done before....I was playing the 'in-famous' Fiddle Time (only in-famous as I've played it too many times) and I felt really like I was 'letting go' of all fears/judgements/anxieties/worries....and so on, I felt REALLY confident and GOOD, like I was a really COOL violinist (ok a cool grade 1 violinist LOL) and I was playing SO WELL and SO LOUD it was unbelievable!!! not one scratch, not any hesitations, good quality tone with each stroke, perfect pitch, you name it!! But to top it all up I was feeling chills down my spine and had goosebumps from how much I was enjoying my performance!! (I wish I recorded it)
Don't want to sound 'big headed' or anything here (I might have sounded rubbish to others LOL) but this is an accurate account of how I felt.
I thought I was imagining things so I played my other grade 1 pieces and more from the book trying to keep hold of these feelings within me and surely enough it worked!!! I played the other pieces better than I ever did!
Have I had a 'strange day' in my violinist life? Was it the donut I ate? Was I dreaming? Have I found the cure to my problems (although I could not play all pieces like that, not the tricky ones I am trying to learn at grade 2 at the moment)? Or is it because I played the pieces too many times? or because I am 'definitely' past grade 1?
who knows
it might never happen again! I hope it does.
But mainly, have many of you 'experienced' these 'feelings'???
I loved it, I hope I'll get many more days like today!

Yes, I've had days like that, on violin as well as on my other instruments.

And I've had days where the music has flowed like partially-set concrete and the fiddle, bow and score have all come close to getting flying lessons.

And sometimes these have been in consecutive practice sessions, and I don't know why.

But do enjoy them when they come, and hold the memory for the less good days.

And I thought it was just me!
I had a similar experience about a year ago, after I got accepted into an orchestra. You feel quite unstoppable and you just want to keep playing so tht you never go back to how it was before. It suddenly all makes sense, and you don't understand why you hadn't played this way before, and from my experience, you'll probably improve drastically now that you've made this break-through. Personally, I went from playing tentatively at about grade three/fourish (I didn't get much confidence until quite late on) to grade 7 in less than a year.

It almost certainly wasn't the donut you ate , it sounds like you've experienced what I did. I wonder how many other people have had this as well?

How funny! you have put the 'cherry on the cake' when you said: you feel quite unstoppable and 'it suddenly all makes sense'
I don't think I really knew what my teacher meant by saying 'play with confidence' before, I thought I was but after today I know I wasn't and today I was!!!

^ yes, me too, all of the above with various instruments!

Enjoy those days when they happen, and don't beat yourself up if you can't "conjure it up" again, or think you've suddenly got worse. Good days come and go sometimes with absolutely no rhyme or reason. Bask in it and remind yourself, on the bad days, that you know you can do it, cos you did before, and even if you can't today, you will again

I haven't had a day like today on the piano 'yet', never felt chills and goosebumps on piano so far but have had MANY practice sessions where my violin almost had a flying lesson but instead got buttered with rosin as I started bowing erratically all over it in an attempt to make the most nasty sound ever on purpose (then felt guilty and cleaned it all up LOL ).
A good day like this was the only one so far in 5 months of practicing virtually daily, I feel like I have now discovered what it means to play with confidence and I hope I can reproduce it again at least for the exam!

That's just happened to me with singing (which is why losing my voice this week has been so frustrating).

*Just realised this is the strings forum. Tiptoes out again, looking nervously over shoulder*

Apologies in advance for making an analogy with the oboe in the strings forum.
Since almost my first oboe lesson my teacher has been telling me that an oboe is designed to play music and that it shouldn't feel like you're fighting the instrument to get it to do what you want. (The physical nature of the fight is, I think, heightened on an oboe where you are trying to force a large amount of air down a tiny opening). About six weeks ago I had an experience much like Jojo has described, my teacher commented on how good my tone was and asked what felt different about the way I was playing and I suddenly realised that he had been right all along, I am no longer fighting the instrument and it is almost as if it has become a part of me. (Don't know if this makes sense). There are still days that are better than others but if I concentrate on relaxing instead of tensing up because it's not doing what I want then I usually find that things sort themselves out.

It probably wasn't the donut but it might have been. You'd better keep taking the donuts just in case

So glad you are enjoying it and playing well.

Well I didn't eat any doughnuts yesterday (just a piece of banoffie pie) and something similar happened to me!!!!

I was 'practicing' my grade 2 pieces without much enthusiasm so I said to myself "play this as if it's the exam, nerves and all" so I started off.... no scratches, perfect speed, good deep tone, clear dynamics and no mistakes! It felt FANTASTIC!!!!

So.. I carried on playing for the next two and a half hours; everything I had from Bach to Scottish Fiddle music. I only stopped because my fingers were sore and I was getting hungry. My husband VERY casually said to me "you're getting better". Words can't describe how wonderful the whole thing was.

BUT this morning my fingers are still very sore and I'm having difficulty typing

(It must be something in the water.....)

Maybe this is slightly different to the experience of playing - but I have had hair on my head stand up while listening to a concert of acappella music - I was so amazed that I went to a repeat performance the next night and it happened again - but only one composer - Servin.

I felt similar to that when I was listening (from within the orchestra) to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra playing Billy the Kid, it was an absolutely fantastic feeling. It's a bit of a cliché but I was completely lost in the music and nothing else seemed to matter.

Lottie, my fingers hurt today as well; I was given some new music which I had never even dreamed of being able to play...

Had a donut this morning!!!
But on hindsight it was probably the window I left open in the room letting a cool breeze in that gave me those chills down the spine!
*Joke* there was no window open




How dare you doing an 'oboe analogy' in a string forum!! naughty you!!!
What you say Kerioboe makes perfect sense, I think I have been going through the same experience as you, it 'finally clicks into place' what your teacher tells you. I am so sure I will still have 'rubbish' days (for as long as I live!) but I think I DO know what it means now to play 'confindently'



Lottie....what is it with you and me lately????? we both had a migraine 2 days ago and we couldn't practice, and suddenly yesterday we had this 'miracle' experience. Are you copying me or am I copying you??
it's definitely not the water as we don't share the same one (I am near London you are in northern ireland?)
Let me know how your practice goes today



Yup, I believe that, I have chills down the spine, hairs standing etc with lots of music listening!! One which always does it for me is going to see orchestras live and also the schindler's list theme on violin!!!

Shouldn't worry about the instrument I always seem to have a disaster - lost voice, tone going to pot, not being able to get bowing right - shortly after good days oh well!


Yes it does

I can't play today - my fingers are too sore.. oops!!

I've got a lesson tonight too so I'll just have to save my fingertips for that. What an idiot

I have a headache AGAIN, going to get some paracetamol and hope it doesn't turn into another migraine! now....don't tell me you have a headache too!

I remember once being really frustrated at the thin, scratchy sound I was making. Looking at myself in the large mirror in the practice room I thought, 'if I were Menuhin, I would do it like THIS' and struck a pose and drew my bow confidently across the string... Well, it may not have sounded like Menuhin but it did sound a hundred times better than what had gone before!

sorry for multiple post - server problems!

sorry for multiple post - server problems!

Brilliant story mcm, it's great to see what 'confidence' can do for us!

No I don't have a headache... yet!

But I played like a scratchy vinyl record in my lesson so, sore fingers or not, my lovely 'moment' of playing like Nicola Benedetti has long gone

*Another woodwinder pokes head in nervously*

Its times like that that make me want to live music.

hey, don't worry, everyone's welcome here, my post applies to all really, just posted it in strings as the experience related to me playing violin, but it can happen with any instrument I'm sure!

Hehe!! This string forum is interesting though! I'd like to play one, but I can't reaallly justify yet another instrument!

Come over to the string side Rosemary....you know you want it!

You know you want to Rosemary - The force of the strings is calling you!

I had one of those goosebump-ey moments today. I was playing something in our school's concourse, and my music teacher was accompanying me on the grand piano. I heard the notes kind of resonating in the room, and it was just so...lovely! I can only hope that the same happens when the room's filled with guests on Monday!

Well my playing yesterday was rubbish!

Mind you, I was trying to play the Bach double violin concerto rather than my Grade 2 pieces and I just wasn't quite pulling off the shifts....

In this room there are 6 instruments belonging to me and one that I've nicked from school...

Perhaps I'll buy myself a viola and get some lessons when I leave school.. Have a gap year before Uni..



Miss Ross - I get the goosebumpy moments most when I'm perfoming

<waves g4 violin certificate around to get in >

The last chills-down-spine moment I had was when I was attempting to sight-read one of Bach's fugues on piano a couple of years ago. My playing was imprecise and butchered Bach's lovely counterpoint. However, as a credit to his writing, the chromatic harmonies added more and more tension to the music until an almost painful re-entry of the subject. Ahh.....

Well I tried taking donuts for everybody to String Quartet rehearsal on Saturday. We didn't get goosbumps down our spines but the viola did get jam down his shirt. Does that count?

I've never seen a viola in a shirt. Is that a new type of mute?

Not sure - perhaps it's to keep the jam off the varnish.