I'm doing this becuase I'm really interested in how people do things. I'm also working on a book, and use this stuff in my teaching. There are many ways to skin a cat, as they say. One of my fascinations is what i call "steering"... how do we direct oursleves into what we do. Sometimes road is straight and we end up exactly where we want to go, but sometimes the street signs are all in Greek. That's why I'm asking about it. Nobody has perfect days all the time. Like patdrums says, "I know exactly what he's feeling".
In general, here are there are 3 most common strategies I've heard.
(1) Gimme one reason. Recall a direct, personal experience that reminds yourself of how great it is to play music, stop whining, and the point is to have fun and groove, not to be perfect.
(2) Sensation. This one really surprised me in how common it is. Some guys like to put their attention into the feeling of their butts pushing against the seat. Some zone out into the sound of the snare, getting it to sound really consistent. Concert pianists often stare at a point inside the piano (it looks like their reading the music). Basketball players often put their attention to how the seams of the ball feel in their hands. I find great comfort in feeling the vibration of the stick as it rings out fully with every note.
(3) Triage! These aren't ways back into the music, but are ways to make performance suck less. This usually means simplify down to what *is* working / automatic, and stick with that. Sopme guys subdivide to hell and back.
How about striking up a conversation with someone confined to a wheelchair? How about a trip to the local homeless shelter? How about a trip to downtown Joplin? In the spirit of Memorial Day, take a trip to the closest War memorial and pay your respects to the good men and women who died for your country so you could whine about "not feeling the music" and have that as your biggest problem?
This is a standard answer. Not accusing me of whining, although it is a conclusion that is easy to jump to, but finding an appreciating for music, and putting things in perspective. It fits neatly into the first category. There are some other things, but those are the most common that I've heard from guys in clinics/lessons. Off the top of my head, Rodney Holmes says the only time he feels off is if something on his drum set is out of place. He'll search for it, move it, then everything will be fine.
Benny Greb told me this story in a clinic. This is abbreviated, and not nearly as entertaining as he told it (Dude is FUNNY). Whenever he feels anxious or a little off, he reminds himself of this story.
He was playing with a hip hop band, and spent a month getting the exact feel of the recordings down solid. They had a special swing and he got it exactly. So he's doing the tour, and things are great untill he gets very sick. He has to call a last minute sub, and the sub plays everything straight. Benny Greb is listening, horrified. The drummer he called isn't getting the feel right, and they are going to be angry at him for getting a sub who isn't doing it right. So he asks them.. "Sooooooo.... What did you think of my friend?" They say "Great! A little different, but he sounded great and we had fun." Benny Greb's moral of the story here is that they didn't even know the difference, and didn't really care, as long as it felt good. All the pressure he put on himself, and the anxiety that caused, was needless.
Also from a clinic: Steve Ferrone played the Superbowl a while back. He doesn't normally, well almost ever, get performance anxiety, but something about the look of the player's faces - how seriously they took the game, rubbed off on him. That, and one billion people would be watching him play, live. He started to get a bit worked up, so he called his wife. She said "what are you getting worked up for? It sounds like fun!" That hit home, and he started repeating it to himself. It is going to be fun. It's going to be fun. When showtime came around, he is still saying it to himself. He looks up and Tom Petty's hand is shaking so much he's having a hard time turning on his amp, so he says "TOM! This is going to be FUN!."
Billy Ward feels the touch of the sticks rubbing against his hands.
Esperanza Spaulding says that she tries to take energy from the air (this is a tangent, but that goes into sensation), I think she said that she has a story about playing music is great (don't remember!) and also that she asks her bandmates to help her out. She tells them that she's having a bad day / is tired whatever, and asks them to watch out for her, give her extra support.
