The Beauty of Simplicity

This week, I had the privilege of meeting a pianist who had a few issues with nerves associated with performing. She said she felt that the audience would be critical of her if she made a mistake. That was quite the wrong place to be coming from as a performer. If you are clear about what you are playing or saying and your message is clear and your interpretation is one you feel in your heart, then mistakes are less likely and the audience dont even notice them. Have ever heard somebody speaking passionately about their subject? Do we feel annoyed when they stumble or repeat a word? That is another story altogether! However the focus on this day was simplicity. We talked about some of the issues that held her back from performing and one of the main ones was the assumption that the music we perform in public must always be complex and have a level of difficulty we find challenging. This is an interesting notion and maybe comes from our experiences and values system we learned through childhood. I learned that anything good required a lot of effort. This did not serve me well in later life! Not everything needs to be difficult!

With my interviewee, we talked about different performances in our lives that we viewed as being successful and the audience loving them and many of these performances were NOT particularly difficult at all. She recalled a piano duet with great excitement that she played which was quite simple and she performed it with great energy and gusto, wowing the audience in the process. How different was that to the energy taken from a current grade 8 piece? Quite different. I pointed out that the audience are never going to say, “Well – I was so emotionally moved by her playing and the piece was so beautiful and played with such passion and we loved it BUT it was too simple…” In my experience, quite often the simpler pieces are the ones the audience love and if you engage with the music and the audience then the whole experience is a musically hypnotic experience free from ego or fear. I remember performing Bach prelude no1 in a concert once and I felt it might be a bit simple and not show off my skills as a pianist. What does that emotion have to do with the music? NOTHING. In fact, audiences are often offended when you will not play the simple piece they requested.

There is no doubt that one should aim to push ourselves in terms of difficulty to get better at all aspects of music but playing a whole set of pieces, whole programmes which push us for a whole hour is not going to be something any audience wants to see or sit through! It is nice to have those moments in a performance where you show your “Chops” but people get tired of “too many notes” (to quote the emperor in Amadeus) and a balanced programme of music which is in some places, simple, expressive, occasionally pushing the performer, seeking to challenge the audience, furthering the journey of musical discovery is all a good starting point for a programme. If your programme fills you with fear, it is NOT the right programme! Our job as musicians is to communicate music and to entertain and hopefully move our audience.

The Grotto and secret tunnel at Bowood House

Do we get bored by playing simple pieces again? Well – it was interesting that the other day whilst out walking with my cousin and her three children, we walked through a grotto 5 times. It was a simple thing to do but why did they want to go through it so many times? They wanted to experience it in different ways. First time they went through with one person holding the torch and then another person then they wanted to go through the grotto the other way. So, we need to remember that simple experiences just need to be viewed in different ways and experienced from different perspectives. It is hard to play a very difficult piece in different ways but a simple piece has so many options and needs for making it exciting. Make the normal exciting and you have conquered the way forward in music and indeed life.

Does the music need to be difficult for us to play in order to do this well? What pieces do you love? What pieces do your audience love to hear?

Making it simple, keeps it beautiful.

Nurturing Inspiration at Short Notice – A refresher for the author!

Isabel from the band, "Inspirition"

Whilst writing the book, I realised that it was all very well me saying to others, “You can and will be confident” when all I do is take very small risks by accompanying students in weekly student performances and playing the odd jazz gig where I am playing background music which I have played dozens or even hundreds of times before. I started to think, “I need to put my money where my mouth is.”

Don’t get me wrong, using the Confident Performer techniques from the book do help the every day performing and I am more accurate as a result of refreshing these techniques but I needed to take on something that would stretch me.

I wanted to take on a challenge where I knew I would be pushing myself in terms of style, timescale to learn the material and memorising certain aspects of the songs as I was not going to be playing from score for much if any of it.

One such opportunity presented itself. I was asked by Stephen Marquiss, a fellow pianist featured in my Confident Performer Blog, would I stand in for the keyboard player for a radio recording performance in Frome with a Singer/Performer/dancer called Isabel Aimee of the act/band called “Inspirition.” There was no fee involved and I immediately listened to the music on her website and found the music really quirky but great fun. I knew that the material was quite ambitious for me given the 2 weeks I had to learn it. With working full time at college and knowing that I would only have 2 rehearsals and then a sound check, I was aware that this would be a challenge. Taking the advice I had gained from Duncan Kingston about living with the material on iPod before I went anywhere near a piano and also taking the advice from Rob Brian in my interview with him, I knew I needed to listen to the music intently and find out as much as I could about it so I could become totally immersed in every aspect of the songs. Isabel kindly emailed each and every track I was to be playing and I loaded it onto my ipod. I listened on the train, in the car, quietly when I was walking and when I was cooking. I started to absorb each and every note and chord into my subconscious. Some bits were not really going in well but I knew that nothing blocks the subconscious more than negative energy so I just kept listening and soaking it up. I started to hum the tunes and imagine the shapes of the keys in my mind. I then found what keys I was playing in and that helped the mental picture even further.

Isabel Aimee

The first rehearsal went quite well and we worked out how I was going to approach these songs in the real performance. I was still struggling with some parts of the pieces and I was not really sure why. I had made some cheat sheets as we call them; sheets that you put on basic information and things you need to remember to get the pieces started off in a gig but I was still struggling with one or two of them and I wasn’t really sure why. At the second rehearsal, Isabel told me about her life and how she had become involved in singing. She listed a range of challenging experiences in her career that led her to find an affinity with singing and what her voice meant to her in terms of communication. When I saw the way she engaged with the songs and the passion with which she sang them, I was beginning to see the bigger picture.

I took home the notes I had made and started to practice the songs that had troubled me and I was thinking what Isabel had said about the development of her voice and how it had become central to her identity in difficult times. The difference was amazing. I knew what I was listening for and the connection I then felt with the music was amazing. Suddenly the songs I felt really uneasy about had a real passion to them in my own mind. I was looking to practice these the moment I sat down at the piano. I also realised that the song I was trying to transfer from guitar to piano didn’t work that well so I thought, why shouldn’t I just play it on guitar! I put the capo on the guitar and because the song was so engrained in my subconscious with the meaning and passion behind it, I was loving playing these songs and I was so focused on it even though I hadn’t picked up he guitar for over a year.

Rook Lane Chapel Frome - The Venue for "Inspirition"

The night before the gig I learned the bad news that there was to be no drummer for the gig but just Isabel, a saxophone player called Gavin and me. I was quite concerned as I was expecting the drummer to help us through the structures of the song. As soon as we started to play and rehearse, I realised the incredible energy coming from Isabel which was just amazing to feed off and we hardly noticed there wasn’t a drummer. I had absorbed the songs completely and not even the fact that the drummer was missing shook me from the excitement of the gig.

The performance went well and the opening song Isabel sang unaccompanied was just about the best nerve settler and relaxation aid I have ever experienced. The music had started, the performers were in the zone and I was ready and excited to be playing. All nerves turned to excitement and I was focused on what I wanted to do, make Isabel shine and make some great music.

So why am I telling you all of this? Well – there are a lot of misunderstandings about how much rehearsing is required for a gig. What you need most is to know the music in your heart. This will enable you to perform accurately and enable you to make the most of what little rehearsal you may have. You also need to understand the music emotionally and connect with the singer, finding out the nuances of the material and what it means to he or she. Emotional handles and triggers on the songs, really help you to know where you are.

So, how did I play? I have been asked to play again. A re-booking is the sincerest form of praise!

So, in short, here are a few top tips for learning music in a short space of time:

• Put the music on your iPod or Mp3 player and listen to it EVERYWHERE
• Immerse yourself in the music completely the moment you receive it.
• Make a cheat sheet to help you remember structures or basic information.
• Be prepared to throw the cheat sheets away!
• Talk to the singer, writer or bandleader and find out what the songs mean to them. Engaging with the music and other artists is away to become fully immersed in the experience and nerves are often a lack of understanding.
• Really listen to the other performers and see where there is space and where there are other lines happening – you probably don’t have to play as much as you think.
• Any difficulties with the material just talk to the band. There is always more than one way of playing something.
• Remind yourself what you like about the songs and what they are starting to mean to you. I find I never make mistakes on the things I really want people to hear.
• The music in your heart is accurate.

Lee Risdale, Soul Singer, Walks the Walk

One of the key principles of NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming, is that if you desire to get better, find the people who are already doing what you want to do and work out from them what YOU need to do. Lee Risdale is one of those singers who is always incredibly busy gigging with his Soul/Function band, ‘Souled Out’ and I have a great deal of respect for him because of his vocal approach and his positive attitude towards trying new things. Quite often, musicians and singers do not like being put on the spot but Lee embraces the opportunity and in the featured Youtube Video with me on keyboards, Rob Wilson on Guitar, Tom Gardiner on Drums, Duncan Kingston on Bass and of course, Lee Risdale on Vocals, you can see what I mean. This was the result no rehearsal but just one run-through before a student audience entered the room. For me, there is no better sign of confidence than when somebody is so at ease with performing, that they will get up on stage at a moment’s notice and make a performance from little or no rehearsal. I am always eager to talk to these people about HOW they approach music and performance to see WHAT we can learn from their approach. So I sent Lee a list of questions, which I would later discuss in an interview with him. In true confident performer style, Lee responded with full answers to these questions which are insightful and shows a complete focus for the music and audience. This seems to be a familiar theme with successful confident performers who enjoy performing so I asked Lee if he was happy with me posting his answers directly.

In essence, this week’s post is a completely unedited copy of these answers to the questions Lee sent to me. I know you will find the answers stimulating and incredibly useful.

Have you always been a confident performer?

No. I was shy about performing at first. The music itself was the one thing that almost completely changed me. It was simply a real love and fascination for music that grew into a deep passion and this became a desire to be a musician/performer. This desire removed the focus from any self-conscious feelings I had about performing or singing to an audience and shifted it to ‘giving a good musical performance.’

How did nerves show themselves?

Just before a gig, right before the band started playing I would get the ‘butterflies’ in my stomach as we walked out on stage. As soon as the music started though I was ’in the zone’ and any nerves were replaced by adrenalin. Both my band mates and I had a lot of nervous energy so we moved a lot on stage. We even choreographed some of it, which put the focus on making a show.

At what point did you notice that nerves no longer troubled you?

As we began to get a great audience response and played regularly it became clearer that any nerves were simply nervous energy waiting to get into action. We were rehearsed enough that we barely had to think about what we were playing and the music was received so well that the mere idea of being nervous seemed wrong. The attitude of Rock n’ Roll music was all about confidence and swagger. I would listen to and watch the best artistes and figure out what I could take from them to come across better. We were booked at an International Festival at the age of sixteen and there were thousands in the audience. After getting a great reception at that, everything felt much easier and smaller by comparison. I saw that the most successful performers displayed great confidence onstage and decided I would go about projecting that.

What strategies have you put in place to deal with potentially nerve-wracking experiences?

Warming up my voice really helps because at the back of a musicians mind there is a concern that for some reason your technique might be compromised, especially if you’re a singer. It’s a delicate and widely misunderstood instrument in the wrong hands. A singer’s worst nightmare is in losing their voice onstage. This has happened to me and it is very embarrassing.

As well as ‘warming up’ the vocals cords and support muscles a warmup re-instils a confidence that your instrument is in good working order and mentally this boosts confidence.

It’s the same with any instrument. The best guitar playing I know walk around backstage playing his guitar constantly before the gig.

If it’s a large audience, that’s when nerves are most likely to reappear. In this situation I try to find a quiet place if possible (not always easy) or go outside and make time to be quiet. In the same way an athlete prepares mentally for a race or a sporting event, I try to use the same process. I run the gig in my mind and the audience’s response, like a movie. Or I remember a previous successful gig. Any doubt, gets replaced by determination to make this happen.

‘Acting’ is to some extent what many performers do to overcome nerves onstage. I guess you can ‘act’ confident’ until eventually you ‘become confident’ onstage, but ultimately ‘being yourself’ in confidence is earned through rehearsal and experience.

How do you practice and does this help with being confident on stage?

If I’m learning a song I like to play it over and over on repeat until the ‘feel’ tempo, rhythm, phrasing and melody are clear in my mind. I’ll sing or play along with it in on my guitar till I’m sure of my parts and the Key. Then in a band rehearsal we’ll go in with a plan and run the songs, making any adjustments until we’re happy it’ll work live. Beginnings, cues, and endings get settled so the band is in agreement. Good communication and getting feedback from others in rehearsal is really important as I find that if all of the band are reasonably happy, there is less room for error. I like to listen to others and try to compromise to make a happy band. A happy band is a confident band. Also, if they can trust me to deliver and give good cues, it’ll run effortlessly. If I write a song to play live, I record it first, play it to the band, get some feedback, make adjustments, re-record, make copies and organise a rehearsal to check it works as a band before trying it live.

If you’re unrehearsed or are playing with unrehearsed dep musicians, you just don’t know what to expect next and it can affect everybody’s confidence. It’s ‘on the edge’ and although sometimes this can keep the music fresh, there’s a feeling that at any moment something will go wrong and you’re always on the back foot, hoping to recover from a potential musical ‘car crash.’

What is a good mindset for soloing?

My experience is that if you are well rehearsed enough in technique and practiced in improvisation the best mind-set is to completely ‘let go’ of any pre-conceived ideas and your solo will practically play itself. As long as you are reasonably well-rehearsed or have enough experience of improvising and know the structure of changes you are working with, some of the best solos are felt more so than contrived. Some solos are well structured in recording sessions and rehearsals and this is a good idea as a general guide so that you’re not completely in the dark. This can form the basis of a good solo but ultimately knowledge and experience just lend to an ‘in the moment’ creative and dynamic live solo.

How do you prepare for recording?

I warm-up my voice lightly at first using a ‘lip roll’ technique which get’s get my vocal cords warm without any undue tension and then use series of scales and techniques to prepare it.  I refresh myself with the structure and get a copy of the chords and the lyrics ready for back-up. Then I focus on what I want to produce. I usually have a pretty clear idea of how I want it to sound in my head and then I go about making it sound like that. Sometimes something might happen and it changes for the better so I find it’s healthy to be prepared to let go of some of your pre-conceived ideas as other musicians often bring their own unique stamp to a recording.

What top tips would you give a drummer or other performer about coping with nerves?

• Focus on what you want. Listen to some of the best professionals.
• Have a good routine that you do to ‘stay loose’ before you need to perform.
• Make sure you have somewhere you can rehearse regularly and ‘practice, practice, practice.
• Don’t do it because you ‘have to’…..but because you’ll be much more confident as a performer if you do.
• A happy band is a confident band.
• Focus on beginnings, cues, and endings so that they are solid.

Following Your Inspiration Makes You Confident

Trist Hendy playing bass with NativeJune

This week saw 3 fabulous interviews with very different musicians and the last of the interviews of the week was with the remarkable musician and performer, Tristan Hendy from signed PunkPop band NativeJune. Everything about Tristan’s personality oozes a natural and energetic confidence about music. Over here in the South West of England for only a few weeks but living in Los Angeles the rest of the time, it is fair to say that Tristan has a naturally sunny disposition and I was determined to interview him about what makes him a confident performer. I was a little unsure what might come out in the interview as Tristan may not be aware of what makes him a confident musician. It became apparent in the interview that Tristan has developed this confidence and now after playing bass with NativeJune for 6 years, having been one of the founder members, he has achieved a level of confidence which is truly sustainable and he plays, writes and performs with this confidence.

Having seen some of the band’s performances from their website, www.nativejune.com I was under no illusion that their confidence was fake and their energy purely for stage effect. The energy is real, the performances are powerful and the audiences love them. I asked Tristan had he always been confident as a performer and he said no. Recounting a story of childhood panic whilst playing a piano solo of The Jurassic Park theme tune, he pretty much crumbled through nerves.

Tristan's Piano Album Cover

This didn’t stop him from playing the piano and he still composes, performs and records his own material which is available from www.tristanhendy.com The material is an amazing mix of influences from a wide range of sources combining techniques which are wonderfully rocky and not your usual sedentary piano compositions one has come to expect from self-composed solo piano albums. It is clear that performing his own compositions is an area of massive inspiration for Tristan.

The composition theme is a familiar one in Tristan’s outlook. Whenever he talks about amazing experiences, amazing gigs and successful outcomes, he is always talking about the material that he or the band has written. This is really food for thought. On the music course I teach with my colleagues, we have always known that when students play their own material, they develop their confidence because they feel a connection and a passion with the music. NativeJune have taken this to the next level touring the music across America and soon to be touring it across the UK and Europe. Confidence always grows and you have to capitalise on it.

Native June

Whilst in conversation, the energy is also apparent and Tristan’s outgoing character comes across brilliantly. The overriding sense I get from talking with him, is in no way about arrogance at all but a real sense that Tristan is following his inspiration and pursuing his dream. It is utterly contagious and is something which instils confidence and excitement in anybody who is around him. It is interesting to meet somebody who is 6 years down the road of following his inspiration and to see what it can do for you and your confidence. I couldn’t help getting the feeling that Tristan must be like a Roman soldier ready to go into battle before he goes on stage, fighting for the Rome of his musical inspiration. I urge you to listen to the interview with Tristan and download it from here. He is a powerful role model for any performer and has inspired me to start writing my own piano pieces.

Tristan had excellent tips which are really worth taking on-board.

• Develop your confidence by playing the things you want to play.
• Play in a band as it is easier if there are 3 or 4 other musicians on stage – this will develop your confidence.
• When you are playing solo material, develop your confidence by playing your own material. Nobody knows it better than you!
• If you go wrong on stage, HEY! IT WAS MEANT TO BE THAT WAY!
• Play background music gigs to develop confidence for solo playing.
• Tell yourself “I am the best person at playing this song because I wrote the part!”
• The fear of the unknown goes when you do it more and more. The more you play your set the more confident you will be.
• Most performers are out there because their love and drive for wanting to play the material is stronger than their fear of playing in front of an audience.
• Never turn down an opportunity to play (unless it is paying to play.)
• Playing sober will help you play and we agreed it is much more sustainable.
• If it helps, imagine your audience has no clothes on! (…only if it helps)
• Play again and again – it develops your muscle memory of the songs.
• Invite friends over to a practice space to hear new songs. It will give you confidence in new material before you go on stage.
• When recording in the studio, remember that you wrote the parts. Always keep the parts playable but aim to get better and better.  The parts you write are a playoff between being playable and being slightly ambitious.
• When recording, get the energy that you have when you play live. Set up the session to make this possible. Capture the live performance.

Check out NativeJune at www.nativejune.com and Tristan’s solo piano work at www.tristanhendy.com

Listen to the interview at http://www.clivestockerweb.co.uk/tristan.zip

Confident Performer is written by Clive Stocker

Don’t Teach an Instrument, Grow a Musical Person.

Stephen Marquiss photo courtesy of Lis McDermott

The week started well with me interviewing Basira Ward-Davies about her techniques for confidence as a performer and singer. (see the previous blog post for this interview) She mentioned at the end of the interview that I should take time to see the pianist and teacher, Stephen Marquiss about his piano technique book entitled, “Piano Portals” and the materials he had been creating to guide pupils when learning to become musical pianists. Having heard him play at several concerts and parties, I was really intrigued to meet him again and talk more specifically about playing.

Before you read on, please watch Stephen’s performance of Handel Suite No. 2 in F Second movement

From the video, you can see that Stephen is a very accomplished pianist, and his CV is by anybody’s standards, impressive. In his early embarkation into the musical world, he made it through to the final televised stages of the BBC Young Musicians of the Year and also achieved among other accolades, the highest ABRSM exam result in the country for Grade 6. He is quite dismissive of these achievements and believes exams “to be amongst the least meaningful barometers of authentic musical achievement” It is interesting to hear people talk about these landmarks in such a way as for layman or non-musician, these are seen as major stepping stones by which he or she might judge progress and musical ability. I knew that Stephen had experienced some issues with playing and performing and then had some kind of major break through about 2 years ago. I was keen to find out what it was and what had caused it.

Photo Courtesy of Lis McDermott

Over the course of the 90 minute interview, Stephen talked about how his musical training had not really prepared him to be a truly confident musician. Up until about two years ago, he felt that he could only go so far with his playing and that he could only play a certain type of concert or gig and feel confident with the experience. He believed that a few technical and mental issues had placed a ceiling on his playing. Through working with a wide range of students, he developed a different method of working with, playing and engaging with, music. He also worked on developing the aural skills of his students and also re-engaged his own aural skills with the music he was playing which helped him to reconnect with music. Stephen described the fear he had previously of playing music from memory which was largely down to his ability to be able to read music so well. We often rely on the ways which we know are successful and to a large extent in my own playing, I relied on using my ear to learn and memorise music, something I still do now when I know I will be playing from memory. Stephen’s new approach sought to engage fully, the idea of Aural Imprinting as he had realised that relying on reading just kept him in a familiar comfort zone. The comfort zone Stephen is referring to is the fact that he is quite a concert draw for the Local Music Festival and the organiser said, “To get a lot of bums on seats, we have either got to get somebody really, really famous, or we get Stephen Marquiss” Most musicians would see that as a reason to stay doing exactly what you are doing. I mean, if it isn’t broken, then why fix it? Stephen was unhappy with the way he was doing things and he didn’t feel confident about certain aspects of his playing and this troubled him.

We carried on talking and I raised the question about Stephen’s piano book which I had seen at Basira’s house and the thing that had caught be me by surprise was the text which accompanied each little piece. For example in one piece, the text opposite the musical score reads: “Be comforted… delighted… pampered.” I asked him about these studies or exercises and Stephen was very quick to correct me on what they should be called. He insisted that they are “pieces” or “patterns.” I asked why this was so and why not call them studies and his response was that learning to play the piano was all about MUSIC and engaging the emotions and feelings to reveal this in the playing. As many people will know from reading my other blog posts, the only route I see for confident performing is emotional engagement and investment in the event, music and audience. Stephen has gone one massive step further in this area. He incorporates the emotional engagement at every musical step of teaching.

Piece 5: D1 from Piano Portals by Stephen Marquiss

This is absolutely fundamental in music and something which is sadly missing in much musical teaching and indeed many teaching methodologies. I asked Stephen in subsequent emails what had inspired him to include such text and he said there was a little reference back to the works of Erik Satie and his inclusion of text to stimulate the musician to feel the music rather than just read it. My question then was, “Does he think that every teacher will engage with this and will every pupil engage with this?” The question is perhaps a little rhetorical and I anticipated his response. He is trying to change things and replace dogmatic, prosaic remarks from tradition musical scores, which do not develop imaginative musical interpretations in the player with thought and feeling provoking statements. He says, “The other thing is that I wanted to achieve was for the creation to be a thing of beauty in itself, rather than just another instructional manual” I commend this approach whole-heartedly.
Interestingly, many of the pieces are very short which is excellent! Many of the piano works I encountered in the early stages of learning, (and sometimes even now!) are forebodingly long. How many people have looked for the shortest piece in a book to learn…? Ok, that was my own interjection and projection. I for one as an auditory learner hate long scary studies. My piano career is littered with “One page wonders….” The other aspect of shorter pieces or “Patterns” as Stephen calls them is the current fashion for minimalistic piano styles. Many of my own students love to play and experiment with, small repeating piano or instrumental patterns with which they develop their own influences into improvisations and sometimes pieces in their own right. This is the other aspect of the method, which Stephen is developing, the integration with listening performing and composing. In my view, creativity has 3 dimensions and I love hearing the emotional investment a student has made in a piece of music and I encourage them with this further and further. Some teachers, through no fault of their own do not know how to veer away from the set pieces in the piano tutor books or feel incredibly out of their depth and their own comfort zones and seek to stay comfortable by limiting the progress of their students within their own limited experience… The cycle goes on if they themselves become teachers… (a subject for another debate…)

Photo Courtesy of Lis McDermott

In the course of the interview and subsequent emails, I used the term “Holistic” in describing the approach he is taking with teaching and playing. He was worried that I may portray this in the wrong way. He writes:

“The main point of Piano Portals as I see it (and their unique selling point) is as a genuine substitute for traditional technical exercises with a view to developing a free and flowing and brilliant technique in an efficient, effective and enjoyable way; but the way to do this is of course in a holistic manner and thereby to turn on their heads the assumptions made by almost everyone I’ve ever spoken to about how to become a brilliant and confident pianist. “

Photo Courtesy of Lis McDermott

My thoughts immediately turned to the problem that many of us having been taught in ways, which are so strict and perhaps under nourishing emotionally and yet they are very difficult to break free from. I suspect that this was part of the problem Stephen had encountered. By his own admission, he says he has had more formal piano and music tuition than anybody can have and started to realise that not all the teaching was serving him positively.
In my own experience, in Neuro Linguistic Programming circles, if something is not serving you, supporting the direction you want or need to go then the task you have is to change it. Stephen’s advice to all musicians is to ask yourself about the techniques you learn, “How is it serving me? Is it making me better?” This is a very good question to ask yourself as a student or even a teacher. I often say to my students, if you are finding something difficult to accept or understand, tell me about it and make me earn my money!
Technique is often an area for contentious debate and this is the point in the interview where Stephen became most animated and most emotionally engaged. Talking at length about some of the bizarre traditions of technical instruction and how many of the so called ‘Core TECHNIQUES’ we learn are not beneficial to good piano playing and good musical outcomes. I wonder why we teach them? Some techniques being taught can introduce technical inhibitions. Is it just to get the student to sit still long enough to get their hands on a few notes? He lists these below:-

• A tendency at the beginner stages to focus the attention and emphasis of teaching on the hand and fingers, which may include “hand position”, associating certain notes with certain finger-numbers, achieving legato predominantly with the fingers, etc.
• A tendency, through an emphasis on certain methods of practising and widely available “technical exercises”, of inhibiting certain physical activities from interacting “naturally” and usefully with the movements of the hand, including the flexion/extension of the forearm (especially the extension of the forearm’s integration with the motion of the thumb), the “in-out” motion of the forearm and the activity of the torso against the seat and the feet against the floor.
• A tendency, through certain methods and emphases, to encourage the attempted “clinging on” (or “placing” or “preparing” or “not letting go”) of the hand in relation to the keys which can cause many people to struggle for ever with passages of (e.g.) reasonably fast-moving chords or octaves etc. and many other elements and to negotiate the geography of the keyboard freely and easily.
• A tendency to fail to emphasise the fundamental importance of cultivating and relying on the “aural imprint” of the music (the best way to do this is to incorporate singing, regularly and methodically – many piano students have never been asked to sing) and then to integrate this successfully with fluent score-reading whilst maintaining the fundamental aural impulse.
• A tendency not to take into account the individual learning emphasis/personality type of the student and to adapt emphases accordingly. Hence many students who think they can play but not read and vice versa.
• A tendency to compartmentalise and neglect beautifully complementary musical idioms which could be integrated to great effect (such as classical/jazz/pop or “learning” versus improvising) and elements (how many people spend all of their piano lesson time sitting on the stool – where is the integration of movement that was so fundamental in expressing rhythms/musical creativity in pre-school?)

Stephen mentions the work of Abby Whiteside, a controversial piano teacher in the early to mid 1900’s, and his own teacher, Sophia Rosoff as being a particularly influential part of his musical development. Sophia co-edited the teaching works of Whiteside in which many traditionally accepted piano techniques are dismissed as they will not lead to fluent, musical, sustainable technique. One such technique Stephen sites is the strange tendency for piano teachers to forbid certain movements, i.e. assisting the thumb with the forearm. This seems ridiculous given that we move most fluently when our muscles work together. I remember this from a year of Tai Chi. The smoothest movement came from a seamless integration of arm, shoulder, torso and lower body movements. It makes sense that the piano technique should be similar. There is not sufficient scope within this article to cover these technical areas in much detail but it did make me think that what we teach or learn must always support the emotional engagement and fluently controlled technique and some things I was taught, did not always lead to this end.

Stephen Plays Glastonbury Photo Courtesy of Deb Fillis

Emotional Development.
This for me was the most interesting area which came up in the discussion. I asked Stephen when did he feel most on top of his technique and piano playing. He said it was at the time of being aged 11 – 12 and then things started to slow for him. Having some problems with a long-standing shoulder injury, slowed his progress down in his teens. Stephen also stated that much of the teaching around this time, aged 12-15 did not take into account his emotional developmental needs. I suspected an indigestion from an over propensity of spoon feeding and even Stephen admits that he often took onboard anything he was taught. All too often teachers have too little time or understanding of the connection between the development of the emotional side of a musician and the technical side of playing music. Stephen’s “block” or “ceiling” which he reached a couple of years ago seems to represent the need to dismantle the scaffolding left by a lifetime of piano lessons, sorting through the good, not so good and down right destructive aspects of techniques learned processing and filtering it back into a way learning and living as a musician. For me The “Piano Portals” work and teaching and learning materials represents the results from these revelations. It feeds and preserves motivation by answering WHY we want to play something. This is far more important than HOW we are going to play something. All too often, as Stephen says, we are told HOW to interpret a particular piano piece or HOW somebody else interprets a piece of music and why that interpretation is important to music. Sometimes we are told we must interpret it in the same way. This does little or nothing to develop a person’s personality or their musical understanding. It destroys motivation and kills off any life long love and understanding somebody might have for music. Stephen refers to it as:-

“the apparent notion that “teaching music” is something somewhat disintegrated from interacting empathically and intelligently with a whole person, including the physical, mental/emotional (personality type, mindset), spiritual (level of engagement) and the possible misapprehension that taking these latter aspects into account might not be fundamental to developing as an expressive and technically accomplished musician. “

Stephen in an instruction video on pianoplaytime Youtube Channel

I mentioned to Stephen about my experiences of being a musician in school, watching various students learn the piano and very quickly got to grade 3, 4 or 5 without too much trouble with great efficiency. I also described the fact that many stopped very soon afterwards because they had no engagement or love for the music itself. For me, musical teaching which fails to include emotional engagement and development produces weak and specific hot housed results which will not be sustained. Musicians will not be able to cope with many aspects of performance, or a variety of styles. Music is a lifelong gift, which MUST include emotional engagement and an engagement of aural imprinting. We both commented and admitted we would both love a pound for every person we had met who wished they had continued playing but stopped because of bad teaching or negative programming.

I recommend the Piano Portals method because of its integration with the personal and emotional needs and development of the whole musical self. At the heart of the Confident Performer blog and writings is the philosophy that confident musical performing stems from total engagement with music and emotion and this must influence everything you do in your musical life. I am pleased to say that I am learning many of the patterns and pieces from the book and finding them rewarding as they are testing my own technique. The music is also very rewarding and well worth the investment of money and time. They are available from Stephen’s Own Website priced £10 plus P&P http://www.stephenmarquiss.co.uk/

In short:-

• Think for yourself and don’t just do what you are told.
• Ask “Is what I am being taught helping me to achieve these goals.
• Ask yourself what you want to achieve.
• Think about your priorities.
• Identify aspects of your learning or teaching which do not serve you and change them.
• Make sure you are getting the best tools for the job.
• Watch everybody, watch musicians, watch dancers, watch public speakers, watch tennis players, watch violinists to see fluency and gain inspiration.
• Watch talented youngsters and see if there is a natural fluency in what they do.

Confident Performer is written by Clive Stocker.

Is Musical Technique the refuge of the insecure, or a foundation for Mastery?

This question popped into my mind whilst in conversation with the professional singer and vocal coach Basira Ward-Davies with respect to the slight difference in approach she had experienced collaborating with Youth, a producer who has worked with Primal Scream, Crowded House, the Futureheads, the Verve, the Orb and experimental collaborations with Paul McCartney. His viewpoint was that technique was the refuge of the insecure whereas Basira’s point of view was that solid technique was the foundation for mastery. It got me thinking and wondering if technical mastery was different from artistic mastery. Whilst talking with Basira, it was clear that the secret to her enviable confidence and plethora of successful performances in her rich and varied career was a mastery of vocal technique.

My first question to her was in relation to her enviable booking as a session singer for the sound track to the block busting Brad Pitt movie, Troy. I made one fatal assumption and personal projection in my question about nerves relating to recording vocals for the Hollywood film with James Horner. I said “Basira, when we start recording, I would like to ask you about how you dealt with the nerves you felt when you recorded for the Troy sound track” Immediately, Basira said to me that it was not nerve wracking in the slightest as she loved doing it and it was something that she felt so confident with that it was something very much within her comfort zone. It was surprising for me as I would have been quite stressed about an opportunity like that and to be honest, I was a bit disappointed by this response as I was hoping to explore the process. My disappointment was quickly replaced with an enriching, deeper understanding of the relation between technique and confidence.

The interview started and I asked had she always been a confident performer and she said as a singer, yes, she had. In the areas of piano and acting she was less confident and in some ways, actually nervous. I asked her why this was that she was very confident as a singer and she said because she had analysed every aspect of her voice and vocal performances and worked on the vocal techniques she needed to ensure accurate performances with a voice she was able to rely on totally. Basira is able to make fine adjustments as she is singing in pretty much any circumstance. Piano and acting performances, she feels less confident because she does not have the same amount of technical knowledge about the process to fall back on. In my devilment after the interview, I wondered whether this was a self-fulfilling prophecy in that if you know that you are less adept at something, you worry more. In my case, it can be the reverse. Whilst playing guitar, I worry more because my ability is considerably less than my ability on the piano so I feel much more laid back, limiting my own expectations from the instrument. I call to mind the one and only time I saw Freddie Mercury play guitar. He said, “This shitty guitar only knows three chords” and he started playing, giving it all of his usual confidence.

Ok – so I am now measuring up against the initial statement that technique is the foundation for mastery given the amount of performances I have seen Basira perform. It would seem so. If technique brings confidence, then I need to get practicing scales and arpeggios by the bucket-load! Having seen Basira sing in a variety of situations, she is able to embrace a wealth of styles and work with an audience taking them on a journey whilst using the subtleties of a flawless technique. It was clear that a complete understanding of technique provided relaxation and a neutralisation of nerves. After further exploration, it was clear that Basira uses an inner supervisor to look over her performances, tweaking and steering her through each note, saying, “Take a low breath here, breathe here, more tilt on this note, sharpen that note slightly” Basira calls this a strong witness. I had a picture in my own mind that this witness was an engineer in a white coat with a little can of oil, lubricating the odd little cog as Basira’s vocal machine powerfully did its thing. It is interesting that this witness is referred to in a number of texts as an awareness and judgement free feedback, which keeps the musical machine rolling forward. Having known her for so long, I know that she is often very astute and direct in her observations, which results in efficient interactions and what seems like on the surface abrupt. The same is true with the response she gives to her own voice. If it needs changing, just change it. She never gets bogged down in a battle with her conscience about her voice.

The process is:-

1. Identify the problem.

2. How do you solve problem?

3. Solve Problem.

4. Keep it monitored.

This is an excellent example of performance awareness. I was wondering how there was room for musicality in this performance and preparation model but it was clear that there is a deep musical philosophy, which is being served by the technical aspects of her technique. Having known Basira for nearly 20 years, I know that she feels music deeply and her precise technical preparation for music comes from a love and respect for the music itself. She feels the need to control her voice so precisely to deliver the musical message in a precise and powerful way, which is reproducible and sustainable. This approach is really humbling in a way. We often associate ego with people who are technically proficient and yet this is something very different. The confidence about performance is so sound that she is able to deliver the music and share it with the audience and not get bogged down with worry about high notes or fast passages of music. Music must be able to speak and technique is needed to enable the music to be able to do this. Her technique is transparent so that the music can do its job. Having known her for many years, I know that she takes interpretation very seriously indeed and has to LOVE the piece and find out exactly what it is about and what it means to her and what it means to her audience. In the latter part of the interview, she mentioned that the performance process was about the music and the journey that the audience and performer will embark upon. As soon as there is Ego in a performance for Basira, the point in the performance is lost. The music must speak. She sited a few key performers who have a humble totally music centred approach to performance and to her, the music speaks. András Schiff and Daniel Barenboim were sited and having seen Barenboim’s master classes on Beethoven playing, I would agree. His enthusiasm and beautifully playful approach to trying out ideas is what every musical performance should be about.

Earlier on in the interview, I asked Basira is it ok for a musician to make a mistake and she laughed loudly and said, “Absolutely!” She recounted a long list of mistakes and potentially self-esteem crushing mistakes she had made in gigs. She laughed at length about all of these. The list was long and she also recounted a few names of amazing professional classical performers who had made serious mistakes in their musical performances, stopping and going back to the beginning or going back to a suitable restarting point. These musicians were so ‘in the zone’ that it did not even rouse them from the focus and they continued on without a problem. I have known many musicians for whom the experience of making a serious musical mistake is usually enough for them to totally crash and burn and not be able to continue. Having performed with Basira on a few scratch jazz gigs, I know that her outlook is extremely successful and conducive to a great gig. We all made mistakes on the gig but her confidence and musicality carried us through. Nobody knew we made mistakes and her demeanour on stage was so relaxed and modelling musical enjoyment that we knew we were always going to succeed, no matter what we did. The musical energy is like a ski lift through any musical error and a reminder that mistakes are liberating and indeed necessary in finding out that we don’t die when we cock-up.

Is technique really a refuge for the insecure? I thought long and hard about this question. If this were really true, then Basira should be one of the most unadventurous boring musicians that has ever lived. She would perform the same baroque piece relying on anally controlled technique to produce carbon copy performances to the same audience in the same venue and yet clearly she is doing anything but this. She improvises Jazz, Raga, various world folk musics, sings classical Baroque, classical, opera, show music, Hildegard Von Bingen recitals, experimental theatre – the list is endless and this is just things I have seen her perform. So my answer is definitely NO.

By trying such a variety of these things, Basira has developed her career and her confidence in singing and the techniques she uses to make it all possible. There is no insecurity, just a willingness to try new things and the mastery of technique makes her even more willing to be adventurous almost to the point of being outrageously experimental. Mastery of technique enables her to focus on the music and the relationship between the music and the audience. With a true love of music, there is no room for fear.

I would be surprised if an over endowment in technical mastery was inhibiting my creativity… (coughs nervously…) I cannot use it as an excuse… I just need to practice and listen to the Quaker adage, ‘Live Adventurously’.

I think its time for me to get practicing scales and arpeggios and plan some amazing creative projects.

Please play the audio recording of the interview below for more specific detail about confident performing.

Teaching Others to be Confident

Richard Perkins busking with The Bath Guitar School

As musicians, we often spend some of our time teaching. At least half of the students in the music class I lecture are either teaching an instrument or have taught an instrument at some time.

We must never reinforce negative feeling as an educator. I heard one teacher say many years ago about a particular student he was teaching, “I wash my hands of her. I cannot do anything for her unless she gains confidence”.
To me, that was cast iron evidence that the teacher had given up with the student and had never done anything at all to develop her confidence in the first place. In fact, it was quite the reverse. Now when I look back on that encounter, I think what a terrible thing to say to a student and an example of total blame shift onto the very person who is paying you to help them to get better. As teachers, we must measure our effectiveness by the changes we make in others. Some teachers I know are super confident people and have no idea what it is like to feel un-confident. In fact it is often easy for us to forget times when we were very scared ourselves when we meet students or pupils who are suffering badly with nerves. We have our own concerns about that person’s confidence and can feel that it is a reflection on our teaching if they have a lack of confidence. I have seen some teachers, when they meet somebody who has low self-esteem or is a performer with bad nerves, unwittingly; they simply reinforce the fears in the student by recreating the same scenarios and veiled judgements and disappointments that the student came to them with in the first place. A student will fall into the trap of not feeling good enough and some teachers would be glad to adopt the role of oppressor.

Some teachers offer no strategies, no solutions for the student to get more confident. If you have students who are nervous and not getting any better, then look to create opportunities for that student to perform regularly in a safe environment free from negative emotions. This is the best way to develop confidence and a cycle of learning and getting better. Also do not wait too long before you get them performing and do not make a big fuss about it. I know students who have waited so long after starting to learn an instrument before they perform that they have built up in their minds the idea that performing is a monumentally massive deal. Clearly this is a really bad place to let students get to in their minds. I have noticed through my own experience and the experience of watching excellent teachers that organising fun performing opportunities dissolves away the nerves of students who get more and more confident as a result.

Richard Perkins busking with a few Guitarist from The Bath Guitar School

Only the other day, I was watching a busking session in Bath run by Richard Perkins and his guitar students from the Bath Guitar School. Richard was leading the students from his own guitar and singing leading by example of how to be confident and have fun playing music. The Christmas repertoire gave the young guitarists a low risk opportunity to jam along and gain confidence without feeling too exposed and really enjoy playing with a group of musicians. The first song saw a few of the younger guitarists not keeping up with the chords but were still relaxed and quite focused. I returned 40 minutes later to the second set of the same songs to find the group of young guitarists now playing the right chords in the right places looking more confident than they had been earlier in the same hour. It was amazing to see (see picture left) and a real testament to the performance based ethos of the Bath Guitar School. There had been no input given to students in the 40 minutes I had been away, their didn’t need to be but the students just got better by playing, listening and watching. It works because we only learn through performance and the more we provide real opportunities like this for the people we are teaching, the better and more confident each student becomes. I have heard it said that one should never have low standards which is something I agree with fully but letting people learn and enjoy themselves should be at the core of every interaction we have with our students. Being a friend and colleague of Richard, I know he has very high standards and great expectations but he lets people develop through careful guidance and plenty of fun opportunities with which he shares his own enthusiasm.

So. If you are supporting musicians who are nervous and everything you say or do doesn’t make your students any more confident, look at what opportunities you are providing to allow that confidence to grow. Confidence is like a seedling. It needs to start off in a small seed pot, be watered carefully, live in a warm environment, kept out of strong sunlight. A good gardener knows when the seedling needs re-potting and knows when it is ready to go outside and when the supporting cane can be removed. As it grows, it becomes stronger and stronger and eventually it bares fruit of its own.

From my own experience of teaching, regular gigs or playthroughs in front of others are amazing for developing confidence and excitement and enthusiasm for a musician. This is at the core of BA1 Records where I work. When I was younger, my piano teacher would invite me over to play piano for all of her mature piano students for their tea and scones afternoons. It was an amazing experience and such a wonderful environment for me to improve my confidence and get some positive feedback from a small, warm appreciative audience. My confidence grew so that I was able to take my grade 8 and audition for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Here are a few key points worth remembering as a teacher or coach of an instrument:

• Always make it fun.
• Play duets with your pupils.
• Rejoice in the simple things in music. It doesn’t need to be difficult music to be fun!
• Take part yourself. Lead by example.
• Always talk about the passion in the music and share your enthusiasm for it.
• Make opportunities for your students to play in public in a safe way which will improve confidence and instil purpose into the skills they are learning.

What opportunities are you providing? Are you allowing for growth or are you saying, “if only they were confident, then I would be able to teach them and they would be ok….”

 
Photo of smaller group of buskers, Courtesy of Clare Kingswell Photography

Rob Brian talks about how to become a Confident Drummer

This week, I was very privileged to be able to interview Top Session Drummer and Drum Clinician, Rob Brian  about the aspects of being a confident drummer. Having played for Siouxsie Sioux, Black Box and Modern English and taught extensively to all age ranges and abilities, I have always found Rob to be inspiring and I had the pleasure of working with him for about 5 years, establishing the instrumental syllabus at City of Bath College which has contributed to the success of BA1 Records and the amount of drummers from college who have entered the profession since benefiting from Rob’s Tuition.

In this 3 part interview, Rob touches upon key areas relating to:

• preparation,
• performance mind set,
• practicing for soloing,
• dealing with tricky people,
• handling difficult gigs,
• playing styles outside of your comfort zone and gives some
• top tips for any performer, regardless of experience or ability.

I am very grateful for Rob for giving up his time and energy to share such gold dust with us. You can find out more about Rob Brian at http://www.robertbrian.co.uk 
Here is Rob Brian on Jonathan Ross with Siouxsie Sioux

The Wedding Pianist…

This weekend saw the marriage of two dear friends in a wonderful church and dozens of friends, family guests and church people. My task was to perform two modern hymns chosen by my friends as a piano solo, to be played whilst the register was being signed. Initially I was a little nervous. I wasn’t sure I wanted the responsibility of performing these pieces as a solo. They were not pieces I would usually play and I knew I would feel exposed when there would be absolute silence. I felt the pressure to justify myself as “music lecturer” and often that can be a distraction. I have tried to over complicate things in the past and forget, i just need to do what has been asked for. My job is to do the same preparation as anybody else and give the music the respect and consideration it deserves. My advantage is that I know that through learning and experience.  It doesn’t matter if I have been playing music for 1 year or 30 years, the ingredients for preparation are the same.

The list of reasons for my fears were many but the main one was, what if I spoil this and spoil their day?
This fear was something I knew I could turn around into something positive. The advice from the session drummer Rob Brian was solid. Learn the pieces inside out and immerse yourself in them for as long as possible. Learn why they are important to the people who requested them and really feel their importance. The day came and alongside comforting and calming the nervous groom, I was meeting and greeting the guests from the wedding. I had learned the pieces from memory and had the lead sheets just in case I had to lengthen the pieces to fill the gap while they were signing.
Two people read for the wedding and they were quite nervous and this did add some nerves to me but I kept focused on the event, the special day and significance of the music. To control my heart rate somewhat, I did some slow breathing exercises which calmed me down and I was re-focused again. I had practiced the opening few bars of both pieces lots of times so it would be absolutely auto pilot. The opening to any set, piece or performance must be second nature. Then I was fine. I took my time when I sat at the piano, no urgency to start. I Started when I was ready. I Thought of the melody and got the tempo from this. I started the piece slightly slower than I thought I would because I knew if I was focused and a little excited then I would probably feel the tempo was slower than it actually was. The tempo was fine. After a few bars I was fine. I made a few mistakes but only musical ones, ie chords that fitted but were not the chords that were written. Nobody noticed and I was focused on the next bar anyway.It is good to know that the techniques work even for strange situations in which I don’t normally Play and for music which unfamiliar to me. It is easy to say to yourself, I should be able to do this easily. Actually, you just need to do this so it is good. Sometimes, that is easy sometimes that may be hard but one must do proper preparation and leave the hot air of could and should, behind. Give the music and occasion the respect it deserves and it will reward you.
The event was a success and my friends are happily married and nobody notice the two different chords I played…

Red Light Recording Fever

The Holy Grail of Recording. Having a recording session for a musician can be like the holy grail. A permanent record of music, something to put in the personal archives. Ever since I got my first four track tape recorder, I realised that recording was not simple and performing when the little red light came on, was something that can reduce a man to sweats, swearing, frustration, loss of self confidence, major loss of face in front of your friends and more importantly, your band! A band is more than a family and the pressures of recording can be a nightmare when you feel you are letting your band down and wasting time and money as a result.

Focused pressure. I remember being completely unable to record a keyboard part in a studio in Southend when I was 15 due to the absolute pressure of playing an isolated part in front of the whole class I was working with. In the end, the engineer had to record the part and I went home in shame. The memory still makes me shudder but the reasons for my inability to produce a part to order were only clear many years later.
Firstly, I had not practiced the part sufficiently as I only had been given this in the morning and I hadn’t got the skills to pick up new material quickly. Secondly I was so nervous that my brain only functioned in its panic state which has only limited function and can only recall things it has in auto pilot mode. Ie a piece of music you are used to playing over and over again and again. This is totally and utterly the wrong way to think, act and prepare for performance recording.
So what causes us to Freeze in the studio? Well. Being a lover of analogies, and naughty ones at that, playing a gig in front of an audience is like making love and being caught up in the sensuality of the moment, whereas, recording in a studio is like being in a porn movie, performing to order in front of two rather disinterested camera men.
Not many people can or want to do this intimate act to order in such a sterile environment!
A performance has one key aspect which is essential. An audience. The relationship an artist has with an audience can be as intimate and exciting as any personal relationship and as rewarding, whereas the studio can leave the artist feeling a bit sterile and under intense scientific scrutiny. Many studios can be awful places where the engineer and producers can make the artist incredibly self conscious.
The problems in recording. As you will find out from my previous blogs, I am a firm believer in focusing on an experience and an audience rather than our own nerves. For example we might think about the bigger picture when we are playing a gig, thinking about future opportunities and future gigs letting our inspiration carry us past a problem like just getting a top paid executive job when you are worried about an overdraft. The high salary you earn obliterates the debt just like inspiration obliterates fear. Be inspired and nerves diminish.
Nerves in the studio are caused by one or two things.
1. The ability to redo any takes
2. The ability to capture the unreal
3. The ability to stop time

All of these three points have massive pros and massive cons which can devastate any recording process if you are not careful.
Point 1. The ability to redo any takes seemed like an amazing gift when I had my first four track recorder however it soon dawned on me that I could spend the whole weekend trying to ‘get it right’ or ‘get it better’ and get it down on tape. That was stressful and depressing and inevitably resulted in me getting stale and frustrated. What I really needed to do, was practice the part so it was right and then return to the 4 track but the lure of ‘capturing’ and ‘immortalising’ my ideas was too great. I would slog away for hours and for whole weekends.
It also stretched my relationships with others if I could not get things down in one take. Also, the end results sounded like a terrible soul-less patchwork quilt of below-par playing.
Point 2. Capturing the unreal meant that it was expected that the ok solo you did on stage had to be replaced in the studio with an amazing solo to end all solos. This places completely unnatural pressure on an artist. I remember practicing for a blues band, the keyboard solo that was going on our demo for weeks and weeks. In the end, I just couldnt get it in time and always went ahead because I had panicked myself so much that I automatically became nervous by association with the solo. I still shudder thinking of the band watching me, over dubbing the solo in isolation. How weird?!
Point 3. The ability to stop time. Quite often there is a tendency to want to lay down parts that you would normally not play on stage which can raise your stress levels. This goes back to the point I made earlier about patchwork solos and expecting new ideas to be laid down perfectly minutes after they have been written. It is unrealistic at times and stressful. Be careful to plan your session and make sure everyone is comfortable with the material and allow it time to be rehearsed. The other point about stopping time is that an audience gets tired whereas tape recorders go on and on…

So how do we deal with this?
It all depends on what you are recording and how you would normally gig. If you live for live gigs then it would make sense to record at your gig. These days, an 8 input sound interface is quite affordable and the number of people skilled enough to record, is increasing all the time. Microphones are also cheap and a great performance, recorded averagely beats a pristine stale recording every time. If this isn’t possible then why not stage your own event where you invite an audience to listen to your session? In fact, a German jazz label in the 60s and 70s called MPS, used to invite the cleaners or any other out of hours staff  into the late night sessions so the artists would lose the nerves and enjoy themselves. Very few artists love playing without an audience. It is also easier to merge takes etc after the event with digital technology. The energy and focus an audience brings you is amazing. Adrenalin makes you focus on music and enjoying yourself and getting the audience to enjoy themselves. Most bands have a core following of fans that would give their right arms to be part of this type of event. It is worth thinking about. It may even be a good publicity stunt too, to offer as prizes, premier places in the studio recording.

Pick a Good Engineer

Pick your engineer. Some engineers seem to anticipate your needs and understand you and your music. A good engineer should take an interest in you and your music and have a sympathetic vibe to you and your band. So choose wisely because engineers who get amazing recordings for some bands may not be right for you if you find their personality difficult for you to be creative. Some engineers kill the vibe completely and you need a good vibe above everything else. It is your life blood.
I would recommend that you get the who, why, what, when, where, how sorted to best represent your band.
Who will be recording you? Who will be listening ie who are the studio audience?
Why are you recording? Is it a demo? Who is it for? What songs will you be recording? What do the tracks mean for you and the band? Keep all the answers to these questions deep in your heart.
When will you record? What time of day is good for you?
Where will it be recorded? Why?
How will you record it? In a venue with multi track sound or in a studio?

Preparation for recording. The studio is NOT the place to learn to play music. Many top artists only record what is comfortable at the time. Dave Brubeck did NOT take a solo in the quartet’s best selling Jazz song recording of “Take Five” because he did not yet feel confident soloing on the song at that time. After the recording, Brubeck went on to perform the song with the full band taking extended solos. The fact that Brubeck Did not improvise on the track, was in no way a reflection oh his piano skills but just a desire to do his best and realise that Joe Morello was more than capable of performing a drum solo on this number.
I take great comfort in that story! Nowadays, with the advent of Recording equipment being fairly accessible I tend to prepare mp3 tracks of the songs I will be recording with my vocal parts in and with them NOT in so I can prepare my subconscious for the recording. I want it to be natural when I am recording and I want to have the chance to be lost in the moment and NOT lost in trying to remember the lines or harmonies.
There is no reason why you cannot ask the band to play without you for a rough recording to give a Hole for you to practice with on headphones. I like doing this. It really makes it fun and easy. Any dictaphone is a good idea – it doesn’t have to be hi-tech.
Prepare for recording with a few gigs to gig in the material. Tweak the parts you are playing in the gig and think, “when I record, I like that bit, I’ll put that in. ” etc. remember that pink flloyd gigged dark side of the moon, improvising, composing, testing and refining it for 6 months before they went into the studio. I hear that album did quite well…

Be professional in practicing for the recording. Many people think that when recording, it is easy to fix in the mix. This is not always true. If you can only just about play something it will sound like you only just learned it. Think about how you want it to be and what it could be like. Sometimes I simplify a part when recording to make it more reliable and playable. When in the studio, it is easier to go for a good rendition that you are happy with than waste time trying to obtain the once in a life time solo etc.
Recordings reveal quite a few things that gigs do not but you can use the process to help you. Separating out guitar parts, chords from solos and some fills can give you more freedom when you record. If you know you will feel stressed, change the part or talk to the engineer. You can take control over the situation so you might as well make your life easy. Seek advice from engineers about the bits you are worried about and find solutions. As Paul Simon says, he loves recording as there are no problems he cannot solve in the studio. He can fix it in the recording process, breaking tricky parts down into smaller parts. Overdubbing and separating out parts is an excellent strategy.

Expand the good thoughts.
All the time you are playing songs before the recording process starts, be thinking “why” you are recording the songs and talk about them with your band and really feel what they mean to you and what opportunities they will give you as a band. Will it be a seller? A promotional recording? Something for YouTube or Facebook pages? Treat each song lovingly. Give them names and love them like your own children. The more they mean to you and the more you focus past the recording, the better they will be. If you think about mistakes, you get mistakes. I tend to think, “Cool – we now have a demo we can use to get gigs!” or “We now have something to sell at gigs” or I want to be thinking “this recording will be amazing as our fans love this song and I am so proud of it, so I want a great record of it and I cannot wait to get it online for our fans.” What would you like to be thinking about the songs you are going to be recording in the studio?
In short:-

• Eat good nutritious food and plenty of water. They fight fatigue and help you to stay focused for long lengths of time.
• Take breaks and get fresh air. (great advice from Rob Brian – Session Drummer.
• Practice the songs so they are solid. Use technology to help you practice ie rough backing recordings.
• Immerse yourself in them completely! Know every aspect of them.
• Consider having a hand picked encouraging audience in the studio.
• Consider a live recording at a venue.
• Only record what is ready to record.
• Use gigs to thoroughly rehearse the material and let it develop naturally.
• Think and know in your heart why you are recording the songs.
• Think past the problem of red light fever. Thinking “this song is a problem” attracts problems.
• Solve these before you set foot in the studio.
• Change your instrumental parts if need be so they are reproducible with reasonable ease.
• Aim for exceptional performances in the incredible songs that you love knowing that the recordings will bring you more wonderful opportunities.

Lastly, just change the recording light to green….