The Route to Better Performance Skills

Play any instrument and sooner or later you will need to perform, whether it’s as part of a recital, an exam or simply playing for friends or family. Indeed, playing for your teacher is arguably also a performance.

So why is it that when it matters most things fall apart? How many times do I hear “It was going so well at home?”

Well, we tend not to rehearse performances! We play pieces at home, where we’re relaxed, often no-one’s listening (or if they are, we’re not aware of it), on an instrument we play daily (hopefully) and of course, they go well! We then expect the same on an unfamiliar piano, when we’ve put ourselves under stress “I’ve got this, this is going to be the best ever!” and we wonder why it all falls apart! Ever had that little ‘disrupter’ sitting on your shoulder commenting as you play – “you messed that bit up”, or even “well you got through that tricky bar OK” at which point, you trip up in the next bar, that normally goes right! Or even worse, the ‘disrupter’ starts asking what you’re having for tea, or what the noise outside was. We’re all familiar with these scenarios, not to mention the fight, flight and freeze responses of clammy hands, butterflies and anxiety…

 

So how to tackle it?

Firstly, to be upfront: this is something I’ve always struggled with myself and am still working on, so in this blog post I want to share some tips I’ve learnt along the way which help me.

1.  Fluency is key! Chances are the audience won’t notice if you can keep going and not pull a face. I used to feel I should let the audience know that I knew I’d gone wrong…why? They just want to enjoy the music, not be disrupted by any mistakes!

• Regular practise with a metronome is great – it forces you to keep going even if things go wrong and key to a good performance is to learn to play through your mistakes without acknowledging them! 

• Pick random places to start and practise from there, ensuring among these are pick up places near ‘horror zones’ – if all does go wrong, you have an entry point nearby to get going again.

2.  Let go of ‘perfect’! In a performance ‘perfect’ is the enemy! It will NEVER be perfect! The whole point of performing is to share the joy of music, not to be perfect! Even professional musicians don’t produce performances that are ‘perfect’!

3.  Record yourself and listen back regularly – it will give you a much better idea of how you come across to the audience and you will find any slips are far less noticeable than they seemed to you at the time.

4.   Expressive technique – as a performer you need to put yourself into the piece and transmit this to the audience. Understanding the period style is key but also listening to other people’s interpretations and thinking about how the piece speaks to you. Let it create a story or a picture in your mind that you want to convey to those listening. “The job of a pianist is to make the piano sing” (Anthony van den Brock, senior Australian Music Examinations Board examiner).

5.  Practise the performance – a few suggestions for different performance types are given below: -

a) For a school concert: - 

• Imagine yourself in the venue with the audience. 
• Practice walking up to the piano (even if it’s your own at home) and introducing the piece, if appropriate. 
• Sit down & let the piece ‘breathe’ i.e. don’t launch in too quickly and give space at the end. 
• Practise your bow after the piece has finished – don’t just scurry quickly away. Do some practise on the actual piano you will be performing on if this is possible.

            b) For exams: -

• Do run throughs with your teacher. 
• At home, practise doing your pieces in your chosen order, with appropriate gaps between, again letting the pieces ‘breathe’. 
• See the examiner there in your mind’s eye – maybe get a family member or friend to sit there and pretend to be the examiner. 
• Practise walking into the room, saying hello, giving the programme slip to ‘the examiner’, saying thank you when you leave at the end. 
• Run the whole exam at home – get ‘the examiner’ to give you scales as though in an exam, play the pieces, then do a sight-reading piece, timing the 30 seconds preparation time as though in an exam. The full exam (except the aural section) can be practised this way, including walking in and out.

c) For a family concert: -  

• Work out a running order. 
• Have practise run throughs. 
• Make it as real as possible, imagine yourself there (what does it feel like, sound like, look like etc) and do this lots and lots!

The key to performing well is to prepare for it by practising as many aspects as you can in advance – as far as possible, performing shouldn’t be doing something you’ve never done before, otherwise in the heat of the moment, it just won’t go well! You may well not get the chance to practise on the actual piano you will be performing on, but grab any opportunity to play on as many different pianos as you can. Taking these tips on board and making them part of your regular practise leading up to a performance, so it becomes normal is vital for performance success.

 

Leila Viss (festival adjudicator) talks about the 5 Ps of performance.

1.  Posture – take time to adjust the piano stool. Look for the pedal (with your eyes) – all models of pianos are slightly different. Sit tall, both feet flat to the floor or the right foot resting on the sustain pedal if needed.

2.  Prepare – put your hands in the right place on the piano. Hear the start of the piece in your head – think about the sound and the speed (tempo).

3.  Perform – get in the zone. Record performances on your phone as practises – video, not just audio.

4.  Pride – smile and be proud.

5.  Polite – don’t forget bow after your performance (this one does depend on the setting!)

 

A great summary of much of what I’ve been talking about above is provided by Samantha Coates, of Blitzbook fame, when she talks about 7 deadly performance sins and 7 vital virtues.

Above all, remember your audience are there because they want to hear you play and share your joy of the music. They are on your side and want you to do well. Making music is about communicating with your audience and enjoying sharing the experience together. 😊