Re: GG: The centipede and things that can impede...

[mwilliamson@alston.com]

     I have a similar story of my own from my low brass playing 
     experience (I am also a pianist and frankly have not kept up 
     my low brass playing as well as I should have).  When I was 
     in the midst of my most intensive study, around age 19 or 
     20, I was really analyzing every aspect of attack, sustain 
     and release to the smallest detail.  And I found that even 
     though my playing was in good form and constantly improving, 
     I began to experience an occasional inability to produce a 
     sound at all, particularly in the low range.  I would 
     breathe and prepare the attack in the usual way, but at the 
     moment of attack every muscle from my throat down would lock 
     up and there would be a lot of air in there not going 
     anywhere.  (Fortunately, this only happened when playing 
     alone.)  It was a most unpleasant experience.  So I 
     definitely agree with the centipede analogy, and that goes 
     for keyboard playing too.  Too much thinking is just not 
     good for you.  Or as Bill Hurt said in the Big Chill, 
     sometimes you just have to let art flow over you.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: GG: The centipede and things that can impede...
Author:  "Joseph Podlesnik" <veronese@jerseycape.com> at Internet
Date:    11/7/96 3:07 PM


Regarding centipedal topic: 
Interesting that you're using it in your paper. Yes, Gould got the idea from 
Arnold Shoenberg. Gould would use it anytime a reporter's question was too 
"centipedaL."   Funny thing, I read somewhere that James Dean, the American 
actor, dropped out of Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio because he felt the 
workshop was too self-analytical.