Performance thoughts




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A big part of performance is dealing with inevitable mistakes.  And yes, regardless of how good you are, mistakes are inevitable.  
 
Look at it this way.  As you watch the Olympics over these next few weeks, you are watching the very finest athletes in the world in their respective sports.  I just watched a little figure skating (yes, I will admit my wife made me watch figure skating).  Almost none of the performances were close to perfect even to my untrained eyes.
 
If those performers cannot skate perfect after practicing 60 hours/week for ten years, why would you think you can perform perfectly on the piano every time?
 
It is very interesting to listen to old recordings from times when technology did not allow us to splice, dice, and manipulate sound like we can now.  Even the most famous performers had recordings with very obvious mistakes.
 
Accepting that you will make mistakes is step 1.  Here are some other things that might help you too:
 
1) Nerves make things much much worse.  And the only way to be less nervous is to be more prepared.  It is not good enough to adequately play a piece in practice.  You have to nail it repeatedly in practice before you can have hope of playing it well publicly.  
 
2) Practice performing.  Performance is itself a skill above and beyond simply playing music.  When you have a chance to practice performing, you should do so.  Find smaller venues or ask someone better than you to listen to you.
 
3) Don't expect the first performance to go perfectly.  If you have a big performance coming up, try to find a way to perform it earlier at least once for a smaller audience.
 
4) Don't give yourself away when you make mistakes.  It is shocking how much you can get away with in a performance.  People do not hear all the mistakes you hear.  Avoid making faces or hanging your head.  I know it is tempting because you want to let people know that you don't ALWAYS play that badly.  But don't.
 
5) Learn to play by ear.  Doing so will help you cover mistakes and memory slips.  I do this constantly. Anyone can learn to play by ear if they want to.
 
6) Don't beat yourself up.  If you mess up, it probably is not as bad as you think.  
 
7) Over-practice the critical things.  A few days ago, in front of an audience of more than 1,000, I forgot how to start an introduction.  I ended up improvising one on the spot and it was no where near as good.  Make sure you know exactly what notes you are starting with.  Make sure you remember the key signatures you are playing in (in case of trouble, you need to know what the I chord is).  Make sure you know the form of the arrangement very well.  And make sure you know the ending.
 
8) Don't focus on details.  Stay focused on the big picture--communication.  If you have to think about every note you are playing in a piece, you are not ready to perform it.  Get to the point where you can play the piece unconsciously and then just focus on communication.  The magic of performance will always occur at the level of communication.

If you have some performance tips, make sure and post them below.


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Paul Kenyon





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