Weird mouth movements when playing

On November 29 2011 12:38 ZoW wrote:
I don't think its a problem, just natural expression. Everyone does it differently, in fact some of the best classical musicians look like they are having a stroke on stage when they play. If anything it just adds to the emotion of the piece you are performing, you shouldn't be so negative about it :p

On November 29 2011 13:36 FinestHour wrote:
Just play like yoyoma and no one will care about your facial contusions.

You still in 1400s in hon?

On November 29 2011 14:30 conTAgi0n wrote:
Without seeing or hearing you play it's impossible to get a full sense of what the issue is, so take this all with a grain of salt and consult with your private lessons teacher if you have one.

Facial twitches like what you're describing in my experience are caused by unnecessary tension, as you said. However the tension is probably not isolated to your mouth or face. Besides fixing silly facial expressions, identifying when and where you tense up is also likely to improve your actual playing. As for solutions, the fix is probably reworking some part of your technique and/or just focusing on keeping yourself from tensing up for at least part of the practice session. What I don’t recommend is simply concentrating on not twitching while you play, which will likely make you tense up more, instead focus on avoiding the tension that causes the twitching in the first place, if that makes sense.

A disclaimer: tackling underlying technical issues before a performance is not a good idea. Focusing on reducing nerves and tension and on staying loose and relaxed is fine, but if you decide the problem is partly caused by your bow arm or whatever don’t try to fix that until after the performance.

I also think you need to come to terms with the fact that this is probably not a problem you’re going to solve completely by the day of the performance, but rather something you will sort out over the long term. Furthermore since tension increases with stress and nerves the problem is likely to be worse during the performance than during a normal practice session. Honestly I wouldn’t freak out too much though: 1) it's probably not nearly as big a deal as you think it is, even if it looks a little silly, and 2) regardless of the venue if the audience is going to be as large as 500, it’s unlikely that more than a fraction of them will have a good view of your face anyways. Aside from making sure you have the piece down completely, I would recommend you continue focusing on not letting yourself tense up during practice. Two weeks of that and you should see some progress. It would be particularly helpful for you to perform for friends and family or whatever as much as you can before the big day.

Best of luck with your performance. Out of curiosity, what piece are you playing?

On November 29 2011 16:34 Sporadic44 wrote:
If in all your years of playing Cello, you have never noticed, or no one has ever mentioned, that you twitch while playing your instrument, I doubt a single person will even notice when you're on stage. It sounds like you're nervous about the performance, and are hyperfocusing on something rather insignificant.