MUSIC EDUCATION

The Journey to Becoming a Performer

Chapter 1: Playing With Fire

A tourist in New York stops and asks a passer-by, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”
The passer-by answers: “Practice!”

An old joke to be sure, but one that expresses the popular misconception, that practice
alone makes a performer ready for the Holy Grail of music venues.

The truth is:

Playing Skills Are Only Part of Performing Skills

A point sorely neglected in the musical education of those who perform, or who wish to
perform is how to work on yourself (not just the music) in order to maintain focus,
relaxation, composure, and control without forfeiting the passion, excitement, flow, and
spontaneity that make up a memorable performance. To be sure, there is no substitute for
adequate preparation. So my point of departure for this discussion is:

1. Success is where preparation meets opportunity.

Assuming that a performer has chosen a piece within their grasp, when they walk on to
the concert stage, they must have an absolute conviction, and a clear conscience about
having done all the necessary preparation. If they haven’t, what follows is likely to be a
stressful and unpleasant experience for performer and audience alike.

But what is happening when a performer has fulfilled this basic minimum requirement,
and performs their piece consistently well in rehearsal, but falls apart, or is on the edge of
falling apart in front of an audience? Let’s look at factors affecting the performance
environment.
• The performer’s preparation
• The performer’s health
• The performer’s inner mental and emotional state
• The Music being performed
• The concert hall
• The audience

Based on the ability to control certain factors, let’s make the following assumptions:
The preparation has been done.
The performer is in physically good health.
The music has been rehearsed successfully hundreds of times.
The concert hall is comfortable.

Robert Gans 2010

This leaves us with the two wild cards which are not subject to control before the first
note is played:
1. The audience presence.
2. The performer’s emotional state and its effect on his, or her mental state

It is my belief that these are the two primary factors that create what is commonly
experienced as performance anxiety.

Performance anxiety can be a particularly difficult and painful experience which has led
many potential performers to avoid the public stage. Indeed, before we perform we often
anticipate that if we play 99 out of 100 things correctly, it is that one “oops!” moment
that the audience will remember. This is the audience presence factor, and it means the
performer has given the audience a lot of control over his or her emotional state.

Obviously, in this situation the audience presence and the inner emotional state of the
performer become interdependent with the audience having the upper hand, and a lot less
at stake. Performers may sometimes justifiably complain about cold, impassive, or even
hostile audiences. But when the audience leaves the hall, they are not held accountable
for their response. It is the performer (and possibly the composer) who is held
responsible for the audience’s critical reaction.

The point of this discussion is to offer insights and possible solutions to the struggles of
musicians who do the work and want to perform challenging music with artistry and
conviction to an audience that is focusing all their attention on them.

Playing with Fire

What is going through your head while you perform? Are you concentrating? Are you
concentrating on not concentrating?

Over the years, as I have leapfrogged from idea to idea trying to find the ultimate answer,
some of the strategies I have used, with varying degrees of success, for coping with
performance anxiety include:

1. Being and feeling thoroughly grounded in a thorough understanding of the music.

Technically, harmonically, melodically, rhythmically, formally, expressively
2. Trying to pour energy downwards into the keys.
3. Trying to feel the piano as a part of my body. (Singers have an indescribable
advantage here.)
4. Trying to focus on the music inside the notes
5. Music as mantra.
6. Focusing on what I bring to the music, instead of trying to create an ideal
performance.
7. Playing a piece as if it is the only one in existence.
8. Experiencing the performance as a form of personal energy.

Robert Gans 2010

 9. Visualization: This one is much recommended and highly touted, but no matter
how hard I try, it ultimately disappoints because this technique embodies trying to
make something out of nothing more than a personal wish or desire. If
visualization really worked, what a wonderful world it would be! (Unless our
visualizations conflicted…Egads! Then what? Whose visualization would win?)
10. Chaining: A behavioral technique for connecting a series of tasks
11. Having clear intent. This is a valid and important ingredient until the verbal mind
intrudes by saying, “Now I’m going to….”
12. Access the non-verbal musical mind. (We’re getting warmer, closer to the fire.)

All these techniques produced some positive results, but I didn’t find them to be the
definitive, long term solution to my quest.

To be continued…
The Journey to Becoming a Performer

Chapter 2: Silencing the Internal Critic

Robert Gans 2010