I play a concert. I hate what I did. Nothing felt right. I thought I wasn’t expressive enough. Or I felt that something was just a little off. Or I even played something incorrectly.
Guess what?
Much of the time the audience hasn’t a clue.
We are, and we should be, our harshest critics. Our desire should be to give the best performance ever. Even at a rehearsal. And of course that doesn’t always happen.
I have suffered from the “honesty sin” sometimes. I ruin the audience member’s experience who, until hearing me list my mistakes, was thrilled with the performance. After the performance I have to remind myself that my job has nearly ended, and my job does NOT include filling the audience (or even my colleagues) in on all the things I hated. I can’t tell you how many times I have to perform my final job by telling myself, “Smile. Nod your head. Say “thank you.” Smile more,” and then keep my mouth shut!
Today I ran across a new blog. Sopran-O-Rama has a link to a voice instructor’s site that talks about this whole performance thing we have to do. The writer, I read, instructs those pop star types. Even THEY have to know how to deal with those negative voices. He has some very good things to say. Here are just a few quotes:
People want to believe you’re happy with your performance; they’re living through you. Allow your listeners to enjoy the performance no matter how much you would like to tell them what’s going on inside your head.
Correcting a compliment is the same as revealing a magic trick; it makes people feel stupid for not seeing the truth.
Yep.
I am, however, more frank here. I consider this a place to actually be a bit more open about things here so readers can see a bit of the truth of it all. But, believe me, you won’t hear it ALL here! Some things will remain unspoken and unwritten. 😉
—–
