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Crafting a Great Musical Performance

2/9/2013

2 Comments

 
Have you ever heard a performance that, in the first five minutes, you started to wonder what sin you must have committed that the universe would put you in this audience?

I have. Also, I'm pretty sure it was for that one time I stole a church hymnal.

A great performance will stay with you forever. A terrible performance will seem to last forever.

If you'd prefer to avoid giving lousy performances as a musician, try some of the following advice:


1. Choose your music wisely

This is the first step to crafting an excellent performance. You have to be able to assess your ability level and the challenge presented by a piece of music.

If the music is too difficult, you will not sound good, if it is too easy, you won't be challenged.

I use the 80% rule. You should be able to sight read at least 80% of any piece you intend to perform. The other 20% should be at least appear attainable in the half the time you have before your performance. Be careful, because this decision will make or break you.

2. Good practice, seriously good practice

How much are you practicing? No, really how much? I recommend practice plans and logging practice time for more reasons than I can explain in one post. Mostly, it promotes planning and honesty with yourself.

If you're not practicing at very, very least a few hours a week, you aren't progressing very much. If you practice 3 hours a day, you're on the super star route. Most people fall somewhere in between, and that's okay.

Make a plan and stick to it. Try to have your music ready a couple of weeks before your performance so that you have time to create "ease" in your playing.

3. Do your part

If you are in a performance with other musicians, make sure your part is ready to go before your first group practice.

There is nothing worse than trying to practice when an ensemble member can't play their part. It's a waste of time, and pretty rude. When you practice with a group you should be working on ensemble sound, not individual parts.

This is the same for solos with piano accompaniment. These are usually more like duets than solos w/accompaniment. If you aren't prepared to practice with the pianist, you're putting them through grief.

4. Emotionally connect with your performance

Music requires a connection to the piece you are performing. Listen to recordings of your pieces and try to connect emotionally. Apply this to your playing and make music - vibrato, dynamics, tone color, precise articulation, and phrase shaping are the biggest difference between a mediocre performance and a great performance.

5. Sell it, dude!

When you step on that stage, you take over. Be a presence, smile, and engage that audience. If there is room for some theatrics, employ them. Just ask yourself, "Would I care if I were in the audience?"

If you apply the right music with good practice and great musicality, people with love what you do.

It's not easy to be amazing. It takes hard work and dedication, just like you would expect. It is worth it though.
2 Comments
Esther Jones link
2/9/2013 05:44:14 am

And you should do all this because...generally as a wage-earning musician you will never get the chance!

Ha! I wish I could have followed all these rules for accompanying the choir! I certainly couldn't sight-read 80% of the pieces I was handed.

But I can play them now!

Perhaps, if we stretch the truth a little, we might be able to agree that I practiced an hour every day. Well...let's just say I may have played through two or three of the pieces or parts of them once a day. Maybe. Because I work at the school all day, but much of it is taken up by hall-monitoring, lunch detention duty, fund-raising collections, keeping a log of the tardy students and tutoring those who can't match pitch or don't understand sight-reading. And for the pittance that I am paid, I am NOT going to go home and practice after school--besides, I still have a teenager at home who usually has something she has to go to.

The director never consults me whether the pieces are ready to play with the choir...she just gives me the upbeat and I have to struggle through--even if she only gave it to me last week. Fortunately, I've found that having to do that makes me a better musician.

And last but not least: you will never care as much about your music as you do when you are getting paid to make it. You can try, but you just won't be able to.

(so, is that what you meant by an angry comment, Stephen? haha).

All of the article is actually good advice. I'm just making the point that it doesn't really work in real life much of the time. And when I was a student, I didn't really care, so I wouldn't have appreciated the fact that I had the time and energy to follow all of this advice then. Now, when I don't have those resources, but I care and would love to, it is not possible.

Reply
Stephen Cox
2/9/2013 06:30:09 am

I'll go as far as to say that the advise doesn't get followed very often in real life, but that's different from it not working.

Mostly, it's about assessing your abilities, planning, and choosing literature wisely. Obviously, if you're not making any of those choices, it's hard to use this advise.

I will disagree about feeling differently about music you're paid to make, other than prioritization. I've heard of many artist that consider their less lucrative works more special than their more commercial endeavors. I DO NOT believe that emotional connection to music and pay checks correlate. I will, however, admit that a pay check puts pressure to produce in a way many people do not apply to their own "for fun" work.

Thank you so much for reading the post! I know that real life gets in the way of intense dedication to ones craft, and this is a challenge for me as well.

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