The Practice of Practicing Performing

Music examinations start in two weeks. After months of slogging over pieces, technical exercises, ear, rhythm and sight-reading exercises, there is light at the end of the tunnel for music students, their parents and us, their music teachers.

In the meantime, how can students best use their time from now till D-day? In addition to tweaking, they should practice performing. Some glitches don't fully reveal themselves until you add the pressure of an audience. In the case of pianists, part of the challenge is learning to adjust to a "strange" piano on the fly. Here are some ideas to get your performing chops up:

• Play for teachers and classmates at school.

• Throw a short recital for your family, friends and neighbours (don't forget to add treats at the end!).

• Play for family and friends on FaceTime, Skype or Google Talk.

• See if you can book some time to run through your pieces at church when there isn't anything happening.

• If your library or community centre has a piano/performing space, see if you can run through your pieces there.

Practicing performing is different from "just practicing". When you practice performing, you are trying to get into your "performance zone". You are trying to tell your musical story, without trying to correct anything that isn't in the score. You are practicing how to recover and adjust to what life throws at you when you are on stage.

It pretty much goes without saying that the more often you perform, the easier it gets. So, what are you waiting for?

Coping and Recovery Strategies

This month, my students are performing in our Winter Showcase. For some, this marks their debut performance. This week, we've been working on various coping and recovery strategies. As much as we would like to believe that we'll play everything cleanly, the reality is that nerves, distractions, physical and mental state, readiness and uncertainty can affect how our performance turns out.

I'd like to highlight a couple of the strategies that I introduced to them last week. First - I had them drop a hand out for a phrase or two - just enough to get through a wobbly section. If you do it in phrases, then it sounds like you meant to do it that way. Just make sure that you don't drop the tune.

Another thing they tried was to simplify either the melody or the harmony (chords). A couple are playing solid chords instead of the funkier groove that is written. If you have to simplify the accompaniment to maintain the beat, so be it.

The third thing we've had to do this week is to shorten some of the pieces. I instructed them to play through until their ear "found" a logical stopping place (Those of us who have been in music for a while would call that a cadence). In one case, we added a tonic chord in as the next beat modulates to mark a new section.

For these to be automatic on stage, however, these strategies must be practiced at home. Not just once, but several times so that you commit it to muscle memory.

For when it comes down to it, no one really cares exactly what you play. They just care how you play it. So long as you don't miss a beat, the piece is recognizable and the tempo is close to the marked speed, you're set.