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On Group Classes & Boomwhackers

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On the weekend, Maestro and I held two intermediate group classes for the piano kids. Although I'm sure we all would have loved to sleep in on Saturday, it seemed like everyone was having a good time.There were seven junior intermediate students in the morning class. They introduced themselves by setting their names to a rhythm and joining in one person at a time. The polyrhythms meshed together nicely.

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Overcoming Stage Fright - Second Movement

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"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:

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

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Enter Troppo Crazy Season - #2

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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.