Anyone ever experience “tunnel vision” while soloing?

[nadroj]

I get anywhere from 1-4 solos per night, depending on what song we play and if the singer decides to call my name out of the blue, and with our gigs getting bigger and bigger, I’ve started to actively practice these tunes more at home in order to sound…well, better. 
 

I’ve been practicing licks, runs and nice lines at home, experimenting with different scales, tonal centres and creating tension. (These aren’t jazz tunes - most solos are over simple vamps or grooves).
 

At home I can work them nicely into existing tunes and chord sequences and it sounds almost good. 
 

Get me on stage though, and 9/10 I get what I can only describe as musical “tunnel vision.”

 

I start soloing and when I start to run out of initial ideas/get past my opening thoughts, I almost always default to what my fingers feel comfortable playing, which is often boring pentatonic/blues runs.

I then think in my head “ok I need to get some of my practiced lines out into the keyboard”, and for some of them that requires changing the tonality with a LH voicing or just going out of key to create tension for a moment, but it rarely ever happens. It’s like there’s a mental block that stops me from stepping back and thinking for a second. 
 

Seems when the spotlight is on me I go into autopilot mode and my lovely musical vocabulary is bound, gagged and replaced by muscle memory blues/pentatonic wankery. I perform with enough flair to usually get a cheer from the crowd, but it’s not musical - not to me, anyways. I know I can do better, and am convinced of this whenever I get the rare opportunity to hear a live recording of one of my solos.
 

Last night our guitarist went before me on a tune, and he had some lovely, simple melodic dorian lines. Come my turn, I decided to imitate the start of his solo note for note, which I did on the spot by ear (perhaps a discussion for another thread), and it sounded really, really nice. Then I defaulted back to muscle memory and ended by shoehorning some rushed licks in at the end of the solo when the singer was already calling for applause. So it’s not as if it’s impossible for me to step back and think while playing; I apparently can. 
 

Another example of this; depending on when the singer calls my solo in one particular tune, it can either come during a constant vamp on Am, or a skanky Am-G groove. I realised after I solo’d last night that I wasn’t sure which one I played over. Tunnel vision/muscle memory took over and I wasn’t even listening to the guys around me. 
 

Yet another example is that as soon as my solo is done and we move onto a jam/freestyle groove part of the tune, my licks and lines are much more musical and interesting because I’m actively listening to the band and end up playing around what they play. That simply doesn’t happen when the spotlight is on me.

 

It’s not a case of not having the vocabulary or chops, cos I have a lot of phrases and ideas stored away ready to use; it’s a case of freeing my mind when my name is called out and allowing myself to be more musical.
 

Anyone got any experience of this who can chime in? 

[Mitch Towne]

I think you solved a big part of your problem in your self observation above - “I wasn’t listening to the musicians around me.”

 

I think you are so focused on your “moment to shine,” that you stop doing what you’re doing the rest of the night - being a part of the group. I totally understand that feeling and a big part of your development is going to be not feeling like you have to be brilliant with every solo or feeling like you “gotta get your licks in.”

 

 

[Montunoman 2]

I feel your pain bro. I used to feel like I should be be able to create my solos on the fly with no preconceived ideas, just like Coltrane. Well, I’m no John Coltrane, so for the time being I’m working out my solos in advance of the performance. Sometimes I make an outline or even go as far as fully notating a few choruses. If you listen to alternative takes of many jazz classics you realize that even greats like Luis Armstrong, Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan went into sessions with plenty of previewed ideas for their solos. If they did that, why shouldn’t we? 
 

 

[cphollis]

I do either a solo or signature lfills in most of the tunes we do, trading with the lead guitarist.  Piano, organ, synth, samples, etc.  

 

I tend to solo in three different modes:

a) here's the familiar thing I did before, maybe with some minor embellishment (e.g. ending piece of Layla)

b) having a conversation with the lead guitarist, he says something and I respond (ditto with vocal lines, horn lines, etc.)

c) my time to stretch out on an extended jam (imagine 24 bars of Miss You or Whipping Post)

 

On the third one, I have standard phrases I can use, but they are there only as an airbag in case I get creatively constipated on short notice.  I'll just dive in and see what happens.  If it all works, I come up with something that sounds very spontaneous (because it is) and I have to go back and listen to the recording later to remember what I did. 

 

I want to do more of it this way over time -- leap off into the abyss, but have a safety net just in case.

[CowboyNQ]

90% of the solos I do, I’m recreating an existing solo.

 

When I have the freedom to create my own, I tend to work it out in advance.  I really don’t improvise very much at all.  Probably a reflection on my ability! 

[RABid]

It helps me to imagine that I am scatting the solo, and play what I hear myself singing in my head.

[Al Quinn]

Yes, I know the feeling. I do best when I shift my attention to what my bandmates are playing which hopefully inspires me to play something musical. If I think about what I’m playing it ends up sounding contrived and disconnected from what’s happening around me. Letting go and just letting your hands play in front of an audience can be scary but it’s what I try to do. I saw a quote recently by Vinnie Colaiuta where he said “Thought is the enemy of flow.” I think that’s it in a nutshell. Of course, it takes a lot of focused practice to have material available to play without thinking about it. The OP already has material that can be played without thinking but it’s not satisfactory and needs to be replaced with better material. So begins the soul searching process in the practice room to zero in on the desired material (aka our sound / style) and learn how to play it well.

[kaptainkeys]

Depending on the tune, I will often follow the scale or chords, and if there is some kind of repeating melodic motif in the song, I often will incorporate that into my solo, usually as a point to start and/or end from (like the main lead parts in Chameleon).

[marino]

Just a little bit of advice: Record yourself at home, playing the same tunes that you would play onstage. Don't just play: Record. And don't cheat - just one uninterrupted take per tune. This could help you to transfer the phrases that you would like to play, from a "study" dimension to a "stage" attitude.

You don't need to do it extensively, just regularly.

[harmonizer]

I have done lots of improvising on sax (my main instrument).

The sax makes it easy to play lots of notes, but this is counter to coming up with good melodic ideas, so I have a lot of experience at playing mediocre solos.

 

You wrote "I start soloing and when I start to run out of initial ideas/get past my opening thoughts".

One answer to this is to use more space. First of all, space SOUNDS good, and allows your audience to digest the (probably) cool thing you just played.

Second, space gives you as the improviser more chance to understand what your previous phrase sounded like, and more chance to see if a bandmate responds to your previous line, so you can get better ideas on what to play next. So you get more time to figure out what to play next.

 

Don't worry about the emptiness - using space implies confidence.

 

If you were trying to ask someone out on a date, and the first thing you said was good, would you continue on to say a second phrase if you did not yet have a good idea of what to say?  Or would you wait?  Blurting out something random in a hurry is not going to prove that you meant whatever you said in your first phrase, anyway.

[stillearning]

I think of it as singing a simple melody with my hand. Keep it simple, try to repeat each simple musical ‘lyric’ 3 times, then ‘stick the landing’. Repeat.
 

Some of my favorite keyboard solos are Greg Rollie’s early Santana organ solos. We do some early Santana and I’ve memorized a few of his solos. They’re great solos to learn from.

[16251]

2 hours ago, marino said:

Just a little bit of advice: Record yourself at home, playing the same tunes that you would play onstage. Don't just play: Record. And don't cheat - just one uninterrupted take per tune. This could help you to transfer the phrases that you would like to play, from a "study" dimension to a "stage" attitude.

You don't need to do it extensively, just regularly.

Funny, I've been doing this for a while. I share some of them (the ones with the least clams,) on my soundcloud. I enjoy the Paul Bley philosophy. I like the "fun" aspect if that means anything.

[KuruPrionz]

I agree with Harmonizer regarding space or "silence". 

Listen to Thelonious Monk, he was a master of not playing in interesting places. 

 

Tension and release, you can achieve that with well-timed silence but it is not your only potential expression. 

Make friends with "the notes that are wrong", learn to place them with intention and purpose. Sometimes repeating a couple of "wrong notes" (there are no wrong notes) a few times and then resolving to the comfort zone can sound fantastic. 

 

When you practice at home and record, listen to your mistakes. Can you use them? Find a way, find a purpose and use your mistakes. I know it sounds crazy and at first it may seem disastrous but that is the point and purpose of using them. Make your audience twitch and cringe, then make them relax and smile. 

 

While there is almost nothing that hasn't been done to death, find a way to make every moment sound like YOU. 

The quote from Vinnie C that Al Coda shares above “Thought is the enemy of flow.” That is HUGE. Stop thinking, it sounds like it hasn't been getting you there anyway. 

You've leapt off a cliff and now you must fly, if you stop to think about how to fly you will hurtle earthward. Just FLY!

[Cliffk]

12 hours ago, marino said:

Just a little bit of advice: Record yourself at home, playing the same tunes that you would play onstage. Don't just play: Record. And don't cheat - just one uninterrupted take per tune. This could help you to transfer the phrases that you would like to play, from a "study" dimension to a "stage" attitude.

You don't need to do it extensively, just regularly.

Absolutely. What I’d add as a variation is to record yourself soloing over an ‘interminable’ loop - as much and long as you like. This will allow you to try a range of approaches (from ‘thinking’ to experimenting with staggered timings on the hoof), hopefully resulting in a state of flow (see Csikszentmihalyi if you want the theory 😉).

[analogika]

14 hours ago, RABid said:

It helps me to imagine that I am scatting the solo, and play what I hear myself singing in my head.

 

This. Whenever I feel like inspiration has left the room and I'm about to resort to cookie-cutter licks, I stop and start singing whatever I'm going to play. 

 

That immediately switches me back to a "flow" mode. 

[nursers]

I definitely have the tunnel vision thing if asked to solo, as everything constricts due to blind panic

[Spider76]

All great suggestions, but there's an underlying faulty assumption.

That anybody in the audience and/or band, listens to a solo (or even cares about it) 😁

[timwat]

Lots of great ideas here. 

 

Have been where you are describing. And I still find myself there occasionally. Took a while to find my way out of that forest of feelings.

 

Some mental tricks that helped for the short term:

1) I only get a finite number of notes to use in an 8 bars. And that number is 1/2 of what I'm used to. 

2) Force myself to mentally focus on what the drummer is playing...and fit around him, not what my fingers want to mindlessly play

3) Breathe / sing. 

4) I get four notes to create a starting motif. Then everything I play after has to relate to that motif.

 

Those were all artificial mental tricks I used to try to break bad habits. Some work more successfully than others, at least for me. Biggest practical thing that helped was having a good teacher (Peter Horvath) tell me I was playing too much immediately after my solo, and then point me to where I was making progress, when something I did was more musical, etc. As much about what I was learning do to better as pointing out what needed to get cleaned up. He really helped me a lot.

 

Bigger picture mindset change:

Being encouraged by what Benny Green told me, and then by Peter in his own way - and then reminding myself - it's not a race, and it's not a beauty contest. I'm not in competition with anyone else to play a "better" solo. Better than his, better than hers, or better than what I played last night. None of that's valid. I'm trying to play something that's true to me, that if anyone was listening, they could hear who I am somewhere in what I'm playing. That's the whole job. Say something no one else would say.

 

At least one musical example that helped me - listen to Michael Brecker's My One and Only Love (from his 1st solo album). But notice not what Brecker plays (which is astonishing, staggering, humbling). What I noticed was what Metheny plays for his solo after Brecker's solo (4:35). Not at all "in competition" with Brecker's tour de force solo. Uniquely, beautifully, structurally Pat, and unmistakably Pat, and anyone who has heard Pat would immediately hear that and say - "that's Pat". And that provides all the contrast and counterpoint and complement to the tune.

 

Anyway, just my 0.0002 on this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KuruPrionz]

4 hours ago, Spider76 said:

All great suggestions, but there's an underlying faulty assumption.

That anybody in the audience and/or band, listens to a solo (or even cares about it) 😁

There is also the faulty assumption that others are making the faulty assumption that nobody listens or cares about a solo.

I've played for people many times, I have no assumptions that anybody cares. For all that, sometimes you can nail it and everybody in the room perks up. 

It's not something anybody can count on, a basketball player does not count on making a basket but they try just the same. 

I try to fire up the crowd, why wouldn't I? Maybe it only makes me happy, most of the time that is true. So what?

 

One of the most absurd times that I got applause for a solo was jamming on bass guitar with a strummer/singer. We were playing Folsom Prison Blues and he turned to me and shouted "Solo", so I did. I had nothing planned so I just left the bass line and started ripping away. The room erupted in applause. I don't even know if it was a good solo but they liked it. 

 

Worst case, it's more fun than just giving up, no? 😊

[Adan]

There's two topics being discussed here: 1) how to play a more creative solo, and 2) how to empower your creativity when "in the spotlight."  I think the OP is really focused on #2. 

 

To me, it's almost like a sports psychology question.  Let's say you're a tennis player who works hard at your game.  Being as good in a match as you are in practice is a skill unto itself.  You have to learn how to manage your thoughts and emotions under pressure so you don't fall into negative spirals.

 

I'm not any kind of psychologist but I've had the same struggles as the OP.  Usually when I'm playing at a level that's sort of a new watermark.  Like say I'm used to playing for 100-200 people and suddenly it's 500, or maybe it's a small number of people but with a greater focus on me (e.g., solo piano).  

 

I don't know if what works for one person can work for another.  Much better to talk something like this through interactively rather than launching generic advise into the internet.

 

But one thought that's been helpful to me has been to just think about my progress.  Some types of gigs at one point in time would make me nervous and constrict creativity, but then later they wouldn't.  The process has always worked the same way and there's no reason to think that now it won't.

[Outkaster]

Really don't over-analyze it.....it's that simple.  Stop thinking so much about it. 

[Dave Number Four]

Just to add to the other responses: in a performance, it's normal to fall back on the stuff you know so well you don't have to think about it. The challenge is to increase the amount (and quality) of the stuff you know so well you don't have to think about it. And that usually happens during practice, not during the gig.

 

[analogika]

8 hours ago, Spider76 said:

All great suggestions, but there's an underlying faulty assumption.

That anybody in the audience and/or band, listens to a solo (or even cares about it) 😁

 

The bigger fault is assuming that if YOU are unhappy with the solo, so will the audience be. I've often found that I may have felt uninspired, but still did not fail to inspire at least some of the audience. They don't hold you to the same yardstick, since they have no way of knowing what you intended. 

But in the end, if it's not a hired-gun gig, I'm doing it because I want to feel good about it, so I fully understand what the OP is getting at. 

[Steve Nathan]

23 hours ago, Al Quinn said:

“Thought is the enemy of flow.”

Totally agree!

[jazzpiano88]

Agree with Al and Steve.   The phrase "if you think you stink" is apt. 

 

Constrained solos don't usually work along these lines, for instance,  knowing you have to pack in your statement into 8 measures of a country tune following the steel guitar solo.  In this case memorize a lick you can play cold.

 

But if you have a few rounds to develop something don't hesitate to start slow and let it build.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DxiPalh5Q

[o0Ampy0o]

On 11/13/2022 at 9:52 AM, nadroj said:

I get anywhere from 1-4 solos per night…….Get me on stage though, and 9/10 I get what I can only describe as musical “tunnel vision.”…

….It’s not a case of not having the vocabulary or chops, cos I have a lot of phrases and ideas stored away ready to use; it’s a case of freeing my mind when my name is called out and allowing myself to be more musical.

Sounds like the root of your problem is fear. 
 

The sensation of fear is what is causing your problem not the fear of this or that specific thing. You don’t need to handle that fear as though it is exclusively the context of musical performance. You need to work with it like a muscle. Lift heavier weights and the lighter weights become easy to handle. Protect your musical world. No need to get dirty playing music. Go outside to get dirty. Go outside music to handle your fear. Then come to music fearless. How?

 

Find something outside music that scares the heck out of you and start getting involved with it. It is better if it is an ongoing commitment like you pay and sign on for months so you are obligated to go instead of relying completely on independent discipline. You might avoid things that are life threatening or could lead to physical injury.
 

I suggest something psychological in a safe contained environment. There are workshops designed to get you out of your shell. Whatever happens stays there. You live your daily life and face your fears in the routine workshop. You will find that the everyday things in life won’t compare.

 

Or there is the life threatening and risk of physical injury route: skydive, bungee jump, seek out the scariest roller coaster rides, get a job washing windows of skyscrapers, take trapeze lessons, take public speaking classes, volunteer to wear the padded suit at a K9 training school, etc..

 

Bottom line, incorporate something in your routine so scary that the band solo pales in comparison. 

[Docbop]

I listened to a Q&A with Richie Beirach and Dave Liebman over the weekend and someone asked kind of a similar question.  I've also heard people ask similar question in the past and Richie and Dave's answer was what I remember hearing every time....  Start listening to other types of music more, and other instruments. To get more ideas, new and different melodies in your head.   

 

I know for me as a guitar player for decades and decade the thing that opened me up the most what ended up as the best teacher I ever had told me to start listening to sax players.   Listening to  and studying sax and trumpet player whose main thing is line playing opened me up to a lot of new ideas and also discovering they think more about chords and harmony than a lot of guitar and piano players I know.     

 

Keep expanding your sources of ideas. 

 

[nadroj]

Lots to chew on and think about this week, thanks folks. Couple of big gigs this weekend, will certainly take some of these thoughts into the practice room and hopefully to the stage too! 

[Outkaster]

1 minute ago, nadroj said:

Lots to chew on and think about this week, thanks folks. Couple of big gigs this weekend, will certainly take some of these thoughts into the practice room and hopefully to the stage too! 

 

 

You'll be fine and lest us know how it goes.

[HSS]

What Al and Steve write works for me. It may not work for others.

 

I know this may sound selfish but, having spent most of my adult life in the corporate oil industry, the last thing I want to do on stage is think when I play a solo.   I play music mainly to relieve stress and let my Id out.

 

Even though I'm just a weekend warrior hack, the bands I play with, which are mainly blues and soul dive bar bands, usually give me solos on most songs.  I do my solos with my brain turned off, letting loose emotions in response to the groove the band is laying down around me and even reacting to the vibe of the joint/ audience.  It's controlled chaos and sink or swim and that's part of the thrill of playing music for me.  

 

Maybe if I did music for living, I would be more circumspect and work solos out in advance