How do you prepare a concert? How do you prepare a good performance? There are seven stages for preparing a concert or a good performance. I have identified the following area: Selection, Evaluation, Attention, Preparation, Reformation, Interpretation, and Perfection. This is called ‘Perfection staging’.
First of all, the venue of the piano recital should be set in a small concert hall for five hundred musically-educated audiences. The duration of the progamme is one and half hours long with a ten minutes interval at the end of the first half.
Selection
The first step for the performer in order to prepare for the concert happens when he selects the pieces he would like to play. It depends on the audiences’ interest and what level the performer has achieved. Most likely, a performer will choose pieces from the Baroque to 20th century. However, if there is an occasion for celebration, such as ‘Mozart year in 2006’, the performer may be should be chosen a series of Mozart pieces for the concert. Besides, the level of the piece should be chosen within the performer’s own ability and should be easy handle. This is because the performer will normally feel some stress when on stage.
Time management is an essential factor for choosing the performance pieces. The duration of the concert is one and a half hours, which suggests that four or five pieces would be most probably performed. If the piece is 20minutes, the performer should count 25minutes in order to prevent the progamme over running. In my view, the music must have a variety of different time length and style to achieve balanced. For example, if the performer chooses Bach’s Well-tempered, Prelude and Fugue (N0.1) in C, the total time length is around 4minutes, then the other piece should be a Beethoven sonata Op.10 No.1 in Fminor, the total time length is around 18minutes.
Evaluation
After selecting the pieces, the performer should analyse the details of the score. He should try to understand the background of the composer, the background of the pieces, the style of the pieces, the harmonic technique used and compare the difference between various editions. There are few a points that the performer should be aware of.
1/ To check whether the tempo mark, phrasing and the notes are in the original text or not.
Also, the performer should not follow the editor’s marking only. The performer should
take the published of Urtext (‘Original text”’) as a reference.
2/ To pay attention to the different notations in different period, wouldn’t use one rule for
fitting all of the music. Take the downbeatt rule of Haydn’s ornamentation as an
example, the performer should not used this rule for fitting all of his music. In some
cases, the function of the on beat ornament enriches the harmony or conveys a nuance
of warmth, tenderness, or similar emotion. (2) Therefore, the performer should be
concerned about the music rather than follow the rule rigidly.
3/ Before the mid-nineteenth century it was absent the beat symbol , and used to substitute for this absence. Also, the performers should bear in mind the
different notation will be different in different period.
Example 1 shows the differences between editions of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1. In the first bar of remark (1), it was indicated that different notation was used. The unknown addition of the E note has not been sustained, so the sonority will alter between the Bach Ausgabe and the Associated Board version.
Attention
The performer should listen to different recordings of different interpretations of the works to be presented. The performer will have to select which style of interpretation he should use. It depends on the performer's own preferred style. Sometimes, we found that pianists could not follow the characteristic of different periods. For example, the interpretation of Bach's music, the performer should use the pedal to achieve the sonority of Baroque period, but too much romantic sounding and personal expression should be avoided. I've heard a pianist who used the romantic style to perform the Bach's music. It could be too individualized and lose the original style of Bach.
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(2) Frederick Neumann, New essays on Performance Practice (1989, London) Preparation
Preparation
The following stage is 'Preparation'. This is the most important stage for the performer. However, if the performer cannot prepare well at this stage, then the mistake will come out during the concert and affect the final performance.
I would like to talk about the posture first because 'good posture' is a foundation for a well co-ordinated piano technique. It is according to Garola Grindea. (3)Following is some guidelines from Garola Grindea:
‘It is just a sense of breathing out, the tensions are evenly distributed. The pianist should sit still and hold their head erect in the middle key of the piano with feeling of relaxation and the arms leads the hand at a right angle neither lower, nor higher. The fingers slightly curved over the key board, but hands must hold without tension. Then the right foot should be brought forward by the damper pedal.’
When the pianist has a 'good posture' he can start to study the piece. In a lecture by the pianist Jana Frenklova, she spoke about the harmonic structure of the pieces. The performer should deal with the harmonic structure horizontally before practicing the whole piece, see example 2. The performer cannot react and cannot express them naturally according to the harmony until he understands the entire harmonic structure used by the composer.
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(3) Garola Grindea, 'Piano Playing', in Kahn & Averill (ed.), Tensions in the Performer of Music (1987, US)
Besides, with reference to the book of Mastering Piano - Practicing, (4) the performer should have a few rules to follow which are called 'Golden Rule'.
Golden Rule No.1 Practice with the aim of never making a mistake
'Whilst practicing a piece, a performer should avoid making any mistake. Every time you make a mistake you are more likely to make it again. Besides, when you play a tricky passage, it must be played without any blemish.’
Golden Rule No.2 Learn how to practice slowly
'The performer should play the piece very slow when they start to practice, in order to make sure their brain and fingers do unfamiliar thing. Let your brain memorize all the actions of the fingers and muscle and how they working together. After, the performer has got the general idea and could play smoothly at a slow speed, then they can speed up'.
Golden Rule No.3 Be easy in mind and body
'Fear is the greatest enemy for the Performer. Mind and body interact all the time. If you sit comfortably and move smoothly, you are more likely to think clearly and without anxiety'.
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(4) Mervyn Bruxner, Mastering the Piano - A Guide For The Amateur (1972, London)
Golden Rule No.4 Thinking and Listening are the most important parts of practicing
Golden Rule No.5 Always know where your hands are on the keyboard
When a performer meets a technical problem, they should look at their hands and discover how to manage them so that their fingers can most easily play a particular pattern of notes. I think it is kind of 'Physical Muscle Control'. (5) It would allow the performer to memorized the actions and movement directly through sight and brain, not just internally through muscles control. Sometimes, we should use the physical learning practice to make sure every movement of our hands, arms; shoulders etc are in the right way.
*The performer should follow the rules and they should be in order
I believe that to be a good performer, you will need to implement this last step, known as memorizing. There are four kinds of memorizing such as Muscular memory, ‘Photographic’ memory, Analytical memory and Aural memory. (6)
(6) Mervyn the Piano, Mastering the Piano, (1972, London), 75-6
Muscular memory - This is a kind of unconscious control of the muscle, for example walking upstairs or drinking water. When a performer starts to play the piano, his muscles will automatically memorise his actions, so we should let the muscle memorise his actions, so we should let the muscle memorise the correct actions as I have mentioned earlier.
'Photographic' memory - This is a kind of physical memorising through vision, like a copying machine, putting the whole image in our brain.
Analytical memory - Analytical memory is to analyze the music before memorizing it. Clearly, the more you can understand of the music you play, then the easier it is to remember.
Aural memory - This is a kind of sound recorder, recording down all the different sounds of the harmonic used.
*The performer should be able to use all of these types of memory completely.
Reformation and Interpretation
When the performer has prepared the pieces well, he should record the whole progamme and re-listen to the recording. This is called reformation because the performer should compare the sound quality, style, expression and dynamics with the other CD recordings to reform the music again. Indeed, the performer should write down every mistake, bad sonority etc on the score and adjust it. However, this process may take several attempts, maybe three to four times until they are happy with the sound.
*Then the performer should memorise all the adjusted score (with its new changes).
Perfection
The last stage is to pre-perform. The performer should play the whole programme in public to different audiences in different places before the concert. It should be to gain more experience by playing the progamme in public. 'Practice Make Perfect', the Tension the performer should always keep this in mind.
Tension
The final topic that I would like to cover is regarding some methods about how to release tension when going through all of these stages. This is very essential for the performer when preparing for a concert. Below are some breathing exercise from Carola Grindea(7). The performer should do these regularly before starting to play the piano.
a) breathe in - slowly, counting 1,2
b) hold breath - without tensing the body, counting 1,2,3,4
c) breathe out – slowly counting 1,2
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(7) Garola Grindea, 'Piano Playing', in Kahn & Averill (ed.), Tensions in the Performer of Music (1987, US), 108
As well as this, the performer needs to be ware of their breathing while playing the piano, making sure they don't hold their breath. If the tension cannot be released at the time, stop practicing the piano and go to do some physical exercise until the tension can be released and their mind is clear
Last but not least, on the day of the concert, the performer should go through the pieces by imagining that he is performing on the stage. (8) The breathing exercise should be continued until the tension has been released. Keep a good posture and sit comfortably taking a few deep breathes, and concentrate on the music. Now the performer should be
able to start playing on stage with confidence.
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(8) Garola Grindea, 'Piano Playing', in Kahn & Averill (ed.), Tensions in the Performer of Music (1987, US), 112
Bibliography
For Book:-
- Garola Grindea, 'Piano Playing', in Kahn & Averill (ed.), Tensions in the Performer
of Music (1987, US)
- Frederick Neumann, New essays on Performance Practice (1989, London)
- Mervyn the Piano, Mastering the Piano (1972, London)
For Score:-
- Bach, Well-Tempered BK 1, Prelude I, (Bach Ausgabe ed.)
- Bach, Well-Tempered BK 1, Prelude I, (1924, Associated Board in Tovey ed.)
- Bach, Well-Tempered BK 1, Prelude I, (Unknown ed.)
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