Band Devo

I'm going to talk about fear today.

What were you afraid of as a child? The dark? Spiders? School?

What about high school? What were you afraid of in high school? Bad hair days? Embarassment? Not getting into college? The dark? Spiders?

What about now, in college? What are you afraid of? School? Spiders, the dark, bad hair days, grades?

I have a theory that all fears can be traced back to the fear of being alone. Embarassment, the dark, failure... variations on a theme, yes?

So what are you afraid of in band? Being out of tune? Coming in late? Coming in early? Getting it right, getting it wrong?

I googled "the opposite of fear" and you know what I found? Not courage or bravery or fearlessness. But hope. And in band speak, that's CONFIDENCE. Because I think "hope" is sort of a wishy-washy word. You can hope to do something, or you can know that you are going to do something. You can hope that you are going to do your best in band today, or you can be confident and do your best.

If our goals are up there (point to goal arrow near the top of the very high ceiling), how confident do we have to be in order to get there?
If Doc got up here and conducted like this (conduct timidly), how would that affect our playing? How does it affect our audience when we play "wimpy wimpy wimpy" (done in hefty commercial voice)?
What difference would it make if Doc conducted like this? (Conduct strongly, confidently) What difference does it make to our audience when we play hefty hefty hefty Confidently?

How do you want to be heard today?