trptguru

I am gearing up for the MTNA recital competition and have never actually played a recital. I'm playing the Oskar Bohme Concerto, Tomasi Triptyque, and Turrin Intrada. What are some preperation suggestions to help endurance and nerves?

andredub

Heya
A couple of things that have worked for me have been...
Be able to run through the set twice or 3 times back to back. If you can do that, you are easily ready to tackle the competition endurance wise (even if you already have good endurance, in the show it will keep you from worrying about it in the heat of the moment. You'll know you have the chops). To get there, run it when you've warmed up. Take as much break as you need, run it again. Don't take any extra time on rests! In the days ahead, make that break shorter and shorter. Always remember to go back to fundamentals and basics to make sure you aren't cheating somehow and hurting yourself in the long run. Give yourself a good warm down, get the pressure off of your face.

As for nerves, the only way to be ready is to practice performing. Run it through for family, friends, neighbors, as if it was a concert. Set up chairs, get your accompanist, make programs if you want to take the time. Treat it exactly like a show. Do that as many times as you can. Performing is the only way to practice performing!! In the practice room, if you screw up, keep going. Make that a habit. On stage, you'll do what you have practiced, and this will keep you from dwelling on a mistake if it happens. If you haven't played a recital, keep in mind that it is instinctive for many people to look back on what they just played, or think ahead to a hard part. Make sure you avoid that completely. Stay in the moment, in the present, only think about what you are playing. If you find yourself drifting in one of those directions, bring your thoughts back to what you are doing.

Good luck, have fun and I hope this helps!

-Andre

ecarroll

Hello Guru,

The first, and perhaps most important, element of performing a successful recital is choosing a program that you absolutely love to play. Are these three pieces music that you absolutely feel that you OWN and WANT to share with an audience? If so then half the chore is finished. If not then re-evaluate.

Assuming that you've acheived ownership through your detailed practice the next task, as Andre mentions, is to stay connected to the music in "real time", never looking back (breaking the thread of your performance) and never looking ahead (ditto). Perform your program, with your pianist, as many times as you possibly can and, by so doing, "rehearse" remaining in the moment. Once you're able to achieve this wonderful state all performance anxiety will disappear.

I'm sure that others will weigh in on this subject soon and I'll watch here with interest.

Best and good luck,
EC

Khora

Ed's advice is, of course, right on the money!

I would add that you should practice performing in as many different acoustic settings as possible. You never know what kind of acoustics the competition space will have - I did one competition where the room we played in was carpeted, with 8 foot acoustic ceilings, and a cloth covered divider running down the middle of the room Nothing like playing Hummel in a coat closet!

Record yourself, both in performance settings and in the practice room. You will be amazed at how nervous just the mike can make you!
You WILL have nerves. Accept that from the beginning - if you dont' fear having nerves, they have very little effect. You can handle nerves one of two ways - let the nervous energy overwhelm you (be afraid of it+ performance anxiety), or use it to get excited about playing for people.

Obviously you want to avoid any stimulants before hand - coffee, caffeinated sodas (when it doubt, check the label!), sugary food, etc. Also avoid salty foods or anything that gives you dry mouth. Experiment with what works for you well before the competition.

The following is all part of the detailed practice Ed talked about, ways to achieve ownership:
Immerse yourself in the music until you can literally play it in your sleep;

Practice being able to sing through the entire recital, at least in your head, without the horn. Mark in the music any places you dont' feel comfortable singing your part - those are most often the spots that present problems in performance as well. Analyze what you can't sing - is it the rhythm, the interval, the dynamic shift? Fix what isn't working quite right;

Practice fingering through the recital without actually playing, horn not even up to your face. Take note of the places you trip even slightly - raising a valve a little bit too soon, not getting the valves really all the way down, etc. Is there an alternate fingering that makes it easier?

Best of luck - recitals are a lot of fun when you are well-prepared!

mazzrick

Just to add a bit to what was previously said about endurance, I had a lot of success with playing etudes leading up to the recital. I figured on my recital being about an hour and a half, so I took all the etudes I'd ever played, and just ran through them for an hour and a half. Even if I flubbed something, the objective was just to play everything running it top to bottom. Of course, like Andre said, running the whole program twice is great. a tip with that, if you start to tire, take things down the octave, or play more comfortable dynamics... you're trying to build endurance, not strength and for this maintaining ease is the key.

I started with the easier ones, Bordogni, Conconne, Getchell, etc... then once the whole time was easy enough, moved on to Charlier, Brandt, Arban Characteristics, Longinotti, stuff like that... and then because the recital program was more difficult than those, the last phase was an hour and a half of Smith top tones, Bitsch, and some of the longer Charlier's. The idea with the etudes, is that there is very little rest so you have to get used to playing for a long time. Chris Gekker has a lot to say about recital prep and I think this idea is mostly based off of his teachings. Basically, if you can walk a marathon easily, then you can jog it, then you can run it... but the marathon is always 26 miles, no matter how fast you go.

for nerves, I would suggest starting with something that you're extremely confident with to get things going well. Also, bananas and turkey (if it doesn't put you to sleep) are good for relaxing the nerves.

Good luck and I hope that helped.

andredub

Speaking of Turkey...

Happy Canadian Turkey Day (on Monday that is!)
Hope Europe is going well Matt. I owe you Sushi by the way, you left for Europe before I could repay you!