It’s All About the Performance, Stupid!

Look, I know you might find that title offensive, but it’s not all about you. In fact in this case it’s not even about you. But it is about me. OK….. it might be about you as well. It depends if you’re going through what I went through when I started learning music. learning to play the piano.

There are, broadly speaking, two types of people in the world, the Show-offs and the !Show-offs. The ! before the word means “Not”. You’ll see this a lot in Maths and programming, as in if( ! is_product() ) return $content; meaning if it isn’t a product show the content field. You probably had/have one in your class, always playing around hoping to distract everyone from the fact that he hasn’t a clue but also stopping you finding out what you want to know. And then there’s you. Whilst not a shrinking violet you don’t really want to come forward and take the spotlight.

And you’re learning to play a musical instrument.

Welcome to the select club of people who actually decided to do something about making musing instead of just listening to (and criticising) those who do make it.

You know, I used to wonder why so many pianists I’d watch on TV used to sit hunched over, then start moving their bodies about, and lifting their arms up high before gently touching down on the keys. Couldn’t possibly make any difference could it? I mean, you push the key down, the hammer is triggered and strikes the strings. How much control do you have there? I’ve been playing some Beethoven recently where I’m trying to make the last note of a piano sonata movement so quiet a listener might think I’d not played the note at all. Just a hint of a sound. I found the only way I could really do that was theatrically. Even if there’s no-one else to hear I find I’m still putting on a performance, and that is the essence of playing music.

Another post on this site notes that the Japanese have a 3 word concept of the learning process – Shu, Ha, Ri. Learn by copying. Adapt to your personality and physique. Reinvent the wheel, by which I mean create a new type of music.

How often has a teacher told you to pay attention to the phrasing? Because it’s the phrasing that’s going to help you perform the piece. When my teachers were saying that to me I just didn’t get it. What I was reading on the page didn’t make any sense to me. Over the years I grew to understand the concept of phrasing but still what I was reading just didn’t work for me, and one day I realised that what I was reading was just Someone Else’s Idea of how the music should sound. I didn’t have to like it. I tried it out in a grade exam (probably not the smartest move to make) on a piece where I really didn’t like either the dynamics or the phrasing. The examiner asked my why I didn’t play the dynamics as scored. I replied that I thought they sounded wrong that way.

That performance got me the best marks of the three pieces I played that day.

Now I don’t have a teacher and I can play anything the way I like and want to play, can try different things out and see how they work. Maybe I want to play something by a band that had 5 guitarists and 4 singers, and there’s just me and my ol’ six-string (but not the one from the 5-&-Dime – I broke that some years ago. See the post on Instrument Stands for the reason). I can’t sound like there’s 5 of me on guitar, and the best multiple personality in the world still can’t make you sound like 4 people singing. Why not use a rasgueado in a song that talks about dancing with senoritas when the band had a whole mariachi trumpet section or put church bells in over Hotel California?

But I realise, now, that even in that exam I took, and those that followed, I was just putting on a performance. OK, so there’s only one in the Audience but that was a very important One. and then I realised that you actually have to practise the performance elements of music as well. There’s this weird word that gets tossed around – Musicality. It’s not the song, it’s how you sing it, it’s not the prelude it’s how you play it. You can make the Twelve Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in English) sound like the most amazing repertoire piece – if you perform it right. But if you practise it like you’re Pinocchio you’ll get on stage and play it the same way. Should you choose to do that I’d suggest wearing a crash helmet (I’ve played some rough venues – Kindergartens – those kids are mean!!) .

It doesn’t matter if you’re in a band, orchestra or a soloist practise each piece as if you were playing it on a stage at Glastonbury because you need every finger and arm movement seriously embedded in your muscles. You seriously do NOT want to be thinking about how to move your fingers in front of 100,000 people. You do want to be looking at them and thinking how you can play this bit better and if you’ve got that firm foundation from all that practise you can experiment a little in the live performance. Better still do that experimentation in front of a small crowd at your local pub. The Rolling Stones used to do that, so they worked all the kinks out (no, not the band) before their big tours.

And remember, even if you’re just busking, or sitting round the camp fire, or just on the beach playing your instrument you’re still putting on a performance. the people with you want to be entertained by what you play, not bored to death.

To paraphrase Big Bill, Life’s a stage and we are but players on it. We have a part to play, be it mandolin, flute, guitar, or vocalist.

I thought we’d end this post with a bit about one of the best vocal performers of the 1960s, Janice Joplin, performing Ball and Chain at the Monterey Pop Festival. This was a live performance, unchoreographed as most were, straight from the heart. In the audience was another one of the 60s best female vocal artists, Mama Cass. Her reactions to this performance? Judge for your self.