Performance Anxiety, Practice Tips (NGR) Part 4

"Notes from the Green Room" by Paul Salmon & Robert Meyer

Discomfort with Performance-Related Sensations
- Do a "cold" run-through with minimal warm-up.
Warm-up? What warm-up? This was what happened at almost every masterclass at WSU that I played in: tumble out of bed and get to WSU. Sorry Dr. T, it was just too early in the morning!

- Play immediately after physical exercise.
Play just after you run from the parking lot into the hall because you are running late again! Or like after you've been lost for an hour and pulled into the parking lot late to your doctoral school audition.

- Play just after drinking caffeinated coffee.
Only if you can take caffeine. Neither the authors nor I advocate the use of drugs to alter your physical state.

- Practice while playing a cassette tape of audience noises or other simulated background effects.
Umm screaming baby.. if one is not present, a yowling cat will do too. Burmese are great at that. Turn on the tv, those car salesmen will really test your concentration, if not make you wanna gag them. I would not ever buy a Ford from you-know-who for those of you that live in Wichita KS

- Make a video or audio cassette recording of preliminary performances.
This is a good one as knowing that you're being recorded always adds more pressure. Plus it is good to review your playing at home and see for yourself what you're doing on stage. You may be playing faster than you need to .. somehow I always find that out a little too late. Also, facial expressions can be pretty misleading as to what the music is actually portraying/presenting. No sticking out your tongue every time you make a mistake!

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Erratic Memory, Practice Tips (NGR) Part 3

"Notes from the Green Room" by Paul Salmon & Robert Meyer

Erratic Memory
- Use alternate measure (A/B) half scores.
The authors suggest covering every other measure of the score (1,3,5). After which, the performer should switch to the covering the opposite set (2,4,6). Post-it Notes may work very well for this. The score preparation may take a lot of time but this suggestion may be worthwhile experimenting with.

- Imagine playing a piece through in its entirety.
I tend to do this if I can't sleep or ... There was one night I had the 1st mvt of Beethoven's Pastorale Sonata replaying over and over again in my sleep. When I woke up, I knew I had the piece memorized! Didn't get much rest though.

- Practice with memory-enhancing sound cues.
When I understand this, I will try to explain.

- Transcribe challenging passages into a notebook or log.
This task may prove to be too challenging for me. I'll try the other three, thanks though.

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Lack of Sensory Awareness, Practice Tips (NGR) Part 2

"Notes from the Green Room" by Paul Salmon & Robert Meyer

Lack of Sensory Awareness
- Practice in the dark.
The constant blackouts in my hometown, Kampar made me do this quite often.

- Practice silently.
Find an electric keyboard and practice with it turned off. Or practice with the volume off and hit the record button, for some auditory feedback after you finish the piece.

- Visualize hand and foot movements in detail.
I am a dancer but only at the piano, unless a barn dance counts.

- Make a slow-motion analysis of movement patterns.
Think nice fluid motions.. we're not talking jerky motions here.

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Practice Tips Part 1 from "Notes from the Green Room" by Paul Salmon & Robert Meyer

I have been reading this book just for leisure. It is a pretty interesting study of stress and anxiety in dealing with musical performance. The book delivers some insights into performance issues and I hope that helps me understand people who have a hard time being on stage. I have found the book to be a little more of a psychology study and at times just found it boring. Also reading about performance anxiety and stage fright just agitated me so I decided to just read what I wanted to read. Here's what I found most interesting:

Practice Tips or Problem-Oriented Experiments p. 39
Troublesome Learning
- Do competing tasks.
(eg. pedal while moving a pencil ...How am I supposed to do this exactly? Oh, this example is meant for an organist.)

- Vocalize polyphonic lines one by one.
May be a good sight singing exercise on its own. This would heighten awareness of the other parts in a piece and help the encoding or memorizing process.

- Learn a new piece from end to beginning.
Hmm do they mean by sections or measures. I think some pieces would be cool to put in retrograde motion although I would not like to sightread that way.

- Transpose challenging passages.
I think I'm going to try this one. The author suggests that this will help one achieve a stable cognitive representation that does not depend on a certain set of notes or fingerings.

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Of Nerves and Such

Tomorrow I play at my church, Central Christian on N. Rock Road Wichita Kansas. I never thought I would be so nervous the night before a performance. Usually I am eating my favorite food and watching tv. Tonight, I find myself thinking a lot about the one piece I have to play and my practice is a little frantic even though I know it well. I wonder whether it is the sheer size of the congregation (around 2000) that is unnerving me, or that my piano professor will be coming, or that many of my friends there have never heard me play.

I also may have another opportunity to audition at another university. I don't know whether this would be the golden opportunity that I shouldn't miss or the straw that breaks the camel's back. I think that my confidence is in shreds and my nerves are shot, after the last audition. I wonder whether there are universities out there that would focus on what they can do for me, rather then just only on what I can do for them. I will write to the dept chair and see what I can find out. In the meanwhile, I have my cv, repertoire lists and what-nots ready to be mailed at anytime now.

Anyhow, I'm practicing dilligently and I'm doing alright financially at this point. I started a temp. job with the Sucess for All Foundation and I like it. That eases a lot of the worry as to whether I'll be able to survive through the summer.

Sleep beckons as a great opportunity awaits me tomorrow morning.