Overcoming Stage Fright - Second Movement

"This week, I want you to practice performing." My students have been hearing me say this throughout the week, in preparation for my studio's winter recital on Sunday. We only have one shot on stage to weave our magic for the audience. Many musicians can attest to nailing their songs in the practice room, only to have everything fall apart on stage.

The secret is to practice performing. One must play through the song(s) in a performance setting, where you can get that heart pounding, feel the weight of all eyes on you and play through distractions. Some tricks I've learned along the way:

• perform often: the more you perform, the more used you get to the stress and the easier it gets

• cajole your family and friends to be a guinea pig audience - have them be a model audience one time and a disruptive one the next run-through

• know your repertoire really well

• visualization: visualize the setting, yourself playing well, yourself successfully navigating through a stumble, memory glitch

• breathing techniques

• put Maestro to work: Sometimes, I allow Maestro to provide distractions for the students to perform through. His favourite techniques include surrounding the student with toys, hopping on the bench and singing along.

Here are some cool articles on performance anxiety/jitters:

• First Performance Jitters

• Overcoming stage fright (my blog entry from May 10, 2006)

Happy reading! (c) 2007 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Enter Troppo Crazy Season - #2

It's that time again - when students and teachers ride a six month non-stop roller coaster - with dreams of summer so far away. My new room-mates are seeing first-hand just how nutty my life is. It goes almost without saying that I won't be able to update my blog as much as I'd like to for the next little while.

I began the winter term with an ARMTA Calgary Executive Board meeting. We have some exciting projects on the go. Our neighbourhood Chamber Chats, which launched in September, have been a hit. Calgary has grown so quickly that it is becoming more challenging to bring teachers together. We divided the city into six regions and created regional groups in the hopes that the teachers within the groups could network and support each other with joint recitals, master classes and mock exams. We have another round of Chamber Chats scheduled for the coming week.

Also on tap this month is our Honours' Recital, which I'm chairing. Students of member teachers who attained high marks on their 2006 music exams will be honoured at the end of the month for their hard work. I've been busy fanagling scholarship money. I know, I seem to recall saying that I'd never fundraise again after the CFMTA Peak Performance Conference & Celebration, but I just can't seem to get out of it.

My student recital is next weekend. Thankfully, my parents have been taking care of the post-recital "Snack & Chat". However, it's up to me to remind everyone to bring a plate of goodies to share and get the "recital box" ready. I also have to do up the recital program. Keep your fingers crossed that my students don't change their songs at the last minute. I was trying to prepare a new song for the recital. Reluctantly, I had to admit that it would not be up to performance standard for next week. I pulled out my old ARCT repertoire to dust off an old song. I was delighted to see that in next to no time, I had Danza del viejo boyero back under my fingers in a night.

The entry deadline for the High River & District Music Festival is next week, so I had to get all the forms ready for the six students who can enter. Talk about detail oriented work.

No luck finding a successor for the Advertising Coordinator position for ARMTA Calgary. Those of us on the Nominating Committee will have to sort that out before the AGM. I'm torn, a part of me hopes that our current President decides to stay on an extra year to push through some of these new initiatives we've launched. However, part of me looks forward to the day my commitment on the board will be over. If she completes her term and hands the mantle to me, then we're both done sooner. Hard to say which would be the better path. Whatever happens determines whether it's just easier for me to hold onto the Advertising Coordinator role since I've done it for about three years.

It's a good thing that those of us on the Website Maintenance committee for ARMTA just have regular updates to do. As one of my colleagues and I maintain our own websites, it's not a big deal to add some of the info from our site onto ARMTA's.

It was a relief to come out Saturday's Calgary Iaido Club Tournament meeting with only two tasks, as opposed to the 15+ that each committee member on the ARMTA Board winds up with. Taking minutes and filling out grant applications - I can handle that - especially with proofers to double-check my work.

All I can say is that I'm glad my room-mates and I launched our little "adventure club" for family and friends. Maestro and I will need a healthy dose of fun and adventure to survive this term's roller coaster.

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Audio Editing & Sequencing Programs and Education

For those who would like to try their hand in audio editing or sequencing, check out these cool programs:

Audio editing:

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/acidfamily.asp http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/soundforgefamily.asp

Sequencing (notation):

http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/HomeStudio/default.asp

If you're interesting in pursing this as a career and plan to study in Alberta, head to:

• The Academy of Production and Recording Arts

• Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT): Film & Video Production program

• University of Lethbridge: Department of New Media

• Grant MacEwan College: Design Studies

International readers - if you can recommend any schools or programs on this subject, please write!

(c) 2007 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Friday Fun Link #32

Thanks to my friends Trudi and Nicola (fellow music teachers) for this one. A witty comedian does a musical sketch on Pachelbel's Canon in D. Enjoy Pachelbel Rant:

I couldn't stop laughing.

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Happy Holidays from Musespeak.com

Both teachers and students are counting the days before Christmas Break. Yes - us teachers are really looking forward to not teaching for a couple of weeks. Some of the administrative tasks can't be put off for that long, but at least they can be crammed into a couple of days, leaving plenty of time to catch up with family and friends. My break doesn't begin until late tomorrow evening because of teaching an a Christmas party gig. I can't wait till I'm done (did I say that already?).

Maestro and I would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays.

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.