Too much thinking about your playing can be just as bad as too little. Both can end poorly. A performance can be crippled by over-thinking as well as by recklessness. Somewhere there is a safe middle ground between brains and no brains, between too much caution and none at all.
Think about this: The question is not about thinking but about sounding. A total focus on the beauty of the product will eliminate thousands of useless notes and extraneous noodling that nobody wants to hear.
A great performance is about great music-making. That priority should drive every practice session. Think not about how you are feeling, but what the audience will want to hear.
Mr. Collins, thank you so much for writing this blog - I'm a bassoonist, and every post you write brings me back to what matters in music and helps get my head back in the game.
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