Is passion a good thing?

Passion is a big part of musicians' lives. But there are two kinds of passion, one good and one bad, as described in this article by Scott Kaufman for the Harvard Business Review.

Harmonious Passion 
"Those with harmonious passion engage in their work because it brings them intrinsic joy. They have a sense of control of their work, and their work is in harmony with their other activities in life.

At the same time, they know when to disengage, and are better at turning off the work switch when they wish to enjoy other activities or when further engagement becomes too risky."

Obsessive Passion 
"Like those with harmonious passion, those with obsessive passion perceive their work as representing a passion for them, and view their work as highly valued.

A major difference is that they have an uncontrollable urge to engage in their work. As a result, they report feeling more conflict between their passion and the other activities in their life."


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4 discussions to have with students about performing

Instrumental lessons focus much more on playing than on performing.

Here are four aspects of performing that need to be talked about.

1. Dress appropriately: Many young performers do this right on their own, but I have still seen enough of them dress too casually or too over-the-top that it is still a good discussion to have.
   
   Dressing appropriately means wearing evening wear, with hair groomed, and make up for women.
   
   
2. Walk on stage, bow: Most common problems arise on the way out of the stage, and on the second bow at the end of the concert.
   
   Students need to be told at least once before each recital where to go and how to go about it, until that thought process becomes mechanical for them.
   
   
3. Body language: Many young performers think of their body only as it pertains to the technique of their instrument, and forget about the essential role it plays in transmitting music to an audience.
   
   Besides not looking bored, the body should indicate what the music sounds like, by matching its phrasing and intensity. The sooner students learn to do that in their lessons, the better they will apply it on stage. 
   
   
4. Poise: Next to the actual playing, poise is the second most important and impressive aspect of a performance.
   
   Students need to know that looking confused or laughing nervously when something goes wrong (tripped, scores fell)  on stage is not acceptable.
   
   Poise is about being at ease, in charge, and dealing graciously with things that would otherwise have become awkward.

Picture from http://www.lunacystageworks.org/give.html

Why muscle memory does not work

As musicians, we spend a lot of time training our body to play the right notes, and to play them with the right sound.

But when we use our body the way we normally do in a different hall or on a different instrument, it doesn't create the same result as it usually does.

It's only when we use our ear the way we typically do, that it makes our body change what it needs to change in order to get the same results as it usually gets. 



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How to practice concentration

It can be difficult to stay focused when you're practicing and performing.

Here are four great resources to help you improve your concentration.

1. This website sharpens your speed, memory, problem solving, flexibility and attention. The online exercises are all really fun to do!
   
   
2. Take your pick out of these 11 short exercises, and do them anywhere anytime. 
   
   
3. Here are a handful of simple physical movements that will help you concentrate.
   
   
4. If you're in a hurry, take this 1-minute exercise once a day. 
   
   

Picture from http://blog.thebrain.com/

Do you get intimidated?

As musicians, situations were we get to work with famous artists do come along. When you are in that position, do you get intimidated?

During an episode of "Behind the Scenes with Oprah," Oprah mentioned that what she admired most about one of her producers was how she never got intimidated, no matter how famous the guest on the show was.

What creates intimidation is the desire to show respect. There is also the risk that if you act too casual, the artist might think that you believe to be as great as him.

But at the same time, being intimidated might come in the way of your own work, either because you can't focus, or because you might hesitate before speaking up.

Oprah's producer said "when I work with very famous people, I try to forget who they are and talk to them as if they were just regular folks."

When she was seen later on the show dealing with a disagreement with Liza Minelli, she definitely came across as both professional and unafraid, and respectful and down to earth. A model to strive for.



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4 tools for musicians speaking onstage

Musicians understand the importance of practicing, and yet most do not practice their onstage speaking.

You should always rehearse what you will say because if the audience likes you, they will like the music. If they don't care about what you're saying or the way you're saying it, they won't care for the music. Here are the four basics of onstage speaking.

1. Tone of voice: If you ever had to introduce your fellow musicians, you know how boring a list of names gets. The number one mistake people make is have their voice go down in intonation at the end of each name. Keep your voice going up every time you end a sentence.
   
   
2. Energy: If you speak on stage the same way you do at home, it will come across as if you'd rather be home. Think of your voice in terms of dynamics: your regular speaking volume is p or mp, so make sure to bring it up to at least mf on the stage. The longer you speak, the more volume and excitement you need to bring forth.
   
   
3. Stories: If you simply state facts such as players names and titles of songs, your audience will think that you are speaking because you have to and not because you want to. That's why you need to share a few real life stories. It can be anything from the time your band lost the music of the piece you're about to play, to how a tornado alarm went off in the middle of that song, etc.
   
   
4. Your body speaks too: Don't look at the floor, or just at the other performers. Stand tall, ground your two feet to the ground and look directly at your audience. Make sure to finish your speech before you sit back down, or before you walk to your spot.

Picture from http://sheilagranger.blogspot.com/2011/01/hypnotherapy-for-public-speaking.html

What didn't happen at the Grammys last night

The Grammy awards last night had some great performances. Artists fell in either of two categories.

1. All about the show: the best performances of the night in this category were by Usher and by Lady Gaga, although her song reminded many people of Madonna's Express Yourself.
2. All about the music: those were simple performances that were great because the artists were in the music, instead of faking it: Mumford and Sons, Lady Antebellum, and a lovely version of "Jolene" by Norah Jones, John Mayer and Keith Urban.

I waited all night for a performance as memorable as last year's Pink. It came in a completely different genre, with Cee-Lo and Gwyneth Paltrow's performance of  "Forget You," which managed to brilliantly combine both the showmanship and the music in a really fun way, with a kick ass bird costume and a choir of Muppets. It was my absolute favorite of the night.

What was missed from the evening however, besides the sound that the producers annoyingly cut off to prevent viewers from hearing swear words, was a performance of the surprise winner of the New Artist category: Esperanza Spalding.

The fact that this wonderful singer-songwriter-bassist was in the same category as heavy commercial weights such as Justin Bieber was in itself quite a miracle, but for her to win sent a comforting message to all of us professional musicians out there: there is hope. Unfortunately, because she didn't perform during the evening, many people didn't know her and took her win the wrong way. Here is what should have happened.



On another note, it is Valentine's day today, so I am sending you all lots of love, particularly to all of you so dedicated to your art that you will spend the evening in rehearsal, in a practice room, or performing.

Happy Valentine's day!

Should you try to play all the right notes?

All of us pianists try to play all the right notes every time, but comes the week before a performance where it's clear that no matter how much we focus, that one spot always ends up sounding like anything but music.

Here comes the most important question: should we try to hit all the notes of that spot and hope for the best, or plan ahead and take away some of the notes that are in the way?

Pieces of music are sacred, and trying to change them in any way is considered a sacrilege. Trying to play the right notes seems to be the most loyal decision, but if you know that you will play wrong notes in that one spot, isn't that knowingly changing the score?

The main goal of a performance is to bring out the musicality out of a piece. The best way to do that is to keep with the flow of the music, through phrasing, accurate rhythms, melodies and harmonies. We all know that when we try to play a spot that never comes out right, we get tense and whatever we end up playing is not musical (even if we miraculously played the right notes).

Why not take the notes that prevent us from best serving the composer out? Because the most important aspects of a piece are phrasing, rhythms, melodies and harmonies, any adjustment can be done with creativity as long as those are not changed. If the melody is in octaves with many jumps making us always play the wrong pitches, wouldn't it make more musical sense to take away the octaves and play the actual melody the composer intended? If a chord is spelled too wide for your hand, instead of playing each chord with a roll, which makes the tempo slower, increases the chances of wrong notes and changes what the composer wanted in terms of rhythm and articulation, why not reshape the chord to fit your hand?

Trying our best to play all the notes during practice is our duty. But going up on stage for a performance knowing that we will try but won't play the right notes is more of a disservice to a composer's work than if we adjust the piece to fit us in order to maintain its musical integrity.



Picture from http://brassmusician.com/wrong-notes/

How dancing makes your audience go wild

The more you move at your instrument the better audiences think you are. Here is why.

I played for this Buddy Holly show last summer where I danced while playing the piano.

When I did that I was showered with compliments at the end of the show in the greeting line, as in: "wow, you're amazing!" "you have so much energy!" "you really seem to be having such a great time!" etc.

Except that when I didn't dance and just played the piano, the comments were much different: "who are you?," "where you on stage?," "oh, are you the one that played the keyboard in the back?"

This year, I did Spelling Bee and for most of the summer it was me and my boyfriend on the bass. I had to conduct while playing, which led me to do a lot of back and head movements throughout the show.

People would come out of their way at the end of the show to come talk to me and tell me nice things like: "you're such a great pianist," "how do you do it, playing all this music?," and I even got fan mail!

My boyfriend had to leave the run early to go to boot camp for the Navy, so I had a few shows left to do on my own. Guess what happened?

I didn't have to conduct anymore and so I moved a lot less. Not only did I not have nice comments in the end anymore, people even stopped applauding when I finished playing the exit music!



Picture from http://www.pianolessons101.com/keyboards.html 

What not to tell at you MFA audition

If you want to be a theatre teacher you need an MFA. Easy enough if it weren't for the fact that you do not need it in theatre pedagogy like the logic would want it to be, but in performance.

And if you want to be a working actor you also need an MFA in performance. Which means that getting into an MFA program is a near to impossible thing to do.

So the question is: should you tell the audition committee that you want to be a teacher, hoping that it would set you apart from all the other candidates? Or would you be better off not mentioning it?

The answer is, do not EVER say that your goal is to teach.
Tell the school that you want to be an actor, but never say that you want to be a teacher maybe, now, some day or eventually.
Sure, you need an MFA to become a teacher, but MFA programs want people that want a performing career.

To tell or not to tell is the question.
Not to tell is the answer if you need to get into an MFA program.

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4 things you can learn from Marathon Training

Athletes, even non-professional ones, all follow a strict training guide to get ready for marathons, triathlons, etc. Actors end up having one, called rehearsal process! As musicians we are not surrounded like actors and we don't have anybody telling us what to do. That can be great, but often times when getting ready for a recital we do more guessing each day than planning ahead of time where we need to be with everything in order to be ready for the performance.

Here is what we can learn from athlete's training guides.

1. How many weeks does your plan go for? Marathon training guides are usually built for either 18 or 22 weeks. This helps you keep focused and avoid procrastinating, and keeps you moving forward. It also guarantees that you keep on improving on all of your pieces at the same time, without becoming so centered on one hard piece or on specific musical details of another one. 
2. How much to rest? In marathon  training, there tends to be a full day off a week to recover, or a comparative rest day, which is when you do some work but a lot less than the other days. As musicians we are hard workers, and for many of us it seems to be counter-productive not to practice. Rest is important for your body, your mind and your soul. With a plan, you can see your daily and weekly improvements, which makes it easier for you to feel good about time off instead of feeling guilty about it.
3. What is your pace? The pace of runners is one the most important thing to them, and tempo is a very big part of what we do as well. Indicating on your plan when you should be able to run the piece at half tempo, at intermediary tempo and finally up tempo guarantees a comfortable process which will lead to a secure performance. No more rushing to play up to speed when it's too early, or realizing too late that we're not playing that section up to tempo. 
4. Are you building up stamina? Marathoners will run a different amount of miles per day, from 3 on Monday, to 5 on Wednesday to 10 on Sunday for example. This translates for musicians as memorized practicing. A few weeks before the performance, you want to have it in your plan that you play this one movement from memory on Tuesday, these two pieces on Thursday and the first half of your program on Friday, all from memory and in a row. By the last weeks, add more and more pieces to your program until you run it entirely through at least a few times before the performance.

Here is some last marathon wisdom that applies to music:

"Training works best if you start easy and build up gradually"

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What to wear on stage?

Have you ever been to a concert where you wondered what the performers had in mind when choosing their concert clothes?

It's not easy for people to find the time to hunt for clothes that are the right mix of classy and pretty, yet conservative and up to date.

If you ever have a doubt about what to wear on stage, you can now ask for advice at fashism.com, where you can post a picture of the outfit you're planning to wear and get feedback on it for free.

You can even keep your privacy, like the many people who hide their faces with their cameras, or the ones who put a picture of the outfit hanging from a hanger.

Picture from http://shortcuts101.blogspot.com/2010/05/hanging-on-petite-sized-clothes-hangers.html

A Very Merry Unbirthday- 6 months

Today is the 6th month anniversary of Geraldine in a Bottle!

Today is the day that I want you to make this blog yours.

That's why I wish I were able to read you guys' mind so that I could give you just what you're looking for and what you need.

Help me in my quest to please you by sending me some constructive criticism and feedback.

What do you like best on this blog? What kind of posts are you most interested in: tips, interviews, reviews, etc? What topics would you enjoy reading about that haven't been covered yet? What would you like to see less of, more of?

I raise my glass to these six months and I thank you all for your encouragement and friendship!
Cheers!

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Who should you try to please?

Who should you try to please? The audience or the person who hired you?

As a performer, I always think of the audience as the people I want to please.
But as an accompanist hired privately by an individual, my customer is that individual. And the customer is always right. Which becomes quite problematic when that individual has a completely different idea from me as to how to please the audience. And it gets even more complicated if that individual has a teacher, who often adds a third view on how to please the audience. And when I myself had a teacher... you know where I'm going with that.

As musicians, it is often a real dilemma to figure out who our most important customer is, and many questions and doubts come directly from that dilemma.

Of course you're gonna follow your conductor even though you're not convinced of the interpretation. But how do you stay connected and interested in the music you're making when you know that the audience's response is to somebody else's decisions?

For us musicians, the importance of knowing at every gig who our customer is is one of the most important decisions we have to make. It's not just about pleasing them, but more importantly about keeping ourselves sane by accepting the fact that as much as we always want the audience to come first, many times in our lives, there is an intermediary who is our true customer. Embracing that fact will make it much easier on us than fighting in our heads for the audience's enjoyment against our true customer's opinions, whether right or wrong.

Why you feel less confident the better you get

When I was in high school, I used to think that I could become one of the best pianists ever, and that I could even potentially write the best songs ever and sing them better than everyone else. By my masters degree, I thought that I was doing quite well, and that I was good enough to be better than some people, but not necessarily the best anymore.

Now, only one exam away from getting my doctorate, I feel that I am just one pianists among many other pianists, that any few songs I've ever written don't mean a thing, and that I don't make much a difference anywhere.

I blamed that progression from being confident to lacking confidence on an education based on competition rather than on real life experience. Then I blamed it on the people I worked with. I also blamed it on my age because the older I become the more scared I get. I blamed it on my teachers, my friends and finally myself. Now I know better than to blame all the wrong people and all the wrong things. I should blame the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is this "cognitive bias where unskilled people suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority."

So the less you know the better you think you are, and the better you are the less good you think you are.

So next time you think you suck, remember that it's the sign that you are actually good!

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How to teach music without saying a word

For anyone who ever wished music was an easy thing to teach!



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How to push through in a performance

David Blaine is definitely one amazing performer!
What makes his success? Brilliant ideas, intense preparation and pushing through the pain of the performance (literally in his case). Sounds to me like skills that we need in music and theater too!


How do you push through in a performance?

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10 tips on how to be a great teacher

The collaborative piano department at Boston University had a master class with Dr. Andrew Campbell, from Arizona State University.

Here is what makes Dr. Campbell an example to follow for anyone who wants to teach in an inspiring way:

1. He shared his own personal struggles with the music. My friend Ling played the Kreutzer sonata by Beethoven. After congratulating her on her playing, he explained how she might find ease technically by mentally stripping the texture from its business down to the actual musical theme.
   
   He also talked about the difficulty of being together with the violinist and ways he had discovered to solve those problems with visual cues after playing it many times with his wife, a violinist.
   
   
2. When he talked about phrasing, he never imposed his own ideas on anyone. He offered a few suggestions, but never seemed to think that he had the right answer. He shared what he heard, which was a lack of phrasing, and trusted the student to find their own way.
   
   
3. He explained why teachers pick on what's wrong instead of focusing on what's right. "If a violin player plays out of tune the whole time, well, too bad. But if a violinist plays in tune 80% of the time, then the 20% that is not in tune becomes really annoying."
   
   Just by saying that, he made the entire room understand that the performer had done 80% of right thing. How comforting!
   
   
4. When a problem happened in the performance, he called it a "booboo," turning it into a lesson instead of something shameful. For example, when a singer forgot the words to a song and that her and the pianist had to start again from where they left off, many teachers would have made a big deal about it.
   
   He simply said that it was life and that that king of things happen often enough, and took that opportunity to teach us about what to do if that situation was to happen on stage.
   
   
5. After he asked performers to change things, he complimented them on their ability to make an adjustment so fast, which many teachers take for granted.
   
   
6. He talked about the piano with detachment, making the instrument itself the reason of difficulties and challenges in the performer's playing, instead of the performer's playing itself.
   
   
7. When he mentioned more than two points to a performer, he summarized all of them one last time right before the performer try the piece again.
   
   
8. He asked a few times if the performer's playing was enjoyable to them, either during the first time performing, or when performing with adjustments. This was a good reminder that originally, we all came to music for fun, and that even when working, enjoyment is to be found.
   
   
9. He was conscious of the impact he could have on students. When he asked more of someone than of someone else, he asked he was being too mean, or he mentioned that he was being very picky at that moment. That way students focused on the work at hand, and did not take things personally.
   
   
10. He seemed to want to learn from the students. He asked many questions, and was happy to discover that some students had thoughts of things that were new to him.
    

My personal favorite moment of the afternoon was when after hearing two students of the collaborative department perform, he told our teacher: "you are a lucky lady hearing this level of playing very day."

In the end, what I think this all comes to, is, to be a great teacher, one has to be a great human being.



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Musician Baby Blues

I just finished my last doctoral exam. The last one of five. They all went great and better and better. I just celebrated with friends. I've been looking forward to this day for so long.
And I'm pretty sad.
Why?
Because it's the last one. And because the beauty of school is, you learn along the way. And I learned to not only be a good pianist, but also that I love to produce and direct. And now that this was my last recital, I'm wondering when will be the next time that I will get to produce and direct and play my own shows.
And besides that, for each show I got to meet amazing people and I'm not ready to say goodbye. Of course, you can always meet again, but more often than not, people get too busy and before you know it you've lost track of each other.
I am grateful for tonight and for the past three years, and scared for the future and hopeful for the future too.
In transition....
Oh, and here are the pictures!

Kevin, Rachel, De'Lon, Kami and me:

And me and my man

 

How to help other musicians

 A lot of what I've learned about being a working musician comes from other musicians who were king enough to share their thoughts with me. One of the most resourceful blogs and one of my favorite websites  for musicians is Musician Wages. There are articles on how to conduct from the piano, how to create an online presence and the average income of a musician. One of the most insightful writers is music director/ pianist David Hahn who writes about calculating a musician hourly rate, top 10 gigs who may not have thought of, and  tips on resume and business cards.

Sometimes it feels like we're in competition with one another but life gets so much better when we help each other. What is your way of helping? Who has helped you and in what ways?

Photo from: http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/jfa2465l.jpg