Energy in Performance
Having just come back from the International Adolphe Sax Competition in Dinant Belgium – arguably THE largest and most prestigious saxophone competition in the world – I find myself both decompressing from 2 weeks of 24/7 exposure to saxophone, while simultaneously processing through the great performances I heard. And of course, I’m left asking myself “What makes someone memorable?” In major competitions, judges are asked to listen to tens, twenties, even sometimes hundreds of students who are at the top of their field. And very few of these performances will make a lasting impression, move the audience, or win the competition.
So, what makes the difference? As a collaborative pianist, I keep coming back to the idea of energy in performance, and I often find myself working with students on how to create and sustain that energy on stage. While a vague concept, it is also one that I can palpably feel as a pianist on stage with performers almost daily. When I’m performing with someone who generates energy, I feel it in my own playing, my technique, my freedom to play musically, and ultimately my enjoyment of the entire performance experience. I know that if I am feeling that energy and enjoyment, the listener is too.
Students spend hours every day in a practice room, in lessons, in rehearsals with their pianist, trying to “be a good student” – to do things correctly, accurate notes, accurate rhythms, good intonation, awareness of ensemble in chamber groups – literally, 95% of practice time is likely spent paying attention to these details. If you practice 5 hours a day, that is 4 hours and 45 minutes spent training your brain to think about accuracy and technique. Then, they ask themselves to walk on stage and suddenly “perform” – to communicate effectively with listeners who have very little awareness of the accuracy, fundamentals, intonation, and technique. Even those that are trained musicians, might be skilled at a different instrument and know very little about the mechanics of yours. What they do know, what everyone knows . . . is if they believe a performer. Do they feel the energy, the authenticity, the emotion, and do they believe they are watching a great performance? These are the questions I believe students need to be asking themselves. Not just in the moment of a live recital or a competition – but at some point every single day in their practice.
If we need to do something technically demanding on our instrument, and we want to guarantee ourselves that we can execute it in the moment that counts – what do we do? We practice. We practice. We practice some more. We drill it until we know, beyond a certainty of a doubt, that we can nail it under pressure.
But rarely do you see students drilling the performance element itself. In a practice room, one’s awareness is often significantly different than what they feel on stage during a performance. Why is this? I believe that diligent students spend most of their practice time using the left brain – analyzing what they do, how they do it, how to fix it or make it better, repeat. And while this potentially (hopefully) leads to great technical playing, it doesn’t allow the student to really access the energy they need to bring to a live performance. No one can physically or mentally play with “performance” energy at all times when practicing. But, if you spend 95 percent of your time working on technique and not performing, when you walk on stage, you are STILL going to sound like you are working on technique and not performing. Why? Because you haven’t actually practiced changing your headspace TO one of performance, FROM one of analysis. Expecting oneself to go from hours of analytical, precision-oriented practice to suddenly walking on stage and being able to emote – WITHOUT PRACTICING this transition – is akin to walking 6,250 steps (the average number of steps in a 5k) every day for 6 months, and thinking you can then run a 5k in 20 minutes. There are quintessential steps being skipped.
So, what are the steps being missed? How can students practice going from the left-brain activity of analytical practicing to the right-brain activity of intuitive performing, creating, emoting and . . . gasp, having fun?
I think there are several ideas everyone can utilize to this end:
First, one must start with an awareness that there is a difference between practice and performance and that this gap NEEDS to be bridged. Nobody wants you to walk on stage and show us what you practiced. We all want you to walk on stage and show us what you genuinely love about the music. (Frankly, most teachers would like the same thing in a lesson.)
Change the thinking during the initial stages of learning: Instead of seeing the piece as a series of notes/rhythms and techniques that you have to get off the page BEFORE you try to make music and perform . . . actually challenge yourself to get them off the page in a way that MAKES music through the entire process. Because once you’ve spent hours practicing notes and NOT performing, it’s a lot harder to suddenly ask yourself to “make a phrase” and successfully communicate with your audience.
PRACTICE PERFORMING! I see students all the time come into rehearsals with me, tired, stressed, no energy – going through the motions to make sure that the ensemble feels okay, everything lines up properly, they know where to give cues, etc. Of course, these are important things that need to be ironed out in the first or second rehearsal. But after the basics are in place, any rehearsal with a pianist needs to be treated as a precious opportunity to perform your ENTIRE piece. You would never show up at your recital saying “I’m tired, I’m stressed” and exuding low energy. (Even if you felt that way, you would find a way to change that for the performance.) Well – your rehearsal with a pianist or chamber ensemble may be your ONE chance that week to actually play the entire piece (all parts) straight through, not stopping to fix things – USE THIS OPPORTUNITY to put yourself in a headspace of performance. The kind of headspace you would be putting yourself in for an actual recital. You pretend you aren’t in a 6 foot practice room, you pretend you aren’t in your professors slightly larger office. You ARE on a stage, in a huge concert hall, and you MUST convey your ideas, your sound, your energy, and your passion for the music all the way to the back of a hall. And I guarantee that if you don’t practice doing that BEFORE you go into a concert hall, you won’t be able to do it on the day of the actual performance.
Let’s acknowledge that honestly – some people are natural performers. Whether that’s part of being an extrovert/introvert, once cannot be fully sure – but if you are a person that knows you struggle with accessing the right brain/emotive side of being, you need to actively find ways to take yourself out of your comfort zone, that place where you put up walls to protect yourself. Do something that makes you feel awkward and vulnerable – and do it with complete abandon. For some people this might be dancing, or any form of movement in front of others. Or singing. Anything that forces you to stand in front of people and actively do something that makes you feel ridiculous – all the while reminding yourself that it doesn’t really matter what others think. If we aren’t comfortable in our own being and are constantly insecure and worried about how others will perceive us, we lose the ability to authentically connect with our audience.
Connection. Connection. Connection. No – not just the connection where you try to relate to other humans (a very valid endeavor!!!) – connection between notes. The energy in music is found between the end of one note and the beginning of the next note. If nothing happens in that space, even if that space is a millisecond, then you are missing a key opportunity to express energy in music. There is always time between notes – if there are 2,000 notes in a piece of music, then there are 1,999 opportunities outside of those specific notes to energize the phrase, the sound, and the music. If students spent 95% of their time worried about what happens between the notes, it would completely alter their headspace, their musical interpretation, and their ability to create a phrase and perform with energy.
Remind yourself of WHAT YOU LOVE about the piece you are playing. There was a reason you chose the piece – but sometimes hours of practice each day can cause us to lose track of what we find beautiful and special in the music. Finding ways to keep the ears fresh, choosing to make different musical decisions in the moment, listening to other inspiring and energized performances of that piece and asking yourself what works (or doesn’t work) in a given performance – these are all ways you can keep yourself from ending up in the “rut of repetition.” If you happen to be playing a piece you don’t love, as a requirement for an audition or a competition – it can be difficult to relate to the musical elements of the piece. In this case, if you are still choosing to take the audition or compete, your desire to excel in that event needs to be the generating force of energy in the performance. We can’t love every piece ever written – but we can ALWAYS find a reason for why we are choosing to learn or perform anything. That reason IS the source of your energy.
“Practice is what gets you from thinking to feeling” – John Legend.
The need for and the time for self-analysis and critical awareness is a very important part of a young musicians training. But the point of all that practice, repetition, and time, is so that in the moment of performance you can set things aside and simply let yourself engage with the music. If you have practiced the technique properly, on a good day, it will MOSTLY stick. But if you don’t play with energy and change your headspace to one of performance and connection with the audience – all the right notes, rhythms, fingerings, cues, and technical fireworks in the music will leave your listener bored and your performance forgettable.