[Noa Kageyama]

I’m not sure why this happens for some, but a) it happens in varying degrees to more people than you’d think (to the degree that I think a bit of discomfort when recording yourself is pretty normal), and b) I think getting nervous for recordings is actually a more useful phenomenon than being totally calm for recordings, in that it gives you an opportunity to practice the skills you’ll need in a performance/exam situation. Not fun, perhaps, but useful!

Do you have a sense of what thoughts are occupying your attention as you play for a recording device? This might be the place to start – i.e. experimenting with singing brain, or seeing how effectively you can get “centered” before even beginning to play. And does the panic/forgetting start to dissipate at all the longer you keep playing, or does it stay the same or even get more pronounced as you continue to play?

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Luis,

I don’t think there’s one “correct” or “best” pre-performance routine – after all, when you look at athletes, there is quite a range in how pre-performance routines look. So if you feel pretty comfortable with the key elements that you described – like visual focus (quiet eye), breathing, releasing tension, and cueing up the sound/feel you’re going for – I think you’ll be just fine without the channeling energy part of the process..

Some folks really connect with that step, but not everyone does, so feel free to go with what seems to work best for you!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Luis,

So I think the full answer is probably a bit more complex. In the sense that, say, if you have a performance tomorrow, it’s probably not a great time to be wandering out of your comfort zone. And even if you’re a ways away from performance, but perhaps want to solidify things at a certain level, then you may want to practice performing things more within your comfort zone.

But when you’re learning and trying to practice for skill development, then yes, I think making sure you’re stretching yourself and not just doing the same thing over and over is probably most productive. Besides, it can get kind of stale and boring to just do the same old thing a bunch of times in a row without trying to add new nuances, or little technical or musical challenges to make things even better.

And yes, it might mean that you make errors at this stage of development – but also hopefully start making more “advanced” or subtle errors, because you are playing at higher and higher levels, where the errors and increasingly subtle. Does that make sense?

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Ah, your response actually provides a couple clues that might be relevant. Slow practice is certainly useful – and essential in some situations – but it has some inherent drawbacks too.

Because usually, when we do slow practice, we don’t play slowly the same way we do when we play fast. In other words, we might use more bow, allow the fingers on our left hand to lift higher above the string than we would at fast tempos, etc. So then, when we play the passage at tempo, we’re suddenly having to play it differently than we’ve practiced doing it.

So this might be a situation in which slow practice is actually reinforcing some “bad” habits, or at least motor movements that you aren’t able to use at tempo. It might actually be more helpful to practice these passages at tempo or even a bit above the ideal tempo, so you can practice releasing finger tension, and playing with more ease. At first, this is probably going to be a mess – because the primary goal may be to focus on minimizing tension and playing with more speed and ease as opposed to worrying about accuracy and getting all the notes correct. And you may have to practice this with a metronome in very small chunks. Like building it up by adding one or two notes at a time until it seems to stabilize. Because at the moment, it sounds like making the passage easier for your left hand may be more of a priority than making it more accurate at the expense of speed and physical ease. Make sense?

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Vicky,

Yes, sometimes our body just seems to have a mind of its own when the nerves kick in.

As a bit of a thought experiment, let’s assume that you know in advance that the next time you perform this piece, your hand/fingers are going to do exactly what they did at the last concert. Knowing this, how would you prepare differently? Not so much to prevent it from happening, but how to manage it when it does?

I ask because sometimes we get so focused on prevention, that we aren’t as well prepared to respond when something like this happens. For instance, having strategies for slowing things down a bit and making sure the passage doesn’t rush. Perhaps by having specific “target” notes to aim for that we may even want to exaggerate bringing out with an extra wiggle of vibrato (which will slow things down a bit, but in a musically meaningful way). Or by having a clear idea of what to focus on leading up to the passage, as well as during the passage so that our fingers don’t go out of control.

Any other ideas of how you might approach this differently from this angle?

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Terrific (and useful) observations, Cody. Indeed, it’s often these little tiny differences between performance and practice that can totally throw us off when you add pressure to the mix.

Your posts remind me a bit of Met timpanist Jason Haaheim, who started taking a more scientific/systematic problem-solving approach to each “failed” audition to hone his process over time. Thought you might find it interesting: https://jasonhaaheim.com/how-did-scientist-become-timpanist-met-orchestra/

Best wishes in May!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Phoebe,

I think at this stage of your performance “countdown,” running the piece several times a day is probably one of the more helpful things you can do (presumably, not in a row, but spread out over the day). After all, this is what you’ll have to do on performance day, so you’re practicing exactly what you’ll have to do. It might even help to make sure you practice bowing, etc., while wearing what you’ll be wearing on the day of, so that you get comfortable with some of these other aspects of your performance.

There is a tendency to become increasingly perfectionistic in the leadup to a performance – I wonder if this is part of what you’re noticing? I also wonder if you might be trying too hard to play things perfectly? Rather than focusing on the sound you want, the character you want, the way you want to shape each phrase, etc.? In other words, I wonder if you’re focused too much on the little technical details, and perhaps not enough on the bigger picture, as it sounds like you did in your auditions?

It may help to remind yourself that a) people will not notice nearly as many imperfections as you will (e.g. this), b) that being able to keep moving on and ignoring imperfections is job #1 in performance (e.g. this), even though that’s like the opposite of what you have to do when practicing, and c) the most important thing on stage is to focus on self-expression and creating – not self-monitoring and critiquing (e.g. as you did in your auditions, or like the “micro-improvisation” technique described here).

Best wishes with your performance!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Steve,

It sounds like you’ve done really great work with this student. And I wish there were a “cure” for this sort of shaky/cold hands, but I don’t know that there is per se.

I think the key is to a) get more and more confident with your ability to manage the symptoms well enough that you can still play pretty darn well and b) get better at staying focused during the performance no matter what. Instead of allowing one’s thoughts to drift to worries about the symptoms and the consequences they may have on one’s playing both before and during the performance, which not only makes anxiety (physically and mentally) worse, but takes up a lot of our brainpower.

Have you had her work on “singing brain” or the micro-improvisation strategy (the idea is to focus on offering subtle new nuances to one’s playing, spontaneously, while playing – more about this here and here)? Focusing more in this last week on challenging herself to stay relentlessly focused on the sound she wants to produce, and shaping each phrase, etc. alongside what she’s already doing with breathing, releasing muscle tension, etc. will help prepare her when her brain wants to focus instead on worrying physical symptoms.

The other thing that can help, even if she can’t replicate the physical issues, is to practice performing her piece in front of others daily – where it’s not about getting used to the situation, so much as practicing exactly what she’s going to think about while waiting offstage, while walking onstage, while getting ready to play the first note, and all throughout her performance. So that she has a clear, well-rehearsed mental script as well as the physical script that is probably already well-ingrained.
Percussionist Rob Knopper famously did 42 mock auditions before winning his met audition – one per day for 6 straight weeks. That’s on the high end (by quite a bit!), but having that many opportunities to practice little aspects of one’s gameplan in performance-like situations can be pretty invaluable.

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Cody,

This is a fascinating account of your experience with performance anxiety and how you’ve gone about making adjustments to your preparation to address these specific issues in advance of the next performance. I really enjoyed reading it and hearing how you’ve treated this like almost like a science experiment with yourself as the subject.

I think the goal of performing once a month is terrific – and I think you’re already doing this, but to think of each performance not as a test, but as an experiment of the practice and performance strategies that you’ve incorporated into your preparation the last month. You might even consider doing weekly run-throughs or mini-performances of some kind to gauge progress if you feel that would help you make smaller adjustments between monthly performances.

And as you’re doing, taking small incremental steps from one month to the next is ideal for building confidence. Not so small that they feel too easy, but not so big a leap that it feels like you might be getting way too far out of your comfort zone either. And then building on each success from month to month. Your description of how you were nervous in this most recent performance but managed things better and performed more successfully is a perfect description of the goal. To realize that things are always going to be slightly different than we planned, but knowing you are prepared to handle anything that might come up is an incredibly empowering feeling.

I’m looking forward to reading your continued progress!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Dorothee,

I think a daily run-through, during which time you practice using singing brain would be great. The idea being, to practice your mental skills daily in the context of what you’ll have to do at the audition. To make this more realistic, I’d also encourage you to make sure the daily run-through is the first thing you do (after warming up for a bit of course, and then waiting around for a while to simulate having to wait at the audition).

With centering, I think if you can practice getting centered every time you start an excerpt or piece, this won’t add too much additional time to your prep, and hopefully help you make it more of a habit too. And it needn’t be the whole process, but really just the breathing, scan/release tension, and auditory/kinesthetic cues (hearing what you want, and then remembering the general physical feel of playing it the way you want).

The main thing is to feel like you have a specific mental script to use when the day comes. Where you know exactly what to think about when waiting backstage, as you walk out, in the 20 seconds before you play the first excerpt, in the transitions between excerpts, and throughout the time you’re playing each excerpt. So if you can practice these moments, using centering and singing brain, to the point that you don’t have the mental space to worry about or think about your nerves, you’ll have successfully accomplished your mission.

As far as visualization goes, for a few minutes in the morning and as needed throughout the day whenever you have a mini freakout-type moment, it might also help to use the highlight reel exercise (60 seconds of re-experiencing your past performance highlights, 60 seconds projecting these into your upcoming audition and imagining it going like these moments from the past)

Does that help to clarify a plan for the next week? Keep it simple, focus on these main things, and don’t try to do everything. =)

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Either or both can work. If you feel like you need to control your nerves a bit before walking out on stage, you can certainly get centered backstage. But you’ll also want to take a moment to get centered at the piano, right before playing too.

With practice, centering doesn’t take much time. Just a couple deep breaths – perhaps 10-20 seconds. If it feels like you have too much going on in those moments, the key elements are really the breathing, scan/release tension, and the auditory and physical cues (hearing what you want, and remembering the general feel of what the opening feels like physically). All of which you can do more or less simultaneously, instead of sequentially to help condense the time it takes.

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Don,

You’re right, that’s a little confusing when you take everything into account. Yes – the idea is to keep your focus on the ideal sound (or singing) in your head as you play.

The exercise on page 32, about listening to yourself non-judgmentally, is more of a practice-room exercise to see if you can play without keeping score, just to experience what it’s like to shut that critic off. A small minority of people are able to listen to themselves non-judgmentally and find that this is more helpful than engaging in singing brain. I haven’t met many folks who are like this, but I remember one terrific horn player in particular who consistently sounded better and was more engaged when he was listening intently to his sound, than when he was singing or creating sound in his head.

Hope that clarifies things!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Anthony,

Will keep an eye out for similar articles.

In the meantime, there’s an exercise that your response reminded me of. Not so much to stay on the glass half-full side of things, but just to serve as a reminder of how resilient we can be, which we tend to forget after the fact. The exercise is to identify the three things in your life that you are most grateful for. And then, one at a time, trace each one back in time, looking at all of the dominos that had to fall to get you to that thing, until you get to something, which at the time, seemed like bad news or a real setback. Like you describe in your example above, often the things that we are grateful for result from some sort of challenge that we have to move past or some circumstance we have to react to in ways we otherwise wouldn’t have…

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Don,

Dry mouth and shaky bow are two of the real challenges that I don’t know if I’ve found a really compelling solution for. There are some physical things you can do, of course, like breathing with your nose, etc.

But since it’s part of the stress response, one of the most helpful physiological things you can do is to get better at managing the physical aspect of nerves with diaphragmatic breathing. The other thing is mental, and so if you can quiet your thoughts, and refocus your attention away from dry mouth and worries about how this will affect your performance to other things – such as remembering times when you’ve had great performances and how that felt, for instance – this can help keep the stress response from escalating and making things worse. I know it may not sound like enough, but these are probably the two most helpful things you can practice getting better at, so that over time, it becomes less a part of what you worry about, and starts occurring less often as well.

I’ve tried to get a search function for the forum to work, but haven’t had much luck so far. It seems to be an issue with the theme I’m using. I agree that this function is sorely needed though, and am hoping to find a working solution for version 3.0 of the course (which I’m working on now, and is a free upgrade for lifetime folks). I don’t know how long it will take to get this sorted out, but I do intend to have a search field for the next edition!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Anthony,

Whew…my reaction to your note is mixed – on one hand I’m really relieved and grateful to hear that the tumor is non-cancerous, but imagine that the idea of surgery and loss of hearing and the unknowns related to this must be challenging to deal with too.

My first thought was a book by Winifred Gallager, titled “Rapt,” which is a book about focus and attention. She’s a science writer, and cancer survivor, and talks about her experience with cancer, and going through it with an eye on the scientific literature on focus, and how that can shape our experience of life. I also thought of Angela Duckworth’s book “Grit” – which at one point gets into the idea of having a “life philosophy” which I believe comes from Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll (who in turn was inspired by legendary UCLA coach John Wooden), and seems like it might be an interesting exercise to consider. Carroll has written an book too, in which he describes the low point of his life that led to this, though I’m only a couple chapters in at this point so don’t know how relevant it might be. For some reason, I’m also reminded of a book that a client once gave me, titled “29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life,” by Cami Walker.

As far as musicians with hearing loss go, I think there are actually quite a number who have described increasing hearing loss (and/or tinnitus) as a result of being exposed to loud music in orchestras, bands, concerts, etc., which are often much louder than we think and cause more damage than we realize. Kris Chesky of the University of North Texas has done a lot of research in this area, which might be of interest (http://music.unt.edu/faculty-and-staff/kris-chesky). But that’s not really what you’re asking I think.

Other than examples that we’ve all heard – like Beethoven or the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson’s partial hearing loss – I did some looking around, and found this interesting story: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/meet-the-partially-deaf-musician-sharing-the-joy-of-homemade-music_us_58c1a530e4b0ed71826af3fd

If you have a moment, and are so inclined, please do keep up this thread, and perhaps we (and hopefully others) can keep thinking of other stories or resources or strategies for continuing to move forward through the inevitable ups and downs in the months to come.

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Kale,

Very cool. I’ve been wondering about VR technology for a little while now. Though I haven’t played around with it much myself, I’ve read about some NBA players/teams which have looked into it, and I do suspect that when it becomes a little more mainstream, it’ll be a useful tool.

I know that a school in the UK has studied the effect of a virtual performance setup which simulates an audition or performance situation with video of a committee or audience that reacts in different ways to their performance, and that this seems to evoke a response in musicians.

And ultimately, I think the simulation need not be perfect, but good enough to practice the focus/recovery/etc. skills necessary for performing optimally, so I’d love it if VR could add to the realism of the mock audition experience.

Will check out these resources you tried out!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Kale,

Lots of good questions. And the research seems to suggest pretty clearly that deliberate, spaced, random, and variable practice as described in “Make It Stick” all apply to motor skills as well.

The challenge is figuring out when to do what. I don’t believe there’s a consensus, but it seems that massed practice can be more valuable early on in learning a skill. Where you have lots of experimenting to do, and need some more time to figure out how to do something. But as you start getting the hang of it, being able to do something 5 or 10 times in a row is certainly a good sign, and means you’ve probably got a much better handle on the skill than being able to do it only 2/5 times, for instance. But being able to do something 8/10 times once you’re warmed up is unfortunately not a perfect indicator of whether you’ll be able to do it right the FIRST time, when it really counts. It’s like being able to hit 8/10 free throws in practice – which is great, but not much help if you consistently miss the first two attempts, which are the only ones you get in a real game situation.

So this is where spaced (or better yet, random/interleaved) practice can be extremely valuable. Where you are practicing the retrieval of your skills the very first time. Which of course feels really uncomfortable at first, and does fly in the face of tradition and what feels most effective in the moment, but seems to result in better long-term retention.

Ultimately, I don’t think we have to get rid of massed practice altogether, but I do think we should be careful about making it our “default” mode of practice, when there are lots of indications in the research that other ways of structuring our practice actually result in greater learning in the same amount of time.

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Amir,

I do think you can problem-solve better and make more progress if your focus is devoted to what you’re working on, rather than being on the TV. But then again – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – if the TV motivates you to practice, and you end up gaining more overall (vs. being less motivated to practice and not practicing), then perhaps it’s better to keep at things with the TV?

I think sitting while practicing can be ok. It does change things, but as long as you’re setting aside enough time to practice performing while standing, I think you’ll be ok when you need to perform standing.

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Interesting that the father does come to recitals…

I remember using flashcards a lot for quizzing on note names when I was a kid. I imagine you’ve already tried this, but my daughter used an app that she liked for quizzing herself on note names too. Perhaps this could be adapted with the human names for note names?

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Kale,

Sounds like a tough situation. I like the idea of using note names as the basis of a story – as in, where albert does x, then albert does y, and emily does z, and so on? And would it make sense to break the piece into chunks by phrase? Or perhaps by leaving it up to the student to decide where the story or scene begins/ends?

Also, is listening to music with headphones an option when she is staying at her father’s place? I feel like that might be the most direct way of trying to minimize forgetting between practice sessions and lessons when she’s unable to touch the instrument. But I have to admit that I also worry a little about the potential of her feeling like she has to hide things from her father and music becoming a point of contention between parents. I don’t know that there’s any easy solution to this part of it though…

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Kale,

That’s really interesting and sounds like a cool way of finding your balance. Thanks for the link!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Great! Let me know how things go as you continue to work on and explore this!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Sorry for the confusion in paragraph 3. My initial thought from your first post was that the challenges were primarily centered around physical tension. And that when your hands/shoulders/etc. get tight in performance, this ends up being a distraction mentally. So physical tension–>loss of focus.

But as I read more of your posts, I started wondering if the bigger issue was that when nerves kick in, your thoughts go blank or to worries or to monitoring your physical tension, which not only distracts you from the music and sabotages your focus, but which makes the nerves even worse, which then disrupts your thoughts even more which then leads to even more of an escalation in nerves, etc. So rather than focusing primarily on reducing tension, I wondered if it might be more useful to work on focus, in the sense that if you can train yourself to be intently focused on what’s task-relevant, you won’t have much brainpower available to worry about tension, nerves, etc.

Hope that helps to clarify!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

The mechanics of producing sound for each instrument are different, so we tend to hold tension in different muscle groups, depending on the instrument. If you were to a) videotape yourself playing in lessons vs. at home, b) ask your teacher to watch you for tension, or even c) pay attention even at home to tension in your playing, where do you find yourself getting tight?

Is it in your shoulders? Back? Wrists? Hands?

Although, the more we converse, the more I wonder if it’s less that tension makes your mind go blank, so much as tension is just a side effect of your nerves sidetracking your attention in the first place. Have you gone through the Focus module? It might be that if you have a clearer mental target to hang onto when you get nervous, the tension issues might take care of themselves to some degree.

The other thing that might help is time-consuming, but an intensive way of increasing “muscle memory” that works well for some folks. Are you familiar with percussionist Rob Knopper’s R.O.A.M. method? I believe he describes it in his free mini-course on audition preparation, and it can certainly be applied to piano as well as percussion or other instruments: http://www.robknopper.com/auditionhacker#academy

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Pauline,

Using a violin example, one exercise a teacher once had me do was practice playing everything as if everything in the left hand was harmonics (loose and floppy and light), while playing forte with my bow arm. Which would sound awful, but then I would progressively add a tiny bit of finger pressure in the left hand until it was just enough to produce the right kind of sound. This was always way less finger pressure than I would normally use, and so if I could get used to using minimal finger pressure, it’d make everything so much easier in performance.

Violinist Nathan Cole has a video on this: http://www.natesviolin.com/rid-damaging-left-hand-tension-find-mvp/

Let me know if the video helps to clarify how to work on this.

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Adam,

It sounds like it’s a good time to move on – either to the next module, or perhaps even to a related module like Focus or Courage.

I think the course works best when you work through it in a sort of iterative fashion, where you take a few things from each pass of a module, and where working on complementary skills in other modules helps to reinforce what you’ve learned already. Because centering is a skill that borrows from many of the other skills in the course, you can continue to work on it, but when you begin adding other skills (like “singing brain” and attention control training in the Focus module), I think you’ll find that there will be a general improvement in centering too.

So yes, feel free to move onto something new that catches your interest!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Michelle,

This is something I’ve had students do on occasion with friends – and I think as long as your objective is not simply to weather the storm and suck it up, but actively work to stay focused on the task at hand, relentlessly refocus your attention on sound/phrasing/character/etc., and be completely oblivious to the words coming out of your friend’s mouth (sort of like ignoring a parent’s lecture when you were growing up), it can be a helpful challenge.

Have you begun working on some of the techniques in the focus module? This would be a helpful place to go next so you’ll have the tools you need to handle this challenge.

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Tommi,

You’re right – there isn’t much out there on periodization specifically for musicians. Although, if you’re familiar with Don Greene’s book “Performance Success,” he includes a 3-week periodization schedule in the back that’s a nice template to follow in creating something like that in preparation for a big performance or audition.

1) Should you take complete off-days? If so, how often?

Violinist Don Weilerstein has been known to encourage his students to take 24 hours off every week – and I don’t think he’s the only one who makes a recommendation like that. Of course, 24 hours isn’t necessarily a full day off. As in, you can stop practicing Saturday night at 6pm, and Sunday night still practice in the evening.

2) Or is it enough to make the off-day an “active rest”, for example instead of learning new songs playing more old pieces, listening more music, watching great pianists from YouTube etc.

3) How one should take care alternating the load within weeks/months. Do you see any value changing the workload week by week? For example Heavy/Medium/Heavy/Easy – week etc?

I think the answers to these questions is probably dependent on why one is trying to utilize periodization. For instance, a conservatory student is kind of engaged in a kind of periodization anyway, by nature of the way each semester and school year and week is organized. Each week there’s a “performance” for one’s teacher, and there’s a 15-week build-up to various performances, etc., as well as a build-up to end-of-year juries, recitals, etc. Professional musicians’ schedules are often organized in a certain way that offers this kind of structure too.

I think a musician who’s on the audition circuit or aiming towards specific competitions might really be most likely to benefit from periodization. In that they are going to be ramping up the intensity of their practice for a very specific moment when they want to peak. For most other musicians, it’s less about peaking at the right moment, and more about sustaining learning over time. So I think the type of periodization schedule you’d employ for each might look different.

If you’re just trying to keep learning going, I think a day off each week makes sense, and setting up performance opportunities every so often can be helpful too. That way it gives you something to really work towards, in which case it would make sense to have heavier weeks (in terms of volume of practice), as well as lighter weeks, where you would cut down on volume/”woodshedding”, but do more high-intensity run-throughs, mock performances, or test runs in front of an audience.

Regarding your question about dividing time between new/old rep, I don’t know if anyone has really looked at that, but my 2 cents is that I think here too it might depend on what your objective is. If you might have to keep some old rep in your fingers, it would be useful to have some sort of schedule for checking back in with it from time to time. But if your goal is to learn more rep, and time is limited, then I don’t know if it’s quite as important (though it’s still nice to go back from time to time and see how much easier things often feel when you come back to it after a break).

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Dorothee,

It’s easy for rep to get “stale” if we’ve been playing it for a long time. Here are a few ideas:

1. Time off
Time off can help, but only to a point. What may be more important, is to come back to the piece in the right way. As in…

2. Fresh copy of music
I had a teacher, who had a whole closet full of scores, and binders with photocopies of the music. Every time he’d come back to a piece, he’d make a fresh photocopy, date it, and put in new bowings/fingerings and other markings based on his new ideas about how to approach the piece. Over time, it made for an interesting timeline of how his thinking evolved over the years too.

3. Study the score
Leon Fleisher once remarked that if you really look at the score (the full score, with orchestral parts for concertos, or instrument/piano part for sonatas, etc.), and forget about all the recordings you’ve heard over the years, you may discover that the piece you see in the score is not the one you thought you knew. I think this is really the key – to look at the score with no preconceived notions or assumptions about how things should be played, but to really go from the score and see what this suggests the piece ought to sound like.

Try avoiding listening to recordings for the time being perhaps, and see how this goes!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Robin,

Sounds like an interesting challenge. I wonder if the solution may have more to do with training to become more comfortable with being uncomfortable, as opposed to trying to get more comfortable in the performance situation itself. Because it sounds like given the context of the show, you’re never going to feel as calm and relaxed in this show as you do at home. So rather than trying to slow down your breathing, relax muscles, etc. on stage, would it be possible to try to simulate as much of what you’ll be doing on stage at home? Even if it’s abbreviated a good bit, running around, dancing, interacting with an imaginary audience and getting your heart rate up and then playing the challenging piece might be better practice.

I’m reminded of a shooting drill Steve Kerr apparently did in his playing days, which speaks to the importance of training for what the performance situation demands: https://www.coachup.com/nation/articles/steve-kerr-shooting-workout

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Mick,

Yep, I’ve heard of this device too. And I agree that it totally sounds too good to be true, though it’d be pretty cool if it really did work.

I think the short answer is that it’s too early to tell. We just don’t have enough data be able to gauge if all of this is just plausible, or if it really is possible to enhance learning in this way through such a device. This article I think best sums up where we are probably at with this device.

(For others who may be unfamiliar with this, here’s a link to one of Halo’s promo videos geared towards musicians).

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Rod,

In one respect, focus gets a little more complicated when you add additional elements to the mix – like an ensemble or conductor. But in some respects it gets easier too.

If you’re playing an orchestra audition, for instance, there’s no conductor to look at, or section to blend with, or orchestral context to play from, so it’s easier to identify what exactly the most important thing to focus on is, but also trickier in some ways to do, because there’s not much going on.

If you’re playing in an orchestra, however, there are a lot more things you could pay attention to, and so you’ll have to switch back and forth between what’s most important at any given point in time. At some times, it will be listening to your section, but at others, it may be watching the conductor, and at other times still, it may be just on focusing on your upcoming entrance or solo, and focusing your attention on the sound you want to produce. In ensemble playing, it may be more often the case that your attention is directed to the way in which your sound fits into the larger context, and the sound around you, as opposed to your focusing more intently on the sound you want to produce in a non-ensemble situation.

This chart might help to visualize what I’m trying to describe above – the idea that our attention is a little like a flashlight, and we can not only point it in different directions, but also widen or narrow the focus so it is more or less concentrated: http://www.science.smith.edu/exer_sci/ESS565/MPres1/sld011.htm

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Ehab,

It might be that whether scales are worth the time, depends on what you feel you need to work on most to raise the level of your playing at the moment. If, for instance, you feel like you need to work more on trying to get a clearer concept of what you want to do with a particular piece, it might be that score study, etc. is a bigger priority for the moment.

But then again, most musicians engage in some sort of daily warmup or “fundamentals” routine, whether it’s scales, arpeggios, etudes, and other exercises, and I do think these are an effective use of time, in that the things we learn here can be generalized to everything else we play. You may rarely, if ever, play a passage that is an exact replica of an A major scale or arpeggio, but the motor skills you develop by being able to (and I’m going to speak in terms of violin technique) shift smoothly, coordinate left/right hands, avoid squeezing or using too much pressure with your fingers, manage bow distribution, contact point, pressure, speed, bow changes, etc. are relevant to whatever you may be playing, except that you get to work on these in isolation without other distractions. So by “scales,” I suppose I include arpeggios, and all of the other variations of scales (note groupings, bowings, speed, etc.) that come with that.

Of course, at some point we have to work on and apply these skills in context too, so the two are ultimately interdependent. It’s like in practicing tennis. You need match play, but you also need to work on your strokes in isolation, and go to the gym to work on developing tennis-specific fitness. But the relative balance between these activities might change from week to week or month to month depending on what you need to work on most – whether you are a couple weeks out from a club tournament, or if it’s the week after a tournament, for instance.

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Cheryl,

I’m sorry for the delay in responding! Totally missed seeing this…

With regards to learning/memorizing songs and lyrics, my initial thought is that there are a number of ways to get all that into our heads, many of which I’m sure you utilize and have tried. But I think there can sometimes be a tendency to neglect the retrieval piece too. As in, practicing remembering these elements is also a helpful part of cementing them into memory. I remember having to do runthroughs of my Suzuki repertoire every day as a kid, and having a somewhat regular schedule of continuing to have to run everything at least every so many days, even if I wasn’t actively working on it anymore. Do you have a system for testing your memory or “practicing remembering” as one reader put it?

Stage presence-wise, that’s a tricky one! I think some folks are more naturally emotive on stage than others, but this is certainly something you can practice too. Have you ever videotaped yourself doing a run-through in practice? Even if you’re just playing over a recording, or doing your part without the rest of your band or ensemble, it sounds like an important part of your preparation may be to practice every aspect of performing – not just the mental and technical part, but the visual part as well!

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Glad to hear there’s some wider applicability of this exercise – indeed, it’s weird how closely linked our right and left sides are. Being able to have some more independence between the two sides is pretty handy. I once saw the conductor David Robertson conduct a different meter in two different hands – not just as a gimmick, but because different parts of the orchestra really did need cues at different times in a particularly tricky passage. It was hilarious – but also awesome and actually quite helpful.

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Mark,

You’re not alone in this; muscle tension is probably the most impactful of all the things that happen when we get nervous. Sure the other things are distracting, but tension is going to affect our playing the most.

The exercise that helped me most is designed to give us a much greater awareness of the range of finger pressure/tension we can play effectively at, as well as giving us greater control of how much tension we use when playing – even when we’re not under pressure. The idea is to take a scale or something relatively easy, and play it forte (using full bows and plenty of arm weight to draw out a nice big sound with the right arm), but finger everything in the left hand as if every single note is a harmonic. That is, to apply only enough finger pressure and tension in your left hand/arm to make contact with the string; not to depress it.

As you can imagine, it’s going to sound horrible, because most notes are not harmonics. Plus, your right arm will have a tendency to lighten up since your left hand is light. Work at it until you can play with full forte right arm, and super light left arm. Once you get used to that, you can gradually increase the amount of finger pressure you use in the left hand, one level at a time, until you get to a point where it’s just barely enough finger pressure to produce the kind of sound you want. Hang out there for a while too, and get used to what the minimum threshold of finger pressure feels like. Then you can add just a tiny bit more finger pressure to give yourself a safety buffer, but even that will be less than you’re probably accustomed to using.

You can probably see where this is going by now, but the idea is to be able to get more comfortable with playing with much less tension than we’re accustomed to. So that way when we get on stage, and have a tendency to tense up, we have developed the ability to release tension, and play comfortably at a much lower level of tension.

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Annie,

I haven’t looked into this for a couple years, so there may be some newer, better options out there, but the Zoom recorders have been pretty popular (https://www.zoom-na.com/products/field-video-recording/field-recording) and range from <$100 to ~$200. I have a former student who swears by the Sony PCM-M10, which used to sell for about $200, but unfortunately this has been discontinued and is now very difficult to find. Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Ah, very astute question! Yes, this would indeed involve a break in attention. I think of the recovery process in two different ways.

1) If used as it’s described (with the various steps), I think of this as a conscious response to use in the face of more serious or catastrophic mistakes (memory slips, totally garbling entire passages, etc.). And this would be a notable break in attention.

2) But ideally, when it comes to those smaller glitches and mistakes that are more frustrating and annoying than embarrassing and shame-inducing, ideally we would be so focused and engaged, that they barely register on our radar, and if anything does pop through, we almost automatically respond by releasing tension and getting back into the present moment without skipping a beat. In other words, only the slightest break in attention, if any.

[Noa Kageyama]

Ha, yes. It’s like in the movie Happy Gilmore – easier to just hit a hole-in-one every time.

Ideally, when doing the exercise, it’s an opportunity to practice a) being oblivious to mistakes and imperfections (i.e. not keeping score) because this is an important skill in performances and auditions to ensure our focus is not being constantly interrupted, and b) to identify and practice being intently focused on something that is engaging enough that we have a difficult time simultaneously monitoring/noticing mistakes.

I think you can approach this in a couple ways. If you’re able to get about 30 seconds at a stretch without losing focus – but are letting yourself continue to play on when mentally acknowledging a mistake – then you could be ready to try to increase the difficulty level of the exercise. At this point you could then make the exercise a little more challenging by stopping even when your mind does go to a mistake. And when you can do this for ~30 seconds without stopping, then you’ve got pretty great control of your attention.

It’s a bit like sight-reading – if you’re reading something pretty difficult under some pressure, you really can’t afford to let your mind and eyes deviate from what’s just about to happen. And you can’t be there and registering mistakes at the same time very effectively.

[Noa Kageyama]

For what it’s worth, you’re not the only one worrying about this, and feeling intimidated. In all likelihood, this is exactly what the others are thinking as well, whether in the context of this recital, or in summer festivals/camps, etc.

There are a variety of ways to reframe this – for instance, once upon a time, every one of them was exactly where you are now. So it would be rather unkind of them to be judgmental, when they ought to be more empathetic. But the most important and helpful way to shift your thinking is to focus more on a) what you control, and b) what is performance-enhancing. Meaning,

1) Can you control if others don’t find your piece interesting? Not particularly, but what CAN you control? You can control your focus, and the degree to which you are able to engage with and enjoy the parts of your piece that YOU find interesting. And if you really get into the moment and enjoy sharing the parts of your piece that you find meaningful, I’ll bet others will find this moving as well.

2) A fundamental rule of thumb in performance situations is to focus only on what is helpful. If you find yourself engaging in unhelpful thoughts, practice redirecting your thoughts to something that is more helpful – such as running through the piece in your mind, or imagining how you would like to begin the opening, or your favorite parts of the piece. This will be good practice for future performances, and help you get better at controlling your thoughts and focus in performance situations.

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Don,

Interesting. I think you may be right about overthinking, so it’s good that you have that in mind and moved on to other modules. I’m guessing from your note that you may play a brass instrument? Is it possible when releasing tension that you might be releasing too much tension? I also wonder if by “think of every detail of the first few measures” it also means that you might be thinking in too much of a note-by-note sort of fashion, rather than in terms of gestures or phrases?

My initial thought is to have you approach centering in a layered, vs. sequential fashion. As in, just take the clear intention for instance, and hear what you’d like the first note or gesture to sound like. Then go for it. And if that seems to help, to then add a breath or two to clear your mind as you get the clear sound in your head. And if that helps, to then add releasing tension into the mix. And so on, to see which elements seem to be most helpful in getting you focused and starting you off consistently, and which may perhaps not be as helpful.

Noa

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Marianne,

Yes – I’ve found that singing brain can work with singers as well, though it is a little trickier than it is with musicians. It’s also a little less necessary than it is with musicians precisely because you do have text, which adds a whole other level of things to keep you focused and grounded in the present. The main idea is to have something that prevents you from self-monitoring and judging what’s coming out. It could be an issue of just needing a bit more practice at it – but does it help if you focus more on the internal audiation and less on paying attention to what the actual singing sounds like?

The memory palace could be adapted to fit your own images. Because here too the idea is to have some structure or plan for navigating a piece. Instrumentalists often have to create a rather arbitrary (but still personally meaningful) one, whereas singers often have a context and story provided, which can make it easier to establish some sort of narrative-like structure for organizing the piece.

Good questions!

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Angelo,

Interesting question and situation. Offhand, I don’t know that I’m so concerned about developing bad habits because of playing multiple similar instruments. It sounds like your approach to each guitar is different enough that they probably will remain distinct. I think the bad habits could be more likely to creep in if your approaches to each instrument begins to blur. But that’s just my impression – I don’t know if I can say this for certain…

[Noa Kageyama]

Great question. If you get really comfortable with centering, you can certainly do a quick “recenter” in the middle of pieces if you have a rest, etc.

However, the lesson on Focus is really devoted to this question of how do we keep things going once we’ve gotten off to a good start. If you’re starting to feel pretty good about openings of pieces, I think now would be a great time to go to the Focus lesson and get started with some of those skills and exercises.

[Noa Kageyama]

Hi Pauline,

Indeed, freezing up is an extremely common reaction under pressure – and probably the most performance-sabotaging aspect of nerves as it’s so distracting and inhibiting. If this is a sticking point, it might be helpful to go through the Courage lesson first, even before Energy Regulation. The reality is that we are more tense in the practice room than we realize, and than is necessary. And we also don’t have a great appreciation for all the different degrees of tension that we could play with. It’s usually something like too tight, ok, and too loose and floppy. But there is an infinite range of tension in there.

So the idea is to experiment with being totally floppy, and then working up to the “just enough” point, and getting used to where this is, and then testing yourself out in increasingly higher-pressure situations, building trust each step of the way that you can play effectively with much less tension than you’re accustomed to. So that eventually when you get to a big performance, you a) know how to release tension in such a situation, and b) have proven to yourself that it’s safe to do so and know exactly how much to release.

[Noa Kageyama]

Regarding energy/relaxation, which might initially seem like incompatible states, can you remember a time when you were excited, yet still physically loose? Maybe jumping off a diving board (which you could also do all tight and scared), or running downhill really fast and free (which also could be done tight and cautiously)?

Energy or physical activation (i.e. heart rate increase, breathing more rapidly, etc.) occurs not just when we’re scared or afraid or feeling anxious, but also when we’re excited – except that excitement is a more positive feeling and emotional state. So the idea is to search for that kind of physiological arousal, but start thinking of it as a more emotionally neutral phenomenon, and pair it with being physically loose and more at ease. That’s why it helps to remember times when we’re experienced that sort of combination – physically loose, but also very much energized, and “up”, yet not feeling anxious, per se. Does that make sense?

You might find though, that trying to find any energy when you’ve totally relaxed and calmed yourself down, is more challenging. Have you gotten to the simulation training part of the lesson yet? It might be easier to find and channel that energy when you’ve built some up by getting your heart rate up. Where you’re still physically loose, but also not totally calm and sleepy-ish.

The idea behind a focal point is to minimize visual distractions; make it easier to keep your mind quiet and focused on what you want. So if it helps to keep your eyes closed and have more of an imagined focal point where you can direct energy at the end of centering, that’s certainly fine too!

[Noa Kageyama]

This is a little outside my area of expertise, and someone like Christian Howes (christianhowes.com) could be much more helpful with this, but conceptually, it would be a matter of developing some concrete skills in the area of improv, then building courage and trust in your skills in low-pressure situations, and continuing to develop your skills while putting yourself out there more in increasingly high-pressure situations as you begin building confidence and skills concurrently.

[Noa Kageyama]

Difficult question, indeed. Do you have a sense of what is keeping you from releasing all the air? Is tension building up during the inhale? Or as you play? This seems like the sort of issue that an Alexander Technique practitioner may be able to help with – building body awareness and being able to better troubleshoot one’s own physiology. Have you had any experience with this or Feldenkrais, perhaps? I know that’s more questions than it is answers, but this is something that sounds related to your playing as well, and could potentially really free you up in ways that might translate into general improvements that would translate into your playing both on and off-stage.

[Noa Kageyama]

Hmm…interesting question. It sounds like you tend to drift when engaged in something pretty routine, mundane, or repetitive. But when you’re engaged in something, this is less likely to happen?

Diagnosing ADHD in a formal way is a pretty involved process. It includes documenting a history of inattention going back into childhood, so if this is a more recent occurrence, it’s probably not something that is clinically diagnosable as ADHD. You certainly could consult with a psychiatrist or a psychologist who specializes in ADHD (this is a specialized area that some psychologists will specialize in – a general psychologist usually doesn’t have the training to be able to diagnose/treat as effectively).

I’m curious about your sleep. Maybe it’s not related, but how well are you sleeping?

And how long have you noticed this happening?

Perhaps you can email me directly; none of this information is personally identifiable, but it’s probably better to keep further details private rather than public, I suspect.

[Noa Kageyama]

Good questions. Before I say anything, I should say that I don’t want you to get too caught up in the details, in that ultimately, the hope is that this becomes something very organic and natural, and personal to you. Pre-performance routines look different from person to person, and this is just a starting point, with some key principles in place.

The focal point is a tricky one, in that you don’t have to stare at it or look at it per se. It’s really just to help start the process of clearing your mind. I had more of a sensory focal point where I wanted to direct sound, rather than a visual one per se. I might be looking at my fingerboard, for instance, but not actually seeing or monitoring my fingers – simply just gazing in that direction.

And hearing the opening is about really creating a clear target for yourself to go for, so for me personally, I’d run it over in my head a few times, as I was releasing tension, etc., just to really get into the flow of things and really get into the character and hear exactly what I wanted. Almost like taking a practice swing in golf.

Your centering routine sounds good to me – so it passes the “eyeball” test as it were. The most important test is to see how it works for you! It might work great as is, or you might end up tweaking a few things here and there as you get more experience and become more comfortable with it. Let me know how it goes!