The performance preview was an opportunity for all the performers to run through their songs (2-3 contrasting pieces) that they had chosen for the final concert of the semester. This session also included setting up the equipment and amplification, discussing the flow of the final performance, the layout of seating and stage area. There was a photographer present to photograph the first and second year music students for the university portfolio for an hour as well.
When it comes to my overall contribution to this project, I actively participated in the discussions about the layout of the concert space and also recommended choosing a host for the programme, as from what I have seen at events is that a host is vital in creating the mood and helps to make the transition between different performers smoother.
As for my own songs, it was the first time ever that I had sang “Kissing you” by Des’ree and I had only finished writing the lyrics for my second song “Pretty Sun Hurts” the night before. Admittedly, such a last minute preparation could be seen as risky and unprofessional, because “practice is the only road to success” (Klickstein, 2009, 19-20), but having the flu for two weeks prior to this session had left me only three options:
1) Choose songs from my old repertoire that I knew well and could recite easily and confidently.
2) Try to practice and work on the songs despite feeling ill and risk making my voice even more hoarse and becoming more fatigued and stressed out as a result.
3) Trust my abilities to improvise and learn really fast.
Generally speaking, I prefer to challenge myself in the first rehearsals since that’s one way to find out where the strengths and weaknesses lie within the songs, as these become prominent in stressful situations (being prepared brings confidence, being unprepared leads to nervous feelings usually). Therefore I chose the third option. However, having gone through the nervous stage, motivation resulted as I gained clarity on what I needed to work on most; awareness of my own natural responses to unexpected and stressful situations expanded and I become able to take all of this into account in future performances; my confidence got a boost since my improvisation skills usually enabled me to make songs sound decent even when I had not practiced them much.
All in all, the rehearsal proved to progress just as I had anticipated: most performers arriving late and having relatively unpolished pieces. By and large, the session still fulfilled all the goals:
1) Hearing everyone’s pieces so that a list and order of the songs could be made.
2) Trying the songs out with amplification and accompanying pianist (for those who chose to do so).
Regarding my own practice, I tried my own original song first. Unfortunately, my guitar would not connect to the guitar amp (the reason for this being that the tuner button was switched down whilst trying to play it, as I found out in the Guitar Parlour on the lunch brake). Trying to sing into a microphone while the guitar had another microphone in front of it and I also had to see the lyrics was a very hindering experience, which I would prefer to never repeat.
Notes to self for future:
1) Always arrive in plenty of time before a gig or important rehearsal to make sure the microphone and guitar amp work properly and that the guitar is in tune.
2) Learn the lyrics so that it becomes possible to interact with the audience.
As for the second song, it took a while to get the tempo coordinated with the pianist (we had practiced different versions of “Kissing You”). At first, I tried to follow the rhythm of the piano and figure out his take on the song, but as I gained enough confidence to trust myself and relaxed instead of trying to mediculously follow him, it became easy to sing on top of a slightly different rhythmic pattern and I was quite surprised how smoothly we blended our sounds together. Even so, I was fully aware how much work I needed to do on the emotional mapping of the song and my own core strength as long notes full of feelings were the very core of this piece. In fact, I would go as far as to say that emotion is central in all music, since “music can modulate activity in brain structures that are known to be crucially involved in emotion” (Koelsch, 2014, 170).
Overall, despite enjoying challenging myself, I am fully aware that the only way to truly feel confident on stage is to be prepared. Knowing the song inside and out also helps to improvise consciously and to add emotional value to it. Eventually, you perform as you practice, so after the initial practice session I always try to treat further practice sessions as small concerts.
References:
Klickstein, G. (2009) The musician’s way: a guide to practice, performance and wellness. New York: Oxford University Press.
Koelsch, S. (2014) Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(2), 170-180.