When my student went off to play his solo for solo-ensemble festival I gave him a bit of advice. It’s advice I often need to remind myself to take as well.
We should never let our audience know if we were unhappy with our performance. We should never fill them in on our mistakes after we perform (something I frequently feel like I should do for some reason). We shouldn’t shake our heads when we blow it. As I told him, even if he makes a mistake he should just carry on and look as if he is doing exactly what he meant to do. Heck, sometimes even musicians don’t hear our mistakes! Really. Never telegraph errors to the audience. Really.
Audience members come to concerts to be entertained. They are paying for enjoyment. Don’t disappoint them!*
*Well okay, MOST audience members come to concerts to have a good time. Others come to criticize and hear all the bad stuff. Go figure. I always wonder about people like that … why pay money just so you can say how awful something was, I wonder?
