learning to play for an audience

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Ailsa

Posts: 2277
Joined: Apr. 17 2007
From: South East England

learning to play for an audience 1 votes

Hi guys,

Thought I'd just tell you what I've been up to the last few months. Out of the blue I got the chance to perform some little pieces in public at various events. First of all at the monthly guitar classes I organise, I arranged for the students to have some time in the bar to do a little performance after the class. It was supposed to be just the end of course event, but it's turned into every month! I guess because students don't always have a chance to play for others so it's popular.

Then in my home town there were two events to promote a new venue for an arts centre and I volunteered to play there, and from that I was asked to play at an acoustic night every other week.

This has been a great experience for me, and it's given me loads of confidence to just have a try, and to get over patches where I make mistakes but still try to keep a track of the music.

But there is one disadvantage. I've kept everything in the pieces I play really really straightforward, to be sure I can get through it even in the stress of performing. I have deliberately left out all the most difficult falsetas, the ones that really stretch my technique, because a performance is not the right place to take the risk for them. So after playing a piece tomorrow, and a couple in a bar on Thursday I've no plans to play in public for a little while. I want to go back to those pieces that I play (only 5 - not a huge repertoire!) and add some new material that really stretches me again.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my plan. I'd be interested to hear how other people have managed this need to keep things manageable when playing in public, but still progressing.

Best

A
xx

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 10 2009 14:01:42

HemeolaMan

Posts: 1514
Joined: Jul. 13 2007
From: Chicago

RE: learning to play for an audience (in reply to Ailsa) 1 votes

here's the conservatory theory:

in theory: in a public performance you will be able to play a maximum of 85% of your potential, 10% of the time

you will play 75% about 25-40% of the time 70% and below, the remaining.

Taking that math into account, you must establish where 100% performance of those pieces you want to play is now. then, practice it until you are 130% better than you were.

Assuming you had those pieces near perfect originally, you will now be able to perform at 70-85% of 130% . Basically, in classical repertory, new ideas are not encouraged, but with the demand for near perfect or perfection in performance, one must over compensate.

Personally, I'd rather get the piece mostly right, change what I dont like, maybe do somethign funny, try something new and hope everyone enjoys it as much as i do.

If you fall on your face for a falseta, no one will remember after the next 3 minutes of perfect or near perfect material you have rehearsed.

don't let society's unspoken quest for perfection take music away from you. That is, you are not a recording. it would be easy to put one on. but live performance is a reflection of life, not perfection. Let's get into recordings and plato's theory of forms....lol

you see my point? are you more happy when you see a performer try something a different way while you watch or more happy when they nail it spot on the recording...maybe some of both...

balancing is the key

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 10 2009 14:10:01

gj Michelob

Posts: 1531
Joined: Nov. 7 2008
From: New York City/San Francisco

RE: learning to play for an audience (in reply to HemeolaMan)

quote:

If you fall on your face for a falseta, no one will remember after the next 3 minutes of perfect or near perfect material you have rehearsed.

don't let society's unspoken quest for perfection take music away from you. That is, you are not a recording. it would be easy to put one on. but live performance is a reflection of life, not perfection. Let's get into recordings and plato's theory of forms....lol

you see my point? are you more happy when you see a performer try something a different way while you watch or more happy when they nail it spot on the recording...maybe some of both...

balancing is the key

A very interesting issue Alisa, i am sure many pose to themselves, along with very sound advice, HemeolaMan.

That brings back the issue of "stage fright" doesn't it? My simple trick to reduce it, is to pretend that i am (emulate) those whom i greatly respect and inspire me. So if i am in front of a class, i think "Bill Clinton", or if in Court, my law partner (who is an incredibly talented lawyer); when performing for friends or small audiences, i think " Vicente Amigo".
I suppose it fundamentally works as a distraction from the source of fear: the audience, but it may bring you closer to the inspiration you need. After all, we all learn by imitating others, and hopefully we are a mosaic of others' most inspiring moments.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 10 2009 14:26:58

Florian

Posts: 9282
Joined: Jul. 14 2003
From: Adelaide/Australia

RE: learning to play for an audience (in reply to HemeolaMan)

Wow Hemeolaman I am very impressed..look at you

so mature all the suddent...come let me pinch your chiks

I agree with every single thing youve said.

Congratulations Ailsa

Everyone reacts different and behaves different under certain conditions thats why there are many different correct answers to this ..eventualy you will determine for yourself what works best for you.... my approach might not necesarely agree with how you are ....so you have to study your own behaviours and learn to read yourself ..your patterns and how u react to diff situations..try and practice in front of someone as much as you can..(you can recreate some of those nerves u wanna get good at conroling)

practice really slow for precision ...practice really fast...(for training your brain to react fast...and learn your limits) practice or play in front of husband , friends as much as you can....

the thing to remember is that you will make mistakes...there is no perfect performance, I am not sure if i have ever done a show where i havent made a mistake ...i dont think so ( small or big)...something always goes wrong lol ...the only difference is knowing how to cover it up and recover or making it obvious to the whole room that you made a mistake lol

once you learn to remind yourself..."Hey this is fun ! this is why i practice..this is my night, I wont make a mistake but if i do i will be the only one that knows it, it will be fine il just get on with it.." it actualy begins to be fun...cause lets face it..its what it is..we not building spaceships...people come out and we entertain them...they will be more entertained if they see you enjoy yourself...

and stay in the moment dont allow your head to race foward or think about anything except for what you are doing...think about the music..dont let it rush by like a blur..take a second ...look around, remind yourself where you are..keep yourself in the moment..

the most common reason people make mistakes is because the lost concetration and allowed theyr brain to race foward or back thinking about other things rather then the moment..its very eazy to do,..lose concentration for a second all the suddent you find yourself thinking about the hard part that is coming up...or thinking oh no i am going to make a mistake...(the second u think i am going to make a mistake there about 70% chance you will ...)

try and think positive...

and most important...enjoy it enjoy it enjoy it...its what its all about

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 10 2009 14:52:03

HemeolaMan

Posts: 1514
Joined: Jul. 13 2007
From: Chicago

RE: learning to play for an audience (in reply to gj Michelob)

I find it easier just to focus on what im doing lol

or rather what i will be doing in the next bar or two.

practice to the point where you have it totally memorized backwards forwards, each phrase etc. all independent and all that.

then, when you start, think a few measures ahead, and plan.

What i do to prepare and calm myself before every piece, is take 20-30 seconds where I breathe and think about the piece where my hands are going to be, the tempo the first phrase the second phrase etc.

Then I start counting the beat in my head, more like I hear the first note and then play it in my head for a bar as a mental pickup to the sounding of the first note

I do that because it helps to get your momentum going mentally so you feel like the tempo is already established, and I think of where i am going to go, early on, so i can drive that momentum down the tracks.

try those things, you will be successful

Also, don't worry about having 20 seconds of silence. after all, they wont remember after 3-5 minutes of sound lol

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 10 2009 14:52:49

Wannabee

Posts: 131
Joined: Jan. 13 2007

RE: learning to play for an audience (in reply to Ailsa)

Aside from what others have said, which is really great advice I think, there are a couple of things which helped me:

One thing that has helped me is to start simple, play a couple or three really simple things at the start of your performance and give yourself time to get accustomed to the audience and them to get accustomed to you.

Another thing is to have more than enough pieces ready that you can play if the need arises. You won´t have time to play all of them, but you can pick and choose the ones that you feel most comfortable with that day.

I hope this helps,

Suerte

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 11 2009 10:55:54

sig

Posts: 296
Joined: Nov. 7 2007
From: Wisconsin

RE: learning to play for an audience (in reply to Ailsa)

Ailsa,
Great topic and great timing as well. In Dec I was asked to accompany a dance class which has been a real bonus to my confidence. I have found myself doing the same things as you, playing really simple pieces and trying not to tackle complicated falsetta's. We usually just work on Compas with the dance students but during the cool down phase i'll play a piece or two for the class. I was playing a Soleares and it was going great until my mind raced ahead during a falsetta and I briefly forgot where I was at then I remembered something my teacher told me, if you get lost, go back to Compas. It worked great!! I immediately went back and played a few bars of the standard chords of the piece and found my way back!! On my way out the door a couple of people who had looked in and listened said I "sounded wonderful" which took me by surprise as I though I really didn't play that piece all that well. I really liked Florian's suggestions as well especially the part of "staying in the moment" as that's exactly what happened to me on Sat. I also liked what HemeolaMan has to say about it as well "If you fall on your face for a falseta, no one will remember after the next 3 minutes of perfect or near perfect material you have rehearsed." Another thing that has helped me was a quote from Tom Hess regarding "Play live: What to do with the little voices in your head" he suggests the following: "at least remember this: The best antidote for stage fright is to change the mindset from “impressing others” to “giving to others”. This has really helped me!!
Sig--

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 12 2009 8:20:31

mark indigo

Posts: 3625
Joined: Dec. 5 2007

RE: learning to play for an audience (in reply to sig)

i was playing at a sort of open mic night thing with a little group of dancers and started the bulerias with a falseta i made up.

it began with some right hand arpegios on a chord at the 5th position.

it was dark

the group started palmas and i put my hand in position and started the falseta

it sounded kinda weird

i looked down and realised i was at 6th position instead!

what to do?

i just played there 'til the end of the compas and then moved down a fret and started again there.... seamlessly....

afterwards a friend of mine who had been watching/listening who is way way ahead of me in terms of his ear, his coordination, his technique, his memory, everything, asked how it went for me and i was moaning about how awful it was.... he said he thought it was meant to go like that and thought it sounded cool!

don't worry about mistakes, most people don't notice, often they think they sound at least ok, if not good, anyway, so don't let them put you off.

and if you do make a mistake, by the time you realise you've made it there's nothing you can do about it, it's gone, so there's no point worrying about it, that will just put you off and make you more likely to make more mistakes, so just let it go and move on, like with sig's advice about just go back to compas and keep going!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 12 2009 9:33:09