You’ve worked so hard on how you practice. Got the process streamlined and efficient to maximise your learning.

All your exercises are laser-focused on what you want to improve. You can get into that practice mode effortlessly, spot any imperfections straight away, and immediately calculate what you need to do to fix them.

But did you realise that every step you take that improves your practice could be dragging your performance down?

Have you ever given what you thought was a terrible performance only to come off the stage and have people telling you they thought you played brilliantly? That they really enjoyed it.

It left you confused.

That new material you’d spent ages working on didn’t come out right in your solo. Or maybe you’re thinking of that glaring mistake you made in a part that you should be able to play easily.

How could they not see how bad it was?

Have you ever had a gig where you found it easy to lose yourself in the music? Maybe it was just a short section of one tune. Concentration was effortless. External distractions faded into the background. Self-criticism and self-doubt were strangely absent as your focus was entirely on the music.

How did you feel that performance went? How much did you enjoy it?

Chances are that your answers are very positive in both cases.

Does this sound at all familiar? You’re up on stage performing something you know you’re capable of playing well. But, tonight, it seems as though it’s not quite there.

You’re hanging on so far, but it feels as though things might fall apart at any point.

You’re not going to let this happen.

You focus harder. You TRY harder. It doesn’t help.

In fact, it’s almost as though it’s making it worse…