so today in band i had a challenge with a good friend of mine, lets call her danielle, who is( or should i said ” was”) a chair below me. a challenge is when someone 1 chair below u can pick a piece of music. they’ll give u a few days to practice it and then ur chair will be on the line. if u win, everything stays the same( sort of a bitter victory if u ask me) but if the other person wins then they take ur chair and u take theirs.
today was the day of mine and danielle’s challenge. normally challenges are after class, but, just my luck, today mr. band decided to offer the challenge at the beginning of class. i guess the thing that tipped me off was when this annoying guy, lets call him richard, sayed, ” when u lose to danielle, im gonna challenge u.” it doesnt sound that bad but it made me mad that he’s already sure i was gonna lose and the fact that he just bluntly states: im gonna challenge u. then he later adds that he’ll win.
a few minutes later, mr band asks us if we want to do the challenge now. danielle says ok and i get more nervous. then after she’s done im really scared because she was awesome. then as soon as its my turn to play, richards words pop back into my head and all i could hear in my head was ” when u lose to danielle” over and over and so i just blew up and failed at the song and so i lost the challenge. the problem was that it was at the beginning of the period when everyone was listening( i personally love that little contribution) whereas at the end of the period when everyone was packing up and talking amongst each other, its easier.
the thing about stuff that happens to me that makes me too ashamed or sad is that when its in a public place, my hands start to shake and instead of actually frowning, i make an effort to smile and talk a lot more than normal( which is how people who know me really well and know how quiet i normally am makes them realize somethings not right)
so after the challenge and me and danielle sit down in our new chairs, i find out why i did so terribly on this challenge( because while i was practicing, i was doing perfectly fine) while danielle had gone to honor band auditions only 2 days ago in front of those scary judge – like people, i had already been too scared to audition. so while danielle was perfectly comfortable playing in front of people, im not as relaxed. actually the opposite. the only time i can play in front of people without getting nervous is when the rest of the band sitting right next to me because i know if i mess up, there are people to cover for me.
anyway, back on topic, in conclusion, i obviously should not plan to become a soloist because clearly i would fail epically( because freezing on stage before a concert is definitely not a good thing) hopefully i can improve that fear eventually…