Wow, it's been a long time since I posted here. I'm going to make an effort to get back into this.

Here is a short article I found on fixing the irritating habits we have when speaking...

http://www.mtannoyances.com/?p=417

This is some good advice for improving our intros. But it also points out an idea that I've always thought was interesting.

When I'm performing, I have the same "split consciousness" thing going on that is described. On the one hand I'm highly focused on the song, pitch, tempo, words. But another part of me is standing outside the performance, watching me, the audience, the sound system, you guys. I read a book called "A Soprano on Her Head" when I was in college. Totally gay title, but it was talking about performance psychology, and it had this idea that you have two people in your head, the artist and the judge. The artist is the creative, emotional part of your consciousness. This is the part that improvises melodies, interprets lyrics, etc. The judge is the critical part, that notices the flat or sharp notes, missed words, all that. The judge is helpful when you're rehearsing, but when you're performing, you need to muzzle the judge so that the artist is free to make the magic happen. More thoughts on this later...