More rehearsing. If you do theater or have a band, you rehearse. Or you should. You spend lots more time rehearsing than performing in front of people. What drives you? The imperative "not to suck." So much of performing is about confidence. Knowing what to do, without bothering about the knowing. And it's not a "mental" knowing. It's a body thing. A muscle memory thing. And if you are really, really well-rehearsed, you can then "let go" into the moment. That's when you can be free in the moment of performance. So you rehearse to get free of thought, to get to that place of unconscious knowing in the moment of spontaneous creation.
Or something like that.
We spent last evening in our kitchen. Two guitar players, three voices, a violinist arrayed next to the refrigerator, the stove, the dishwasher. We conjured up a sonic hurricane. It blazed through that little space. And it was good. I mean there were clunky moments. But the work was to get through those moments of hesitation, of uncertainty and to push through to some certain clarity.
The essential good work of trying to be good. Good without trying.