Practicing, Playing a Concert, and Repeating the Process
What factors influence the quality of our playing and help us grow as musicians?
Practicing, playing concerts, listening to the Master performers of our instruments, and learning about the great composers and music history are ways of widening our perspective. However, one specific practice helps us reflect on our playing and teaches us to combine some of these activities.
Of course, we can learn and grow by studying with a teacher and practicing. However, we will experience growth differently and more deeply when we present what we have learned to a sympathetic audience.
Why is this so important, and how does it help us enhance our musicianship?
The performance of a recital gives us much information about our playing. We must look into it with an open mind and use that information for our benefit. How we do that can become an enormous source of learning and growth; therefore, whenever we have had the chance to perform a concert on a specific repertoire with the coaching of our teacher or instructor, it is wise to go back and spend some time on self-reflection after the event. We also should discuss the performance with our teacher.
First, it is essential to rest for a few days right after a concert or a recital. However long one takes is up to the individual. I recommend taking up to a maximum of a week for students who are aspiring musicians trying to build up their technique if they need it. Usually, my daughters rest for a couple of days. Then, they resume their musical activities. Should they need more time, then they determine the length.
After a good rest and letting go of the stress leading to a concert, we should return to the practice room and establish new goals for our playing, such as starting on new pieces. Typically, a teacher will determine the appropriate music and repertoire for students. At the same time, playing the recording of a performance and listening to it will be a way of discovering and facing issues that might have occurred during the recital.
It is important to note here that we should not overdo this. Still, listening to our performance a couple of times might be sufficient for us to determine our pitfalls. We can make some personal notes followed by a discussion with our teacher.
One of my daughters likes to take notes when she attends masterclasses, as all teachers give valuable advice to students. This is beneficial during her practice hours, as she can apply what she has learned to her practice.
After discovering the issues that need to be addressed, we have to learn to let go of that performance, whether we were satisfied with the quality of our presentation, and continue diligently working and practicing for betterment. We would use our reflection notes and address those issues with our teacher's assistance to develop new and improved solutions.
When the pieces we played for that particular concert were to be played again for a future recital, fixing those issues and reworking them into our practice schedule would be worth our time. If not, it will be far more helpful to focus all our energy on our newly appointed repertoire and embark on an adventure our professor assigned us.
We can revisit these pieces in the future after having played a new repertoire. By doing so, we can observe and notice our growth and have a reference point for our improvement on a long-term basis. Even when
we might have forgotten some of the notes in those pieces, but we can still discern and experience the difference in our playing.
The process repeats itself after we play another concert and then go back and reflect on our recital—and it never ends.
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