Part 4 Practising for Performance
Graham Fitch
Published by Informance 2016 Copyright © Graham Fitch, 2016 The right of Graham Fitch to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
Contents About the Author .................................................................................................................................................................................. 9 The Practising the Piano eBook Series .......................................................................................................................................... 10 The Practising the Piano Online Academy .................................................................................................................................... 11
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Surrender Control .............................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Your Fingers as Servants ................................................................................................................................................................... 13 A Clear Goal ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Cavaliers and Roundheads ............................................................................................................................................................... 14 The Tightrope ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Resources for Developing Pianists and Amateurs ...................................................................................................................... 16
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Time Frame from Start to Finish ..................................................................................................................................................... 18 Parkinson’s Law ................................................................................................................................................................................... Law ................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 The Countdown to Your Performance .............................. ................................. ................................. ................................ ........... 21 Keeping Old Repertoire Alive ........................................................................................................................................................... 22 Resources ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 22
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 23 How Do We Practise? ......................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Performing Versus Practising........................................................................................................................................................... 23 Two Playing States .............................................................................................................................................................................. 24 A Simple Mapping Tool for Musical Performance ....................................................................................................................... 26 Keeping an Interpretation Fresh ..................................................................................................................................................... 27 Maintenance Practice ........................................................................................................................................................................ 28 Silent Practice ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 Resources ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 29
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 30 The Play-Through .............................. ................................ ................................. ................................ ................................. ................ 30 Spot Practice ................................. ............................... ................................. ................................. ............................... ....................... 32 Multiple Run-Throughs ............................... ................................ ................................. ................................ ................................ ...... 33 6
Resources and Further Reading ................................ ................................................................ ................................ ...................... 33
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 36 A Brief Overview of the Results ....................................................................................................................................................... 36
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 43 Mental Rehearsal .............................................................. ................................. ................................ ................................. ................ 43 Resources ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 45
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 46 The Myth of Perfection ...................................................................................................................................................................... 46 The Critical Inner Voice ...................................................................................................................................................................... 47 Inner Game Work ............................................................................................................................................................................... 48 Performance Coaching ............................................................... ................................. ................................ ................................ ...... 50 Resources and Further Reading ................................ ................................................................ ................................ ...................... 50
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 52 Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy............................................................... ................................ ................................. ................ 53 Relaxation ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 54 Autogenic Therapy.............................................................................................................................................................................. 55 Breathing .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 55 Mindfulness Training.......................................................................................................................................................................... 56 Hypnotherapy ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 56 Yoga ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 57 Aerobic Exercise ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................. ................................ ................. 57 Resources and Further Reading ................................ ................................................................ ................................ ...................... 57
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 58 Naturopathic Remedies .................................................................................................................................................................... 59 Prescription Medication ............................................................. ................................. ................................ ................................ ...... 59 Postlude ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 61 Resources and Further Reading ................................ ................................................................ ................................ ...................... 61
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 62
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 64 Encoding and Decoding .................................................................................................................................................................... 64 7
Muscle Memory and Memorisation ............................................................................................................................................... 65 Trust ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 65 Resources ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 65
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 66 Examples of Analysis .......................................................................................................................................................................... 67 Resources and Further Reading ................................ ................................................................ ................................ ...................... 70
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 71 Example – Chopin: Ballade No. 1 In G Minor, Op. 23 ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 71 Following A Musical Thread .............................................................................................................................................................. 73
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 74 Tools for Memorisation ..................................................................................................................................................................... 74 Resources and Further Reading ................................ ................................................................ ................................ ...................... 80
Front Matter
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About the Author
Graham Fitch, based in London, maintains an international career not only as a pianist, but also as a teacher, adjudicator, examiner, lecturer, writer and commentator on piano playing and musical subjects. His workshops and classes, which he gives all over the world, have received high praise for their creative and illuminating approach to the subject. First Prizewinner in the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition, he graduated with honours from the Royal College of Music in London as Hopkinson Gold Medalist. A Fulbright Scholarship then took him to the United States, where he completed his studies with Ann Schein and Nina Svetlanova, as well as participating in regular classes with Leon Fleisher. During much of the 1990s, Graham Fitch’s career straddled the Atlantic with solo and chamber performances in England (where he taught piano at the Purcell School, St. Paul’s Girls’ School, the Centre for Young Musicians) and in Europe and North America. The New Yor k Times spoke of his playing as “unalloyed pleasure”. In the UK he was recitalist at the Bournemouth Festival, and appeared in repeated engagements with the London Chamber Soloists at London’s South Bank Centre. US activities included concerts with his tri o, the Trio dell’Arte, various solo appearances (including a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in Merkin Hall during the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death) and a performance of Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion with Jonathan Haa s. From 1997 to 2008, Graham Fitch was Associate Professor, Head of Keyboard and Head of Section of Practical Studies at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town, from where he travelled extensively to perform and teach. An international tour of Bach’s Goldberg Variations elicited rapturous reviews on four continents, and invitations to return to Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Graham gave recitals, masterclasses and keynote addresses at four successive Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conferences across Australia from 1999 to 2005. He was in residence at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2006, giving a masterclass, directing a performance class and teaching the Head of Piano’s students. More recent activities have included a concert tour of Singapore and Australia with Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with masterclasses at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Griffith University in Brisbane, and Melbourne’s Team of Pianists . Graham is a principal tutor for the Piano Teachers’ Course (EPTA) UK, Britain’s flagship training programme for piano teachers. He is also a tutor at the Summer School for Pianists, now in Walsall, and gives regular workshops for pianists and teachers in London. He is a regular contributor to Pianist Magazine, with articles on technique, style and performance as well as producing an ongoing series of video demonstrations on YouTube. Graham was commissioned by Trinity College of Music to write the teaching notes for a series of graded piano pieces, Raise the Bar. He teaches privately in South West London, and counts among his students professional pianists, piano teachers, adult amateurs and young musicians. Schedule permitting , Graham’s philosophy is to be available to anyone who wishes to study with him and who is serious about developing their piano playing.
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The Practising the Piano eBook Series Have you ever sat at the piano wondering how to practice?
is an interactive, multimedia eBook series which shows you exactly what you need to do to get the most out of your practice time. The series is the culmination of years of experience by Graham Fitch, one of the UK's leading independent piano teachers. There are surprisingly few books that deal with the art of practising. Given the amount of time an aspiring pianist needs to spend practising, it is very important to know exactly what to do in order to make the best use of this time. Practising the Piano will equip you with specific tools to help you every step of the way and will give you concrete skills to learn pieces, solve problems, memorise, and much more. The series is comprised of four parts:
Part 1 is a foundation course on practice methodology or what could be called techniques of learning. It shows you how to organise your practice sessions for maximum effect, enabling you to learn new pieces quickly and efficiently. It also provides a number of specific practise tools which will improve your confidence and the overall quality of your playing. Click here for more on Part 1 >>
Part 2 provides a comprehensive treatise on the subject of piano technique from an overview of different schools and traditions through to an extensive listing of technical exercises. Video demonstrations and precise written instructions with exercises accompanied by manuscript show exactly how to overcome technical difficulties with skill and panache while avoiding common pitfalls that lead to tension and injury. Click here for more on Part 2 >>
Part 3 is a comprehensive guide to scales and arpeggios. It features numerous video demonstrations, exercises, practice suggestions, resources and interactive tools to make this essential part of a practice regime effective, interesting and fun. Click here for more on Part 3 >>
Part 4 focusses on the art of performance, including how best to prepare yourself both mentally and in the practise room. Drawing upon powerful practise strategies, proven psychological and therapeutic techniques used by elite sportsmen and women, it shows how to combat anxiety and to deliver performances that reflect your full potential. Click here for more on Part 4 >> 10
The Practising the Piano Online Academy
The aims to be the ultimate online resource for mastering the piano. Building on acclaimed teacher and performer Graham Fitch's successful eBook series and blog, it will take his tried and tested methodologies to the next level with a comprehensive library of lessons, masterclasses and resources combined with insights from other leading experts. Aimed at piano teachers and pianists, these materials will be presented in an intuitive, interactive manner and will transform the way you approach piano playing.
What will it do for you? Whether you are a budding student, keen amateur, passionate piano teacher or a professional musician, the will provide you with the knowledge and resources at your finger-tips to:
Get the best possible results from your time spent practising the piano
Avoid injury and overcome technical difficulties with panache
Learn new pieces quickly and master trouble spots or challenging areas within the repertoire
Deliver performances or achieve examination results which reflect your full potential
Inspire your students and enhance their enjoyment of the piano.
Please click here to for more information on the subscribe.
or click here to visit the site, view free content or
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Introduction Introduction to Part 4
Developing Performance Skills Introduction When we perform, we call on a different part of ourselves from when we practise or play for ourselves, because these are completely opposite activities. In performance we need a feeling of abandon and spontaneity, of creativity and going with the punches (more of what is known as right-brained activity), whereas practising relies on thoughtful, analytic procedures where we constantly evaluate, repeating and refining our results until we are satisfied they are correct (left-brained activity). In performance, we need to leave our inner critic in the green room and go into another state of mind once we are on the stage, one where we are not engaged in thinking, but rather in being and doing. We probably all know an excellent pianist who is not able to make the transition from the one state of mind to the other. While they may play wonderfully, they can’t put themselves through the torment of public performance. Letting go of our critic is easier for some than others. What makes a good performer is the combination of natural talent and the capacity for sheer hard work, together with the ability to let go and surrender control when on stage. Some relish the act of showmanship – performance with all its theatre – while others shrink from it, seemingly unable to believe in their own abilities or to get out of their own way. Even though these words are from violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz, they apply absolutely to us pianists:
A Personal Story A Personal Story When I was a student, I experienced these two opposite states of mind in a lesson: in the first instance the careful practiser and secondly the carefree performer. Anxious to show my professor how much I had practised that week and how well I had prepared the piece, I was (unconsciously) reluctant to surrender control. When I played it through to him, it was full of errors caused by anxiety and tension, not by lack of time or effort in the practice room. As we all know, mental tension translates immediately into physical tension, and I ended up playing with a different sense of my muscles – sluggish, restricted and uncooperative. My teacher, being very wise, immediately asked me to play the piece again, this time trying to play as many wrong notes and to make as many mistakes as possible. This somewhat unusual permission was enough to flip a switch in my mind, and the difference between the two performances was chalk and cheese. I remember being startled by this, since the two play-throughs were back to back without any detailed instruction or in-between practice. It was the Jekyll-and-Hyde change of mind-set that was solely responsible for the difference between a stiff, awkward, and therefore inaccurate and disappointing, version, and a free, creative one that felt exhilarating and on target.
Surrender Control Imagine you are the owner of a shop. At the end of each day you need to count the takings, check the stock, place the orders and so on. After a while your business grows and you are in a position to open up a new shop somewhere else. So, you appoint a manager to take over the original one. The new manager is installed, but you don’t completely trust him to do the job properly, and you return regularly to go through the accounts. Because his systems are different to yours, mistakes are made. The result is the opposite of what you intend – this interference leads to conflict and inefficiency, with the potential for catastrophe. 12
Everything has a shadow side, not least careful and studious piano practice. On the one hand, we need to strive for perfection in our work, on the other hand, we need to find a mechanism of mind that allows us to let go of all of this care and attention and to surrender control when we are on the stage. We need to give ourselves permission that all our hard work in the practice room is the passport to our successful performance. We need to trust that we have done enough work and for long enough. The single most important factor in performance success is thorough, painstaking and adequate preparation. Without this, no amount of positive self-talk or performance flair will suffice.
Your Fingers as Servants Imagine you are the Lord or Lady of the manor and you are hosting an important function. A dignitary and their entourage are descending on you for the weekend – there is a series of events including a grand dinner, and then a ball, and it is most important that everything goes smoothly. Fortunately, you have a team of servants living below stairs whose lot in life it is to be at your behest and to obey your every command – 24/7. Your cast of characters includes the obligatory butler, housekeeper, chauffeur, cook, chambermaid, probably a footman and maybe even a valet or two. Your job as host is to make sure that each of your servants knows exactly where they have to be, when they need to be there and what they need to do when they are there. Having trained them and rehearsed them in their duties (or at least delegated this), your job is to look radiant and serene on the day and enjoy your own party. If you haven’t told your servants exactly what to do and rehearsed them so they can do it down to a T in their sleep and with their eyes closed, then you have only yourself to blame. If, after all this rehearsal, you don’t trust your servants on the day, your worry will be noticed and you and your guests will feel uncomfortable. If you interfere with this well-oiled machine, you risk things going wrong and setting up a chain reaction of accidents, thus upsetting the whole show. So you have to trust that what you have orchestrated will come to pass without you doing anything at all except turning up.
It is possible to sit back and enjoy our own performances, provided we have put in the graft, and can then manage to get out of our own way as we walk onto the stage. Day-to-day piano practice is not always a bed of roses – let’s face it - it can sometimes be challenging, tiring, frustrating and fraught with problems. Knowing exactly what we want and knowing how to get there are paramount to the process. How can we expect our hands and fingers to do any sort of job if we haven’t given them clear directions in the first place? We pianists need to have a clear idea of the end product and (just as important) the training process itself!
A Clear Goal So much time and energy is wasted in the practice room if we do not have a clear goal, a sense of what is involved in the process of learning and refining a piece from scratch to performance. Players do not seem to have the patience to work slowly, in small sections and hands separately. This is not a chore: it has its own sort of interest, and can even be joyful. Nothing of any lasting value can be achieved without total concentration in the practice room, the conscious mind and the ear fully involved and engaged with what we are doing. Playing through our errors day after day, hoping they will magically disappear, is a colossal waste of time. Stop and figure out what went wrong, and 13
where, and take steps to correct this. It takes far fewer repetitions to store a correctly learned pattern of notes in the long-term memory, and way more repetitions if we need to unlearn mistakes. The moral of the story is:
Cavaliers and Roundheads I once watched a fascinating documentary on BBC television about how English history was forever changed by the English Civil War. The characteristics of the two opposing forces (the puritanical, serious-minded, hard-working and religious Roundheads, and the devil-may-care, spontaneous, reckless and flashy Cavaliers) ended up contributing to the make-up of the national psyche, and we have each got a bit of the Roundhead and a bit of the Cavalier in us. You may be wondering what this has to do with the subject of developing piano performance, but actually there is a lot we can draw from it. I would like to come up with my own version of Heifetz’s quotation: Practise like a Roundhead, perform like a Cavalier. To practise effectively demands time, energy and discipline, a seriousness of purpose and an almost religious attitude to the work. But if we take this attitude on to the stage with us, we are likely to bore the pants off our audience. We need a sense of daring-do, spontaneity, bravado and display in its place. Perhaps we can leave our trusty Roundhead in the green room, and adopt a cavalier attitude when we walk onstage? Youngsters generally have no fear about public performance. This tends to be something we learn later, if we learn it at all. There are those who seem undaunted, but they are few and far between. In the survey that I conducted on performance anxiety in pianists, less than 3% of those who responded to question 1 said they do not suffer from nerves, with 43% saying it was a real problem. There was one first-year college student I had who came in with new pieces each week, learned and memorised. All his performances were fluent and confident until one week during a class he had his first major memory slip which he could not recover from. Only then did I need to give him the tools so he could prepare thoroughly and memorise consciously. It is often fear of memory – of losing one’s way and not being able to find it again – that is at the root of much performance anxiety among solo pianists. The first time this happens (and happen it will), confidence takes a beating and the negative experience can remain in the back of the mind the next time. If we are 200% prepared for a performance, we have an inbuilt margin of error. Even if things don’t go c ompletely according to plan, we can be assured of a certain level below which our performance will not drop. Confidence rises with each positive and successful experience, and the secret of really successful performing, where nerves and adrenaline serve a useful purpose, is to be doing it all the time. Then we can really be on a roll.
The Tightrope If we sense that there is something getting in the way of a free and relaxed performance, we may feel that playing in public is a bit like walking a tightrope. Here are a few scenarios:
The tightrope is so close to the ground that falling off has virtually no consequences. After a while you may not even notice you are doing it.
A few centimetres
You know the teacher knows what they are listening for, and that they will balance positive criticism with explicit direction and suggestions for improvement if needed. If you
Don't worry about it, you have a safety net
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are dissatisfied with your performance, you may feel a sense of failure. If I had a pound for each time a student tells me it went much better at home… More is at stake here because you are very keen to show them what you can do. You may feel some anxiety, but you know you are safe.
1 meter
Falling off might be injurious if you have put the teacher on a pedestal. You can’t be sure if they are going to support you or try to crush you.
A couple of meters, and there is no safety net!
The situation is competitive and you’re going to find out how you stack up against your peers (who may want to see you fail). If you’re a fighter the adrenaline will work in your favour, so you know you’ll probably be OK.
Probably about the same as above. If it works, you'll soar. If it doesn't, you might get a little bruised.
The adrenaline might really kick in here as you know you are going to get a mark. Your selfesteem may be linked to this mark, and your future may even hinge on doing well. If things don’t go well, this can seriously affect your confidence.
Getting rather high now.
You may end up relishing every moment and thoroughly enjoy the act of performance. You may feel anxious and insecure until you get on the stage, or you may carry this feeling with you as you play. The trouble is, you’re not always sure how it’s going to go.
What do you think?
You would not be here unless you fully deserved to be and had earned your place, but even great and famous concert pianists suffer performance anxiety (sometimes acutely – you would be surprised!).
You’re in the Big Top, all safety nets have been stowed away and the ringmaster forgot to lock up the lions.
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Like most other things in life, the more we do something, the easier and more familiar it becomes. Smart piano teachers have regular student concerts where everyone gets up and plays – they are all in it together. Exams and (more usefully) festivals or eisteddfods are wonderful ways of developing performance skills. You are usually playing in a fair-sized hall on a grand piano, to a built-in audience and a professional adjudicator. At the conservatory level, there will be many opportunities for performance: concerts in front of teachers and peers, as well as higher profile events where there will be a public audience. Outside of formal exams, there will be a portfolio of in-house competitions you will be eligible to enter, and there will probably be weekly performance classes where you test out your pieces. Use as many opportunities to perform as are on offer to you, or that you can generate yourself. The very best way to learn performance skills is to perform regularly! For my students, I have a rule that a programme needs to be aired three times in safe, smallish situations before it is ready to be presented to a paying audience. These smaller performances could be to an invited audience in a private home, a lunchtime recital in a church, playing in a hospital or old people’s home, etc. The run -throughs are themselves prefaced by a week of playing the programme through in its entirety daily as part of the practice regime. Only then is the programme properly seasoned and ready to be taken on the road.
Resources for Developing Pianists and Amateurs But what about the developing pianist or amateur pianist who wants to perform? There are plenty of people for whom the piano is essential in their lives, and who want a safe opportunity to perform when they have something ready to play. Here is a list of resources of places, groups and organisations where this kind of opportunity may be found.
UK - London The London Piano Meet-up is run by two dynamic piano teachers who organise regular gatherings in various small venues in London. There are also regular events such as classes and workshops. The atmosphere is friendly and supportive and it is an excellent way of socialising. The London Piano Circle is a members’ organisation of proficient non-professional pianists, which organises small informal playing gatherings in some members’ homes, concerts and masterclasses.
UK - Regions The Edinburgh Piano Meet-up gives adult amateur pianists, of abilities and ages, the chance to gain valuable performance experience in front of a friendly and supportive crowd of fellow pianists. The meetups take place in the beautiful Edinburgh Society of Musicians, who have two Steinway grand pianos. The Summer School for Pianists has established a unique place amongst an ever-growing number of summer schools being held each year throughout the British Isles. It combines an atmosphere of friendliness with musical expertise, creating a most positive and rewarding week. Within the state-of-the art setting of the Performance Hub in Walsall, people of a very wide range of pianistic levels can meet and enj oy all that’s good about music-making, without any unhealthy competitiveness or feeling of inadequacy. Participants return year after year to this keenly anticipated annual event. A warm welcome, studies with leading experts, plenty of practice pianos at this All Steinway 16
School, good food and accommodation, recitals by tutors and students, and a final gala dinner and barn dance make the week very special indeed. I count myself privileged to have been on the tutoring staff since 2012. The Chetham’s International Piano Summer School is a source of inspiration, fun, insight and focus for everyone who enjoys the piano and piano playing. Now in its thirteenth year, it continues to grow and develop as a 'piano republic of equals'. There is no elitism on the course, though everyone is extremely serious about piano playing. There is no other summer school that manages to cater for the universal: adult amateurs, promising children and observers are as welcome on the course as concert pianists, international young artists preparing for top competitions, and professional music teachers. The British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech works for amateur festivals everywhere. Most of the festivals are competitive, and the performers receive verbal and written educational feedback from a professional adjudicator in each classification of music, dance or speech. I am proud to be one of the piano adjudicators for the Federation. There are almost 300 amateur festivals affiliated to the Federation and a similar number of professional adjudicators (in all classes) and accompanists, listed in the Yearbook and on their website. Each year the festivals attract around 1 million performers. While most entries are from children and young people, there are classes for adults too. Cardiff Piano Group is a collective of Cardiff pianists, teachers and piano enthusiasts who love to get together for performances, discussions about piano, teaching, and who, through EPTA (European Piano Teachers’ Association), can develop their skills through performance opportunities, workshops, presentations, teaching sessions and group discussions.
Setting Up a Piano Group If you are interested in setting up something like this in your area, why not take the initiative? If there are a few of you, you might organise regular meetings in each other’s homes. Another thought is to contact your local piano dealership - they will relish the opportunity to build bridges and develop relationships with pianists in the area, who are, after all, potential customers. It will be a win-win situation for all. I asked Frances Wilson, co-founder of the very successful London Piano Meetup Group, to write a few words on how she set up the group:
“Organising a piano group is a great way to get amateur pianists together to play, share r epertoire and socialise. Playing the piano can be lonely activity, and many pianists relish the chance to meet and perform for one another. Performance opportunities afforded by piano groups are also very valuable in improving performance skills, learning how to deal with anxiety, and preparing repertoire for exams, festivals or concerts. You can set up an informal group amongst friends, where you meet regularly at one another’s houses, or at a rehearsal space with a nice grand piano, or you can organise the group more formally, advertising events via a website and using social media to promote the activities of the group. The London Piano Meetup Group (LPMG) was formed in Spring 2013, run by piano teacher Lorraine Liyanage and myself - we are both passionate advocates of amateur pianism. LPMG uses Meetup , an easy-to-use social networking platform that allows people to organise events and meet. LPMG organizers list events on the site and members are able to find and book the events they wish to attend. The group has around 70 active members (who pay a small annual membership fee) who meet regularly at venues in and around London for informal performance platforms, masterclasses with visiting tutors and concerts. The social aspect of the group is very appealing, as is the chance to put repertoire before a small, friendly audience, and many members have commented favourably on the noticeable improvements to their playing and confidence since they joined the group. Finding good pianos and venues is important: pianists based in or near big cities are fortunate as t here are usually piano dealers who have small performance spaces or rehearsal rooms for hire. Churches are often a good option too, though it is important to check the piano. Sometimes pianos turn up in unexpected places, such as hospitals and railway stations, and the LPMG has hosted events at such places, to add to the novelty of playing in an unusual setting.”
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Setting Goals and Deadlines Introduction I am sure we have all seen that circus act where the showman puts a few plates on some poles, sets them spinning and then adds more plates to more poles. He keeps on doing this until there is a bewildering array. He needs to keep returning to the original plates before they run out of spin, and the excitement of the act is wondering how he can possibly keep all of this going, with no breakages, with just one pair of hands. Preparing a programme for recital or examination poses similar logistical problems. How do we ensure that all components of our programme peak together on the day, and how do we plan our day-to-day practising so we give enough attention to everything and neglect nothing? This takes some planning, as well as some know-how. Preparing for a performance takes a huge investment of time, energy and commitment. As the day approaches, we will need to focus our attention and prepare not only pianistically, but also mentally and practically. One of the most important aspects of preparing for a performance is putting a series of deadlines in place to help us structure and reinforce our work. This involves bringing organisational and time management skills into the practice room. Assuming we want to make sure the works that make up an entire programme peak together, let’s work backwards from the end point. For example, if my recital or exam date is March 1st, I will need to aim to be fully prepared three weeks before that. Prior to that, I’ll need to arrange three run -throughs in front of different people (peers, teacher, trusted friends, piano meet-up group, festival, etc.). Therefore, I would ideally be thinking about planning three preparatory run-through sessions in the beginning of February, at the very latest.
Time Frame from Start to Finish Aim to be completely ready three weeks before the date; don’t leave any note learning to the last minute and do not engage in panic practising, as this will make matters worse. Mindless repetition in the practice room for the sake of filling in time is not only a waste of time, it can also make you feel very stale with your programme, and your playing can actually deteriorate. In the final three weeks, you need to be able to feel prepared, relatively stress-free, and you will be able to look forward to your performance. Now is the time to make sure you look after yourself with healthy eating, getting enough sleep, exercise, yoga and massage (or whatever you prefer to do for body, mind and spirit), and balancing practice time with other day-to-day activities. The bulk of your work is already done, so . The stages of our work will look approximately like this. The time frame is only a very rough guide, as each individual will work to a different schedule: Whatever warm-up or practice rituals make you feel safe and secure. Eat lightly and rest.
Under-tempo run-throughs combined with spot practice and general maintenance (including some slow practice and using the memory tools - see more in chapter on Tools for Memorisation). Marking (going over lightly) the programme, some visualisation, relaxation techniques if needed (More on this follows in a later chapter). Have a sense of calm anticipation. Look after yourself. Avoid too many full-on, emotionally charged run-throughs, and avoid over-practising. A series of three run-throughs of the programme in a safe situation, each separated by a few days. Each run-through will throw up issues such as memory insecurities, areas of the programme that buckle under the pressure of the occasion, and so on. Piano meet-up groups and festivals are ideal ways to run your programme, or be proactive and arrange something yourself. It is important to take yourself out of your comfort zone and to play on pianos you don’t know.
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A stretch of about a week where you play through the entire programme for yourself daily, followed by spot practice (See more on this is in chapter on Practising a Performance). If your practice time is at a premium, alternate a run-through one day with spot practice the day after, but I suggest making some notes about what needs to be done. When you are playing through, stop for absolutely nothing (except, perhaps, for a fire alarm). Do the spot practice with focus, but try not to get neurotic. A series of test flights where you run individual pieces from start to finish. This might be a playthrough for your teacher (if you have one) or for a trusted friend/colleague/small audience (these will often not go as planned and further tweaking will likely be necessary).
A complete play-through for yourself. This will usually be a disaster, leaving you feeling forlorn and incompetent. Don’t worry, this is quite normal! You will now embark on further practice using the maintenance and refinement tools (See more in chapter on Practice Strategies for Performance Preparation). Playing through of sections (from small to large, possibly under tempo for a while) and refining the playing (correcting errors, creating the exact sounds you’re after). Digging the foundations – note learning (using tools such as The Three S’s), including memorisation (if the programme is to be played from memory). A certain amount of practice away from the piano, using analysis and visualisation techniques.
Initial research and mapping out of the territory. Listening to some recordings, background reading, comparative listening. Filling yourself with knowledge and enthusiasm.
Deciding on your programme and using Parkinson’s Law (below) to frame the whole process.
Parkinson’s Law If practising were an exact science and we were machines, perhaps we could guarantee the perfect performance. I wonder how often any of us can walk onto the concert platform or into the examination room feeling totally confident that we have done enough practice, that we have covered all our bases? There is always that nagging feeling that we could have done more – all we need is a few more days and we’d be f ine. However, more practice time does not necessarily mean an increase in our skill level or our degree of preparation. We need to trust that, if we have done the right sort of work according to a manageable schedule, we have done all that is humanly possible to produce the goods on any given day. The following adage was coined by public administrator Cyril Northcote Parkinson in his 1955 essay for The Economist :
If you allow six months to complete a project, it will take six months to complete. If you decide you’re going to do it in three months, it will take three months! Setting a deadline focusses the mind and changes the way we learn and practise. If we have set a time frame to achieve a goal, whether that applies to a component of an individual practice session or learning and performing a piece from scratch, our mind will tend to focus our energies so as to achieve this. In making the decision, we are stating an intention and then focussing our mind on what it’s going to take to get it done. This means that we are more likely to be successful at completing the task within the given time frame than if we had an open-ended attitude. For more detail on time management, review the information in Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series. 19
Where to Start? I suggest breaking down your entire programme into its component parts for the purposes of note learning. Let’s say you are learning a theme and set of six variations, this counts as seven separate components. A three-movement sonata would be three separate components, and if an extended single-movement work has clearly defined sections, you could break this down similarly. Rather than starting at the beginning of each work and learning things in order, you might make a start on many components at once (I ’ve written more on this subject in this blog post). I would like to leave you with some practical steps to learning a new piece, presented in no particular order:
Begin not necessarily at the beginning, or rather not only from the beginning. Know how the last movement (or section) sounds before starting work on the first. Learn the coda in addition to the opening simultaneously (Rosina Lhevinne heard last movements first – and codas to last movements at that – before she would hear the beginnings of works). Play the themes (melody lines, or melody lines plus basses) before adding accompaniments or figuration. If you are learning a prelude and fugue, learn the first section of the prelude plus the fugal exposition simultaneously. Learn the second subject from the exposition and the recapitulation, relishing the variations between the two (especially if this is Beethoven). Learn parts of each movement from the outset (this is a bit like opening three separate files on your computer each day and adding to each bit by bit).
Using “Strands separately” (from the “Three S’s” in Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series), be content with giving the broadest overview of the whole before adding the detail. For example, if you are learning Chopin’s Etude in A flat, op. 25 no. 1, study it in sketch or outline form first. Play only the big notes – those notes that form the melody line together with their basses, and do this faster than the tempo.
Routine I’m a great believer in making lists, or practice rotas, but flexible ones that take in to account the realities of life and also that leave room for spontaneity. Rigid schedules are impractical and demotivating, since they are very hard to stick to. However we plan our work, we will absolutely need to get into a routine. A regular routine helps us to frame our work so that the act of practising becomes a habit. Sure, this takes discipline, but nothing worth achieving is possible without steely determination and self-sacrifice. Therefore, it is extremely helpful to set aside a regular time during the day for practice. This gives us direction and impetus. Since no two people are the same, it is impossible to come up with an exact formula for the length of time needed for practice, or the best format to organise our work. Some people work best in the morning, others later in the day. It can also be effective to break up the practice into two or more sessions, and certainly little and often is better than doing it in one chunk if concentration is likely to wander or tiredness set in. Unless the piece is short, or very familiar, we’re not likely to get through every section of the piece in any given practice session. Therefore, divide it up into manageable, logical sections for the purposes of practising. Take the score and mark in the different sections and come up with a weekly practice plan. Be creative here: perhaps in week 1, our time with section B will be devoted to memory work, whereas in section C we are aiming to increase speed, 20
etc. Many people don’t concentrate well on a single activity fo r more than 15 or 20 minutes. I have found that interleaving the items on the day’s practice agenda is much more effective than spending all the time you will devote to a given activity in a single block of time.
The Element of Surprise – Start Anywhere Imagine you’re on a family holiday and there are squabbles about what to do on a given day. I’ve heard it said that a good way to settle such an argument is to close your eyes and stick a pin at random in the tourist map. The destination closest to the pin wins! Here’s a good idea for practising this: Using this Random Number Generator, take one of your pieces and enter 1 in the first box and the last bar number in the second. Press start, and be able to play from the bar that comes up, let’s say four bars in total. Not the bar before or after for convenience, but the bar specified - even if it is in the middle of a phrase. If you have divided your piece into several sections like tracks on a CD, you could, of course, use this number generator for that purpose too – the number generated refers to a whole track, and not a bar number.
Quarantine A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you take a chain and pull hard enough on it, it will snap at the point of least resistance. If there are weak links in our programme, we risk an accident or even a total breakdown on the day. Make a list of these problem areas and put them in quarantine for a few days. Quarantine should be a designated activity in our practice diary that we return to many times during the course of a practice session. Think of this as an intensive care unit in the hospital for patients who need constant supervision for a while until they are strong enough to make it by themselves. We can attend to each of these excerpts not only before we practise the piece in question, but also in between pieces and other activities in our diary. The quarantine list will change regularly as patients recover and can be discharged. We may be sure, however, that the ambulance will arrive soon enough with fresh ones.
The Countdown to Your Performance Until you have repeatedly played through your programme in its entirety, you will never know how it feels to do this, and it will feel foreign when you get to your exam. Playing our Rachmaninov after our Bach, Mozart and Schumann feels very different from playing it by itself in isolation – not only does this involve a change of stylistic gear, but also the element of stamina. I would even suggest we practise occasionally playing through our programme twice in a row, the second time lightly. Don’t do this the week of your exam, however, but two or three weeks before. This is marvellous for stamina and endurance, and it effectively shrinks the programme into something that will feel short and well within our grasp when we play it just the once. The golden rule here: stop for absolutely nothing. You must let your mistakes go by, not allowing them to affect you. Play your programme through regularly for yourself, and alternate this with spot practice. You might do a play- through one day, then practise what didn’t quite go according to plan the day after. Play also for others, and (most importantly) play on as many different pianos in as many different venues as possible. This will help you acclimatise to new situations and adapt quickly to unfamiliar instruments.
Fingering and Other Performance Decisions Know when to leave things be. It is not a good idea to start changing fingerings, pedallings or to tamper with major interpretative decisions (such as tempos, character, etc.) in the run-up to the exam. Resist listening to other players’ recordings, and be content with what you’ve got.
Attitude and Positive Self-Talk If you have done everything within your powers to prepare for your exam or recital, you need to turn round any lingering negative thoughts such as, “I’m not prepared”, “I always mess it up there” or “I’m worried I’m not up to the standard”, and replace them with positives, such as, “I have prepared my programme to the best of my ability”, “I deserve to play well”, “I am playing confidently and communicating my musical ideas clearly”. If it helps, you can write out these positive statements on a sheet of paper or say them out loud. Some people mutter them under their breath while running or exercising. Repeat them regularly until you believe them (Click here for more on using affirmations)!
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Practicalities Page Turns If you are playing any of your pieces with the score, you will need to make a decision whether or not to turn your own pages. If you are going to use a page turner, make sure you have arranged this well ahead and rehearsed your programme with them if at all possible. This may seem unnecessary, but having your pages turned can be an unfamiliar experience. Not only might you never have played through your pieces without stopping or faltering over the more awkward turns, but also, if your turner does not do the job to your liking, it can be an unnerving experience. Tell your turner how far away from you that you would like them to sit, when and how you like your pages turned and politely request they don’t eat garlic bagels beforehand. Peter Donohoe has written and excellent article on page turning which I’d advise you to read. Some people do not like anyone else in their space when they are performing and prefer to manage their own page turns. In a sonata or extended piece some turns may be tricky, and photocopying certain pages and organising them on the piano desk may be necessary. I strongly advise you to make any photocopies you need well in advance, so you can practise your programme in its entirety, turning the pages where you have decided to turn them (this may not always be when you get to the bottom of the page), or using a combination of score and photocopies spread out. Please bear one thing in mind – if you have music spread out along the length of the desk, what you see from your peripheral vision alters, and this can be very disconcerting if you have not practised it. Your head will be facing in a different position and this affects your whole kinaesthetic sense – much more than you might imagine. Dress Decide what you are going to wear (smart is best), and play your programme through at least once “in costume” a day or two before. There was a time I was playing a piece that involved a lot of hand crossing and the cuffs on my dress shirt were not appropriate and got in my way. Had I taken my own advice, I would have circumvented the problem.
Keeping Old Repertoire Alive It seems such a shame to spend all those hours learning a piece only to forget it after the exam or the recital. A piece, once learned, is an asset for the pianist and will need just a little maintenance every now and again to keep it in the fingers, to keep it alive. I have an old filing card system near the piano, a sort of geriatric Rolodex, now rather outdated. One of these days I will get around to putting it onto my computer, but in truth I’m rather fond of it. Each card contains the name of a work and the composer, and any important details (year of composition, etc.). I write the date I started learning it, and then the date and details of each performance. This way, I keep a living record of my repertoire. Each week I remove a card from the file and leave it lying around on the piano, with a view to spending a bit of time with that piece during the week. At the end of the week, I replace the card and take out another one. Sometimes I do this at random. Other times I feel drawn to a particular work. And I never put any expectations on myself as to what I should have achieved by the end of the week – anything I do is fine. I try to be creative in my brief contact with this old piece. For the first couple of days I will be content simply to play sections of the work slowly. It’s not necessary to play through the whole piece anyway – just the fact of reconnecting with it will cause memories and associations to come back. It would be enough to take a movement, or even a section of a piece. For virtual index cards, Scrivener and Text Block Writer have good reviews.
Resources iDone This Blog (Click here) Connections Academy (Click here) Scrivener (Click here) Text Block Writer (Click here) Custom Random Number Generator (Click Here) 22
Practice Strategies for Performance Preparation Introduction Once we have our notes learned and the pieces ready to go, there are still things we need to do to make sure our programme is properly seasoned. We will basically need
:
Performing our programme with the full range of expression and dynamics – for ourselves and/or for others (more about this in the next chapter). Record this occasionally, this will be excellent (if somewhat uncomfortable) feedback. Spot practice (going over those places that did not withstand the pressures of the previous performance or play-through). Running through our programme lightly (we do this with an air of emotional detachment, mezza voce, slightly under tempo, the louder dynamics suggested). Maintenance practice to keep everything in tip-top shape (routine spit and polish using practice tools such as the “Three S’s” from Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series. Silent practice away from the piano, reflecting on the score (Do you really know where that crescendo begins? Have you perhaps forgotten about the sforzandos there? etc.).
How Do We Practise? We all know the scenario – we get to the piano for our appointed practice session, but we’re not really organised and we don’t know where we’re going to start. We’ve got our stack of music, but there’s no way we’re going to get through all of it. Because we haven’t really got a plan, we’re just going to have to see where it takes us. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe… We open a score (whatever takes our fancy) and begin to play through it, but we didn’t decide beforehand whether we are going for a committed play-through (or maybe at least to the double bar), or whether we are going to stop and make corrections. Instead, perhaps we really need to do some spot practice here and there, or some careful slow work? There isn’t really any energy or commitment behind what we’re doing and certainly no focus. Truth be told, we secretly hope we will make a mistake after a few bars – at least then we have something tangible to do, and we can spend some time fixing it. Then we move on until our next mistake, and eventually we get to the end. Yet there is very little satisfaction or sense of achievement in the work because there is no structure to it.
Plan of Action We all practise differently from one another, but there ought to be a reason for everything we do in our practice room – especially if we are preparing for a performance. What is the result I intend? What musical or pianistic target am I aiming to achieve? What do I need to do to reach this go al? There’s nothing like a performance in our diary to focus the mind. I have written plenty about time management and organising the practice session in Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series. In a nutshell, we need to focus first on our areas of weakness. Any weaknesses that prevent our strengths from being used to their maximum effectiveness must be dealt with first, as priority. This might be a specific technical problem that needs addressing, a passage in a piece that we have been skimming over, or an area such as pedalling, memory, tension or sloppy finger work, and so on. Know the difference between practising and playing through, concentrate like mad and always listen to the sounds that are coming out from the piano.
Performing Versus Practising When we perform we want to use as wide a dynamic range as possible (for most music) and the full gamut of expression. In order to project the music outwards to an audience, we need to exaggerate all of this slightly. We need a true pianissimo and a huge fortissimo, and everything in between. During our practising, however, we will very often want to play at performance speeds with the full range of dynamics and emotional involvement. In our practising, when we are concerned with other issues, we need to go through the motions thoughtfully, cool-headedly and with an air of detachment, rather than impulsively. As soon as we begin a performance, we make the commitment to complete the whole journey no matter what might happen. We create an unerring arch from 23
beginning to end, and in order to perform successfully, we need to leave our inner judges in the green room along with our critical mind. Here is a short list of the opposite states of mind involved in practising and performing, the most obvious ones. I am sure you can add your own.
Non-stop, come what may
The opportunity for frequent, deliberate stops
Carefree, with a quality of panache and abandon impulsive and spontaneous
Careful, thoughtful, considering
Right brain
Left brain
Full range of dynamics
Dynamics sometimes smoothed out or suggested
Full range of emotion
Emotionally detached
Fully engaged, passionate
Cool-headed
Feeling
Thinking
Two Playing States I have identified two ways of running through a piece or a programme for oneself:
Performing as though an audience were present, fully living the music Running through lightly (with an air of emotional detachment, mezza voce, slightly under tempo, the louder dynamics suggested)
When we are ready with our playing (please don’t do this before you are ready), we need to decide what the elements are that contribute to a fully alive and vibrant performance and bring these to the fore. Here are the main hallmarks of such a performance as I see them:
Fully Living the Artistic Image I first came across the term “artistic image” in the The Art of Piano Playing by Heinrich Neuhaus when I was a teenager, and it has stuck with me ever since. Put simply, the artistic image refers to the message and the meaning of the music as we see and feel it. As a student, I noticed that my technical ability with a piece was in direct proportion to the sharpness of my artistic image. If I wasn’t sure about the tempo, character, moods and so on, then I strugg led physically with it. Our artistic image of a work is always developing and changing; it never seems to stay still. If the concept challenges you, then find a story that fits with the music. Some players are more visual, and they might imagine the music as the score to a movie. What is the poetic meaning? How does the drama unfold? What are the main feelings and emotions? When we fully inhabit our performance, we are in touch with all the moods, characters, feelings and the inner drama, and we project all this out to the listener – possibly exaggerating a bit. This means filling our performance space with the appropriate levels of sound, much as an actor on a stage would project his voice. Let’s look for a moment at how we deal with projecting emotions, as this is a tricky issue. An actor expressing grief is not actually feeling grief at that moment, but is in sympathy with the state of grieving and knows how to portray the feelings. The ability to do this is the hallmark of an artist. Some pianists fully live the music in their facial gestures or in their body language, others remain still. Horowitz is a good example of the wizard who conjured up all sorts of furies while appearing to do absolutely nothing. Certainly, nothing was visible from his movements or his face. Be in tune with what the music is expressing, but try to step back when you are actually performing. Don’t get overly involved – remember you’ve got a job to do.
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Tempo There is no such thing as the one, ideal tempo, but we need to find a ballpark tempo area that works for us – the speed we feel the music at. This may or may not match the metronome marking in the score. Remember, the tempo changes depending on the acoustic feedback we get from the instrument we must contend with in the particular performance space we are engaged to play in that day, as well as on our mood and the sound-picture we have in our mind in the moment.
Dynamic Range Do you know where the climaxes in your piece are? Depending, of course, on the piece, there is ofte n just one main climax, and perhaps one or two other subsidiary ones. Now zoom in a bit and reflect on where the high points of individual phrases fall (towards the beginning of the phrase, in the middle somewhere, or maybe nearer the end?). If you’re not sure, try singing the phrase – your voice won’t usually lie. Very generally speaking, we tend to move towards climaxes and back off afterwards, although sometimes it can work well the other way round; does the climax work better if you broaden the tempo in order to give more space to the high point? Experiment with a diminuendo to the high point of a melodic line, and you’ll produce an anti -climax of the sort singers sometimes do (a mezzo di voce). This is sometimes known as a “Russian crescendo”. Now scan the score to find out the dynamic range as given by the composer. Pianissimos and fortissimos need their own special sound. It is a challenge to maintain tone quality at the extremes of the dynamic range (loud can become rough and bang-y, soft: unfocussed and woolly). Make sure to distinguish between mf and mp – each dynamic level needs its own distinct quality. If you are performing a Bach piece, you’ll need to come up with your own dynamic plan. It is best to avoid the extremes of dynamics, but I confess I do like to use a silvery pianissimo at times (See section below for a simple mapping tool for musical performance.)
Types of Touch Even if these are not marked in the score specifically, we will want to use a wide variety of touch from a projected legato cantabile to staccato, including non-legato touches such as leggiero, portato, tenuto, and so on, where appropriate.
Pedalling Unless we have made a decision not to use the pedal at all in a particular piece (a baroque work, for example), our right foot is likely to be in regular contact with the pedal during performance. The left foot will often find its way to the una corda pedal, for certain special effects (planned or unplanned). To my mind, it is not possible to mark the majority of pedalling down in the score, as again this will change depending on the piano and the acoustical space. The depth of the right pedal is also impossible to pin down. For more on this, see the following posts on my blog: Look No Feet and The Dance of the Dampers.
Playing Through Lightly How does playing through lightly differ from a full-blooded performance? We can employ a marking technique that singers often use to save their voices. They use a mezzo di voce (half voice) and mark their line instead of singing fullout. Instead of fully living the music, we can be cool and objective. We don’t use the fu ll range of dynamics, especially not at the loud end of the spectrum. As we play, we inwardly acknowledge that this section is going to be fortissimo in performance and that it expresses high drama, but we play it lightly and dispassionately (as though recalling the drama in a daydream). I like what Josef Hofman has to say on this in his excellent book Piano Playing with Piano Questions Answered :
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As we practise lightly, we replace the external with internal representations, like adding comments to your inner score – “Grand, noble, expansive and forte” might be our script, but we practise with this in our mind, not in our sound. I often make a decision that I will omit pedal when I practise lightly, apart from absolutely necessary pedals. This adds another level of purity and austerity to the effect, and is very cleansing. As we practise lightly we can of course stop when necessary in order to make corrections and refinements. However, I highly recommend we also use this as another opportunity to run through a performance – the trick is never to confuse these two states in an actual performance.
A Simple Mapping Tool for Musical Performance When we perform, we aim to take our listener on a musical journey. As custodians of the score, we illuminate the salient features of the composition as we have come to understand and appreciate them. We do this by shaping the work as a whole by highlighting the main arrival points and climaxes, shaping individual phrases, dwelling on those magical moments that are special to us and generally communicating our passion for and understanding of the piece. No matter how many times we have played the piece, each time we play it things will be slightly different in the detail. Some journeys are more straightforward than others, but it always helps to have planned our route ahead. I would like to offer you a very simple mapping tool to organise a performance, using a numbering system from 1 to 10 (where 1 represents the place of least intensity, 10 the greatest intensity), applied to the most obvious parameters of musical performance.
The Parameters of Musical Performance Insofar as these are quantifiable, here they are: Main arrival places/high points/climaxes The main arrival point (as you see and feel it) might get an 8 up to a 10, depending on how strong a climax it is. Secondary climaxes or cadential points would score less. In this rough map of Chopin’s B Minor Prelude, I feel the main climax is in bar 12 (Neapolitan harmony), with an anti-climax in bar 18 (the interrupted cadence). You may well feel it differently, and this is fine. Since I don’t want this prelude to have a large feeling of climax, I only assign it a 5 (OK, so it may go to a 6 if I’m feeling especially generous one day). Th e place where the music calms down to its softest point is the very end, which gets a 1.
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Range of intensity of notes within each phrase You might want to use this discriminately, but the general idea is to identify the high point of each phrase and assign it a number. If the phrase has a strong feeling of climax, give that note (or area of notes) anything up to a 10; if the phrase is more level, the numbers will reflect this. If you want to expand your expressive range in a phrase that feels a bit dead or wooden, give each note a number. As you practise, carefully grade each note according to your scheme. You can do this in your head, but if you choose to write this in the score, you will have to find a way of doing so that doesn’t conflict with finger numbers (perhaps using a different coloured pencil, italics, or putting the expression number in a circle to distinguish it from a fingering, and so on). Here is my range of expression map for the first phrase of the same Prelude:
Timings/rubato/tempo flexibility You could use 5 for the average tempo within a phrase or section, increasing the number as you push the tempo or decreasing it as you pull. If you want to add a ritardando (or if it is marked), ask yourself if it is a gradual one? If so, consider a range from 8 – 7.9 – 7.8 – 7.7, etc. Is it a sudden change of tempo? If so, the drop may be in whole numbers. If you want to add a timing scale to your score, you might consider colour-coding it: perhaps red for climaxes/high points and green for timings? Use something you’ll remember, and preferably use a photocopy for this purpose. Having a visual map of our intended shapings for a performance can be extremely useful, especially if we are undecided about what we want. Once we are really familiar with the route, we can deviate a little from it here and there without losing our bearings or general sense of direction. The paradox is the more concrete our performance decisions, the greater the room for spontaneity on the stage. Rather than restrict us, having a definite plan allows us even greater expressive freedom.
Keeping an Interpretation Fresh The great pianist Shura Cherkassky practised very slowly and blankly, never being really sure exactly how he was going to play until he was in front of the audience. Everything then came out fresh, in a way that surprised the pianist himself. This really is going with the flow in a way most of us would not feel free enough to handle – way too risky! We want a degree of certainty as to tempo, mood, character, shape, etc., and we want our performance to have a high level of planning and organisation. While I wouldn’t recommend the Cherkassky approach on the concert stage, we can certainly do this in our practice room as a deliberate ploy to loosen ourselves up a bit and to dislodge our playing if it feels straitjacketed or stiff. Let’s temporarily throw our preconceived ideas about how we want the piece to sound out of the window and explore something new. The idea is to deliberately tweak the parameters of our performance so we can experience our playing in different ways. It’s a bit like fancy dress – putting on different costumes in a spirit of fun and playfulness. Enter into it fully though; if you put on a Harlequin costume, you’ll want to act the clown and not just look like him. Don’t worry, you’re only going to be wearing the costume for a short while. Make sure to enjoy it while it lasts. We’ve all experienced how our playing of a piece can su ddenly change after we have listened to a recording of someone else playing it. The other’s interpretative viewpoint challenges our own, and we go to the piano and take on some of the characteristics of what we have just heard. Everything seems totally different for a while. I would add that I do recommend listening to other pianists’ interpretations of the music you are playing close to your own performance date. It is important to hold onto your own voice and not copy what you hear from others. So what are the parameters we can tweak to keep an interpretation fresh? Here are some thoughts:
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Tempo Try a variety of different speeds – it is important the playing is musically coherent with each new tempo, not just a series of mechanical finger motions. Try moving from the slowest to the fastest possible tempo the music will withstand before it degenerates into mere notes. For inspiration when working at slow tempos, here is Glenn Gould playing Bach’s Little Prelude in C minor. Gould was known for his excessively slow tempos, which he managed to make meaningful and compelling. I doubt that anyone else would think to take this piece this slowly, but for me it is a model of slow practice. Listen to how Gould judges each and every note, and places it perfectly in a tautly rhythmic framework.
Dynamics Concentrate on exaggerating each dynamic level, so that our loudest and our softest sounds are poles apart. Every crescendo, every sforzando needs to be carefully judged. Or, we can play deliberately on one flat level of sound (say a mezzo forte). For superb control, it’s a great idea to practise everything pianissimo. Start from no sound, by playing on the surface of the keys. Gradually allow sound to emerge from nothingness to a whisper, and dare to keep it there.
Texture and Perspective Bring out the bass line, or a middle voice. If we are playing a Chopin Nocturne, deliberately hide the top line and find interesting things in the LH.
Style and Character Play in the style of a composer from another period (Mozart played like Debussy), or in the style of a particular pianist (how would Horowitz have done it?). If it is a happy, lighthearted piece, try playing it mournfully (OK, mockmournfully then). An allegro vivace might try on an adagio e mesto costume.
Touch Play a light staccato piece with a legato cantabile approach.
Pedal Practise deliberately without pedal, or just with those pedals to make necessary joins; omit those luxurious pedals we use for resonance. Try some of these tweaks once in a while when you feel stale, stuck or otherwise uninspired – it’s like taking your programme on a refreshing and rejuvenating holiday. When you return to your planned interpretation, things will feel pleasantly new and different.
Maintenance Practice On a recent visit to The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, I was struck not only by the perfection of the impeccably manicured lawns, flower beds full of beautiful blooms and greenhouses crammed with the most exotic flora, but also by the constant stream of gardeners at work. A gardener’s job is presumably never done, and I think it is very dangerous for us to think we can reach a stage with a piece when we sign it off as done and dusted. Maintenance practice for the pianist is similar to feeding, pruning and weeding for the gardener. We decide to visit a piece that is learned, that feels comfortable and that has undergone several successful play-throughs. Here are some ways we might approach this work:
Go through the piece under tempo, either in one fell swoop or in sections. Do some work hands separately. Take a section and go through it at half speed or a quarter speed. Take a passage and reinforce the memory (transposition, etc.). Do some technical work here and there where necessary, to keep the piece in tip-top condition.
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Silent Practice When I was a student, I had teachers who extolled the virtues of silent practice, the sort where you sit with the score and study the structure, the harmonies, and so on, in your head. In those years I was reluctant to consider this a part of my practising – I’d do it a little, but not in any sort of committed way. Now, I think it is completely indispensable. Without a thorough understanding of the composer’s structure and messag e, how are the fingers supposed to know what to do? The mind has to be one step ahead of the hand, always. One thing that is very important to remember when we practise away from the keyboard – We are forming or strengthening existing neural pathways in our brain). Due to force of circumstance, I once had to learn a substantial recital programme of music for cello and piano (including the Chopin Sonata) on a Virgil Practice Clavier (a silent keyboard). I was staying somewhere with no piano, and this portable contraption could be moved into my room easily by two people. To my surprise, I found the work very congenial! I was able to hear in my head the sounds my fingers would have been making, and in some ways this made me listen more. I was never troubled by hearing any wrong notes, and I wasn’t preoccupied with tone, balance and sound in the way that most of us pianists are all the time. I could imagine the perfect sound in my inner ear and never have this disturbed. I had the odd moment on an antique and much-battered Broadwood in the local church once or twice a week so I could actually hear the fruits of my labour, then it was off to France to rehearse and play the concerts. Everything came out better than I anticipated, and I am convinced the Virgil helped make a virtue of a necessity. Please see Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series for detailed information on silent practice.
Resources Josef Hofman, Piano Playing with Piano Questions Answered (Click here) Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series (Click here)
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Practising a Performance Introduction When all is going well, performing can feel like surfing a wave (or as I imagine surfing a wave would feel!). It is an exhilarating sense of doing virtually nothing, of just going along for the ride. But this state of mind is mystical, and we can never predict when it will be with us. Certainly, we cannot conjure it up at will. Most times, we will probably feel more like the tightrope artiste who needs to concentrate, who might wobble and who might even fall off (why else is the circus such a spectacle – we almost hope they fall off, or get eaten by lions, or something). In both these scenarios, we are committed to the finishing line. There comes a time in our performance preparation when we will need to set aside some time to play through our programme from beginning to end, just like we will be doing when we perform. The difference here is that we shall be running our programme through in our practice room, during our regular practice time, but with no audience present. In a performance, we can’t stop and start again if we make a mistake, or if the tempo we set is not to our liking. And if we have a memory slip or any sort of stumble, we just need to be able to shrug this off and carry on with our performance. How can we expect to be able to do this if we haven’t actually practised it, and regularly? Practising a performance needs to be part of our training regime to become performance-fit. About a month before the first performance of a new recital programme, I plan daily run-throughs of the whole programme, alternating them with spot practice (more on this later in this chapter).
Warm Up If you are in the habit of warming up before you practise, by all means, do this. Warm-ups might include scales, arpeggios, chords, special exercises and studies or simply playing a piece through lightly to reawaken your muscles from the day before. When you are ready to run through your programme, just beforehand. You want to try your performance without the benefit of practising these odd corners, comforting as it may feel to do so. Warm up with something else, then launch into your play-through.
The Play-Through When you embark on the play-through, it is really important not to allow yourself to be distracted by anything. Switch off your phone, tell people you are not to be disturbed - the only thing that should cause you to stop your performance is a fire bell. Make your run-through as close as possible to how it will be during an actual performance – stand up and take a bow between pieces if you like, and if you are going to introduce your pieces, include this aspect too. Go through to the bitter end, making a mental note of errors or places that did not work according to plan. The first time you practise a performance, things are likely to feel a bit tight and awkward, and you may very well find several things fall by the wayside. Try not to get despondent; this is absolutely part of the process!
Time for Reflection After you have finished your run-through, it is tempting to immediately start practising little odds and ends that weren’t right. Collect up your scores and take them to a quiet place away from the piano and go through them from the beginning, making a note of what went wrong. I suggest writing this down as notes in your practice diary, on a piece of paper.
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Your page might look something like this:
Feedback If you are a piano student, your teacher will have built in play-throughs as part of your lessons. After you have played, your teacher will give you an overview of your performance, the feedback balanced so you know what worked and what still needs your attention. In the absence of a teacher (or even in addition), making a recording of your playthrough and then listening back to it works very well. Listening to a recording of our own playing is quite a sobering process, and not actually that comfortable – rather like looking at oneself in the mirror! You can, of course, practise a performance with a group of peers or colleagues and, as you get closer to the actual event, a small gathering in an informal setting. Lucinda Mackworth-Young, Director of The EPTA Piano Teacher’s Course (on which I am a principal tutor) has come up with the brilliant concept of performing in a safe circle. Here is the concept in Lucinda’s own words (from her excellent book Tuning In: Practical Psychology for Musicians ):
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Remember, when you play for someone (or a group of people) you have the option of requesting: No feedback at all If you are concerned about getting negative feedback from someone whose opinion you do not value or trust, or who you feel might be jealous, this option might be preferable. If you simply want the opportunity to perform but don’t want to take on any feedback for whatever reason, choose no feedback. Safe circle feedback Knowing you are only going to get positive, affirming comments can do a lot to boost your confidence and selfesteem before a performance. Open feedback With this option, you get everything. People may tell you what worked for them and what didn’t – in their opinion. To protect yourself, make sure you ask for feedback from those you trust.
Spot Practice Spot practice is simply attending to those parts of the programme that did not stand up to the pressures of the performance. This might include obvious errors such as memory problems and technical blemishes, but also anything didn’t feel secure and comfortable, or that went OK but felt disconnected or tight. Identify where the problem originated (it may have been somewhat earlier than where the actual error occurred), and try to be as specific as possible about the nature of the mistake and how you propose to correct it. Write all of this down in a checklist form, take it to the piano and embark on a session of spot practice. After the first run-through you may want to immediately revert to slow practice (or careful hands separately practice) as a way to deal with the errors that will inevitably have occurred. It will feel safe and secure to do this, and we are very likely to think our mistakes have occurred because we haven’t done enough slow, careful practice for long enough. I would advise you to resist this. Why? Playing a work or a programme through from beginning to end is a very different experience from playing snippets or sections, correcting mistakes as we go. We need to develop reflexes for continuous playing; this is a process all its own. The first run-through is bound to throw up issues. Provided we have attended to these trouble spots in a separate practice session, repeat the whole process of playing through the programme again the next time you practise, let’ s assume this takes place the following day. The next day, . Make sure you are sufficiently warmed up, then launch yourself into another come-what-may performance with full commitment and energy, as though an audience were present. Do this in alternation with spot practice for several days in a row – I like one week.
Interleaving The Spot Practice Session The concept was crystallised for me fairly recently, when I read a post from the excellent Bulletproof Musician blog on blocking v. interleaving practice. I have been using interleaving in my work instinctively for years, but it is always good when scientists come up with an explanation for how it works. Very simply put, blocking is when you spend a chunk of time practising one particular passage and then moving on to another. All your work for the day on a given piece or section of a piece happens in one block of time. Interleaving is based on achieving the same number of practice repetitions, but instead of doing them back to back, you interleave them with other activities. In other words, spend a few minutes on your quarantine areas from Piece A, move to Piece B (or another practice activity), return to your work on Piece A, then move to Piece C, and so on. So instead of AAAA/BBB/CCCCC, our practice session might look like A-B-A-C-B-C-A-C-B-C-A, etc. According to researchers, this gives a better long-term result, even though blocked practice feels better to us as we practise. The reason it feels good is that after a while we get into a flow, giving us the false impression we have mastered the skill. How disappointing to discover the next day that the fruits of our labour have vanished and it feels as though we are back to square one. On performance day, we don’t have half an hour’s noodling with a passage before we can play it to our satisfaction, we have to be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat on demand and get it right the first time. I strongly advise interleaving the spots on your list with each other, meaning you may return to the same spot three or four times in one practice session.
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Multiple Run-Throughs As a postgraduate student studying the Liszt Sonata, I went through a stage where I played the piece through six times in a row, back to back, every day for a week. When I played the last note I immediately went back to the beginning, without any break in concentration. Some of these run-throughs were full-on (in other words, they had all the proper dynamic levels, all the emotional content and all the fireworks), but others were deliberately cool and understated, like a singer who saves their voice by marking their way through an aria mezza voce. I did this in the mornings (since the piece is about thirty minutes long, this took three hours), over lunch I sat with the score and a piece of paper to make notes, then spent a couple of hours in the afternoon going over the spots. After a week of this type of work, the piece actually felt not only easy (well, inasmuch as the Liszt Sonata is ever going to feel easy!), but also short and firmly within my grasp on every level. My experience of it had totally changed. This is the kind of thing that marathon runners do in the build-up to a race. Certainly, I had undergone a training process. Do this with individual pieces, then with whole exam or recital programmes. I would not advise doing this unless you are well on top of the piece and are pianistically very fit, because there is an obvious risk of injury. You may feel that six times is excessive (Richter used to do ten). I personally feel two or three times in a row can be adequate.
On Tour A few years ago I was on tour in Singapore and Australia playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations and giving classes and workshops. Between the performances of the tour, I absolutely needed to practise daily to keep the work fresh and alive in my fingers and my memory. I found it took from between three to five hours daily. It was important to me to go through the whole work slowly every day. I hardly ever needed to look at the score – my maxim all along has been to have the score from the piano and not to do my memorising with the score on the desk. This way, I could develop the proper reflexes from the beginning. It was hard at first, but it got much easier over time. I needed to have as strong a sense as possible, with this work in particular, that I knew it inside out, backwards and sideways. One thing I found myself doing daily was to practise the canons and other variations that are strictly linear by bringing out a selected voice forte while keeping the others pianissimo. Thus, in the canons, I practised each repeat three times so that each voice had its moment in the limelight. This enabled me to shape the individual lines with extreme control in performance and to vary the voicing and layering on the repeats. This brings me to the thorny question of what one does on the day of the concert itself, and here I can give no formula because we are all different. I have spoken to many colleagues about this, and everybody has their own set of rituals that work for them.
Resources and Further Reading Lucinda Mackworth-Young, Tuning In – Practical Psychology for Musicians (Click here) Bulletproof Musician Blog (Click here) Stewart Gordon, Mastering the Art of Performance (Click here)
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Performance Psychology and Anxiety How often have we heard it said after a performance that didn’t quite hit the mark: “But I can play it perfectly well at home”! When we play for ourselves in the comfort of our home space or in an institutional practice room, there is nobody there to witness our performance or to judge it. If we make a mistake, or even stop to correct it, we might not even notice. Our errors have no obvious consequences, and after a while we might even become immune to them. The experience of playing for ourselves is so vastly different from performing in front of others, all sorts of unforeseen factors come into the picture. What felt easy and natural when we were alone might suddenly become treacherous and untrustworthy when in the presence of others. And it doesn’t seem to matter much whether the audience is knowledgeable about music or not. Most of the concert pianists I have spoken to are rarely completely happy with their performance – there is always something you wish you could have done better. In a recent episode of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show , the presenter was demonstrating a new virtual reality game called The Pit. In reality he was walking across a plank on a carpeted floor, in virtual reality he was crossing a plank over a vast chasm. The experience was made to feel real by the headset he wore, fitted with cameras that tracked his movements and fed these back in virtual reality. Even though his mind knew he was perfectly safe and at ground level, his brain was telling him otherwise. His intense fear of falling kicked in and he was paralysed. If we sense that performing in front of an audience is as perilous as walking on a plank over a bottomless chasm, we will be paralysed too! When we perform, we need to be responding on many different levels – emotionally, physically, even viscerally. We need to get into character and fully live the music on stage; there is room for spontaneity and magic here. Heaven forbid that when onstage, we are thinking about what notes come next, the position of our elbow in bar 6, or remembering to voice a chord in a particular way. If we have done our work in the practice room, we have earned the right to walk onto the stage and allow it all to happen. The trick is to trust ourselves, to let go of fear or selfconsciousness and fully embrace the occasion. But this is not always easy, and many people suffer from performance anxiety. The range of anxiety can vary from mild (where adrenaline can be a positive influence) to severe (where performance is compromised or is not even possible). To help me write Part 4 of Practising the Piano, I conducted an informal survey, Performance Anxiety Among Pianists (more on this in the next chapter), which found that around 43% of pianists admitted that performance anxiety was a real problem, with nearly 53% who answered the question about what sort of negative experiences of performing they experienced reported uncontrollable physical symptoms (such as sweating, shaking, etc.). Fear of memory lapses is also very common (around 55%) as is fear of making mistakes and not being able to recover (around 56%). I would like to share a personal story. Some years ago I was in the green room waiting to go onstage and play a recital of French music at a piano pedagogy conference in Australia. This is usually the most anxious part of a performance for me, when I entertain thoughts such as: “Why am I putting myself through this?”, “Why didn’t I choose a proper job?” … and so on. The butterflies in my stomach were worse than usual because the audience was made up of professional pianists, professors of piano, piano teachers and piano students. What torture! Just before I had to set foot on the stage I found I was able to alter my thoughts, and walked out confidently. So what had changed? Instead of fear and self-doubt, I realised that they would all be experiencing exactly the same fears if any one of them were in my shoes. After all, who would want to play for a hall full of colleagues and peers? Also, they would be bound to be sympathetic to any shakes or nervousness. But the most important thought was “they will immediately hear all the nuances I bring to the music, and they will appreciate these much more than a conventional audience.” In my mind, I had already won them over before I had even played a note.
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In the following chapters I look at performance anxiety and suggest various options we have to treat it. Treatments include:
Therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), relaxation and breathing techniques, yoga, meditation and mindfulness training, hypnotherapy and aerobic exercise. Medication such as naturopathic and herbal remedies. Prescription medicines such as beta blockers, benzodiazepines and SSRIs.
I also explore how visualisation and mental skills training can help us prepare for performance so that we can realise our full potential.
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The Survey: Performance Anxiety in Pianists Introduction When writing Part 4 of Practising the Piano, I decided it would be helpful to be able to back it up with a very brief, informal survey. I wanted to make the survey anonymous because there is still a lot of shame about admitting you suffer from nerves and/or that you take medication to control your anxiety. Indeed, in the field of sports you would not be permitted to perform with such medication. I wanted people to be able to stand up and be counted without fear of recrimination or reprisal. The survey contained only eight questions: those I felt were most pertinent to the ground I wanted to cover. I offered a few multiple choice answers with check boxes and a “comments” box at the bottom so that people could add more information if they wished to. With over a thousand respondents, the survey has yielded some very interesting data. The majority of respondents were professional pianists who mostly teach but who do play occasionally (over 42%), closely followed by adult amateurs who play for pleasure (nearly 33%). Over 17% were professional collaborative pianists (accompanists, chamber musicians, repetiteurs, etc.) and nearly 5% were professional concert pianists with solo performing careers. Over 12% were piano students at the college or conservatory level.
A Brief Overview of the Results Do you currently, or have you ever, suffered from performance anxiety during exams and/or public performances? The majority of respondents ticked the first box, identifying this as a real problem (43%). Notably, over 30% of professional pianists* also ticked this box. Slightly fewer of the overall respondents (nearly 40%) said it was a problem they were able to manage and control. Just over 6% said it was not really a problem, but only just over 2% said they never experience nerves in front of an audience. Given that this survey included a high proportion of professional pianists this response is very illuminating – it means that nearly 83% answered “yes” to this question, and only just over 2% claiming they enjoyed performing without any anxiety. * - Professional pianists are defined as the respondents who ticked any of the following boxes: “I am a professional concert pianist with a solo performing career”, “I am a professional collaborative pianist (accompanist, chamber musician, repetiteur, etc.)” and “I am a professional pianist who mostly teaches but I play occasionally”.
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What sort of negative experiences of performing have you experienced? The responses were very evenly matched between all answer choices, with nearly 53% reporting uncontrollable physical symptoms (such as sweating, shaking, nausea, etc.). Over 41% reported memory lapses that caused a breakdown in performance, with just over 56% reporting fear of making mistakes and not being able to recover as a negative factor. It was no surprise that nearly 60% reported the fear of being judged and the feeling their performance would not meet expectations.
Would you say that your performance anxiety is directly related to playing from memory? A small proportion of those who answered this question (just over 12%) attributed their anxiety solely to the risks involved in playing from memory. Of these, almost 20% were professional pianists. Perhaps this is not unsurprising, since professionals are more likely to have to play from memory. Nearly half said they were nervous whether they were playing from memory or with the score, with just over 41% saying that playing from memory exacerbates the fear, but they tend to be nervous anyway. Since memorization is a factor that can be addressed directly, I have devoted the whole of the last part of this publication to it.
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If you suffer from nerves and performance anxiety, what do you usually do to combat this? Over three quarters of players combat their nerves by being as well prepared as possible, able to trust themselves on the day. Nearly 18% are able to use adrenaline to their advantage, claiming it gives their performance an edge. About a quarter use meditation or visualisation techniques, with just under 10% claiming they rely on medication. Interestingly, 12% of professional pianist claimed to use me dication to help deal with nerves and anxiety. 18% o f all respondents avoid public performance completely because they can’t handle the nerves.
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If you use medication, which of the following works best for you? It came as no surprise that beta blockers were the number one choice of medication – nearly 57% of people who use medication use them. About 30% use over-the-counter or herbal remedies, and just over 20% anti-anxiety medication such as Xanax, Valium, Ativan, etc. In their comments, many respondents reported being very against medication. One or two make use of alcohol just before they go onstage, and several eat bananas. Many of those who do recourse to medication use a low dose.
How well does the medication work for you? Of those who do use medication, over 86% reported that medication works well for them, and nearly 15% saying it effectively solves the problem. There was a widespread fear of taking medication, or that it takes the excitement out of their playing. Some reported it took away their shakes and enabled them to deliver a relaxed performance. Many said that they had tried beta blockers but this did not help that much.
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How do you feel about taking this medication? While just over 14% said they felt ashamed about taking medication and would never admit to it, over 41% felt fine about it - medication is there to be used. Around 31% take it reluctantly, and just over 20% take it but worry it takes the edge off their performance. Some expressed concern that medication does not get to the root of the problem, whereas CBT and hypnotherapy was preferable because these treatments tackle the issues head on.
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Please leave any other comments about performance anxiety and how it has affected you in relation to piano performance. The following quotes are a selection taken from a total of 336 comments:
It used to be a problem when I was a college student, but I worked slowly as performance opportunities increased. Now I truly enjoy being on stage and love the adrenaline. The anxious feelings are fleeting for me so I just anchor myself based on good practice habits and a pre-recital routine. Having many successful (not perfect by any means) performances also help frame my perspective on playing. Perfectionism is not attainable by many, but excellence is highly possible to everyone. - Professional pianist
Performance anxiety has me talking myself into and out of a competition I've been wanting to do for a couple of years. - Professional pianist
I used hypnosis and visualization when I hit a psychological glitch in my p erformance. My next performance was nearly flawless. (I also used this technique with group sessions of my piano students) Subsequently I have performed in NYC, including the Carnegie, and received kudos from the reviewer. - Professional pianist
Unable to complete my pedagogy examinations. Dropped out of music performance in university due to extreme stress for performance requirements. - Professional pianist
The main problem is that I tend to shake with nerves during performance. Taking beta blockers solved the problem and I have found that I have now become so used to not shaking that I do not have to rely on them as much as I did. I do find that when accompanying in a performance situation I am very concerned about letting down the other performer and this can increase my nerves. Not knowing the piano can be another problem to cope with. - Professional collaborative pianist
I am generally okay for the most part and I talk myself up. (Come on man.... you know what you're doing) But if I have one brain hiccup, the second guessing starts. Then I find it can have a cascading effect on the performance. Getting back on track is my toughest task. I even tell my students, just like athletes, you have to move on and not think about the mistakes. Play now, analyze later. - Professional collaborative pianist
Nerves interfere with my concentration and focus, leading to clumsy mistakes. I recently failed a diploma due to this. - Adult amateur
It's literally plagued me my whole life. It's totally irrational. I don't play any large concerts luckily. It's maybe gotten a tiny bit better, I don't really know why. Maybe because I only play recitals in really supportive, safe environments, well prepared wi th the aid of beta-blockers. Who knows? It's been a real shame to have to deal with this. - Adult amateur
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[Anxiety] is completely related to memory. - Piano student
The greatest problem was my fear of forgetting a passage of a memorized piece and not being able to get back on track. This happened to me as a 5th grader in a talent show and seemed to always stick with me thereafter. I have been on anxiety medication for 25 years. - Music teacher
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Visualisation Techniques for Mental Rehearsal and Performance Anxiety Introduction According to his memoirs, Artur Rubinstein learned César Franck’s Symphonic Variations on a train on his way to the concert. As there was no piano on the train, he made use of his photographic memory and practised passages in his lap. I doubt that many pianists would either be capable of such a feat, or willing to trust this process under such pressure, but it does show how much can be achieved away from the instrument. When I was a second-year student at the Royal College of Music preparing a demanding programme for my end-ofyear exam, my professor introduced me to the concept of active memorisation. He suggested I take a walk in Kensington Gardens (just across the street from the College) and go through my programme in my head. I was to visualise myself playing every single note of the programme in my imagination, using an imaginary keyboard and hearing it all clearly in my head. Any parts I couldn’t quite see or hear were potential weak spots and would need to be addressed. In those years, I could only accept that tangible practice took place at the piano – doing any type of work away from the piano struck me as a waste of time. However, I respected my teacher very much and I took his advice. While most of the programme was clear to me as I visualised it, I found a few spots where I couldn’t quite see or hear all the notes. I sat on a park bench with the score going over these places very carefully, and next time I went to the piano, I reviewed these areas. Working like this gave me enormous confidence and I am convinced really helped me play better from memory. From that time onwards, I have used visualisation techniques not only for memory but also to counter anxiety and to solve difficulties – more about this later. Nowadays, musicians are learning a lot from the field of sports psychology. Have you wondered what happens when elite professional golfers or tennis players prepare to take a shot? They are running an imaginary movie of the shot in their head, seeing exactly the intended outcome in vivid detail. Only after this mental rehearsal do they hit the ball. Except for the primary motor and sensory areas of the brain, many of the other regions of the cortex normally active during actual playing are also active during virtual practice, or visualisation. I first became interested in the application of neuroscience to piano practice with George Kochevitsky’s excellent book , The Art of Piano Playing . Because I have no medical training, I would refer you not only to this book but also to the wealth of material that has since been written; I have included a number of interesting articles in the resources section at the end of this chapter.
Mental Rehearsal Many studies have shown that the combination of mental rehearsal and physical practice achieves better results than physical practice alone. Mental rehearsal allows us to imagine an ideal sound or the perfect performance in the future. This may include imagining exactly how we want to phrase a passage, or shape and colour a whole work. We can imagine doing this is our practice room, and imagine ourselves doing this (perfectly!) in performance. The good news is that in addition to imagining the ideal sounds, we can also encode a sense of physical and mental calm by picturing ourselves in full control of our instrument - playing in an easy and relaxed manner. Kinaesthetic imagination is when we imagine the position of our body in relation to the piano: the way the arms feel after we play a strong chord, the way the hand caresses the keyboard in a leggiero passage, the way the wrist flexes and the pad of the finger squeezes the key bed as we produce a deep legato, and so on. We can imagine all of these physical sensations in addition to the sounds of the music, to create how we want to sound feel on the day of the performance. Actually, the more of all our senses we can incorporate in the visualisation, the more vivid it will be. If we once had a particularly successful performance in a hall with a polished wood floor, for example, recall the smell of the wood as we visualise. If this event took place on a sunny day, recall the sunlight streaming through the windows. We can also imagine specific moods or emotions evoked by the music as it goes along in our mind, as well as a storyline, scenes or characters as we imagine them. This does not have to make sense to anyone else; it is our personal story of the music in 3D and full technicolour. 43
We can use the visualisation techniques from two perspectives:
From the perspective of the audience, as though watching ourselves on a screen. From inside our own body – from our own perspective sitting at the piano in the act of performance.
Using Visualisation for a New Piece We can use visualisation very early on provided we have a reasonably clear aural picture of the music we are studying. We might prefer to use it after a practice session at the piano, by way of backing up and reinforcing our work. This gives our body a rest, and takes advantage of dead time (such as a plane or train journey). The following steps outline how this might be done:
Sitting away from the piano, silently read through the piece. Hear and feel yourself playing accurately and confidently. You can imagine yourself playing it slowly, as well as hands separately. See the fingers executing their tasks, feel the keyboard, hear the sounds and enjoy all the sensations. You can include a sense of mastery and physical freedom and wellbeing in your visualisation with each stage. Break the piece up into small sections and work systematically. Allow small movements of the fingers (either in the air or in your lap) as they mime their movements in miniature – this brings the kinaesthetic sense into the action.
Using Visualisation in Routine Practice P ractice You have probably heard Liszt’s saying: s aying: Think Ten Times and Play Once. That silence be tween bursts of sound in our practising is where our conscious mind steps in, where we figure out why we went wrong, or why we didn’t produce the sound we wanted. Am I repeating a phrase because I want to reinforce an intended result (to make this into a habit), or am I repeating a phrase in the hope that the right result will somehow leap out at me by magic? If we stop for a minute and mentally rehearse the sounds we want, we are more than half way there. Do this until it is clear in your mind and your inner ear before you attempt to play. If you have a particularly troublesome place in your piece and routine practice hasn’t shifted it, instead of hacking away at it at the piano use the techniques of mental rehearsal. You can visualise the passage during idle moments, such as waiting at a bus stop or while exercising.
Using Visualisation for Memory Here is an excellent process for using visualisation to strengthen memory
Divide the music into sections (see section on Tracking in Memorisation Tools section of the Memorisation Chapter for more information). Working a bar or a phrase at a time, study the score until you can visualise one hand at a time with your eyes closed, using only the keyboard you have in your mind’s eye. Do this under tempo and then at the tempo. Make sure you can see every single finger movement on your imaginary keyboard, and hear every sound. The inner hearing should embrace rhythm, mood and character when visualising at the right speed. Do this firstly with small movements of the fingers (either in the air or in your lap) as they mime their movements in miniature, and then just in your head with no finger movements. Repeat the above with both hands together. If you prefer, you can alternate the visualisations with work at the piano – having mentally rehearsed one bar or phrase, go to the piano ( ) and make sure you can play fluently from memory (under tempo, at tempo, with each hand separately and then together. If the music is constructed in lines or parts, use the principles of Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series for more information) It is really important to reinforce this work by repeating it each day for several days, starting from the very beginning each day. This may seem like a lot of work, but it will be well worth it in the end.
Using Visualisation for Wellbeing on Performance Performance Day Many people find that by regularly practising the technique of visualisation, they create a self-fulfilling prophecy – the performance comes out as they have imagined it because they have imagined it thus! Confidence levels are raised 44
and anxiety levels lowered. I find early in the morning works best for me. It is not always easy to summon up the right frame of mind for constructive visualisation, so here is a process I highly recommend:
Sit comfortably or lie on the floor. Obviously, you will need to sit if you are using the score, but if you are visualising from memory you might find it easier to relax lying on the floor. Spend a few minutes relaxing the mind and the body by doing the diaphragmatic breathing exercises (see examples here here)) and/or the relaxation exercises listed here here.. When you are fully relaxed mentally and physically, imagine yourself getting out of bed on the morning of your performance. Induce feelings of excitement about playing later that day – your work has been done, you can relax in the knowledge that you have done all that was humanly possible to prepare yourself for the event and now you are going to enjoy it. Fast forward to the green room in the concert hall half an hour before you go onstage. You are completely calm and relaxed, looking forward to sharing the music with your audience who are all eager to hear you play. Imagine the walk from the green room to the stage, see and hear your footsteps as you walk towards the piano, and see yourself taking your bow, beaming at the audience. Now imagine yourself playing through your first piece in real time, including as many of the aural, kinaesthetic, smell (if appropriate or meaningful), and feelings as possible. If you have difficulty combining these, focus on one or two elements and go back over the piece again, this time shifting the focus to others. Above all, imagine yourself as calm and relaxed in your mind and your body as you play. Be very aware of your bodily sensations – if you notice muscles tightening (especially in your stomach or your jaw) as you mentally rehearse a particularly intense or anxious moment of the piece, re wind your video and replay until you can visualise it completely free of tension.
Enjoy this process by zooming in and out of the scene, as a cameraman would do. You can als o vary the speed, and visualise yourself practising a particular spot you had trouble visualising perfectly.
Resources Malva Freymuth, Mental Freymuth, Mental Practice and Imagery for Musicians (Click here) here) Alan HD Watson, What Can Studying Musicians Tell Us About Motor Control of the Hand? (Click here) here ) Martin Lotze, Kinesthetic Imagery of Musical Performance (Click here) here ) Journal of Research in Music Education, Effects of Mental Practice, Physical Practice, and Knowledge of Results on Piano Performance (Click here) here) Linda Warner and M Evelyn McNeill, Mental Imagery and Its Potential for Physical Therapy (Click here) here ) Cognitive Neuroscience of Music ( Music (Click here) here ) Jordan Taylor Sloan, Science Shows How Piano Players' Brains Are Actually Different from Everybody Elses' (Click here) here ) George Kochevitsky, The Art of Piano Playing ( Playing (Click here) here )
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Mental Skills Training Introduction Piano performance is far from easy, and there will be setbacks as well as rewards. Strong emotions such as excitement and disappointment are part of the story. Our goals need to be realistic and achievable, and we need a detailed plan in place to realise them. Unwavering commitment is a prerequisite, as is intense concentration in the practice room. Self-doubt and anxiety are impediments to successful performance, no matter how talented the pianist or how much time and effort have have gone into the preparation. Neither practising hard nor practising excellently will guarantee success in performance. How do we deal with the drop-off in quality from practice room to concert stage or examination room? Traditionally, we have been taught to over-practise and prepare ourselves to be 150% ready (knowing that 50% is going to fall away as soon as we walk onto the stage). Our own thought processes can either help or hinder. We need to accept that anxiety is a part of performance, and that anxiety does not have to be negative - we can use it to our advantage!
Yerkes-Dodson Law The Yerkes-Dodson Law states that performance improves with increases in arousal up to a certain point, after which levels of arousal affect performance adversely. Professor Glenn Wilson points out:
Mental Skills Training prepares us to be a more res ilient performer. However, just like the skills involved in learning our programme at the piano, mental skills need constant practice too. The skills involved are varied, embracing positive self-talk, defeating perfectionism and not letting our critical inner voice get the better of us.
The Myth of Perfection Perfectionism tends to have the opposite effect to what we strive for in performance. The player is intensely selfcritical and anything that happens in performance that deviates from what has been carefully and laboriously planned and practised can throw off the performer and have devastating consequences. Perfectionists thus routinely experience dissatisfaction with their performance, and because performance is linked to self-worth, they are rather prone to performance anxiety and depression. Many of us are caught in the trap of perfectionism, and yet attaining flawlessness is so anti-human. Music played perfectly would actually be boring and predictable – what makes performance interesting is the human element, and what makes it electrifying is the element of risk when the performer is pushing the boundaries of what is possible or imaginable (and might even teeter over the edge here and there). Here’s what Beethoven had so say about this :
No live performance can ever truly be note-perfect, and no single interpretation can ever be the one true realisation of the musical possibilities of particular piece. It’s precisely this difference between the ideal and the reality where the humanity of musical performance lies, and the wrong notes in Alfred Cortot’s recordings matter not one iota to the communication of the music’s beauty. I would even go as far as to say it is what makes me love his recordings all the more – they show greatness and fallibility at the same time. The problem is that audiences raised on a steady diet of today’s recordings (often a collection of the best takes spliced together) only recognise the perfection possible in that scenario, and are unprepared for live performances. 46
Perfectionism has been defined in psychology as:
In an ideal world, we would never practise any wrong notes or other errors, and therefore this would drastically reduce the likelihood of our playing any subsequently. I notice how some students might wince in pain as they play a wrong note during a lesson. One or two of these derailments in a row and they might even stop completely as though frozen by horror at their imagined crime of ineptitude, waiting for the ground to swallow them up. If it were easy to play the piano, then everyone would be doing it! Learning a piece is a process that takes time, and a performance is honed and seasoned from often humble beginnings as we input the notes into our fingers and brain. As I tell all my students, if you feel judged as you play this will have nothing to do with me – it’s your own inner judges (these are usually unexorcised ghosts from our past). To put things in perspective, we need to know that not even the greatest pianists in the world are perfect or immune from errors in performance.
Healthy V. Neurotic Perfectionism So how does all of this relate to practising and the process of learning as you take a piece from the early stages through to finished product? I want to make a distinction between healthy perfectionism (the drive to get everything just right and to do the best job imaginable, and then some) and neurotic perfect ionism (when nothing you achieve is ever going to be good enough). Healthy perfectionism drives us ever onwards and upwards, and is vital for stellar progress and excellence. We feel good about ourselves and the process, and know that our aims are attainable. Neurotic perfectionism cripples us because we forget we are human beings and not machines – we set goals that are not attainable and beat ourselves up for not realising them.
Wrong Notes and Other Errors I’m sure we can agree that there is a very obvious distinction between perform ing and practising. When we perform, we don’t stop for anything, when we practise we absolutely must stop and make corrections. Correcting can also embrace the concept of refinement, getting exactly the sound we want, producing a desired effect or making a passage feel better in our body. I have identified another type of practising that, for me, is a vital part of the process of performance preparation – practising a performance. Attitude is a choice and we can choose one that is positive. Perfection is unattainable, so focus instead on being
positive yet realistic and achieving excellence. In order to stop negative self-talk, we first need to be aware of it so that we can replace it with something positive. The best sort of self-talk is where we accept that we will probably make a few mistakes, but these mistakes are human and not catastrophic. We can learn to talk to ourselves like we would a loved one, exercising patience and being encouraging. We can see the pressure of performance as challenging rather than threatening.
The Critical Inner Voice This voice is the part of us that hinders us, turns us against ourselves and affects our accomplishments. It comes from parents, teachers and peers who may have spoken negatively to us and we bought into this on some level.
“You can’t really play fast. You’re not cut out to be a performer. You haven’t done enough practice and you’re bound to mess up.”
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When we perform, we may feel a sense of helplessness at not being fully in control of the outcome. We like to be organised and orderly but we may be overly worried about making mistakes, and worry that these mistakes will have consequences. If I make one mistake, this might dent my confidence and cause panic so that I make a whole string of errors I never made before. What if I have a memory slip I can’t recover from? What will my students/parents/friends/colleagues think of me? Whereas children generally relish getting up and performing, no category of performer is exempt from the experience of performance anxiety. It doesn’t matter whether you are young or old, amateur or seasoned professional, performers of all types and ages can suffer. Inner Game work sets out to change the inner critic to the inner coach, so that we don’t allow these critical thoughts to bother us. Fears about what other people may be thinking are our own projections and very unlikely to be true. If you have prepared yourself thoroughly, you deserve to enjoy your own performance. If you are enjoying it, so will your audience. If you are anxious, this will communicate to the audience and they will feel anxious too. Trust yourself, let yourself go. For worksheets based on the CBT model, please see this link.
Inner Game Work Some years ago I read Timothy Gallwey’s book The Inner Game of Tennis. This book isn’t really about tennis, but rather about getting out of our own way when performing any skilled task (be it sport or music). Since this book was written, Gallwey has teamed up with Barry Green to produce a book for musicians, The Inner Game of Music . I can highly recommend this book as it contains much good practical advice for performers.
According to this way of thinking, realising our full potential in performance relies on our ability to decrease the mental interference. Our mental interference might be made up of the following:
Fear of losing control Worry that you haven’t done enough practice or haven’t prepared your self thoroughly enough Thinking the audience won’t like your playing Dread about a memory lapse
The Inner Game describes the two parts of ourselves, Self 1 and Self 2. I am sure we are all very familiar with the critical, doubting voice (the ego, or Self 1). When I hear this voice myself, I hear it bringing up past problems and projecting these into the future. “Remember that time you got to this spot in the piece and doubted your memory? Well, you managed to rescue yourself then but you would be very lucky to escape it a second time around. I really hope you won’t slip up there!” We might sense this doubting self as a voice that issues a barrage of instructions, such as “Don’t forget to put your 5 th finger on the G sharp!”, or “Pedal through to the end of that phrase!”. This type of thinking can easily sabotage our performance. If we can somehow tap into our creative self, that part of us that lives in the present moment, we would be better able to let go and trust our fingers, our body, our instincts - provided we were adequately prepared, of course! Allowing this part of ourselves involves risk and can feel scary. When we get in our own way, doubt leads to anxiety. This causes us to try harder, which makes us tense up. Giving ourselves permission to fail, paradoxically, can help us play with greater ease and better coordination. The Inner Game suggests awareness as an antidote to trying. We accept the problem by putting our attention onto it and
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allowing it to exist. “OK, so I’m nervous and I can feel my mu scles tightening up a bit. Never mind, I am so well prepared that I will be able to manage anyway, and I doubt anybody will notice.” Letting go is outside of our conscious control, and we can’t will it to happen. The Inner Game offers several ways to get out of our own way. These include:
Role play – by pretending to be our favourite pianist we step into their shoes, and act as if we were them. “Become” the music – we get into the character of the music and fully live it in our body and our imagination. It really can help to dream up a story line from our own imagination and focus on the narrative as we play. Perhaps we imagine the music as the score for a movie or a ballet, the action unfolding in front of us. Letting the body take over – rather than controlling the body we let it do what it wants to do.
We can trigger Self 2 perceptions by finding sources of inspiration that have nothing to do with the music and bring these into our performance in the spirit of playfulness. By focussing on the image of a flower, for example, we might encourage ourselves to play in a softer, gentler way. An external image of an object or an icon deflects attention from our anxieties. I once dedicated a performance to a dear friend who had recently passed away, and holding her in my imagination as I played took the focus away from myself and enabled me to play better. If you find yourself getting overly anxious about performing, you might want to reflect on your original goals - your passion for music, your love of playing and your desire to share this wonderful music with others. This is enough to get the ego out of the way. We evolved to react to a perceived threat with a flight or fight response, which means that we are flooded with adrenaline, which allows us to be quick and alert. However, this is no longer a useful response in modern life and certainly not helpful to us in piano performance. The only way to tackle it is take the situation which we perceive to be a threat and teach ourselves to no longer view it in that way. There is such a thing as good adrenaline – the rush of excitement we might get from being on a roller coaster or bungee jumping. Next time we feel the adrenaline starting to course through our veins, we might turn it around, tap into our pleasurable associations with this state and actually learn to enjoy it. Nearly 18% of respondents in our survey who answered Question 4 (“If you suffer from nerves and performance anxiety, what do you usually do to combat this?”) ticked the box with the response “I use t he nerves to my advantage – I feel the adrenaline gives my performance an edge”.
Affirmations Affirmations are simple, easy to use and can be very powerful. If you are able to identify the negative thoughts that interfere with your serenity during a performance, you can turn these around to your advantage. Try switching unhelpful thoughts to positive ones by using the technique of affirmations. Affirmations are statements that you say either out loud, quietly to yourself or write down on paper. You affirm to yourself whatever it is you want to happen, and whatever you verbally repeat to yourself will influence your thoughts. All you need to do is repeat an affirmation over and over again over the course of a few days and it will quite naturally have an effect without you having to worry about it. Some people like to do this while they are exercising. Here are some examples:
I am worried what people might think of me.
I believe in myself and the strength of my performance.
I worry I might have a memory slip.
I have prepared my programme thoroughly and I am confident in my abilities.
What if I get the shakes when I am in the middle of that fast passage?
I remain calm and serene under pressure, fully in control of myself.
Click here for more help using affirmations.
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Performance Coaching Performance coaching has become popular nowadays, and there are plenty of specialists in this area who work with musicians. Here is a list of some performances coaches. It is by no means comprehensive, but it does give a representative sample of what is available.
Dr. Noa Kageyama Performance psychologist and Juilliard graduate Dr. Noa Kageyama teaches musicians how to do their best under pressure, and offers performance coaching (typically via Skype) as well as an Online Course in addition to his excellent blog.
Lucinda Mackworth-Young Lucinda is a piano teacher and performance coach based in London. Following her own intuition, she pioneered a very practical form of Psychology for Musicians to help musicians teach, learn and perform more effectively and enjoyably.
Dr. Louise Montello Dr. Louise Montello, award winning author, therapist, and musician, is founder and director of Performance Wellness, Inc. dedicated to facilitating performance mastery and nurturing body, mind, and spirit for over 20 years. She offers a Level I Performance Wellness Training to help overcome performance-related disorders. Her online Performance Wellness Training is something musicians can work on at home under her guidance.
Sean Grey Sean Grey is a performance coach and EFT pioneer. He has a wide range of experience of helping, musicians, singers, sportsmen and women deal with performance anxiety. His clients include members of the B.B.C National Orchestra for Wales, the Welsh National Opera and students at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Dr Carol Chapman Dr. Chapman is Counselling Psychologist and Performance Coach and Honorary Lecturer in Performing Arts Medicine at University College, London. Dr Chapman also works with BAPAM, an excellent service offered through the Musician’s Union to aid musicians in a number of health related issues. She offers a range of services from brief counselling to long-term psychotherapy. Her coaching work aims to support and empower people to make positive and effective career and lifestyle choices and help them identify and work towards achieving valued goals. She works within the code of ethics and professional practice of the British Psychological Society and offers up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of the fields of counselling, psychotherapy, coaching and psychology, using approaches and methods which have a sound research and clinical evidence base. She uses several therapeutic models including: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Solution Focussed and Systemic Therapy and Personal Construct Psychotherapy.
Resources and Further Reading Eloise Ristad, A Soprano on Her Head: Right-side-up Reflections on Life and Other Performances (Click here) (Nothing to do with singing, everything to do with self-empowerment!) W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis (Click here) Barry Green/Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Music (Click here) Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery (Click here) The Critical Inner Voice (Psychalive) (Click here) Rian E. McMullin, Taking Out Your Mental Trash: A Consumer's Guide to Cognitive Restructuring Therapy (Click here) Glenn Wilson, Psychology for Performing Artist s (Click here)
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Lucinda Mackworth-Young, Tuning in: Practical Psychology for Musicians Who are Teaching, Learning and Performing (Click here) David Buswell, Performance Strategies for Musicians (Click here) Alan H D Watson, What can studying musicians tell us about motor control of the hand? (Click here) Professor Glenn Wilson, The Psychology of Performing Arts: Stage Fright and Optimal Performance (lecture) (Click here)
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Dealing with Anxiety Therapeutically Introduction When I compiled the survey Performance Anxiety Among Pianists, I included the following checkbox on dealing with anxiety: “I use meditation and/or visualisation techniques during my preparation, and maybe even on the day itself”. Around 25% of those who answered this question checked this box, while just under 10% admitted they use medication to help with their anxiety. Interestingly, nearly 18% said they avoided public performance completely because they just couldn’t handle the nerves. A healthy level of anticipation, experienced as a mixture of excitement and nerves, is actually a positive thing before a performance. If this level increases to the point where we feel discomfort, fear, distress or panic, we can totally lose confidence and our performance may fall well below the standard we expect from ourselves. Performance then becomes an ordeal. How do we remain calm and focussed under pressure? In this chapter, I look at several tried and tested techniques that have helped others break the cycle of performance anxiety. These are:
Cognitive and behavioural therapy Relaxation Autogenic therapy Breathing Mindfulness training Meditation Hypnotherapy Yoga Aerobic exercise
- Henry Ford Please note that this information is purely provided for reference purposes and does not constitute medical advice. If you feel your performance anxiety is part of a greater problem concerning general and unmanageable anxiety, you might consider psychotherapy with a psychiatrist, psychologist, clinical social worker, licensed counsellor, or other trained practitioner. There are many different types of psychotherapy available. The best place to start is probably your GP.
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Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy If we have identified that we suffer from performance anxiety, and we do not wish to tackle it with medication, a course of cognitive behavioural therapy has helped many.
The first comprehensive, systematic reviews of available treatment studies for music performance anxiety were conducted by Kenny, Davis and Oates. Recognising that research in this field is still in its infancy, the authors were able to draw conclusions about which treatments are more likely to have a beneficial effect on anxious musicians.
Behavioural Therapy Behavioural therapies for performance anxiety set out to change the dysfunctional behaviours arising from anxiety, such as excessive muscle tension. Treatment might include muscles relaxation exercises combined with visualisation (imagining oneself in the scenario that produces the anxiety, but focusing on keeping muscles relaxed while doing the visualisation).
Cognitive Therapy Cognitive therapy deals with the thoughts that lead to the destructive behaviours by identifying the negative thinking and replacing it with rational and helpful thoughts and beliefs. This process is known as Cognitive Restructuring.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) CBT combines elements of both these therapies, and treatment results are very promising so far. When we are troubled or stressed, our thoughts tend to become negative and such negative thoughts can automatically take over and dominate our feelings. CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts cause our emotions, leading to physical feelings and behaviour. Let’s look at the following scenario:
Reaction No.1 THOUGHT
"My partner has come in late yet again, the worse for a night at the bar"
EMOTION
Anger
PHYSICAL SENSATIONS
Racing pulse, red in the face
BEHAVIOUR
You get out of bed and express your disapproval from the top of the stairs
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Reaction No. 2 THOUGHT
“Someone has broken into the house, I’m being burgled!”
EMOTION
Fear
PHYSICAL SENSATIONS
Heart palpitations, shortness of breath and sweaty palms
BEHAVIOUR
Keep as quiet as possible, consider calling for help
Reaction No. 3 THOUGHT
“It’s the darned cat coming in.”
EMOTION
Annoyance
PHYSICAL SENSATIONS
Twitchy, restless
BEHAVIOUR
Cover your head with your pillow and try to get back to sleep
The aim of CBT is to challenge our thought patterns when these lead to unwanted outcomes, such as performance anxiety. We can reduce our tendency to think negatively and restructure our thinking so we are better able to function at the task in hand. We learn to recognise pessimistic thoughts that occur before, during, and after performances so we can challenge the accuracy of these thoughts and replace them with rational, helpful thoughts. Please visit this website for worksheets on performance anxiety based on the CBT model. Because CBT is based on the theory that our thoughts determine our feelings and behaviour, changing the way we think allows us to change the way we feel and behave. CBT is problem-focused and goal-oriented, with the emphasis on the present and the future rather than the past. CBT does require active participation in the form of homework assignments designed to apply the acquired skills from the sessions to real-life situations. There are many approaches to CBT and many forms of delivery.
Private or group therapy with a counsellor Computerized CBT Self-help books
CBT is available on the NHS in the UK, but there are many therapists in private practice. Use this register to help you locate a therapist in your area.
Relaxation Relaxation in performance is not ultimately what we are after. Performances that are too relaxed and laid back are usually boring. A middle path is ideal – some adrenaline that serves the occasion and the feeling of a slight edge can make a performance exciting and allow it to rise above the routine of the practice room. However, if we are overly anxious then relaxation techniques are very good to practise. I like to do these in the green room before I walk onstage, but you can use them routinely if you find they help.
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Progressive Muscular Relaxation Progressive Muscular Relaxation is a simple and proven technique for learning to monitor and control the state of muscular tension. It was developed by American physician Edmund Jacobson in the early 1920s and is an excellent way to relax. Practise it regularly and use it in stressful situations such as just before a performance. 1. Lie or sit comfortably and close your eyes. 2. Focus on yourself and tune out other thoughts. 3. Tense and relax each muscle group as follows: Forehead - Wrinkle up your forehead for five seconds, and then Eyes and nose - Close your eyes as tightly as you can for five seconds. Lips, cheeks and jaw – Screw up your face as tightly as you can, hold the grimace for five seconds. Hands - Clench your fists tightly for five seconds. Arms – Tighten up the muscles of your forearm and upper arm. Hold the position for five seconds. Shoulders – Bring your shoulders up to your ears for five seconds. Back – Tighten up the muscles in your back for five seconds. Stomach - Tighten your stomach muscles for five seconds. Hips and buttocks - Tighten your hip and buttock muscles for five seconds. Thighs - Tighten your thigh muscles by pressing your legs together as tightly as you can for five seconds. Feet - Bend your ankles toward your body as far as you can for five seconds. Toes - Curl your toes as tightly as you can for five seconds. 4. If any muscles remain tight, go over those areas again. 5. Enjoy the feeling of relaxation and resolve to repeat the process again.
Autogenic Therapy Autogenic Therapy can be particularly useful for all forms of anxiety, including performance anxiety and panic attacks. The relaxed state induced by autogenic exercises restores regular heartbeats, normal breathing patterns, and increases concentration clarity and alertness. People report feeling more confident and energised. The therapy engages mind and body in deep relaxation, reversing the stress response. The resulting altered state of consciousness allows psychological and physiological changes known as the autogenic process, which is a unique experience for each person. Lessons are either individual or in small groups of 6 –8 people, in which case they last for about 1½ hours, over 8-10 weeks. Between lessons or classes, you need to practise a set of exercises daily. UK residents can contact the British Autogenic Society for details of what is involved, and to find a therapist in their area. Autogenic therapy is available on the NHS in London.
Breathing Deep, diaphragmatic breathing is a powerful tool to calm the mind and the body. Breathe through the nose, and not the mouth. Fill the lungs completely, breathing into the diaphragm (stomach area) rather than the chest, but don’t force anything. You can practise breathing in this way and call upon it when you feel anxious, even in performance. This technique, derived from yoga, is more commonly known as
Breathe in through your nose for a count of 4. Hold your breath for a count of 7. Force the breathe out from your mouth (as though whistling) for a count of 8. Repeat the cycle for four breaths, and do this twice a day.
Practise this technique regularly to induce a feeling of calm, and then use it during times of stress. If you find yourself getting tense and tight during performance, there is something you can do. Tighten the muscles in your backside, this immediately relaxes muscles elsewhere in your body. Try it! 55
Mindfulness Training Mindfulness has been gathering much attention over recent years as a method of reducing stress and anxiety. By helping us to focus our attention on the present moment and not get swept up in worrying or negative thoughts about the past or future, a regular practice can help us to:
learn to cope better with the pressures we're under; recognise the thoughts and judgements we make, often subconsciously, that generate more stress; find balance and a sense of calm.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction is a recognised and established secular mindfulness course, taught all over the world, and is scientifically proven to help people cope better with stress, depression and anxiety. The course lasts for 8 weeks, and includes mindfulness meditation practices, gentle stretching and movement, group dialogue and discussion, individually tailored instructions and home assignments. London Mindfulness Training offers a free ECourse.
Other Forms of Meditation Many people have a problem with the concept of meditation because of its religious connotations. However, most forms of meditation help you reach the same goal and do not necessarily involve adherence to any religious affiliations. Meditation is a practice where you focus the mind by concentrating either on the breath, a mantra or a specific thought or visualisation. You don’t have to sit in the lotus position to meditate. Transcendental Meditation is a mental technique usually practised while sitting in a chair in the privacy of your own home. You can use a regular dining chair, provided the back is straight, or invest in specially designed chairs for meditation.
Hypnotherapy Hypnotherapy works on the unconscious mind, where changes to negative thoughts and limiting beliefs can more easily take place. It produces immediate results for changing beliefs and/or behaviours, and can be practised with a trained hypnotherapist or using self-hypnosis techniques spoken to you from a CD. The therapist puts us in a light trance state and offers positive suggestions such as “I am confident and relaxed in performance”, or “I am fully in command of the piano and of myself before and during a performance”. Alternatively, the therapist might encourage us to visualise ourselves playing beautifully and freely on the stage, feeling calm and in complete control. After bad reviews of his First Symphony. Rachmaninoff fell into a deep depression that affected his confidence to compose again. In his memoirs, (Rachmaninoff's Recollections told to Oskar von Riesemann), he recounts the story of how he was treated under hypnosis by Dr. Nikolai Dahl:
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According to research, only 12% of the population is able to enter a deep hypnotic trance state, so hypnotherapy is not for everyone.
Yoga When we practise yoga we are also practising awareness. This is awareness of our breath, our posture, our body, and our mind. When we practise the piano, we should also be practising the same techniques. Yoga can help us calm the nerves and let go of stress and tension. Nowadays, yoga is available in many different forms in most big cities, and usually does not have any religious affiliations whatsoever. Mia Olson, author of Musician’s Yoga, says:
Aerobic Exercise Regular aerobic exercise reduces stress and anxiety, reinforces our immune systems, lowers blood pressure and strengthens our body. Cardiovascular fitness is important for general health, all it takes is some aerobic exercise three or four times a week for a minimum of 20 minutes.
Resources and Further Reading Dianna Kenny, The Psychology of Music Performance Anxiety (Click here) Michael Sinclair, The Little CBT Workbook (Click here) Carol Vivyan, An Introductory Self-Help Course (Click here) David John Collins, Angela Abbott & Hugh Richards, Performance Psychology: A Practitioner's Guide (Click here) Penelope Roskell, Yoga for Musicians DVD (Click here) Mia Olson, Musician’s Yoga: A Guide to Practice, Performance and Inspiration (Click here) Aaron Williamon, Musical Excellence: Strategies and Techniques to Enhance Performance (Click here) David Buswell, Performance Strategies for Musicians (Click here) G Berenson, Strategies for Coping with Performance Anxiety podcast (Click here) Cristina Pierce, How to Meditate without being Intimidated by the Practice (Click here) London Meditation and Mindfulness (Click here) Giovanna Reitano, On Mind and Body: Autogenic Training as Self-empowerment for Performers (Click here)
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Controlling Anxiety with Medication Introduction In my survey Performance Anxiety Among Pianists, just under 10% of those who responded to Question 4 (“If you suffer from performance anxiety, what do you usually do to combat this?”) said they used medication. The vast majority (nearly 77%) said they made sure they were as well prepared as they possible can be, and then trusted themselves on the day. Nearly 18% reported they avoid public perfor mance completely because they just can’t handle the nerves, whereas just over a quarter relied on holistic techniques (such as visualisation, meditation, etc.). Nearly 18% reported they do get nervous, but managed to use adrenaline to their advantage. In Question 5 (“If you use medication, which of the following works best for you?”), just over 30% use natural remedies, such as Rescue Remedy, just over 20% anti-anxiety medication (Xanax, Valium, Ativan, etc.) with the overall majority (nearly 57%) relying on beta blockers to get them through. In the comments section that follows the question, several respondents said they took sub-clinical doses of anti-anxiety medicine, with one suspecting it works because of the placebo effect. Many were very against medication of any sort because of a perceived risk of addiction. According to my research, this is only true of the benzodiazepine group of drugs (Valium, etc.) and does not apply to beta blockers. Beta blockers are not physically addictive but if they are abused users can become psychologically dependent (not feeling like they can do anything stressful without the drug). Reported side effects are tiredness and cold hands, and a lack of emotional connection to the act of performance (the playing is perceived by the performer as coming out flat and dull). On the plus side, people claim beta blockers alleviate the muscle tension without affecting mental processes. SSRI’s are not addictive. After a period of exposure to SSRIs, however, the brain does adapt and gets used to the medicine. For this reason, most SSRIs are tapered before stopping, and the brain then readjusts. It was interesting that fewer than 15% responded that the medication worked well for them and effectively solved their problem. Over 86% reported that medication worked well enough to help deal with the problem, some saying it helps a bit, and others saying it doesn’t make that much difference, if any. One respondent said it gave them confidence they won’t have a stomach attack when onstage and a co uple admitted it might just have a placebo effect - they just feel better when they take it. Unlike athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs, professional musicians are not banned from using antianxiety medication. However, the subject remains taboo and there are few performers who would admit taking pills either regularly or even on occasion. This is why I decided to include a check box in Question 7 (“How do you feel about taking this medication?”) to give such performers the opportunity to admit an onymously that they take medication but are ashamed of doing so. Just over 14% checked this box. About 40% were happy to take it (it is there to be used), just over 30% take it but do so reluctantly, and around 20% take it but worry it takes the edge off their performance.
“I would feel there was a stigma attached to prescription drugs but no issue taking herbal remedies/essential oil therapies.” - Professional pianist “Embarrassed that I need it but it works, so I'm glad to have it.” - Piano teacher Many musicians claim that eating one or two bananas half an hour before a performance not only provides energy but also calms them down. If you suffer from nerves, it is sensible to avoid caffeine and sugar completely on the day of a performance, and of course alcohol. It is important to consider the sort of food you eat on a performance day, and also to plan when is the best time for you to eat. Performing on a full stomach is never a good idea, especially if you are anxious. Personally, I prefer a light meal late in the afternoon if I am performing in the evening – a little protein and a carbohydrate such as sweet potatoes (apart from their high nutritional value, the sweet potato is a slow-release energy food). Because we are all different, you will need to experiment and find out what works best for you.
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In an ideal world we would not need to use medication to control anxiety, but it does exist and it can help. Medication will not treat the underlying problem, however, and some types of medication can be addictive. It is important to weigh up the pros and cons, and make an informed decision about whether you feel comfortable going down this path. By far the best solution is to explore the other ways of addressing this issue suggested in this eBook, but if you still feel your performance is unacceptably compromised by nerves then visit your doctor and request suitable medication for you. Because of the risk of side effects or interactions with other types of medication you might be taking for an existing medical condition, never accept a pill from anyone other than your doctor. Never order medication from the Internet, as there is no guarantee of the purity or strength of what you will be sent. The main types of performance anxiety drugs are:
Naturopathic remedies
Beta blockers
Benzodiazepines
SSRI’s
Naturopathic Remedies It is tempting to think of over-the-counter herbal remedies as safe, but this is a dangerous assumption. Some of these remedies when taken with other medication (prescription or otherwise) can have unpleasant and dangerous side effects, and it is not so easy to self-diagnose. Making an appointment with a Naturopathic Practitioner is strongly advisable. Nowadays alternative practitioners are usually highly trained and monitored, and will take a full medical history before prescribing any treatment. Some herbal preparations used to treat anxiety include:
Valerian Passionflower Kava kava Chamomile
Homoeopathy Many people swear by homeopathy, and it might be worth consulting a homeopathic doctor who will be able to prescribe the most appropriate treatment for you, based on the precise nature of your anxiety. Here are some of the homeopathic medications for performance anxiety:
Gelsemium (Yellow Jasmine) Lycopodium (Club Moss) Anacardium (Marking Nut) Silica (sand) Picric acid
Rescue Remedy The formula known as Rescue Remedy was developed by Dr. Edward Bach in the 1930s. It contains the Bach essences of Cherry Plum, Clematis, Impatiens, Rock Rose and Star of Bethlehem. It comes in drop or spray form, and while many performers swear by its efficacy, others believe it has a placebo effect.
Prescription Medication The most common medication routinely prescribed for performance anxiety is the short-acting beta blocker known as Propanolol (Inderal). The drug was developed for those with heart problems and high blood pressure, but musicians began to use beta blockers after their application to stage fright was first published in an article in The Lancet, in 1977.
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Beta Blockers Beta blockers are a class of drugs that target the beta receptors, thereby weakening the effects of stress hormones produced by the body. The drug prevents adrenaline from binding to beta receptors, which results in lower blood pressure and pulse rate, both of which can spike when experiencing anxiety under stress. Beta blockers are inexpensive, said to be relatively safe and seem to improve musicians' performances on a technical level. However, a criticism levelled against the drug is that performances tend to come across as emotionally flat and matter-of-fact. Some musicians feel that adrenaline helps their performing, giving them an edge that adds intensity to the performance. If you are not able to give the kind of performance you know is within you because your nerves get in the way, you have nothing to lose and much to gain by investigating the possibility of beta blockers.
Beta blockers are not tranquilizers; they don’t make you feel high nor do they make you feel drowsy. Taken at the correct dose, there is no physical sensation at all. They are non-addictive, and if you use them for performance anxiety, you take them only when you perform. Beta blockers will not help you concentrate, nor will they help your confidence. All they do is to stop the shakes, and keep the panic level to a minimum. There are two important issues that need to be addressed in order to benefit from taking beta blockers – the dose, and when you take it. You can really only do this by experimentation, since it can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour for the drug to work, or even longer in some cases. The dosage varies from as little as 5 mg to as much as 30mg or higher, depending on the brand of beta blocker you have been prescribed. Your doctor might not have experience prescribing this drug for performance anxiety, so you may need to explain why you are requesting it. Try it out at home first, or during a lesson (when you need to perform to some extent), just to check you do not have any adverse reaction. When you get the dose and timing correct, all of the symptoms of performance anxiety you have identified for yourself should be completely gone. The effects wear off in about four to six hours. Beta blockers can lower blood pressure and slow heart rate, so people with low blood pressure or heart conditions may not be able to take it. It is not recommended for those with diabetes, asthma or any other respiratory illness that causes wheezing. It can also cause cold hands if the dose is too high.
Benzodiazepines This is a group of drugs that help reduce anxiety but because they have sedating effects and impair cognitive function they are far from ideal as a solution for performance anxiety. They work quickly, but they can be habit forming and are usually prescribed for short-term use. Do not take these drugs if you have narrow-angle glaucoma, a psychosis, or are pregnant. Benzodiazepines include:
Diazepam (Valium) Alprazolam (Xanax) Chlordiazepoxide (Librium) Clonazepam (Klonopin) Lorazepam (Ativan)
SSRI’S
If your anxiety is more generalised and affects all areas of your life, and not just around performance, then your GP might consider putting you on one of the SSRI family of medications for Generalised Anxiety Disorder. The SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressant medications include, among others:
Prozac (fluoxetine) Zoloft (sertralene) Luvox (fluvoxamine) Celexa (citalopram) Lexapro (escitalopram) 60
Over the past twenty years they have become the first-line medications used by most psychiatrists to treat general anxiety disorders. People differ quite a lot in their response to the SSRIs. If you try one and experience no benefit, you need to be willing to try another until you find the one that is right for you. To gain full benefit from an SSRI, you may need to take it for six months to two years. It typically takes at least four weeks at a normal dose for an SSRI medication to achieve therapeutic benefits. They are non-addictive and do not cause problems when taken long term.
Postlude I would like to leave you with a checklist compiled by Professor Glenn Wilson who is well known for his work in the field of performing arts psychology (and in other areas of scientific research). He is a part-time professional baritone, and the author of Psychology for Performing Artists, a standard text in music and drama schools. Professor Wilson suggests performers use this checklist like an airline pilot's preparation for take-off: Ask yourself if your tension really is detrimental? It might actually be helping to focus your attention and add a spark to your performance. Is your anxiety telling you something useful? Could you have bitten off more than you can chew or need more preparation? Of course, this is not a question to ask yourself when it is already too late. Do you need to 'clean up your act'? Avoid the 'crutches' of alcohol or drugs. Be certain you are getting adequate sleep and exercise. Is hyperventilation part of your problem? If so, try some slow-breathing exercises. Do you suffer from conditioned fear? Cognitive-behaviour therapy might help. Are you self-obsessed? Focus on the process and enjoyment of the work rather than your own feelings or audience reactions. Do you catch yourself engaging in negative or catastrophising self-talk? If so, learn to replace it with positive goalimaging.
Resources and Further Reading Guide to Herbal Medicines (Click here) The National Institute of Medical Herbalists (Click here) James A. Bourgeois, M.D., The Management of Performance Anxiety with Beta-Adrenergic Blocking Agents (Click here) Krishan Kumar, The Musician’s Steroid: The Controversy Surrounding Beta Blockers (Click here) Wilson, G.D., Psychology for Performing Artists: 2nd Edition. (Click here)
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Memorisation Introduction According to recent tradition, pianists are expected to perform solo programmes and concertos from memory, with the exception of complex new scores that could prove impossible or too onerous to even attempt to memorise. Audiences and examination panels are generally OK with this. We can trace the tradition of playing solo piano music from memory back to Franz Liszt and Clara Schumann. Before that, it was inappropriate to play without a score in front of you. Chopin even got angry at the prospect of a student playing one of his pieces from memory, since, according to the traditions of the day, it would have looked like it was not from Chopin’s pen at all but being improvised or embellished by the performer. Indeed Liszt, when he played his own works, used the score to show to his audience that these were not improvisations but composed pieces. Thanks to the many recordings freely available, today’s audiences are g enerally very familiar with the mainstream works. To add insult to injury, these recordings are often made under artificial conditions with retake after retake, each clip spliced together to make one “perfect” whole. This adds to the pressure in a live per formance, since anything untoward is immediately noticeable. Young pianists are usually able to play from memory very easily. The first time I realised I could do this was in my youth when one day I was simply too lazy to take my scores out from my music bag (where they had lain since my last lesson). I found I could play my pieces by heart with no problem. As we get older, it becomes more and more difficult. Charles Rosen describes it thus:
The great pianist Sviatoslav Richter apparently memorised the second book of Bach’s “48” in one month, but in later life made the unusual decision to play recitals with the score. Nowadays, pianists are beginning to challenge the tradition of playing from memory even in more standard repertoire, citing the enormous amount of practice time given over to the task of committing score from memory. In the time saved, we could have presented the programmes much earlier and with no loss in interpretive power. Pianist and writer Susan Tomes writes eloquently and persuasively about her own feelings and experiences on the subject of memorisation, and there is definitely a feeling of change in the air:
The pianist Gilbert Kalish has long played his entire solo repertoire using scores, even standard works. As a faculty member of the music department at Stony Brook University, Mr. Kalish helped change the degree requirements. For the past few decades, piano students have been able to play any work in their official recitals from memory or not. They needed to decide which resulted in the best, most confident performance. My own feeling is that we end up knowing a work on much deeper levels once it is memorised, even if we decide we are going to use the score in performance. For this reason, I advocate spending some time on memory work and committing certain works to memory.
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Memory Systems The worst thing you can do if you’re after peace of mind on stage is to learn the piece with the score until eventually you find you can play it without. Playing a piece over and over again eventually makes the muscular movements automatic, so that you don’t have to think about the notes or the fingers at all. While this method may suffice for amateurs who play for their own enjoyment, it is extremely unreliable for serious students or professional performers. Why? Firstly, muscular memory tends to be “easy come, easy go”. Under the stress of performance, muscles tighten and the mind plays tricks that can cause memory cues to break down, sometimes irretrievably and always to the detriment of self-confidence. Secondly, we must take active steps to memorise and not merely hope we remember. Given that the way we encode the information (practising) is vastly different from the way in which we decode it (performing), there is a considerable margin for error, and terror! I liken this to the tightrope artist who risks nothing when the rope is close to the ground, but everything when it is several meters up in the air. We have all found that as soon as we remove ourselves from our comfortable and familiar surroundings, things can feel so totally different, as though we did not know the piece at all. To the student who complains that they can play it perfectly well at home, I suggest that they go home and play it. In this the remaining chapters of this publication, I will explore the different memory systems, which I identify as:
Muscular memory Aural memory Analytic memory
Thereafter I show how to deconstruct a score, and in the final chapter I offer various tools for memory to give your work real structure as you prepare for your performance.
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Muscular Memory Introduction When we learn to walk at the toddler stage of our development, we are gradually forming the neurological pathways that will make the activity automatic. Once we are able to walk, we don’t need to concentrate on the activity at all. If we focus on the muscles or the individual movements involved, we interfere with the process and can actually get in our own way. Piano playing involves fine motor control, but it is essentially the same thing. Some years ago, backstage before a concert, I needed to tie up a necktie for one of my young pupils. I had done this for myself tens of thousands of times without thinking, but I was tying it up for someone else and, because I was standing in front of them, I was effectively putting on the tie back to front. This meant I was using a completely different series of muscular movements, and I had no idea what I was doing. I had forgotten the original instructions for tying the tie, all I could go on was an automated series of muscular movements. The only way I could manage the task was to stand behind and imagine I was tying it on myself! Muscle memory comes during routine practice as we learn a piece, but we need to take great care to build our house on solid bedrock (rather than shifting sands) by eliminating mistakes before they have had a chance to take route.
Encoding and Decoding A late, esteemed colleague who had amazing sight reading skills once told me he never read through more than once a new piece he was about to learn. It was just too risky for him – on a second reading he would already have been forming habits that would hinder him in the finished version, when it eventually rolled off the other end of the production line. This might be sloppy fingering, sketching (rather than etching), accompanimental figuration (such as broken chords or arpeggiated patterns), or even learned-in wrong notes. Yes, practice makes permanent, and habits are formed alarmingly quickly. Let’s make sure they are good habits rather than bad ones. A mañana attitude to proper learning of a piece, while giving us a limited amount of instant pleasure, is actually the shoddiest possible of foundations if we have any aspirations to perform it at any point in the future. If we allow ourselves repeated buskings, where we guess at those passages we don’t have the patie nce to work out thoroughly, or gloss over others where our random fingering is clearly not working, we can expect a shoddy end result – no matter how much time we put in later. By then it is often too late, and we can expect to reap what we have sown, no matter how lofty our vision of the music or how talented we are. Just think how much time, energy and money has been spent today propping up The Leaning Tower of Pisa compared with how much it cost to erect it in the first place! Good practice habits not only enable us to feel good about our work and about our playing; they allow a structure to emerge from rock, enabling it to withstand the forces of nature (nerves, inferior pianos, noisy audiences, and so on). When we practise, we are encoding muscular movements that produce the right sounds. When we play or perform, we decode it all. Because the process of practising involves constant repetition, we need to make sure we input only correct information. Two things are key to this:
Work out and stick to the best possible fingering and write it in the score. This may differ from the published fingering, which is only a guide. Stick to this fingering religiously, using the same fingering each and every time you practise. It is most important to correct any errors immediately, before they have a chance to take hold. This is why it is so necessary to spend quality time in painstaking work, very slowly, hands separately and in small sections, listening to our result, and constantly evaluating and refining it until we have got it right. Constantly playing through errors and mistakes is fatal if we want a secure end product that we can be proud of.
In Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series, I suggest using stopping practice to correct an error.
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Muscle Memory and Memorisation It is very risky to learn a piece with the score and only memorise it afterwards. I advise you to memorise as you learn, so that you will not be relying purely on your muscle memory. Why? Muscle memory is a great ally when we are comfortable and relaxed (such as playing for ourselves at home) but our worst enemy when adrenaline and nerves enter the picture during a public performance. When I begin a new piece that I will perform from memory, I always study a section at a time away from the piano, adding the muscles (i.e. the sequence of fingers) last. Here is an example from the last movement of Mozart’s C Minor Concerto, K. 491 (bar 41). 1. I analyse the line according to its shape and design, hearing it inwardly.
2. With the score away from the piano, I play the line slowly using just one finger until I have mastered every twist and turn of the music. I might play the contents of the RH stave using two hands, or play the white notes with one hand and the black notes with the other (and vice versa). I might even transpose a bit. 3. Now, with the score away from the piano, I work out a fingering and begin the process of ingraining it. On Day Two and possibly even Day Three, I begin this process from the beginning to make absolutely sure the music is firstly in my head and in my ear precisely before I put it into my fingers. Muscle Memory and Memorisation The method of analysis varies depending on the music – in other situations you might need to think more in terms of harmony.
Trust If you have put in enough solid practice, you have earned the right to trust your fingers in performance. If you don’t trust, your worry will be noticed and you and your audience will feel uncomfortable. If you interfere, you risk things going wrong and setting up a chain reaction of accidents, thus upsetting the whole show. So you have to that what you have practised will come to pass without you doing anything at all except turning up. It is important that we get out of our own way when performing and not question or think too much about the notes or fingers. When we begin to have doubts and question our memory this is known as interference. A good tactic to distract us from this and get us back on course is to have a cue word or an image that we have decided on beforehand, and we think of this when we find our mind interfering. Once, I began a recital with a piece I knew backwards, and yet I had a moment of doubt that caused me temporary panic. I was holding a long note in the RH (my LH busy with an arpeggiated pattern), and I started to doubt where my RH needed to go next. Just at the point my RH needed to move away from this long note to the next, I looked down to the floor and thought of a flying elephant. This allowed my fingers, which knew where to go much better than I, to do their thing. My RH did what it had practised a thousand times before and took me to the correct note. I realised then that this interference could have had devastating consequences for my performance. So now, when I start to doubt myself on stage, I summon my flying elephant.
Resources Roger Chaffin, Gabriela Imreh, Mary Crawford, Practicing Perfection: Memory and Piano Performance (Click here) Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series (Click here)
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The Analytic Memory Introduction Some players get scared by the thought of analysis, particularly those who have had little formal training in music theory. Don’t let this put you off; any system of analysis - from casual observations to structural, formal and harmonic analysis, to more complex systems (such as Schenkerian Analysis) - is fine. Basically, use whatever works for you. If you are playing advanced repertoire, it is vital that you have a working knowledge of theory and harmony in order to appreciate how the music is constructed. You will need to understand the workings of a piece on a deep enough level in order to put across its meaning to the listener. If you are actively memorising a piece, a certain amount of analysis will be necessary. To get started, here are 3 short four-bar tests, each one a little more difficult than the one before. Spend a few moments looking at each test . When you are confident you have absorbed all the information, go to the piano and play from memory with full expression, phrasing and shaping. It is important to conceive even the most basic test in terms of musical expression, since this vital dimension gives meaning to what we are doing and keeps us more fully engaged. Here is a suggested way of doing this: 1. Scan the test as a whole, trying to get a sense of the character and shape (notice dynamic markings, phrasing, etc.), and hearing it in your inner ear as vividly as possible. 2. Using an imaginary keyboard that you see with your mind’s eye, play through the test once. Remember to include all the musical details. 3. Repeat, allowing your fingers to move in the air or on the imaginary keyboard, as though playing in space. 4. Go through the test in this way with each hand separately, singing either out loud or under your breath (using solfège or any syllables you like). 5. Analyse the shapes and patterns. (Does the line move by steps or skips? Are there any large intervals?) 6. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 from memory, without looking at the score.
If you want to find out how well you did, consider recording your efforts and following the score as you listen back. Did you capture the musical meaning? Were you accurate in notes and rhythms? Did you manage to play with a sensible fingering? If you succeeded in playing the test accurately, then you have proved to yourself that you can absorb music through mental comprehension and mental rehearsal. Consider developing this skill and using it as a practice tool to memorise music away from the piano. If you feel you don’t have time to apply it to whole pieces, perhaps use it for those places in a piece where you are not secure. When you stumble, ask yourself whether it is a technical problem or a gap in your comprehension of that passage. A little of this type of work away from the piano can often work wonders. 66
Examples of Analysis There are many books dealing with analysis (see Resources at the end of this chapter) but, with a little probing, you will be able to discover much by yourself from simply looking at the score away from the piano. Here are three examples of analysing pieces at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. I hope these will give you an idea of how to proceed.
Elementary Schumann: Wild Horseman This popular piece from Robert Schumann’s Album for the Young is actually quite easy for a young person to analyse, although I would avoid using that word. Instead, how about a game of musical detectives, in which you look through your musical magnifying glass for clues? Have a look at the score and see if you can come up with a few facts about the music (I will share some observations afterwards). Here are some things you may have noticed about how the piece is constructed:
It is in 3 sections. The first section is in A minor, the second section in F major (without the need for a change of key signature) and the last section is exactly the same as the first. We can call this ternary form, ABA or a musical sandwich. The tune is in the RH in the outer sections and in the LH in the middle section. Each section contains 2 phrases, both of which are 4 bars long. The first and second phrases are identical for 3 bars and differ in the 4 th bar. The tune is built from broken triads, and the accompaniment from solid triads. When there is an “sf” marking on the first note of the slur in the melody line, there is a whole crotchet in the other hand. These are the only places where Schumann writes crotchets – all the other notes are quavers.
Having made all these discoveries by looking carefully at the score, you will have a clear map of the piece. As you practise it, you will find you will learn it much quicker because you have a much better understanding of the patterns and directions in the music. Playing it from memory will be much easier than if you had learned it note by note, phrase by phrase. Bach: Two-Part Invention in F To encourage analytical thinking, you can use the index of Bach’s Two -Part Inventions (where only the subject of each Invention is given). In my memorisation workshops, we go round the room and each person says what they see about the subject for each Invention. Thus, the subject of the F Major Invention may be described thus:
The range of the subject (tessitura) is upward from low F to high F and back down again. There are three low Fs in the first bar, one high F in the second bar and one low F in the third bar. The journey from the low Fs to the high F proceeds by ever-increasing skips (a major third, a perfect fifth and then an octave), and returns to the low tonic by steps (there are three descending scalar groups, separated by a rising interval of a second). Both bars outline the common chord of F major but in different ways.
Or, you might respond differently if the imagination is involved in the analysis, to make it less dry and more meaningful perhaps:
Bach is trying to jump up an octave but needs three attempts before he finally manages it. Once at the top, the music falls back to the ground like an autumn leaf.
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Intermediate When we analyse music, we attempt to understand better how music works. Harmonic analysis is a subject that every musician will face at some stage of their education, and it should become a tool for better understanding and interpreting the music. I believe it is very important for all intermediate-level pianists to understand how to use the primary triads in each key to make cadences (perfect, imperfect, plagal, and interrupted) and as a basis for improvisation and harmonising melodies by ear. Players at this level also need to know how to recognize the different qualities of chords (major, minor, augmented, diminished, 7 th, 9th, etc.) by ear and from the printed page. There are several different ways we can do harmonic analysis. One way is to use Roman Numerals to label chords, such as I, IV, V, etc. We add numbers and special symbols when necessary - (V7 tells us to add the 7 th note in the scale above the root, for example.) I can recommend Roy Wilkinson’s excellent workbooks, ABC of Harmony (in three books), which are clear, concise and systematic. To bring theory to life, I like this delightful YouTube clip, Mozart et les fonctions harmoniques - an audio recording of Mozart’s C Major Sonata analysed by chord numbers in Roman numerals and at the same time by drawn emoticons, reflecting the energy and emotional character of the different harmonies as they go by in real time. Some players prefer to think in chord symbols more common in jazz and pop styles (such as C#min7) rather than the more conventional Roman numerals. David Bennett Thomas’s analysis of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata has both in addition to other relevant information. Free Analysis When we analyse freely, we are not following any particular type of analysis – we simply say what we see as succinctly as possible. Let’s look at the first eight bars of the LH melody from Chopin’s B Minor Prelude in this analytical way (leaving out the RH for the purposes of this exercise). Here is an analysis as I see it – yours may be different (but no less valid):
The structure is 2+2+4 bars, each phrase beginning with a different ascending arpeggio that takes only one beat to rise from its lowest note to its highest and the rest of the phrase for the music to fall back downwards. The first phrase rises up from bass B to tenor D by means of an arpeggio in semiquavers (B minor, closed position), and then takes a bar and two-thirds to fall back to its starting note. The second phrase is rhythmically identical to the first and has the same basic design. However, instead of the ascending B minor arpeggio being in closed position, it is in open position and takes the line from the low B up to the dominant (F sharp). The next bar starts with an open position arpeggio of G major (which is chord VI in the key) spanning two octaves (we notice that the interval formed by the highest and lowest notes of the three arpeggios increases each time from a tenth to a twelfth to a fifteenth).
Advanced At the advanced level, it is a very good plan to sit with the score away from the piano when you do your analysis, working your brain rather than your fingers. Write some notes if this helps. You can of course do it in your head! In a letter, Glenn Gould wrote:
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The famous pianist Gina Bachauer reiterated this belief in an interview with Adele Marcus. When asked how she views a piece of music when she first learns it, she replied that she reads it for fifteen or twenty days in bed in the evening before she ever touches a note. Elaborating on this, she explained that this allows just her head to work; to see where the different themes are, to find out the composer’s message. Only after this period of twenty days does she feel prepared to practice at the instrument, understanding every phrase, every tempo, where every phrase ends and the next one begins. Technical details, fingerings, etc. come later. This undoubtedly establishes the character, mood and structure of the thematic material in advance and helped Bachauer enormously to learn a work by heart, so that, by the time she sits down at the piano, it is almost memorised. I am not suggesting learning a piece completely away from the piano as a realistic workaday approach for most of us, given our busy schedules. Concert pianists of the stature of Gould and Bachauer would have been able to devote all their time to their playing; most of us do not live in such an ideal world. What I do suggest is that we incorporate some of these analytical procedures into our practising from the start. Let’s imagine we are planning to learn and memorise the Appassionata Sonata of Beethoven. Tackling a work of this size and stature demands familiarity with many of Beethoven’s other sonatas, as well a s his orchestral music. This assumes a basic musical literacy and an understanding of the place of this sonata in the context of musical history. In other words, it is not really possible to learn this type of piece in a vacuum. We won’t get very far witho ut knowledge of sonata form (from having played or studied other sonatas) or without a working knowledge of harmony and theory. It’s not enough to have good fingers, loads of time to practise and to love the piece – we are going to need a bit of background. A full analysis even of the first movement’s exposition would be way too long and cumbersome for a chapter such as this. (I can recommend Tovey’s A Companion to Beethoven’s Pianofort e Sonatas). So let’s look at the very beginning and come up with some observations just for the first eight bars.
The hands are in unison, two octaves apart. The opening is pianissimo, mysterious and ominous in mood. The time signature is 12/8 and the movement begins on the last beat of the bar. The main motive is made up of the notes of the tonic (F minor chord), descending from the dominant note to the tonic note and then ascending two octaves. On the last beat of the first phrase, parallel motion gives way to contrary motion (the LH rises to the third of the chord rather than descend the octave as the pattern would suggest). The crotchet tied to the first of the semiquaver pair creates a rhythmical sharpness – Beethoven’s rhythmic precision will need to be carefully observed in performance. Bars 3 and 4 are based on and around the dominant. The RH is an embellished rising and falling major 2 nd; the LH plays solid triads in inversion. The first chord in bar 4 is a crotchet followed by rests – Beethoven could have opted for a dotted crotchet but clearly wants the prompt release of the chord. Again, rhythmic precision is crucial. Bars 5 to 8 replicate the first phrase on the flattened supertonic – the Neapolitan harmony (And so on…) 69
Having spent a certain amount of time away from the piano, we can incorporate this type of analytical thinking directly into practising, as an integral part of our daily routine. Memorisation is thus a part of the learning process from the very beginning of our journey with a new piece.
Resources and Further Reading The following publications are all recommended. If you have not had formal training and would like to improve your music theory skills, consider taking an online course or a class at your local College of Further Education.
Christopher Dunn, Take Five (Click here) Society for Music Theory: Bibliography of Publications in Performance and Analysis (Click here) Nicholas Cook, A Guide to Musical Analysis (Click here) Leon Stein, Structure and Style: The Study and Analysis of Musical Forms (Click here) Frederic Gaussin’s interview with Murray Perahia (Click here) Tom Pankhurst’s Guide to Schenkerian Analysis (Click here) Sir Donald Francis Tovey, A Companion to Beethoven’s Pianoforte Sonatas (Click here)
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Deconstructing The Score Introduction In Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series, I describe how to make skeletons of a section of a piece by deliberately leaving out or temporarily simplifying pre-selected components of the music. I would like to return to this idea now, as it is a very powerful memory tool. In this chapter, I demonstrate how to deconstruct passages from well-known pieces and reassemble them to build and strengthen the memory.
Example – Chopin: Ballade No. 1 In G Minor, Op. 23 Bars 106 – 110 This glorious moment in the G Minor Ballade is constructed in a very familiar three-layered way:
Top RH chordal melody (the melodic line frequently doubled an octave lower by the thumb) Harmonic middle (LH) Basses in octaves
If we are memorising as we learn the notes (this is ideal), we might begin by familiarising ourselves with the most obvious component – the melody line from the top of the RH. Let’s begin by playing the line without the harmony, just as a pure line. To help to get to know this line, imagine there won’t be any other notes in the RH and play it occasionally with a fingering that enables a flowing legato. I also suggest singing it and analysing its contours and general shape. We can temporarily omit the ff marking, since a lot of the overall volume will come when both hands play together. If you really want to make sure this line is in your mind and your ear (rather than merely your fingers), play it with one finger. As you learn, your score needs to be away from the piano or at least out of direct sight.
Example – Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 (Bars 106 – 110) (1)
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Next, add the remaining RH notes. As you learn the shapes, use the tapping techniques covered in Part 2 of the Practising the Piano eBook series. From bar 109, you might practise the RH thumb line alone, and the octave line between the top and bottom RH notes, but omitting the middle note. For really thorough practice, play the middle note plus the top line and then the middle note plus the lower line. Assuming you have now learned and memorised the RH, add only the bass octaves (the LH minus the harmonies):
Next, work on the chords that fall between the octaves in the LH – now omitting the octaves:
Example – Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 (Bars 106 – 110) (2) Again, use the tapping techniques from Part 2 of the Practising the Piano eBook series, and any other exercises you care to invent, such as:
If you now add the bass octaves to the middle chord stream, you have the complete LH. I also suggest playing the RH and the middle chord stream, omitting the octaves. For good measure, when you play the passage complete, you could call out the chord labels or the general harmonic direction as a voice-over. I suggest regularly going over the passage by deconstructing it and then putting it back together. Example – Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 (Bars 106 – 110) (3)
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Following A Musical Thread There are certain situations where the thematic material wends its way from right hand to left, inviting us to explore the music in the way the composer conceived it. One such piece is JS Bach’s Fantasie in C minor :
For general practice as well as for memory work, be able to play the semiquaver thread:
And also the thread formed by the quavers:
Other Examples from The Repertoire If we take a piece with a lot of surface detail, such as the slow movement from Mozart’s Sonata in F, K.332, we can strip it down to its bare essentials and make a hull. In Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series, I show three possible simplified versions of the beginning of the movement that are excellent to practice from memory. Another way to use skeleton practice for memory work is to play one hand complete, and then add snippets of the other hand.
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Tools for Memorisation Introduction Memorising a piece takes plenty of time and energy and requires a strategy more sophisticated than simply closing the score after several weeks of reading the notes day by day during routine practice. Some memory work is like buying insurance – you can take out a basic bare-bones policy or you can get super cover. Either way, you hope you’ll never actually need to claim on it. The more time and energy you can devote to memorisation, the safer you will be. You will stress less because you will know that if the worst came to the worst and you come unstuck, you would be able to carry on and to pick yourself back up. You might have a mishap, but you would not have a major catastrophe that would cause you to break down irretrievably. Ironically, just knowing you are this safe is often enough to calm the nerves and induce a feeling of quiet confidence. While some pianists memorise easily, others struggle with it and never really feel confident. We’ve all been in that horrible situation where, for the life of us, we can’t remember what comes next, even though we we know the piece inside out and backwards. I have come up with a set of memory tools we can use in our practice. Use them as part of the note-learning process (ideal), or after the notes have been learned (even partially) to check and reinforce the memory. I like to use them on an on-going basis, returning to them regularly. The first thing to do is to remove the score fro m the music desk and place it somewhere where you’ll need to stop playing to refer to it. I suggest either putting it behind you on a chair or music stand, on the top of the piano, on a table in a corner of the room or even on the floor. When you do stop to refer to the score, follow these steps:
Try to figure out where you went wrong and why (For example, I put the LH in the wrong octave after the long rest; I hadn’t quite heard that the melodic line went up a minor 6 th at that point; my RH got confused during the passagework and I couldn’t seem to get back on track, etc.) Mentally rehearse that spot for a few seconds from the piano with the score, and then without looking at the score. Return to the keyboard and back up a little.
Tools for Memorisation Hands Separately A very basic tool is to play from memory each hand separately. This is especially important to do with the LH, because it is not usually the hand we actively listen to when we play. A variation on this is to play one hand and mime the other. This way, you hear only the contribution the playing hand is making to the overall sound picture while getting a more complete tactile sense than merely playing the hand by itself. The bonus is the discipline of inhibiting sound in one hand while playing the other sharpens up our motor control – all in all, a very good thing to do. In Part 1 of Practising the Piano, I take the idea of “hands separately” one step further and discuss how we can practise a piece “strands separately”. This is a gre at way to practise our memory work too. Acid Test Here is a way to test whether you are able to interrupt the flow deliberately without losing the musical thread, but you’ll need an assistant (teachers can of course do this with their students). This is extremely challenging!
Start playing with both hands together (from memory, of course). When your assistant or teacher claps their hands, remove your RH from the keyboard and continue playing with the LH alone. 74
On the next clap, re-join with the RH as soon as possible (but without losing the flow) and continue with both hands together. Don’t worry if it takes you a few notes before you can obey the command. Just do your best.
On the next clap, remove your LH and continue playing with the RH alone.
On the next clap, re- join with the LH, and so on…
The claps should not be so close together that they cause panic. But to avoid being predictable, they should not be too evenly spaced.
Tracking You can use this for any piece, long or short, and I guarantee it will work a treat. The first thing to do is to mark the score. If you don’t want to mark up your original score, make a photocopy for the purposes of this exercise. Divide the piece up into meaningful units that you’re going to number like tracks on a CD. The tracks can be as long or as short as you want, but the unit you choose should at least be a phrase. You might prefer a longer section, but here short is good! I have divided up Chopin’s Nocturne in B flat minor, op. 9, no. 1 into 14 tracks in all. The length of each track varies according to the musical content. The score will end up looking something like this (I am showing page 1 only here):
With the marked score away from the piano (preferably over the other side of the room but certainly out of sight), here are some suggestions for practice:
Play track 1 and then remove your hands from the keyboard. Do something to deliberately interrupt the musical and mental flow, such as get up from the piano and walk around the room, or count up to 10, or recite the first line of a poem, or read a sentence or two from a book. Continue with track 2 and repeat the process with each track in turn until you have reached the end. Make sure you can play each track perfectly from memory before proceeding to the next. Play from the start of track 1, then deliberately interrupt yourself by stopping. You could stop after just a few notes, a couple of bars or you could go almost to the end of the track – vary this each time so you don’t stop in the same place. Take your hands off the keyboard, wait for a few moments and recommence with track 2. Do the same with track 2, and so on until you reach the end. Deliberately interrupting the flow then jumping 75
to the next track bolsters the memory extremely well. Imagine the worst happened in performance and you came adrift. You would be able to skip forward and start again from the next place, as you’ll have doing this. Paradoxically, knowing you can do this makes you feel a whole lot calmer on the stage or in your exam and reduces the likelihood of a slip. Play track 1, then imagine track 2 in your head without playing it. Hear it inwardly in vivid detail. Try not to drum your fingers on your knees, as this would be making sly use of muscular memory! Continue by playing track 3 exactly when it is due and then imagine track 4, and so on. Make sure the next time you do this you play the tracks you have previously imagined and imagine the tracks you have previously played. Play the last track (let’s say it is track 12), then go back and play tracks 11 and 12 together. Then tracks 10, 11 and 12, and so on until you reach the beginning. If you feel you need further security, play the tracks in a random order, making sure you break in between each track. You can generate a random list by putting the tracks as numbers in a list using this great Random List Generator.
One-Finger Practice It may seem perverse to play a line from memory with one finger, but it is a marvellous tool for checking if the music is in the aural/analytic memories or merely in the muscular. Doing this slowly is fine; you do not have to be able to do this up to speed if the piece is fast. If you only know the music by muscular memory, y ou’ll probably have difficulty doing this. If it is only in the muscular memory, it might not be strong enough to withstand the stresses of performance. This technique works especially well for passagework and contrapuntal music (where two voices can be played simultaneously with one finger in each hand). If you are taking one line, you can ring the changes by playing the white notes, say, with one finger in one hand, and the black notes with one finger in the other hand. You might need to be creative with how you apply this, since lines are often interrupted by material that cannot be played with one finger. Play chords normally when they occur, and use the pedal to make connections if hearing a disjointed line bothers you. In this example from Brahms’ Rhapsody, op. 79, no. 1, simply omit the upper F sharp for these purposes and play what is underneath with one finger, and pedal normally. If you like, play one hand normally.
One-Finger Practice Variation Instead of playing a line or a passage with one finger, consider playing the passage in octaves.
Making A Skeleton This involves playing only selected components of the music (from memory, of course!):
Play the melody and bass lines minus accompanimental or background material. Play the accompaniment alone, or the accompaniment with the bass line, etc.
For more information on skeleton practice, please see Part 1 of the Practising the Piano eBook series and the previous chapter.
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Making A Two-Handed Arrangement In this process we use both hands to play from memory the music that in the finished product one hand has to play. In other words, we make a two-handed arrangement of the contents of one stave to make sure we really know what is going on without reference to muscular memory. Again, there is no one right way to do this and many possible ways. The arrangement can be varied each time, and there is no need to work out a fingering. For example, in Tchaikovsky’s October: Autumn Song , you can do this by taking the lower stave and playing stems-up with one hand, stems-down with the other.
Here is what it would look like on two staves:
Swapping Hands It is both educational and fun (if not a little frustrating) to play the left hand music with the right hand, and vice versa. Because you are recreating the sounds using different muscles, you will be relying solely on your aural and analytic memories. I usually recommend doing this slowly and hands separately. It can be done hands together (in other words, with crossed hands), but this can be very hard to coordinate. Do it sparingly and very slowly, perhaps only for problem places.
Transposition Transposition practice is incredibly useful to bolster up the memory. It is one of the most important tools. In his student edition of Chopin’s Study op. 10 no. 1, Alfred Cortot suggests that, after the work has been perfected, playing in every key while keeping the fingerings of the key of C will prove excellent practice. Testing the memory by means of transposition is certainly excellent practice, but it is not necessary to use all twelve keys. Two or three different keys will suffice, and if you have time constraints, use it only for sections of the work that prove especially troublesome. Testing the memory in this way will enhance one’s understanding of the harmonic functions and the patterns of the music in general that one may miss or take for granted in the original key.
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Stopping Practice This practice deliberately interrupts the muscular memory. One plays a predetermined section (a bar, a phrase or a bigger section) and imagines the next section with the hands removed from the keyboard, before rejoining the keyboard and playing the next section. It is important that the hands do not drum on the lap during the silent passage, as this is making sly use of the muscular memory. Hear the music in your head; imagine the hands on the keyboard. Variants of this process are:
Play the left hand alone for one bar, the right hand alone for the next, and so on without pausing Repeat the process, playing the bars you have previously imagined and imagining the bars you have previously played
Be creative here – you can work in two-bar or four-bar units, phrases or irregular units. Find out what works for you.
Bar by Bar Practice Let’s say you have learned a piece and yet find it difficult to get through without error. Suddenly you go blank, or you r fingers stall, and you break down. It’s frustrating because the mistakes seem to happen in different places each time. If this happens when you are alone in your practice room, then it probably means you have not done enough spadework. You are likely trying to run before you can walk and you’ll need to go back to some really solid practice. This is a bit like a chain being pulled taut, and in a more stressful situation it will just snap at the points of least resistance. The good news is that there is something you can do about this in your practice room. You can take steps to secure each link and make your chain strong so that you will be able to play your piece through from the beginning to the end fluently from memory and with confidence. For our practical purposes, let’s take each bar as one link in the chain. If we are concerned about our ability to string each of these bars together into one long chain without breaking down, there is a great way we can practise to test this as well as to reinforce and strengthen the links. Here is the process:
Play from the beginning of the bar and stop just over the next bar line, on the first note or beat of the next bar. You can do this up to speed, slowly or very slowly. You have the option of going through your piece in this way with each hand separately.
Leave a silence before starting from the note you stopped on and then play the next whole bar, ending on the first note or beat of the following bar. The silence can be of arbitrary length, or (if you prefer) lea ve one whole bar’s worth of silence.
Continue until you reach the end of the piece, or your designated section for that day’s practice. If you stumble over any bar, it is important to be able to play it flawlessly and fluently before moving on. If you want to be really secure, you could consider repeating each bar three times anyway. In that case, make a rule to play each bar three times correctly in a row.
If there is a tied note over the bar line, depress that note silently before playing the next bar. Be sure to start with the exact finger at each new starting point – the same fingering you will be using in the finished version (you might prefer to write in extra fingering for this). Be flexible about how you apply this: in pieces with short bars, or few notes in each bar, consider units of two or four bars.
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Here is the opening of Mozart’s C Major Sonata, K 279:
And how the link-strengthening process might look:
Here are two memory processes I read about on Leon White sell’s excellent Facebook page. I present them here in my own words: Practise the 1st phrase:
RH away from the piano with the score RH on the piano (with all fingerings, articulations, dynamics and phrasing) with the score RH on the piano from memory (etc.) RH away from the piano from memory (hearing and feeling it inwardly) LH as above Hands together as above
Practise the 2nd phrase in exactly the same way. Join the 1 st and 2nd phrases together:
With the score on the piano From memory on the piano From memory away from the piano
Phrases join together into subsections; subsections build up to whole sections; sections are strung together to make the whole piece.
Visualisation This technique has been hailed in many fields, especially sports science, medicine, and holistic therapies. For musicians preparing for a performance, the idea is to imagine yourself playing in as vivid detail as possible, while at the same time feeling the emotions evoked by the music, as well as a calm state of mind in the presence of examiners or an audience. Imagine yourself feeling calm, confident and relaxed just before the examination or before you go onstage. Hear yourself playing the music, and see your hands and fingers execute their tasks as though through the lens of a video camera. For those with a good visual memory, imagine the notes on the page. Use all of your senses as vividly as possible. Scientists believe that this technique creates neural pathways in the brain, which are followed in actual performance. 79
