I was in a musical unit, somewhere in my twenties I think, when I first experienced the phenomenon. At least that was the first time I really recognized it going on. It’s an issue I’ve raised with all kinds of musicians and they all knew exactly what I was talking about.
The experience goes like this… You’re part of a band and you’ve put together a bunch of things that are ready to play for people. So you do the natural thing and you go out and play them. And as typically happens some of those things really work, some of them are okay but not quite so great as you thought, and maybe one or two things don’t fly at all. Of course you react and the next time you play you pull pretty much from the list of things you know worked the last time.
This continues and after a while you realize it’s been some time since you played that one. You know the one I mean, the one that didn’t quite work out somehow in performance that time. And for some reason you never quite get to it in rehearsal. Mostly because there’s barely enough time to practice anything now that things are going well and you’re busy playing out. After a while that piece just drops of the list, never to be heard from again.
Of course if this happens to one piece there may well be others in the same condition. I’ve seen it happen often enough that I’ve given the phenomenon a name. I call it ‘the incredible shrinking repertoire’. Funny how it can sneak up on you. Hard to deal with, too, especially once it’s really taken hold. Maybe other people have dealt with it in other ways, but the only way I’ve ever solved the problem is by making regular time to mess around with stuff. I mean stuff that may never make it to performance. That way new material keeps getting worked on. And if something doesn’t work in performance there’s a time and place to take it back and work on it some more. The equation is simple–keeping a designated messing around time keeps repertoire fresh.
You’ve told me that you want me to share my thoughts about playing music, things people have found useful but that I’ve never written down. Well, there’s one.
Beware the incredible shrinking repertoire.
Hope it helps.