A discussion on performance goals

Music performance provides an outlet for all musicians to express their creativity, emotions, technical skill and often in todays culture to demonstrate popularity. In this essay I discuss my views on good performance and expectations that I have from my current pupils. Performance is not only about standing up in front of people to demonstrate your skills. To me, it involves determination, confidence, interpretation and emotion alongside the other technical skills that you learn upon starting an instrument. I hope that I can demonstrate that I am teaching these skills in my lessons and can prove that these are being taken on by my students to help produce effective performers and musicians.

Performance has been used as a huge developing tool for me as a musician, helping me to build confidence in myself as a performer, musician and communicator. Although performance is one of my strongest and most practised skills today, this was not the case at the start of my career. I suffered badly with remembering words and nerves affecting the standard of my recitals. I have overcome the majority of my failings by persevering and practicing in a number of different locations and environments. I believe that this was due to the passion I had and still have for performance. Although the initial feelings of panic and anxiety were often debilitating, this did nothing to revoke the feeling of joy and excitement after an effective performance.

It is my opinion that performance should be used as an educational tool. Although not all pupils will benefit from this, it is essential to identify the pupils that will and endeavor to put them in performance situations as much as possible. These do not necessarily have to be in concert form, this can involve performing to peers and friends. It is hugely beneficial to obtain an outside view on how your student is progressing and also outside encouragement too. More often than not, parents only hear what their child is learning from the next room during practise time (this is especially the case when student are having lessons during school time) and can feel slightly excluded from the development process. To invite the parents to a performance or demonstration of their child’s progress enlightens them to what they have been working towards and how they have developed their musical skills. Once parents have heard how their child is developing they can feel more included and therefore become actively involved in the practise process.

The expectation from performance is completely different as a teacher than it would be to a parent. From a parent's perspective, generally the expectation is a lot higher and this can be somewhat damaging when a student suffers with bad nerves and anxiety. I think it is important to make parents aware of this when a child starts performing, especially if this is the first time they have seen a child perform. As a teacher, my expectation of pupils completely depends on the standard and confidence of the individual. David Elliott's research undertaken in 1987 proves how difficult a standard marking system on performance would be to create. His research was an investigation into individual perceptions of performances. These performances were recorded and given to judges to mark. This research '...demonstrated the complexities of responses to performance and how individual listeners may be attending to different elements' (Hallam, 1999, p.10). When students are at different stages in their performance career before you can label students' performances as outstanding or poor you need to have a knowledge of their musical level and confidence. If we look to Suzuki’s ‘mother-tongue’ technique we can see that in early development constant appreciation and encouragement is required to help a child develop. I believe that this is also true when developing performance technique. If a child was to perform for the first time to their parents and this was labeled poor then it is highly likely that the child will not want to perform again. If the performance was judged with their standard in mind and was encouraged, it would be more likely to see that child perform again. On asking my students their thoughts on what a good performance is, I came across one main factor. The performer changes the perceptions received. If the student is watching a performance, they tend to lean towards confidence and individuality. If it is their performance that they are analyzing then it needs to be communicated well with good technical ability. I like to think that I encourage my students to be individual with their performance as well as confident and technically able so as to help to create a rounded performer that they would be pleased in watching themselves.

Performance preparation is key to building confidence in a student. Without the right work towards the performance it is likely the pupil will not perform to their best ability. Also, without preparation, students are more inclined to self doubt and panic. From the start of teaching, I have instilled in my students to treat every lesson as if it were a performance. Obviously this cannot be in use all of the time but, when running through pieces and demonstrating to me what they have practised in a piece, this has been most effective. One example of this occurred very recently with a teenage pupil. Although she has performed in the past in groups she has never been a soloist. In our most recent lesson she reached notes that have previously been an issue. As she was excited about finally achieving these notes, I asked her if she would be willing to perform the full piece to her parents at the end of the lesson. This performance was outstanding for her age and standard. She was very willing to perform and very much enjoyed it. I think this is due to pieces in past lessons being presented as a full performance, rather than just reading and singing what is written. Our lessons have always included communication work, diction and dealing with emotion in music, thus, building up a group of skills that she, as demonstrated, can now call upon to create a good performance.

At the start of every lesson we do breathing exercises. These are not only useful for increasing lung capacity but can be used for teaching students how to relax. We breathe in through our nose for four beats, hold the breathe for 2 beats and then breathe out slowly through the mouth until there is no air left. I have been somewhat influenced by yoga practise here and intend to expand more on this in lessons with different relaxation exercises to help relax both the mind and body. By teaching these breathing techniques in lessons I endeavor to help my students recognize when they are stressed and learn what they must do with their body to relax themselves. If relaxation can be taught then this can help immensely when nerves take effect prior to performance.

Learning the words to music has proven to be very effective in producing good performance skills. This is something that I encourage in my lessons. Initially, we read through the piece to clarify that all meaning is understood and also to hear opinions and ideas from my students in relation to the lyrics. Once it is determined that the student understands the background to the song, we learn, in stages, the melodic structure. I teach the words alongside the melody and in sections my students learn these together. 'The most common method of learning to play from memory is a process of repeated repetition and testing' (Hallam, 1999, p.20). I have always found that this is the most effective way of learning although I never solely test students on the words. The words and melody are demonstrated to me as a whole. My students are aware of the importance of the lyrics in the communication of their music but I feel that on the spot tests of words add even more pressure and make students far too conscious of forgetting them.

On reviewing my thoughts, I can see that I am helping my students in becoming performers. The skills I am teaching are also effective in creating confidence in exam situations, which I know my students tend to feel very nervous about. Although I have located some good points that I am working on, I can also see where I can improve as a teacher. At the moment I feel I do not provide enough performance opportunities for my students. Being a private teacher with minimal students it is hard to find the location for such performances to take place. If I can locate other private teachers there may be a way that we can arrange such events in our area to provide this opportunity for all students. Even students that do not wish to perform can come and see other students play which may be used as an incentive for them to improve or find new repertoire or styles in which they may wish to learn. Susan Hallam (1999) states that to overcome performance anxiety you must perform more and more. If I can provide the environment for this to happen for my students then I can only hope they will develop to love performing as much as I do.

Bibliography and References

Hallam, S. (1999). ‘Nature of musical performance’, in G. Cox and N. Bannan (Eds.), Principles and Processes of Music Teaching (Music Teaching in Professional Practice, Unit 1h). Reading: Institute of Education, Reading University.

Meyer, L. B. (1956). Emotion and Meaning in Music. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

O'Neill, S. (1999) ‘Musical development - Aural’, in G. Cox and N. Bannan (Eds.), Principles and Processes of Music Teaching (Music Teaching in Professional Practice, Unit 1f). Reading: Institute of Education, Reading University.

Schenck, R. (1989). Learning an instrument must be fun. British Journal of Music Education, 6(1), 33-35.