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?

Music Practicing Tip - The Random Spot Drill

For many music students around the world, this is a really tense time. There are only weeks before their music exam.

If you're preparing for a music exam, chances are your parents and your music teacher are telling you that you need to practice more, etc. etc.

This month, I'm checking to see how secure my students' repertoire is by using the Random Spot Drill. Really, it's as it sounds. You walk by the piano, sit down and try to play one of your pieces from anywhere. Well, from any memory station, that is.

If you're in the middle of your practice, try it for about a minute. Try playing the intro of one piece, the middle of another and the end of a third piece. OK, that's not really random, but you can make it random by trying any of the following:

• Scribble out bar numbers onto slips of paper and put them in a jar or hat. Then number your pieces. Draw one slip to choose a piece and another to tell you which bar to start from.

• Ask a family member in another room to pick a number from 1 and X (the last bar of your piece).

• Get a random number generator app and have it choose your bar numbers.

• Close your eyes and move a finger randomly on the score. When it stops, that's where you start.

• Roll dice

• Spin the Bottle

The idea behind the drill is to see how quickly you can get into the groove of that piece. After all, you never know when a distraction will occur. It could cause a blip. To keep you and your audience on track, you need to get back into the groove with as few missed beats as possible.

Turn Off the Autopilot When Practicing Music!

Sometimes, I stop my students in the middle of a phrase when something is going somewhat awry. I usually ask, "What happened there? What were you thinking about?"

More often than not, the response is something like, "I don't know" or "I wasn't thinking of anything." Then, when I ask "Did you hear what you did there?" I get "I wasn't listening" as a response.

I wrote that post-it love note to one student who usually answers, "I don't know. I just go on autopilot." I've told him that it's dangerous to not listen to what you're doing.

As musicians, we are creating sound pictures. If we aren't even paying attention to what we are creating, how do we even know if it's any good? Or whether we are getting any better?

Here some reading on Mindful Musicianship and Mindfulness-based Practice. Check out Ellen Langer's book "The Power of Mindful Learning" here:

What to Have in Your Technique Toolbox

My friend and colleague, LaDona Ahenda has published a comprehensive series on "In the Technique Toolbox". She takes a look at several books and methods, grouped by level.

In the Technique Box (Part 1): Beginner & Elementary

In the Technique Box (Part 2): Intermediate

In the Technique Box (Part 3): Advanced

Are we surprised that most of them are on the Popular Hand Exercises For Piano Book List? Please, tell me that you weren't.

Redefining My Practicing Style

My brother and I have our first paid piano/cajón gig coming up. I don't know about him, but I've had to rewire my brain in my approach to this type of gig.

Typically, for solo background music gigs, I would put together a set list to cover the time that I was hired to play. I'd carefully select which songs to group with each other. However, in recent gigs, I've found that sometimes, I have to throw that list out the window and fake it because I what I prepared doesn't match the rhythm and flow of the crowd.

This time, we have picked a bunch of songs, hours more than required. We both have a tendency to gravitate to the ballads (easy to fake). This time, our set list is jam packed with faster tunes. This has presented me with Challenge #1: finding the time to get these faster songs into my fingers - in between teaching, writing and trying to keep up with my studio operations.

We've agreed to earmark a few starting songs and then we'll choose what's next based upon the energy in the room. No problemo.

We are taking turns on the piano and cajón. That's been fun. By far, it's a lot easier to prepare the percussion part: learn a pop groove: CHECK! Learn a rock groove: CHECK! Learn a polka/klezmer groove: CHECK! Learn a tango/Latin groove: CHECK! Listen carefully and have fun.

As a soloist, we subconsciously take more time or speed up in tricky spots. We cheat with our timing. Pianists are as guilty as everyone else. As much as we teachers would like to say that we don't, we do. We all do.

However, when playing in an ensemble, it's much more critical to play in time. Not only that, but to play in the style of the piece. Therein lies Challenge #2 & #3 for me. I get hesitant when I'm not confident in the chords and/or melody. It's human nature. Nor do I have all these styles firmly in my fingertips like my friends who gig regularly do (I'll get there, though!).

To beat that out of me, I've been playing along to Youtube recordings of some of the songs and just hammering out the chord changes. Once those are secure, I start to improvise. Once that's not too shabby, I look at the melody. That's different from the standard, "Learn Part A hands separately then hands together," line we tell our students.

The other approach I've taken is to work on specific musical styles. I heard from a fellow musician that another colleague achieved great success in mastering swing by just practicing swing - and only swing - every day for hours.

Now the gig is just around the corner, so I don't have the time to fully explore this approach. I'll keep the basic boogie, Latin, pop and rock grooves already under my fingers (more or less). I did add a tango groove and klezmer rhythms as the client has asked specifically for these styles.

Once the gig is behind me though, I will explore this in full force. My plan is to spend X weeks on one style - for all the instruments I play (piano, cajón, voice, melodica and conducting). Once that's coming along, I'll add another, and another.

It's a different practice approach for one who is classically trained. It is something that my friends who gig regularly have already mastered. It's going to be a fun project.