Go to Spots or My Performance Disaster

My High School Senior Recital was perhaps one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.  I had been playing piano for about 13 years at that point and had participated in MANY recitals.  But never before had the spotlight reflected off my sweating brow alone.

My piano teacher was very good at what she did.  She'd had me playing and performing my repertoire selection off and on for over 3 years in preparation for the big day.  (Mind you it was interspersed with ALOT of other material as well, so I didn't run screaming from boredom.)  And then when I had only a month left to go, she got me coaching lessons with one of the best college professors in the area.

I learned alot from those coaching lessons - such as how badly I needed them.  I wasn't playing easy repertoire (think 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata) and I had problems with choking or just plain blanking in the middle.

The professor listened to me play for a while and then told me the simplest and yet probably the best advice I have ever received.  She said "When you practice this at home, learn the ending the best. And then have a few places in the middle of the piece you can go to in case you get lost."

Thankfully, I took her advice.  The piece she was specifically referring to was my Bach Fugue.  I memorized and practiced the last two lines with determination and then located different section openings in the middle of the piece and practiced them faithfully.  One of the tricks I used to do this was to randomly start from memory at one of the places, instead of the beginning.

So my big day came and it was beautiful.  I was to perform at a lovely local church with stained glass windows and old fashioned pews.  Practically everyone I knew was there, some even flying in from other states.  I couldn't believe this day had finally arrived.

Everything around me blurred as I walked towards the piano and sat down.  My world seemed to shrink to the size of the keys and my bench.  I played a Bach Prelude.  Flawless.  The tension in my shoulders dropped and I placed my fingers in preparation for my Bach Fugue.  I ran over in my mind quickly my checklist of "go to places."  Before I knew what happened my fingers had taken off and I was playing the opening.  But then the honeymoon was over and I totally blanked.  

I skipped to my first go to place.  Played, and then blanked.  Jumped to my second.  Blanked.  Third.  Blanked.  Finally I jumped to my last place - the last two lines - and I remembered the whole thing.  I completed the piece with a flair, got off the bench and bowed.  The rest of the recital came off without any major hitches.

I like to tell this story to my students every year.  I call it my performance disaster.  But really it wasn't a disaster, I did make it through the whole piece and from what I've heard from the people in the audience, they couldn't really tell that anything was wrong.  And that it completely thanks to my coach's sage advice, "Have places you can go to.  Know the end the best."

 What is the best advice you have received to help your playing?  Please share it with us!

Competition Preparation Checklist

Okay, so if you are like me, when you're getting your students ready for a competition half of your effort is spent trying to remember all the things you are supposed to tell them before they get there.  Now I'm not talking about anything that has to do with the way they play.  I mean the sheer effort of getting your students there and in order.

Thus I have taken it upon myself to alleviate your headaches by creating a no-fail Pre-Competition Checklist.  Please let me know if I left off anything important.

Pre-Competition Checklist:

(The following is in no specific order)

1. Finish filling out any forms and submitting your checks

2. Clean student's music
                -Erase all markings except for your changes (added rit., cresc., etc.)

3. Write measure numbers on their music

4. Optional: Put Sticky Notes on each piece for easier location in the rush of the day.

5. Tell the Parent/Student
                -What time to be there
                -Where to go
                -Where to park
                -How to dress
                -What books they should bring
                -What, if any, necessary forms, payment, or test sheets to bring with them
                -Recommend arriving early

6. (If the student will be playing in front of other students) Remind them how to take a bow.

7. (If there is a written exam section) Remind them to bring 2-3 well sharpened pencils

8. Make sure you have received compensation for competition fees

9. Send a reminder email with everything in #4 and your contact info in case of emergency

10. If your students do not already have the actual book for their music make sure to bring it with you or send it with them.

11. Optional, but recommended: Explain to students and their parents exactly what to expect on the big day and remind them that the judge is not a goblin.

Ta-da!  Happy dance! You made it!!

Did I miss anything?  What else do you do before their big day?

Photo Courtesy of CanonSnapper

The Garrick Ohlsson Ending

I was sitting in Ravinia with my Mom and Dad.  The place was packed and the grounds outside were loaded with people with picnics waiting to hear the concert over the loudspeakers.  I had never been to Ravinia before and everything from the rows of seats to the lonely piano on stage left me breathless with expectation.

There was another reason I was excited too.  He was going to play my piece. MY piece.  It would take three years of practice and dedication but I had just been told that my Senior Recital sonata would be none other than Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata - the complete version.  Oh yeah.

And how perfect it all seemed.  The very week we were in Chicago Garrick Ohlsson was to continue his astounding summer long series of the complete Beethoven Sonatas by performing Moonlight Sonata. He also played two other sonatas, whichever they were.

I imagine he played very well.  But honestly, I don't remember.  What I remember was the encore - and it will always stay with me.

The audience had thoroughly enjoyed Ohlsson's performance and gave him several standing ovations.  After which, he sat back down at the piano and began to play this simple, delicate melody - Claire de Lune.  We were all spellbound.  It was like he had magnetized us to his every movement.

We watched, mouths a gape, until the very end.  And then he played slowly, ever so slowly, the last few notes, and then he held.  And held.  He didn't move from his place even one muscle.  The sound of his music passed over us like a veil and then quivered and then died, slowly, ever so slowly.  And still he didn't move until the silence itself had become his music.  And then all at once he released and the audience went wild.  From that moment we loved Garrick Ohlsson.

Garrick Ohlsson Courtesy of Mariversa

Later that school year I had the privilege of performing a rather unknown work by Khatchuturian at an Honors Recital.  The piece had an ending not unlike to Claire de Lune.  Since it was an Honors Recital, everyone had come to perform all guns blazing.  All the pieces before me were fast, flashly and difficult.  But then I sat down and played my very simple piece the Garrick Ohlsson way.  They all agreed my performance stole the show.

What trick do you like to use when ending a piece?  Has another pianist's performance ever changed the way you think about performance?

look inside

Clair de lune (from Suite Bergamasque) By Claude Debussy (1862-1918). Edited by Willard A. Palmer. SMP Level 9 (Advanced). Book. 8 pages. Published by Alfred Music Publishing (AP.2160) (3) ...more info