“The Day Of” is a difficult day sometimes. The Day Of is the time when you can’t get the music out of your head. The Day Of you don’t get much of anything done, as you are waiting for the performance. The Day Of your stomach might be a bit upset. The Day Of you sort of want to play. But not too much. And you might want to avoid using the reed(s) for the evening, for fear that something goes awry and it breaks or otherwise rebels. And yet if you don’t use it you worry that you’ll get to the stage and find out that it rebelled because it had been ignored all day. So you use it … but not too much. You hope. The Day Of you think of all the things that can go wrong, but attempt to focus on all that can go right. Usually the former focus is stronger than the latter.

Okay okay okay … take all the “you” and “yours” out up there and insert my name. Maybe you don’t deal with this the same way that I do, eh?

The Day Of is, in some ways, much more difficult to deal with than the actual performance for me.

Funny how that works!

I’ve been in this business since 1975, so I’m sort of used to The Day Of. But it doesn’t mean I don’t worry and don’t get nervous. Go figure. 🙂