Posted by Art on January 15, 2001 at 11:44:22:
In Reply to: Just wondering... posted by Carl L on January 14, 2001 at 10:08:33:
My habit for many years when I had a day gig was to practice during the early evening. When I had a playing gig in the morning or afternoon I found that my playing was not quite up to the level that it should have been, perhaps because I was not used to playing during the day. Sometimes I would have two jobs in one day. The afternoon performance would be a struggle, but I always felt better for the evening gig. Recently I was asked to play in a concert of Louis Armstrong music on a Sunday afternoon. Among other things, I did transcriptions of "Cornet Chop Suey" and "Potato Head Blues" on the tuba. So I started practicing hard during afternoons, to get used to that time frame, and it really worked.
Isaac Stern said that when he was preparing for his Carnegie Hall debut he often had his roommate wake him up in the middle of the night for a quick run-through of the music, just so he could get used to playing under pressure in the worst possible conditions. It worked for him.