The Guide to Getting to 100% Playing Form - Take 2
Photography by vern.
Reader “pianologist” commented on this post that it’s not possible to be at your top 100% in a concert situation.
Of course, I agree, and I thank him for the comment. But let me put this into perspective: I think it depends on the definition of 100%. For me, personally, it’s clear that I’ve played a good concert if the response is good as well. That’s my 100% - if the audience really liked it, I’ve played 100% for them.
Personally, it’s a different story. There’ll be practice runs you play better than any superstar out there, but those runs may be a one-time thing, depending on your form, your fitness, weather, daytime and moon phase for all I care.
But it’s equally important - as pianologist aptly implies - that you should never expect to play to your full potential at a concert. You should strive for it, but not try tripping there in desperation.
I think the tips I pointed out have always helped me think I’m going to play at my top levels, but I’ll never know if it was more. It’s a lot of psychological fine-tuning here.
Or do you wildly disagree, pianologist and others out there?
POSTED IN: Your Instrument & You
3 opinions for The Guide to Getting to 100% Playing Form - Take 2
Joe
Jan 27, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I see it two ways. The one you and pianologist are discussing seems more focused on the accuracy of the performance. If you made any mistakes, then it’s not 100%, that kind of thing. And I agree with both of your approaches. You can never expect to be 100% accurate in a live situation. Before any concert, I make sure that I’m okay with screwing up, because it’s going to happen somewhere. And the less it goes to my head, the better I’ll play for the rest of the show. On the other hand, if you make a couple mistakes that don’t make any difference to anyone in the audience, then how could you possibly do any better than that?
The other way I see it is in the intensity and emotion of a live setting that can never be duplicated in practice. Most of the time, that intensity hinders your technical performance. But I’ve had experiences when just being in front of people somehow makes me a better player. It’s rare for me, but I think great live musicians know how to tap into this every night. It’s more obvious with improvisers, as they might play crazy ideas in concert that they never would otherwise. In that sense, I think it’s possible to go well beyond 100% playing form.
pianologist
Jan 28, 2008 at 12:55 am
My definition of a 100% performance, would be a performance where everything you intended to do were nicely executed.
Response from audience maybe an encouragement, but it has never been a goal for me.
Moon Phase??? how did you come up with that, two thumbs up for theGoodMusician.. :)
Arjun Muralidharan
Jan 28, 2008 at 4:45 am
I know some musicians who are much more superstitious about such things. There are people who will always press the piano sustain pedal with the right foot once before starting to play, even if the piece is some Bach prelude that (usually) requires no pedal (according to baroque purists).
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