"concert and competitive performances". Preparing students for a concert performance
Preview:
1. Concert performance as the highest stage of work on a musical work;
2. Psychological foundations of concert excitement. Methods and techniques for overcoming them;
3. Preparing the student to participate in the competition. Some methodological tips.
Introduction
Disclosure of the essence of the stage of preparation of a performer for a concert performance, its features, characteristics of the main methods and techniques for overcoming stage anxiety.
1. Concert performance as the highest stage of work
over a piece of music
The highest stage of working on a piece of music is its concert and stage performance. Public presentation of the results of long and hard work is responsible in itself, but it is also an opportunity to show the listener a work that they liked from the first bars of acquaintance with it, an opportunity to convey their emotional excitement artistic design and around the images of this work, your feeling and understanding of this music. The responsibility of public speaking increases in the conditions educational process, if this is a reporting concert at which the achievements of the reporting period are assessed and a grade is given.
The method of preparation for a concert performance is the subject of close attention of musician teachers. They have developed a variety of techniques that are effectively used in music pedagogical practice. It is known that a concert performance requires quick, maximum concentration of mental energy during a one-time performance, emotional and physical endurance during the public performance of a musical work, special mobilization of mental, physical and intellectual resources and strict internal discipline.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that preparation for a concert performance begins with choosing a program. Of course, making up educational repertoire students, the teacher takes into account the requirements of the program, the immediate, most pressing tasks of developing the professional qualities of his student, his wishes. But in the student’s repertoire it is necessary, already at the second stage of work on works, to mark those that will allow the best way present his achievements during the reporting period. It is desirable that the student like these works and arouse in him a desire to master them, so that his best personal qualities can be clearly demonstrated in them. The degree of technical and artistic complexity of these works should not exceed the performing capabilities of the student at this stage of his development, but, at the same time, it would be useful if the performance of these works could demonstrate his gradual professional growth.
It is precisely such works that enable the performer at any stage of his training to hear improvisational freedom, which is the main indicator of the artistic and technical readiness of the program. This improvisational freedom allows you to enjoy stage performance, That is a necessary condition professional education performers. We would like to add that works that require extreme effort from the student are not recommended for performance concerts, although it is very useful to include them in the repertoire, especially if this corresponds to the personal desire of the student. In this way, the teacher eliminates in advance that part of the stage excitement that arises due to the invincible complexity.
Of course, concert performance reveals not only the student’s personal talent and giftedness, but, above all, the degree of his professional independence. That is why it is so important that throughout the preparation for the concert performance and at the performance itself, the student can organize himself, control himself and, after the concert, give an independent assessment of his performance.
The most important parts of a concert performance: final rehearsal, behavior on the day of the performance, entering and leaving the stage, beginning of the performance. Let us pay attention to some methodological recommendations regarding them.
Final rehearsalis held in the room where the performance will take place in order to become familiar with the room itself and its acoustics. To increase the responsibility of the performer, it is very useful to invite the public (other teachers, students in your class, friends) to this rehearsal. The final rehearsal involves a one-time, most responsible execution of the entire program in the order in which the works will be performed at the concert. Before the final rehearsal, it is necessary to conduct an appropriate number of preliminary rehearsals (holistic reproduction of the entire program), which can be carried out both at home and in any other room. And there are prejudices that a concert performance is always worse than a rehearsal performance. But in fact, a successful rehearsal allows you to assess the degree of preparation of the performer and indicates the potential for an even more successful performance if the performer mobilizes and does not rest on his laurels.
On the day of the concert Most performers and musicians experience “pre-concert anxiety.” The intensity of the anxiety is not directly related to the quality of the performance: even with very strong anxiety, it is possible to achieve good results, and in the absence of anxiety, you can relax and play poorly.
The guidelines for behavior on the day of the performance are quite similar. It is necessary to conserve nervous and mental energy, do not read a lot, do not talk, do not watch TV. It is recommended to play a little, and the works concert program lose at a slow pace, emotionally restrained. It is known that on the day of a concert it is useful to play as much as to think about the pieces with the notes in your hands. Finally, it is useful to play instructional materials, as well as works that have been well studied and have already been successfully played once in a concert. Such restoration of the previously achieved coordination of game elements has a fruitful effect on the implementation of the new program.
It is not recommended to have meaningless conversations in the artist's room. There is also no need to walk around the room silently. It is better to sit quietly in a comfortable position, with relaxed muscles (the teacher must teach this in advance). If it is necessary to “play hands”, it is possible to play scales, etudes, or at a slow pace individual episodes of concert works. But it is most useful to sort through different episodes of a program in memory without a tool. (At the same time, such an inspection should not turn into a “search for weak links”!).
A very important moment that precedes the appearance on stage appearsentering the image.Although on the day of the concert the performer lives in the images of his concert program, before the start of the performance it is necessary to evoke a particularly creative, emotionally upbeat mood. This is achieved by remembering the most emotionally intense and bright episodes works, characteristic details of music. Recalling verbal characteristics is very useful musical themes and episodes (that’s why it’s so important to use them in everyday work!).
It is necessary to rehearse with the student several timesentering and leaving the stage.The most acceptable here are energy and endurance, a sense of dignity and modesty. There is no need to search for a long time for a comfortable seat, rub your hands, move in vain, look around the hall, look for a microphone, etc. - all this must be done quickly, without showing excessive excitement.
It is useful to teach the student to use those few seconds that pass between going on stage and starting to play to check the state of the performing apparatus, create the necessary emotional and muscular attunement, and establish the initial tempo of the first piece.
After finishing the program, there is no need to leave your place. It is necessary to pause, allow the music to “stop”, then stand up with dignity, bow to the audience and leave the stage at a calm pace.
Let us add that no, the closest preparatory work does not relieve the performer from intense activity during speeches. Creative activity At the same time, it must be combined with self-control and self-control, allowing you to manage your performance and achieve the most fruitful artistic results.
As for the students, many of them are equally lacking in both: they are not sufficiently engaged and not sufficiently conscious both in homework and on the stage. This forces us to pay special attention to teachers on the formation of these necessary qualities throughout the entire time working with students.
2. Psychological foundations of concert excitement. Methods and techniques for overcoming them
Stage practice poses the problem of overcoming harmful stage anxiety. Creating favorable conditions for fruitful concert activity, and therefore the development of each musical talent with maximum success is one of the important tasks musical technique. Therefore, it is not surprising that the best musicians, performers and famous teachers devote many pages to the problem of overcoming stage anxiety.
Excitement during a concert performance indicates the high responsibility of the musician.
If the excitement does not exceed the boundaries of the natural, it contributes to divinely inspired performance. G. Neuhaus notes that main reason such excitement: ... “that high spiritual intensity, without which it is impossible to imagine a person called to “walk before people,” the consciousness that he must tell the people who have gathered to listen to him something important, significant, which is deeply different from everyday everyday experiences, thoughts and feelings. Such excitement, - emphasizes G. Neuhaus, - is good, necessary excitement, and those who are not capable of it, who go on stage as an official comes to work, are sure that today he will fulfill his duties. his instructions - he is unlikely to be a real artist."
But sometimes there are cases of anxiety that crosses all acceptable boundaries and resembles a disease. This anxiety is especially common among teenagers and those musicians who do not have sufficient stage practice. Immediately before a concert, your hands get cold, or, on the contrary, your hands sweat, some feel light, others feel heavy, some feel sleepy, feel insecure, fear, shortness of breath, memory problems, etc. Such anxiety prevents the performer from showing his talent, so the task music psychology and pedagogy to establish the causes of this anxiety, and methods to show ways to overcome it.
Among the reasons for pop excitement he will indicate the following:
- inconsistency of the work with the musical and technical capabilities of the student;
- uncertainty due to the fact that the student did not work on the work automatically, unconsciously;
- the text has not been studied well “by memory”;
- increased self-criticism, excessive attention to one’s personality;
- weak nervous system, pain.
The reasons listed above allow us to develop methods and techniques to combat pop anxiety. These include:
The first is a well-known and confident mastery of a musical work, a clear understanding of the work as a single whole, as a natural development of musical thought.
Second: Conscious mastery of technically complex episodes.
Third: Conscious, active learning of a work by heart. In this case, it is necessary to establish appropriate relationships between consciousness and automaticity, which depends on the degree of complexity of the text.
Fourth: Conscious training in performing in front of an audience, which ensures courage, self-control, clear thought, and concentration.
Fifth Conscious support of the body - an increased amount of vitamins, a balanced diet, physical exercise, mastering the skills of self-hypnosis, sufficient sleep, outdoor recreation.
3. Preparing students to participate in the competition.
Some methodological tips.
The history of music competitions testifies to their important, sometimes decisive role in the fate of performers different eras. And it would be an exaggeration to say that any teacher dreams of a successful professional career his most talented student. Today, the most traditional and effective way to achieve this goal is to participate and win a prestigious music competition. This may be why the number of music workers in the world is growing every year. And this is not surprising, because a music competition is one of the most convincing opportunities to prove your professional dignity and maturity.
Concert activity is significantly different from competitive activity, which is associated, first of all, with the absence of an element of comparison. Every musician participating in a concert, regardless of the quality of his performance, can count on the sympathy of the audience, which is caused by one or another of his qualities: courage, emotionality, virtuosity, spontaneity, etc. And this is the reaction of the audience (including members of the commission, if the concert is an examination report). Since during a concert the main criterion for success is the reaction of the audience, it is possible to say that at a concert performance there is no such high level of responsibility and maximum tension, which are mandatory attributes of a competitive audition. The fact is that the main objective participant of the competition - to prove his personal advantage over his opponent, to achieve an advantage awarded by a high jury. And the decision of the jury - the best musicians of the country and the world. - It is made in accordance with a rating system that does not allow concessions (taking into account past achievements of the competitor, his physical and mental state, compensation for technical errors in musicality, emotionality, etc.). Considering the certain spontaneity of performing activity, it is possible to imagine highest degree nervous tension, as accompanies a competitive performance. Mental and physical discomfort deepens significantly due to other factors: changes in living conditions, the complexity of moving, the need to urgently resolve many organizational issues, lack of support from family members and friends, etc.
In order for the process of preparation for the competition to be fruitful, and participation itself to be successful, the teacher and student must have certain personal and professional quality. Their interaction should be based on a pedagogy of cooperation, which provides for a moderately democratic relationship of trust. In addition, support from the competitor’s relatives is necessary.
The peculiarities of the methodology for preparing for a musical competition lie, first of all, in organized activities(paperwork, organization of relocation, etc.), regulation of the musician’s physical and mental well-being, mastering ways to create an optimal playing state for the contestant. As for the selection and preparation of the program, the increased responsibility that is associated with competitive activities requires special close attention from the teacher to each stage of the student’s work on musical works.
The psychological mood of a musician depends on the specific phase of pop excitement, as well as on his personal characteristics. During the period of preparation for the competition, it is possible to use various methods (autogenic training, conversations, suggestion, hypnosis), which are widely used in the practice of sports workers today. Immediately before a performance, the most effective method will be self-hypnosis, because at this moment any information from the outside is almost not perceived. Fundamental difference competitive psychological preparation from the tune-up before a concert performance is that it should not calm down, but, on the contrary, cause maximum activity, create a “fighting mood”, the desire to play and the desire to win, taking into account the distribution of strength and energy for all rounds of the competition.
A detailed examination of the structure of modern music competitions gives grounds to assert that their versatility and diversity gives musicians of any level a choice. Achievements Belarusian performers in the international music arena, their active creative activity, high level vocational training- all this indicates an urgent need to create a targeted, special methodology for preparing for music competitions at all levels of music education.
Conclusion
The highest point of the performing process is a concert performance, during which the performer, as his colleagues appear, is with the creator of the composer, and not just an intermediary between him and the audience. The listener’s understanding of the musical work depends on how the performer understood the author’s artistic idea and how he was able to realize it.
Responsibility for a high mission determines the performer’s natural stage excitement, which helps him and promotes divinely inspired performances.
All cases of harmful, “destructive” anxiety are associated with the performer’s insufficiently conscious work on the work and his inflated self-esteem.
Between concert and competitive performances There are many differences that are fundamental and manifest themselves at the level of goals and objectives, as well as at the organizational, emotional and psychological levels. That is why the methods of preparing students for a one-time concert performance and for participation in a competitive competition will be different.
Key concepts: concert performance, stage excitement, stage well-being, competition, musical competition.
Bibliography:
1. Barenboim L. Musical pedagogy and performance, Leningrad: Music, 2000.
2. Vicinskiy A. Variety performance / / Vicinskiy A. The process of a pianist-performer working on a musical work. - M.: Classics, 2004.
3. Hoffman I.. Public game / / Hoffman I.. Piano game. Answers to questions about piano playing. - M.: Gosmuzidat, 2010
4. Kogan G. At the gates of mastery. - M.: Classics, 2004.
5. Maykapar S. First reading / / Maykapar S. How to work on royalties. - L.: Muzgiz, 2010.
6Neigauz G. About concert activities / / Neuhaus G. About the art of piano playing. - M.: Music, 2012.
Department of Culture of the City of Kursk
municipal budgetary educational institution
"Children's Art School No. 2 named after I.P. Grinev" in Kursk
“Preparing a young pianist for public performance”
Compiled by:
teacher
highest qualification category
MBOU DODSHI No. 2 named after. I.P.GrinevaShapovalova Elina Gennadievna
Kursk, 2014
Articulation
One of the main means of expressiveness in music is articulation - the way of pronouncing musical speech.
Unfortunately, it must be admitted that the stock of articulatory techniques among students of the Children's Art School is poor and monotonous, while the coloring of legato, non-legato and staccato sounds requires variety and flexibility. How often, when performed by school students, do you hear a light melodiousness where a deep cantilena is needed; softness where the sound should be dry, marked; staccato is always the same color; non legato without regard to the duration of the note or its function in the context. The result of such a poverty of motor techniques is the monotony of the sound of the work and, even worse, the uniformity in the performance of the works of composers different eras and styles.
The student must master the following types of articulation:legatocantabile- that is, deep, melodiouslegatoAndlegatobenarticolato- that is, clear, articulatelegato; nonlegato- deep weightportamento, in which it is difficult to catch the exact ending of the sound, andnonlegatometrically accurate, in which the sound is equal to half the duration; softstaccato, Andstaccato, similar to the sound of a violinspiccato, performed without wrist movement, and very shortstaccato, similar to a violinpizzicato.
The task of the teacher is to teach the student to turn on the desired muscle group, rebuild their work, turning off, say, large muscles and including small ones located in the wrist, teach them to use more or less weight of the hand, more or less of its mass - that is, teach everything that makes up the game techniques necessary to actually realize the desired sound.
Analysis of the work
How to learn a piece of music? Obviously, when learning a piece of music, it requires division.
Nathan Perelman in his book “In the Piano Class” writes:
“To learn well is to skillfully dissect the material; dissected, it then easily articulates.
It’s bad to learn to mindlessly crush the material: crushed, it’s difficult for him to catch up with it.”
Children often learn from the beginning of a line, not paying attention to the fact that this is the middle of a phrase, or they learn from the first beat of a measure, not understanding that the phrase begins with an upbeat, and stop before the bar line, although the phrase ends in the next measure. When asking to learn a play at home in parts, you should ask the student to show how he thinks to divide the play, and, if necessary, correct the mistake, explaining why it is this way and not otherwise.
Not yet fully knowing the entire text, students usually play the initial bars of the play quite briskly, and then get worse and worse. This is explained by the fact that every day, when children study at home, they begin to learn from the very beginning, they manage to learn a few phrases, but there is no time left for the rest of the work. In such cases, it is useful to ask homework to study in reverse order - that is, starting with the last or most difficult part of the play. And be sure to play the learned parts together or the entire memorized piece at least once a day.
Musical form
The ability to correctly dissect a piece requires an understanding of the boundaries of the phrase and the form of the musical work. Boundaries of a phrase, question - answer, the simplest two- and three-part form - concepts already available 6 - 7 year old child. In subsequent years of study, the systematic accumulation of knowledge enables the student to understand and remember the basic rules of the tonal plan of the three-part form: the relationship between the tonalities of the extreme parts and the middle; and the tonal plan of the sonata allegro: the exposition does not end in the main key. We recognize the beginning of development by the appearance of a new key; the development leads to a reprise, which begins with the main theme in the main key; tonal relationship between the main and secondary parts in the exposition and in the reprise.
You should also consistently and systematically develop harmonic hearing. Understanding Form and Tonal Plane musical works promotes the education and development of logical memory.
Memory
The importance of memory for confident well-being during public performance is undoubtedly one of the most important...
How to learn by memory? Every pianist teaches musical piece on the piano with notes and on the piano without notes. Children, especially those with weak musical auditory or motor memory, spend a lot of time learning by heart. In their homework, consciousness participates negligibly, the work is mostly mechanical, the process is long, the result is scanty. This kind of work is boring, and boredom is the enemy of learning.
In addition to learning a piece from notes and without notes, I. Hoffman also offers the following methods: from notes without a piano and without notes and without a piano. The methods proposed by Hoffman prioritize the active work of consciousness and inner hearing.
First way - according to notes without a piano - can be divided into 2 stages: closing the piano, play on the lid according to the notes: removing your hands from the lid of the piano, play mentally, looking at the notes.
Second way - without notes and without a piano - much more difficult and requires gradual preparation. To begin, the student plays on the top of the piano without notes. Most often, this is achieved without much difficulty, since the area of the piano lid corresponds to the area of the keyboard, and the spatial sense of intervals does not change. Then the task becomes more complicated: play on your knees without notes. By monitoring the alternation of fingers, the teacher will easily detect an error if one occurs. You can't ignore an error. You should stop the student, offer to look at the notes and, remembering, repeat the firmly remembered passage without notes.
Having mastered such auxiliary methods, you can try to play the piece mentally. It is not difficult to check whether a student can play a piece mentally. The student plays the piece on the piano at a given tempo. At the same time, 2 plays written at the tempoAllegroorPresto, play mentally faster than at tempomoderatoit is forbidden. After a few bars, the teacher gives a pre-arranged sign, say, clapping his hands, and the student continues to play mentally. Then another clap, and again the piano playing. So, alternating between real and mental play, play the entire play. If the student, after mentally playing the passage, entered the piano from the same beat as the teacher, then he played mentally correctly. It is possible, of course, that there may be a discrepancy of 2-3 shares. This does not mean that the student made a mistake. He could have slowed down a little.
This method of memorization is certainly the most reliable. A student who can play the entire piece mentally feels much calmer on the stage than those who teach mechanically.
It should be added that for children with their still childhood photographic memory there is no need for this method, but for adolescents entering adolescence, it is invaluable.
However, there may be students in the teacher's class who cannot play a piece without notes and without a piano. These are most often children with undeveloped internal hearing. Such students can be offered a mechanical technique: having broken down the piece, mark each passage with a number and ask from any number without notes - “in breakdown,” as the children say.
Sometimes in etudes there are sequences of passages or stereotypical constructions that can be shown to the student so that he can play them even before analysis, without looking at the notes. Many such examples can be given.
Let's limit ourselves to two sketches.
Behrens Etude No. 26, bars 33-40.
Play thirds in the same order with the second and third fingers:
Alternate sixth and third:
Invite the student to play sixths with the first and fifth fingers on white keys within two octaves:
Lay out the chords, that is, play as written in the notes. You can also learn a descending passage built on a diminished triad.
Etude by K. Czerny op. 299, No. 5, measures 39-42. The teacher plays a melody:
It is simple enough that a fifth or sixth grade student could immediately memorize it and play it with a somewhat unusual fingering - each sound with the first finger of the right hand.
Then, from each sound of the melody, play an ascending scale of one octave on the white keys, that is, as written in the notes, but without looking at the notes.
With your left hand, play the descending scale of C major from “C” of the first octave to “C” of the minor octave, with each sound being played with the fifth finger. Then, from each sound of the scale, play an ascending scale of one octave on the white keys.
Having mastered the part of each hand in this way, the student usually manages to play this difficult part with both hands at once without notes.
In the same way, you can show the part of the left hand in the previous four measures (35-38), which will make it possible, analyzing the notes, to direct attention to the difficult two-voices in the part of the right hand.
Etudes with this type of texture, such as short arpeggios, are very useful to analyze first with chords. Here are a few examples as an example:
If the student cannot yet play a four-note chord, you can limit yourself to two-note chords.
Study of Czerny - Germer No. 35:
Study by Czerny op. 299, No. 3:
Leshhorn, op. 66, etude no. 9:
The ability to “look ahead” and cover a group of notes at once not only helps more quick memorization, develops sheet reading skills, but, most importantly, generalizing a number of individual sounds into a single whole (chord), changing the mental perception of texture has a beneficial effect on fluency, since the brain sends an order not to each individual finger, but to the movement of the hand to cover an entire position or passage.
Of course, everything that has been said about methods of working on memory does not exclude or replace long-term and systematic work on technique, on motor automatism. But it must be remembered that automatism developed through meaningless tapping, without the participation of consciousness, is fragile.
The concept of “technique” is not at all reduced to the concept of fast, dexterous and loud play. The first concept is much broader, more voluminous, because technology is primarily a method of artistic expression. It includes not only speed and dexterity, which in themselves are important prerequisites for any good technique, but also the rhythm of execution, dynamics, articulation, etc. Development of technical skills data coming hand in hand with the development of hearing and musical understanding. In any case, one should not be separated from the other.
Often during discussions after a student’s unsuccessful performance, you can hear the following “excuse” from the teacher: “He played so well, but now he started chatting (playing).” The phenomenon called “chattering” should not be fought post factum, but not allowed to happen. What are the root causes of “chattering”? In wrong home activities.
Why work on finishing individual places, to achieve the best? It is enough to play your program two or three times at home as a memory. And they play like automata, without self-control, or, as G. Neuhaus said, “they make music without music.” If you ask such a student how he works on a piece at home - with notes or without notes? There is no doubt that the answer will be - without notes.
First alarming symptoms Such home activities do not appear a day or two before the performance, but much earlier. Either there was an inaccuracy in the articulation, then a random fingering crept in somewhere, then the dynamics ratio was disrupted, or even a false note appeared. Experienced teacher immediately catches the fruits of thoughtless homework and takes action without waiting for mistakes to take root in the subconscious and become habitual. To be sure that the student at home will study carefully and meaningfully, the lesson should be devoted to a new reading of the piece from the notes. It’s like an analysis at a new, higher level, with a more attentive attitude to everything that lies behind the text. Individual areas that require sanding need to be worked on so that the student has a clear idea of how to work on them himself at home. The student must find errors in the text himself. Having discovered an error (be it a false note, inaccuracy in articulation, pedaling), the teacher does not indicate the error, but, stopping the student’s playing, invites him to find and correct it himself. Self-correction of an error is fixed in memory much more firmly than repeated comments from the teacher.
“Chattering” can also take on a different form: there are no mistakes, everything is correct, but the play is performed formally, without emotional participation, the intended image has faded. To revive the performance, to restore the original freshness emotional perception, there are many means: somewhere to slightly change the dynamics, pedaling, somewhere to rethink the intonation, find new touches, new details in the content, mood of the work, etc. It’s impossible to count them all possible ways, which will awaken thought and imagination and help avoid boring, formal execution.
Reasons for failure technical order are also rooted in incorrect homework. As mentioned above, motor memory is more tenacious and durable than auditory memory. Children with weak musical abilities often have such shortcomings as poor adaptability to the keyboard and poor coordination of movements. Surprisingly quickly, children become accustomed to movements that are directly opposite to the necessary, rational technique.
It is necessary to periodically check in what ways and what techniques the student achieves the desired results in home studies.
When practicing an etude or a separate passage, the student must understand what type of technique he is working on, whether it is diatonic or chromatic scales, short or long arpeggios, etc., and use the instilled skills already familiar to him. Piano playing technique is a very broad concept. IN in this case we're talking about fluency techniques. In the works that are included in the art school program, the student is faced mainly with types of technique of the classical type. The motor skills necessary to perform various types of classical-type techniques are instilled and developed during the passage of scales.
Older, more “advanced” students, wanting to develop endurance, often play a technical piece or etude at home at a fast tempo several times a day before the piece is “ripe” for such a tempo. The result is complaints that the hand gets tired. It is known that it is enough to “smudge” a passage two or three times, which previously worked quite well, for it to be very difficult to correct it.
Such experiments should not be allowed in home exercises. Having thoroughly taught part of the etude (8-12 bars), it is imperative to increase the tempo, bringing it to the maximum for a given piece and for a given student. But only part of the sketch, not the whole...
Etudes such as K. Cherny op. 299, op. 740, M. Clementi “Gradus ad Parnassum” (“Step to Parnassus”), require endurance, and, of course, it is necessary to develop it, but it is better to train endurance in the presence of a teacher. An experienced teacher will detect the appearance of fatigue and tightness before the student and will interrupt the performance, realizing that he should wait some more time and for now limit himself to a less fast pace. Gradually, the desired pace and freedom will come, but the student will only play at the pace in the classroom under the supervision of the teacher. At home, the teacher will allow you to play the etude at a real tempo for several days and perform three or four times during the day.
For a transfer or final exam, the program of which includes the mandatory performance of an etude, it is better to prepare two or three etudes. When preparing one sketch, you can sometimes find yourself in a hopeless situation before the “finish”.
Teachers often repeat the stereotypical phrase to students: “Listen to yourself.” The requirement is absolutely correct. But is it always correctly understood? Students who are not properly taught often understand this task as recording failures, that is, listening to their performance after the fact.
The ability to listen to yourself is a three-stage process, so to speak. It includes three phases:
mental image sound;
an order from the brain to take action necessary to realize the idea;
execution control.
The ability to “think ahead”, hear the sound before its actual implementation, mastery of the means necessary for implementation, the relentless imperative (work) of the brain and self-control do not allow anxiety to destroy the great work spent on preparing for the performance.
It is impossible to expect from every child or teenager who does not have musical abilities to perform brightly, to display an interesting musical individuality. But teach to play meaningfully, with an understanding of character, mood, style music performed Can; It is possible to instill a culture of sound and musical taste in every student.
Depending on the individual characteristics of the student, the form of presentation, dosage, and gradualness of the knowledge and skills presented change. The pedagogical principles of the teacher are a constant value. Their essence does not change depending on the quality of the material or the degree of giftedness of the student.
Public Speaking Day
The day of the public performance is approaching, the program is ready, and it’s time to prepare the student’s psyche for an important test.
Children have very early age, from the age of two to three, there is a tendency to theatrical play. Isn’t theater a game of dolls and soldiers, where the child is at the same time an author, a director, and an actor? Younger students perceive performing at an exam or at a concert as an interesting game in which they willingly participate. For elementary school students, no matter how responsible they are about their task, excitement (with rare exceptions) is in the nature of anticipation of a festive, joyful event. This kind of anxiety does not inhibit the functioning of auditory or motor memory.
From the first years of school, children should get used to sharing their art with others.The concert is musical festival , which is expected and for which one must diligently prepare for a performance. Participation in the concert is both honorable and responsible. If a student knows that the piece he is studying will be performed in front of an audience, he works more persistently and attentively. Pedagogical practice shows that one of the problems that have to be solved in the preparation process is overcoming the strong anxiety before a performance that most students experience.Variety excitementIt has age characteristics and manifests itself more strongly in middle and high school with a growing sense of responsibility and self-demandingness. One of the reasons for stage excitement is the so-called “bad conscience”, the fear of forgetting the text, not being able to cope with difficult parts, etc. The words of N.A. are well known. Rimsky-Korsakov that the degree of excitement is inversely proportional to the degree of preparation. “What especially hindered my mental freedom at a concert was sometimes the mere consciousness (even not always justified) that I did not have time to work as much and as much as I wanted and considered necessary” (G. Neuhaus). Both the teacher and the student must be sure that the play is completely ready.
For an inexperienced performer, stage excitement is scary because it finds him unprepared for the intervention of new factors, new unusual emotions that “cloud his consciousness” and make it difficult to concentrate. A brightly lit hall, a large number of spectators, acoustics, a certain “concert” behavior (going on stage, bowing) - all this is an atypical environment for a performer. To soften negative influence In such an environment, some time before the concert, it is useful to create an environment similar to a concert on the stage.
Usually, before a performance, teachers admonish the student - “just don’t worry.” Let's try to think about what the natural reaction to exhortations of this kind is? For any person in a similar situation, these warnings will cause alertness, anxiety, and anticipation of something unpleasant and exciting. When we advise a student not to worry before a performance, we thereby support in him a sense of anticipation of an event that should inspire anxiety and fear.
Practice has shown that much better results are obtained from instructions in the opposite order: “Are you worried? Very good, that's how it should be. If you don't worry, you'll play pale and boring. Listen to yourself, “think ahead and worry, then you will play well and interestingly.” It is useful in the classroom to tell students about anxiety as an indispensable companion to any performance: that the greatest artists always feel nervous when they go on stage; about how the wonderful artist Yablochkina, when she was already 90 years old, said: “If I stop worrying when going on stage, then I have ceased to be an actress and I need to leave the stage.” Athletes also worry before a match, but mobilization of will and composure helps them achieve victory, and anxiety does not interfere. Thanks to such conversations, excitement does not disappear, but takes on a different character: blind fear goes away, and in its place comes a feeling of excitement as a feeling that is normal, natural in a given situation, and maybe even useful in some way.
But this is not enough. You need to develop the skill of performing in a state of pop excitement. To do this, a “dress rehearsal” is organized a week and a half before the performance. It is good if there are also students or parents present who play the role of a “commission”. The teacher warns the student: “Now you will play in the exam (concert, test, depending on what is coming up). I won’t be able to help you with anything, I won’t be able to suggest anything, I won’t be able to fix anything. You are responsible for yourself. Get excited and keep a clear head." Then there is a pause and the name of the student, class, program is announced in an official tone - that is, the atmosphere for the performance is created. It is interesting to observe how, after such a warning, the student begins to noticeably worry, his facial expression becomes serious, and he feels like he has collected himself internally. However, as soon as the teacher cannot restrain himself during the game and makes a small remark somewhere in a whisper, concentration and elation disappear before our eyes, and the performance fades. With one word spoken at the wrong time, the teacher destroyed the student’s sense of personal responsibility, and the training can be considered unsuccessful. It is advisable to conduct such training not only in the classroom. Three or four days before the performance, invite the student to imagine once a day at home the hall where he will play, the audience, the whole atmosphere, feel like he is on the stage, get excited and play the entire program. Rarely, there were students who admitted that they did not know how to conjure up the situation of a performance. In these cases, it was necessary to once again conduct a “dress rehearsal” in the classroom.
Before going on stage, you need to sit quietly in a comfortable position, do a few simple physical exercises for your arms and body that will help relieve muscle tension, and take a few deep breaths. You can eat a few pieces of sugar. Before the presentation, you should not overload the student with many comments; you need to help him concentrate on artistic content plays, distract from excessive anxiety and switch to creative tasks. Calmly go out, bow, adjust the chair if necessary, and sit down at the instrument.
Take a short break and mentally play the beginning of the piece, then it is much easier to start in the right character. After the speech, bow again and thank the audience. Having become habitual during rehearsals, these measured actions calm the student and help tune in to the emotional image of the work. During a performance, you cannot correct or repeat anything. If a random error has crept in, even a glitch in the text, the student must continue to play, remembering that the most important thing is the listeners’ holistic perception of the work. If a piece is performed with soul, the audience will always forgive a few false notes. In this regard, we can give examples from history. For example, the game A.G. Rubinstein in his later years was not without some rough edges. But that didn’t make it any less enormous strength her artistic influence to the public.
It is not difficult to predict the question: what to do with lazy, irresponsible, frivolous students who are preparing their program in the last days, and they just want to play by heart. Where is the dress rehearsal for a week, if he stumbles two days before the exam. Students who expect to have time to learn everything in the last few days usually make mistakes while playing in class, get confused and, upset and perplexed, make excuses: “Everything worked at home, I don’t know why it didn’t work out now.” Now is the time to have a conversation about the difference between music classes and classes in a secondary school, where test work you can prepare in three to four days. Music lessons have their own arithmetic - “if you play for twenty days for an hour a day, you will play much better and more confidently than if you practiced for four hours the last five days.” It is also necessary to explain the impact of changes in the environment on memory performance, for example: “if in class you play worse than at home, then in the hall with foreign teachers, there is no doubt that you will play even worse.”
It is useful to intimidate the student a little, but you cannot deprive yourself of self-confidence, and after a busy lesson you need to express confidence that the student at home will be able to, as carefully as in the lesson, consolidate everything that he has achieved with the teacher, and will be able to play the entire program well.
Children, especially those who are not musical enough, are most concerned about memory. The main, and sometimes the only indicator of a successful performance for them is to play the program without forgetting anywhere. The fear of forgetting constrains the student. Of course, it is undesirable to forget on the stage, but such a nuisance can happen to an adult, real pianist, and listeners will not reproach him for this if the pianist does not correct anything, but continues to play confidently. The main thing is to remember that when playing in public, nothing can be corrected. Sometimes during a rehearsal the following incident can happen to a student - he forgot, stumbled, missed the mark, but he doesn’t look for it, doesn’t correct it, doesn’t repeat it, but calmly continues to play. You definitely need to praise him for this and thereby instill confidence and calm in him. Thanks to this, the fear of forgetting will not be an annoying, disturbing thought.
There are many plays in which the texture is not too complex and is accessible to the student, but somewhere in a small segment of the text there are hidden “pitfalls”. This could be a change in the type of technique (such as, for example, a long arpeggio among a scale movement, which is often found in K. Czerny’s etudes), leaps, a difficult passage of short durations among the “calm landscape” of the entire text, etc. By isolating a difficult place and spending a lot of time and work goes into it, the student finally achieves purity and evenness.
But what a great disappointment it is when, while playing a piece in its entirety, a student discovers that a passage so well learned is “capricious” - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t work. The reason for the failure is clear: when performing a complex passage out of context, the student is faced with a task of a local nature - the will is aimed at overcoming precisely this difficulty, the brain gives a clear order to action and - “it works.” While playing the entire piece, the student does not have time to prepare in time for the task ahead, the brain does not give the necessary signal, and the result is sad - “it doesn’t work out.”
In such cases, you should tell the student: you can study this passage for an infinitely long time, and it will not work, but you can study not very much and it will work. You need to be able to want, and this means, when approaching a treacherous place, prepare internally in advance, mobilize your will, concentrate your attention to the utmost and have time to prepare your hand for the desired position and movement, which has already been firmly memorized. Having completed such an experiment and obtained the desired result, you should repeat it several times to consolidate the volitional impulse and muscle sensation. It is not necessary to repeat the entire piece several times; it is enough to play the part of the piece preceding the difficult passage. Thanks to such training, difficult places do not find the student internally unprepared, and they instill the ability to mobilize the will.
Conversations about willpower, about the need for the will to participate in playing the piano, have a good effect, and it doesn’t hurt to have them occasionally, not only before a performance. However, there is also a danger in the ability to mobilize the performing will: when the crucial moment is left behind, involuntarily, almost unconsciously, the person relaxes, and where this was least expected, there are misses, poor-quality playing of passages, technically difficult parts of the work.
It is necessary to instill in students that they can relax and switch off only when the entire play is over. As soon as you think in the penultimate measure: “That’s it, I’m finished,” you will definitely “smear” the final chord or passage. And this is really a shame - it’s like drowning near the shore after a long swim.
Tips for parents
Parents need to pay attention to organizing and maintaining the child’s daily routine on the important day of an exam or concert. Since our young musicians- pianists are still children, and every moment can give them the slightest gain, then on the eve of the concert you need to open the sheet music and look music texts: refresh your memory of the teacher’s words, what you paid attention to, just look at “your beat”, which was once problematic, tonality, introduction, shades, etc. Play the program in its entirety, with endurance, imagining a concert situation at home (the imagination for this is already developed). Carry out self-control: pay attention of thought and hearing to your performance, include the position of an outside observer (hear yourself from the outside, acoustic hearing) and independently eliminate the losses that have occurred.
On the day of the concert, every little detail is important: before leaving the house, check whether you have taken replacement concert shoes and sheet music; You need to allow plenty of time for the journey to the performance venue so as not to create additional situations of anxiety.
If the performance is scheduled for the morning, you need to have time to play out (about twenty minutes), stretch your fingers and wash your hands with warm water before leaving. If the performance is evening, then, coming from secondary school, have lunch, relax and sit down at the instrument to practice. There is no need to play the program “cleanly, with the mood,” as the children say, that is, like at a concert. An inexperienced performer cannot play a program with the same value twice in a short period of time. emotional impact. When repeated, the “degree of heat” will be lower.
For the same reason, it can hardly be considered useful to repeat the entire program in class just before the performance. This is more likely to be done for the teacher’s peace of mind than for the benefit of the student. It is quite enough to ask to play the opening bars of each piece to check whether the tempos are correct. By the way, you don’t need a piano for this; you can check the tempos on any table or on your lap. The piano is needed in cases where there is a “pitfall” in the play. Ask the student to play a few initial bars, a few final ones, a passage from the middle and somewhere between small parts of the piece, and a difficult passage, starting with the few bars preceding it, that is, so that the student does not understand what exactly it is dangerous place you wanted to hear.
Behavior on the stage must be prepared and consolidated at preliminary “general” rehearsals, where the student learns to play exactly two or three initial bars before each play in order to establish the correct tempo and evoke in himself the mood corresponding to the given play. However, before the performance, it doesn’t hurt to remind you again: “If you think for an extra half a minute before each play, no one will judge you for it. But if you play one piece after another, without having time to reorganize and tune in, everyone will say that you played poorly.” Active work of consciousness causes greater concentration of attention and will and helps to neutralize the influence of anxiety.
After the performance, the student waitsassessments of your game, first of all, from the teacher. We must definitely support him, find something to praise him for, even if not everything worked out, make him feel that the teacher is happy with his efforts, his success. It is better to discuss the speech in more detail later in class, in a calm atmosphere. Analyze both successes and failures, find their cause, extract useful lessons to prepare for other performances. All this develops in children the ability to work purposefully.
The student leaves after a public speech. Fears and worries are behind us. Teachers rarely think about how deeply their first words spoken to a student sink into their souls. How important are facial expressions, manner of communication, and intonation of the mentor’s voice? It's good if everything went well. And if not? If the teacher is dissatisfied, irritated, discouraged? One thing can be said: there is no place for reproaches, claims, or complaints here. The educational and practical effect will be zero. Negative consequences are more than likely. Therefore, at these moments the teacher must be especially sensitive and tolerant.
You should never discuss in detail with the student his execution of the program immediately after the performance, when the excitement has not yet subsided. It’s better the next day in a calm atmosphere to figure out together what was unsuccessful, why it was unsuccessful, what was good, and praise for the demonstrated will to perform (if this is true). There is no need to console a lazy student whose performance was unsuccessful, no matter how upset he may be. On the contrary, it is useful to once again emphasize that miracles do not happen, that poor performance in the exam was a pattern, a natural result of his frivolous, irresponsible attitude to classes, and to scare him with a repetition of such a failure next time if he continues to be lazy.
Both with a lazy student and with a student lacking musical ability, satisfactory results can be achieved if he knows what to strive for in each work, if he is armed with the necessary means to achieve the goal; if the teacher does not limit himself to a verbal task, but strives to master and consolidate the demonstrated method or technique in the classroom; if gradualism is observed in overcoming difficulties; if the teacher teaches the student to think actively.
Another very important point is to teach the student how to treatfailures , perceive them as a temporary phenomenon, and not a catastrophe, as an unpleasant but passing lesson. Let us remember the words of M. Long: “Don’t lose heart, that’s what my support in life was.” Failures should not cause long thoughts about them, despondency and apathy, but give rise to the desire to play better next time. Therefore, the teacher should avoid fixing the student’s attention on unpleasant thoughts about past failures, and more often talk about those performances when the student played successfully.
After the concert, it’s worth asking your parents: “How did you feel sitting in the hall? And if you were playing on stage now, can you imagine yourself? After listening to the emotional expression, ask the parents to admire their child, the music festival at school, which will continue at home at the sweet table. Give a time-out to everyday life, give a holiday to your child and yourself, and then the inner state of mind gives birth to the triumph that is so necessary in our problematic lives. At the same time, the child is being raised: a good result obtained from good work is rewarded with encouragement.
Conclusion
The methodology for teaching music cannot and should not be dogmatic. The paths to truth are varied. There is only one undeniable, unchangeable value - the teacher’s calmness (but not indifference), a friendly attitude towards the student, the ability to instill confidence in his abilities, no matter how small they may be. Repeating the program before the game in front of an audience, persuading not to worry will not give the student the confidence that one calmly spoken phrase will give: “Are you worried? Very good, it means you will play interestingly. You worry, but I’m calm for you.”
Excitement and agitation - are these unambiguous concepts? To me they seem different both in time and in their emotional content. Excitement is short-lived and caused by a single action, event, impulse, it is an obligatory component of a concert performance, it is this that increases the emotional tone of the performance, and opens a second wind, gives an unusual creative boost, and reveals the individuality of the performer. And excitement includes passion - a quality without which teaching work is unthinkable, a quality that infects those we teach.
Performing on stage is not only a test of a student’s strength, but alsothe joy of communicating with the public , creative inspiration and professional growth. Nothing can compare to the feeling of creative joy and satisfaction after a successful performance, which is a huge incentive for his further intensive music studies. Children's music schools, involving students in concert performance, solve the problem of preparing them for active musical activity at its most various forms, including professional music, playing music with family and friends, organizing meaningful leisure time, participating in amateur performances, form the necessary skills and the need for musical communication.
Bibliography:
Alekseev A. “Methods of teaching piano playing.” Moscow: "Music". - 1971.
Beilina S. “In the class of V. Kh. Razumovskaya.” Leningrad: "Music". - 1982.
Kogan G. “At the gates of mastery. The work of a pianist." Moscow: "Music". - 1969.
Kremenstein B. “Pedagogy G.G. Neuhaus", Moscow: "Music". - 1984.
Neuhaus G. “On the art of piano playing.” Moscow: "Music". - 1982.
Nikolaev A. “Essays on the history of piano pedagogy and the theory of pianism.” Moscow: "Music". - 2000.
Perelman N. “In the piano class.” Moscow: "Music". - 2000.
Terentyeva N. “Karl Czerny and his sketches.” SPb: “Composer”. - 1999.
Feigin M. “The individuality of the student and the art of the teacher”, Moscow: “Music”. - 1975.
Psychological preparation for a concert performance and the problem of concert anxiety
INTRODUCTION
Public speaking is a crucial moment in creative life performer, this is the result of a long-term work of a musician (both mature and beginner) on a work. And, of course, this is a necessary stage in the system of training and becoming a musician, where everything is interconnected: education musical thinking, creative imagination, hearing, technical skills, memory, concentration while working on a work and general culture.
Already during the period of study in the nursery music school, the student must get used to the fact that performance is a serious matter, for which he is responsible to the listener, to the author of the work, to himself and to his teacher, that at the same time it is a holiday, the best moments of his life, when he can receive enormous artistic satisfaction. results public speaking have a huge impact on the student’s psyche and greatly influence his further advancement and work.
Despite the entire process of education, which takes place under the strong control of the teacher, a concert performance in to a greater extent depends on the individual abilities of the musician. Behavior on the stage, well-being during the game, reaction to the attitude of the audience - all this is revealed in each performer in his own way.
Often at this stage, breakdowns occur, causing serious mental trauma even to very gifted performers, which sometimes causes them to refuse stage performances.
Considering the reasons for breakdowns that occur with a performer on stage, I would like to dwell in more detail on the problem of pop excitement - the problem of internal liberation “in public”, the ability to free oneself from the shackles of nervous tension. K. Stanislavsky, with subtle psychological observation, describes the painful and unnatural state experienced by an actor on stage: “When a person - an artist goes on stage in front of a crowd of thousands, he loses his self-control from fear, shyness, responsibility, and difficulties. At these moments he cannot speak, look, listen, think, want, feel like a human being.”
The excitement of a musician-performer is no different from the described well-being of an actor; consciousness of responsibility, unusual surroundings, fear of failure - all this disorganizes Creative skills.
For many pianists and (even more so) students, concert performance is far from simple matter. It is known that there were excellent virtuosos who were afraid of the stage and usually played in front of an audience much lower than their real level.
G. Neuhaus in his book “On the Art of Piano Playing” recalls how nervous such people were before concerts. famous artists, like A. Rubinstein, L. Godovsky and others. A. Goldenweiser writes that anxiety before a performance was characteristic of most great artists. He speaks of I. Hoffman, who was not at all worried before the concert, as a rare exception to this rule.
CONCERT EXCITATION
The problem of concert anxiety is not ignored by more than one researcher in the field of music pedagogy and psychology and private methods of teaching playing instruments. Indeed, this problem, the problem of stage excitement, and such questions - how to get rid of excessive anxiety during a concert performance, how to work on stage anxiety during preparation for a performance - are key in music pedagogy and psychology. Since the development of artistic abilities, and in particular the ability to control oneself at the time of performance, is one of the tasks for a teacher in the formation of a performing musician.
Concert excitement should be considered as a type of emotional state that depends on personal characteristics individual. There are two types of pop excitement: “excitement-excitement” and “excitement-panic”. Due to the individual characteristics of the mental organization of each performer, the state of excitement has a different impact on the quality performed works.
For some, anxiety helps them cope brilliantly with their creative task, contributes to greater brightness of performance, better contact performer and listener, then the other has to expend a lot of extra energy to overcome anxiety and at the same time the performer does not always achieve desired result, for many, anxiety reaches a painful state. Most often this manifests itself in a violation of speed control, the sense of tempo is lost, often the performer thinks that he is playing very quietly, that he cannot be heard, and he begins
play a nuance higher. The opposite happens: temperament fades, the game becomes colorless, soundless. The worst thing is if your memory suddenly fails. Sometimes this affects not only motor memory, but also musical memory. In the first case, the musical one can help out, and in the second - the motor one. If this does not happen, a stop is inevitable. Often, anxiety-panic leads to breakdowns, which leads to mental trauma for the performer. This condition is called "variety disease." Unsuccessful performance gives rise to self-doubt, in one’s strengths and capabilities,<боязнь» плохо сыграть, забыть текст, остановиться.
REASONS FOR CONCERT EXCITATION AND
WAYS TO COMBAT THEM
Rimsky-Korsakov said very precisely about concert anxiety, from which many suffer: it is inversely proportional to the degree of preparation. It is important to prepare students for concerts as best as possible and not send them out with “raw” works, because failures during performances lead to fear of the stage.
Stage endurance is strengthened by stage training. Let the student play a smaller number of pieces in one performance, but let him appear on the stage more often. Repeating the same musical works many times in front of an audience will also bring great benefits.
“Many students need psychological exercise before performing,” and they begin to master a piece of music only the second time. It is necessary to teach the student to concentrate before producing sounds on the instrument.
What should a teacher do to instill good pop culture in a student? How and when should his introduction to the stage take place? Experienced teachers and psychologists believe that it is necessary to accustom a child to the stage as early as possible, from the first steps of learning. It is known that in childhood the qualities of the future personality of a musician-performer are formed. And it is very important not to miss this time when the child’s psyche is mainly aimed at expressing positive emotions, which is a serious prerequisite for the formation of a feeling of satisfaction from one’s own play, pleasure from communicating with listeners.
It is very important for the further development of the student that his very first performances are successful. The choice of program and technical abilities are of great importance for the student. But even a less successful performance should not cause a negative reaction from the teacher to the student. And over time, a belief in one’s own strengths and a desire to communicate with the public should be formed. This is what is important in the further success and formation of a performing musician.
Returning to the reasons for concert excitement, we should consider the unusual environment.
The changed environment causes a feeling of discomfort and uncertainty. Therefore, before the concert, it is necessary to take care of preliminary rehearsals on stage, since each hall has its own acoustic characteristics.
Yankelevich’s observation about the peculiarities of performance in the hall is interesting: “a small painting is good for a room, but a poster is needed in a square. To captivate and interest the audience with your idea, you need to clearly imagine what impression you want to make. Fast technical play in the hall does not make an impression, it merges and becomes shallow. In the hall you need large, convex playing, sharpened... powerful sound, clarity of technical passages. To do this, you need to play larger, more prominently with the piano, but at a somewhat slower tempo, when everything is under control. Then a feeling of calm is created on the stage. While playing fast creates instability.”
Another feature that should not be forgotten. While working, at home or in class, we allow ourselves to play “not at full spiritual strength,” as if practicing, teaching a lesson. I do not exclude the stage of teaching the piece, but in order for the piece of music not to turn into an exercise or etude, it is necessary to play it at the end of the lesson at a tempo, as if at a concert, i.e. in the presence of imaginary listeners.
G. Neuhaus: “Before the composition sees the light of day, I will certainly perform it many times at home, alone, as if I were playing it in front of an audience. (True, I don’t set myself this goal, but since I am carried away by the composition, I “perform” it - for myself and for others, although they are not present.)”
A. Barenboim tells how one of the prominent Soviet pianists is rehearsing a new program that he will soon perform:
“What he does may seem like child’s play from the outside... he comes out of another room (the “artistic room”) to the piano, imagines that he is in a concert hall, bows to the audience and begins to play the program.”
Many musicians believe that a piece cannot be considered complete unless it has been performed publicly several times. At an early stage, in music schools, the student can be taught to play in the presence of other students. It is also useful to perform the program for relatives and friends. Such playing-performances teach the student to immediately become involved in the image of the work, evoke the necessary emotional attunement in himself, achieve complete concentration during the playing process, etc.
Test recordings of your performance are highly desirable - even imperfect amateur recordings. It is in the process of such verification that you can identify your shortcomings, which require subsequent separate elaboration.
It is very useful to play a piece from any given point. Another example: playing a piece in your head without notes, you can even combine it with a walk down the street.
However, many similar examples can be given... All this is training of nervous processes, as a result of which resistance to extraneous external stimuli is developed, and a concert performance becomes habitual.
Gaps in technical training have a negative impact on the quality of performance. For example, if before the performance there was still excessive tension in the muscles, then from excitement during the performance it increases many times, stiffness appears in the muscles of the whole body, the hands begin to tremble, and they do not obey the performer well. Wherever the tense state arises and wherever its influence comes from, it always has an inhibitory effect on the freedom of the player’s hands.
The statements of K. Stanislavsky help to take a broader look at the issue of muscle fixations: “bodily “clamps,” even if they do not clearly affect the pianist’s technique, fetter his emotional experiences and creative imagination. As long as there is physical tension,” writes Stanislavsky about the actor, “there can be no talk of correct feeling and normal mental life for the role.” in order to help the student get rid of muscle strain, you can choose this path: temporarily abandon “expressive” performance. Reduce it to a slow pace and develop in yourself, as K. Stanislavsky suggests, a “muscle controller.” With constant attention, make sure that no excessive tension, muscle tension, or cramps appear anywhere. This process of self-examination and release of muscle tension must be brought to “mechanical unconscious habituation.”
Of course, complexes of technical imperfection appear when choosing an “overpriced” program. Therefore, you should choose a program based on the individual mental abilities and technical capabilities of the student.
Another piece of advice that A. Alekseev gives is “to start learning the most difficult parts first, so that they are prepared in advance.”
There is also a psychological point: try not to focus attention on the student’s technical problems, so as not to form a complex in him, since over time, in the process of learning the piece, these will disappear.
Also, one of the reasons for the emergence of concert anxiety is said to be the intensification of conscious control over automatically established processes.
The performance of a work is a chain of automated movements, which in psychology are called skills and are developed in the process of conscious activity. L. Barenboim: “A sense of responsibility forces the pianist..., against their will, to test before the performance and on the stage itself those aspects of the performing process that proceeded well without special attention being directed to them. The automatically established processes are disorganized by this, and he forgets that he needs to continue playing.” How to avoid this? Stanislavsky believes: “... the only possible thing can be complete - without the slightest distraction - concentration of attention on the work of art itself; continuous and tireless concentration on the development of the artistic image. Extreme concentration of this kind will “lure out” passion, creative well-being and help maintain composure on the stage.”
Such composure and concentration largely depend on the method of artistic and pedagogical work with the student and on his own daily systematic training of his attention. But, despite all this, panic excitement sometimes sweeps away everything in its path, including the will to concentrate.
K. Stanislavsky makes pop self-control dependent on the moral character of the performer.
“We must explain,” he writes, “that all these worries... come from pride, vanity and pride, from the fear of being worse than others.” Musicians express the same idea. In response to the question of how to deal with nervousness on the stage, I. Hoffman, among other things, points out: “You must learn to forget your precious “I”, as well as the “I” of your listeners and their attitude towards you...”.
Variety performances require great performing will and endurance, as the musician puts out all his energy. You must be able to mobilize all your energy and at the same time skillfully spend it. To “train” them, it is useful to play the entire program several times in a row, while trying to maintain attention, concentration and control over energy costs.
More often than not, a performer's memory fails him on stage. The functioning of memory strongly depends on individual characteristics: on the development of hearing, sense of rhythm, on the development of technology and the ability to experience emotional experiences.
If the memorization process was built correctly, and both auditory, visual, motor, and logical memory components were involved in memorization, the moment of forgetting will not be a disaster.
There are several ways to learn plays by heart, using which you can achieve more lasting and meaningful memorization. You need to start learning as early as possible, by memorizing individual pieces, after analyzing, identifying the more inconvenient technically and harmonically episodes. Usually a piece is learned by heart on an instrument, with or without notes. It is also useful to learn from notes without an instrument. Some teachers and performers advise learning without notes and without an instrument, for example, while walking, thinking through a composition.
It is useful to analyze the melodic and harmonic structure of the piece, to memorize not only the sound, but also the text itself, the author's instructions and melodic-harmonic structure, as well as muscle sensations. When memorizing a play, it is very important not to forget about the artistic side. Any effort aimed at memorization must be combined with an effort aimed at improving the quality of the game.
The functioning of memory, to a certain extent, depends on the emotional significance of the perceived material. It's no secret that material that arouses interest is remembered easier and more firmly than that which is learned reluctantly. The point here is that when we are excited, all our senses are heightened, we see and hear more sharply, and when we see and hear more sharply, we remember better.
“In a cold soul,” says G. Kogan, “it is as difficult to leave a deep mark as to cast something from cold cast iron.” When memorizing, it is important to focus on the strength of memorization. If a person is given the task of remembering material “for a long time,” “forever,” then he usually remembers this material for a longer period than when instructed
- remember for a “short term”.
Playing at a slow tempo is very useful, not only when the piece is still being learned, but also when it has already been learned and even performed on stage. Playing at a slow pace is needed in order to lay a strong “mental foundation”, delve into the part being learned, listen to the intonation, “examine” all this, as G. Kogan says with a magnifying glass,” and “put it into the brain”<надрессировать» нервную систему на определенную последовательность звукодвижений, развить и украсить психический процесс торможения.
When preparing for a concert performance, it is very important to properly allocate time so that there is no frantic completion of study on the eve of the performance. The work must be firmly memorized long before this. But if a breakdown occurs on stage, there is no need to repeat something, start over. It is best to concentrate and continue to play calmly, remembering the importance of the listener’s holistic perception of the piece. When preparing for a concert performance, you should not direct your attention to negative emotions. The main means of combating “excitement - panic” is passion for your work. As K. Stanislavsky says: “the secret turns out to be quite simple: in order to take your mind off the audience, you need to get carried away by what’s on stage.”
An unhealthy impulse sometimes comes from the teacher himself. Questions and comments from teachers: “Aren’t you worried? “Aren’t you afraid?”, or “Don’t worry, there’s nothing scary here” - often, instead of encouragement, lead to painful excitement for some students. If a teacher is worried, then he must skillfully hide his excitement so as not to infect the student with it. Of course, the methods of psychological influence on the student immediately before the concert depend on his character and well-being at the moment. In some cases, you need to cheer up the student, instill in him confidence in the strengths of his game, omitting the shortcomings, in others, to defuse excessive tension with a joke, but if the student has loosened his nerves, even a shout is possible to bring him to his senses. The main task of the teacher in the psychological impact on the student is to switch and reorient “excitement-panic” to “excitement-excitement”.
It is useful to talk about anxiety as an essential part of a good performance. Many artists say that if the performer was not worried before the concert, it later turned out that the concert was not a success. Thanks to such conversations, anxiety takes on a different character: blind fear goes away, and in its place comes the awareness of anxiety as a feeling that is normal, natural in a given situation, and even somewhat useful.
After the concert, you must definitely note the positive aspects of the performance and support the student. Especially when it comes to teenagers, their emotional state is unstable and all reactions are heightened. It is better to conduct a detailed discussion of the concert performance not immediately after the concert, but in the following days, to praise for success, and to outline ways to correct shortcomings. By noting the positive aspects of the game, we contribute to the student’s freer behavior on stage and the development of his artistry. It is necessary to teach the future musician to overcome temporary failures.
Let us remember the words of M. Long: “Don’t lose heart - that was my support in life.”
Having examined the reasons for concert anxiety, we can say that the correct psychological attitude of the musician plays an important role in a successful performance, which affects both the efficiency of work and the stability of the performance.
According to G. Kogan, the psychological attitude “... has a very important meaning, much more than is usually thought, often more than is usually thought, often decisive... determining success or failure... This does not mean that the correct setting is enough to achieve success in classes: this means that it is a necessary condition for achieving the greatest success, a condition, the violation of which is sometimes enough to fail.”
The most important factor for successful work is purposefulness of action. G. Kogan puts forward three main aspects that contribute to the greatest productivity of independent work: directing attention to the goal, concentration, passionate pursuit of the goal - desire. To this he also adds the work mode - as a type of human creative activity, it requires the ability to distribute one’s energy and time.
So, “directing attention to the goal is the first condition for success in work”...“a clearly defined goal, a clearly stated, clearly perceived goal is the first condition for success in any work.” In performance, this means: “Listen in your mind to the music that you are going to perform, imagine the sound that you want to produce.” But you cannot see only the final goal - the performance of the entire work. Such a need arises only in the first period of “acquaintance” with the work and in the final period - the period of “polishing”. The middle period requires the dismemberment of the musical fabric into smaller “pieces”.
A vague, unstable goal “...burdens the game with many unnecessary movements... prevents the consolidation of the necessary automation of the developed chain of movements... With a shaky (during exercises) guideline in the brain, instead of one “path for the fingers” occupied, say, in one passage, Twenty such paths are formed... Out of twenty paths, it’s good if one is aimed correctly: all the rest lead to the wrong place. As a result, the enormous labor expended by the performer on laying twenty paths instead of the one needed turns out to be not only nine-tenths unnecessary, but also harmful, since at the right moment the fingers “do not know” which one to run on.”
The second aspect that promotes productive work:
concentration. The intended goal must be realized during direct work at the instrument, and this is where the second condition for successful work comes to light - concentration. It is known that the difference between work carried out with full concentration, when the performer does not see or hear anything around him or his activities, differs from work in “semi-concentration”. Extra thoughts lead to absent-mindedness and give rise to unnecessary movements, thereby leading to inferior results.
However, the duration of work with full concentration has its own limit for each musician and depends on his individual qualities (age, level of skill, physical and mental well-being, environment, random circumstances). This limit is, as it were, a signal for a change of job, the need for rest. “The mind, like the eye, gets tired if you focus on one subject for a long time... not everyone realizes that overextended attention loses the sharpness of perception, and this circumstance, in turn, can lead to a distortion of the imprinted image.”
I. Hoffman says: Concentration is the first letter in the alphabet of success. Only the one who is able to restore order in his own brain, calm down for a while the crowd of images crowding in the imagination, and stay in the “queue” of their impatient petitioners for embodiment, becomes a master.” It is important “... not only to be able to see, but also to be able not to see, to be able to temporarily close your eyes to many things... to narrow your circle of attention, to collect the latter into “focus”, to concentrate on the nearest “small” goal.”
But even the most accurate goal setting and the highest concentration will be unnecessary if there is no desire to achieve the final goal. Therefore, desire is the third condition for success in work. Desire should not manifest itself as a short-term impulse. The desire for victory only becomes full-fledged if it has perseverance. Such a desire is not afraid of difficulties and obstacles, and, despite a number of objective reasons that turn out to be truly insurmountable, the overwhelming majority of failures in art (and not only in art) stem from an overestimation of external obstacles and an underestimation of internal merits. “If you stop in fear and doubt in front of an obstacle in life, you are almost always defeated,” says K. Stanislavsky. “Desire is an order of consciousness, mobilizing, throwing into battle all the forces of the body, bringing into action the hidden reserves of a huge
powers that unknownly lurk in every person and pave unforeseen paths to victory.” The desire for success is not a criterion for a good performer. “Passionate passion, passionate love not only for a goal, but also for the work leading to this goal is one of the brightest hallmarks of talent,” said I. Hoffman. “Only such passion, passion that has turned into concentrated work, into the most methodical exercises, the fierce composure of which is fed by the high channel of the undying “I want” - only such passion has value in art, only it gives birth to skill.”
The main thing in the process of preparing for a performance is the ability to develop a sense of confidence and calm. “You need to accustom yourself to the stage with the right systematic training regime, the right attitude towards music” - B. Strune.
Speaking about the general regime before a concert, we can say that it should not differ sharply from the rhythmic life and work of the performer. It is best to be alone and calmly think about the program, since empty chatter is harmful. Some performers resort to breathing exercises; B. Strune gives the same advice, noting that anxiety is accompanied by an increase in impulse and increased breathing.
We must not forget about the diet, the main thing is not to play at a concert when you are full, as overall activity decreases and muscle activity interferes with digestion. As for practicing on the day of the concert, you should only play around with your fingers a little. Endless cramming on the day of a performance leads to an unsuccessful performance.
Yes, we look at some means of dealing with anxiety, but the main thing is that, when going on stage, the performer believes in himself, in his performance. We need to develop a joyful attitude towards a concert performance so that it is a holiday and not a “terrible judgment.” There is no need to be afraid of emotional speeches, because to be afraid of them means to be afraid of life. Emotion is an expression of life and not having them means not living.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I would like to say that, of course, gaining confidence on stage is a long-term job for a musician. But often, due to an increased sense of responsibility, breakdowns occur on stage. Wonderful violist and teacher V.V. Borisovsky admonished his students before the performance: “Don’t play better than you can,” thereby removing the excessive focus on maximum performance, which leads to tightness.
Full dedication to the embodiment of the musical image, the process of discovery, showing the beauty in the work, care for every detail and the desire to reveal it in real sound - this is the way to overcome stage fright.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Alekseev A. Methods of teaching piano playing. M. 1961.
2.Barenboim L. Issues of piano pedagogy and performance. L.
1969.
Z. Blinova M. Musical creativity and patterns of higher nervous
systems. L. 1974.
4.Hoffman I. Piano playing. M. 1961.
5. Kogan G. At the gates of mastery. M. 1977.
6. Neuhaus G. About the art of piano playing. M. 1987.
7. Stanislavsky K. An actor’s work on himself. M. 1938.
8. Struve B. Paths of initial development of young violinists and cellists.
M. 1959
INTRODUCTION
Public performance is a decisive moment in the creative life of a performer; it is the result of a musician’s long work (both mature and beginner) on a work. And, of course, this is a necessary stage in the system of training and development of a musician, where everything is interconnected: the education of musical thinking, creative imagination, hearing, technical skills, memory, concentration while working on a piece and general culture.
Already during the period of studying at a children's music school, the student must get used to the fact that a performance is a serious matter, for which he is responsible to the listener, to the author of the work, to himself and to his teacher, that at the same time it is a holiday, the best moments of his life, when he can receive enormous artistic satisfaction.
Despite the entire process of education, which takes place under the strong control of the teacher, concert performance largely depends on the individual abilities of the musician. Behavior on the stage, well-being during the game, reaction to the attitude of the audience - all this is revealed in each performer in his own way.
Often at this stage, breakdowns occur, causing serious mental trauma even to very gifted performers, which sometimes causes them to refuse stage performances.
Considering the reasons for breakdowns that occur with a performer on stage, I would like to dwell in more detail on the problem of pop excitement - the problem of internal liberation “in public”, the ability to free oneself from the shackles of nervous tension. K. Stanislavsky, with subtle psychological observation, describes the painful and unnatural state experienced by an actor on stage: “When a person - an artist goes on stage in front of a crowd of thousands, he loses his self-control from fear, shyness, responsibility, difficulties. At these moments he cannot speak, look, listen, think, want, feel like a human being.”
The excitement of a musician-performer is no different from the described well-being of an actor; consciousness of responsibility, unusual surroundings, fear of failure - all this disorganizes creative abilities.
For many pianists and (even more so) students, concert performance is far from simple. It is known that there were excellent virtuosos who were afraid of the stage and usually played in front of an audience much lower than their real level.
G. Neuhaus in his book “On the Art of Piano Playing” recalls how such famous artists as A. Rubinstein, L. Godovsky and others were nervous before concerts. A. Goldenweiser writes that anxiety before a performance was characteristic of most great artists. He speaks of I. Hoffman, who was not at all worried before the concert, as a rare exception to this rule.
Concert excitement
The problem of concert anxiety is not ignored by more than one researcher in the field of music pedagogy and psychology and private methods of teaching playing instruments. Indeed, this problem, the problem of stage anxiety, and such questions - how to get rid of excessive anxiety during a concert performance, how to work on stage anxiety during preparation for a performance - are key in music pedagogy and psychology. Since the development of artistic abilities, and in particular the ability to control oneself during a performance, is one of the tasks for a teacher in the formation of a performing musician.
Concert excitement should be considered as a type of emotional state that depends on the personal characteristics of the individual. There are two types of pop excitement: “excitement-excitement” and “excitement-panic”. Due to the individual characteristics of the mental organization of each performer, the state of excitement affects the quality of the performed works differently.
For some, anxiety helps them cope brilliantly with their creative task, contributes to greater brightness of performance, better contact between the performer and the listener, while for others they have to spend a lot of extra energy on overcoming anxiety and at the same time the performer does not always achieve the desired result; for many, anxiety reaches a painful state. Most often this manifests itself in a violation of speed regulation, the sense of tempo is lost, often the performer thinks that he is playing very quietly, that he cannot be heard, and he begins to play a nuance higher. The opposite happens: temperament fades, the game becomes colorless, soundless. The worst thing is if your memory suddenly fails. Sometimes this affects not only motor memory, but also musical memory. In the first case, the musical one can help out, and in the second, the motor one. If this does not happen, a stop is inevitable. Often, anxiety-panic leads to breakdowns, which leads to mental trauma for the performer. This condition is called "variety disease." Unsuccessful performance gives rise to self-doubt, in one’s strengths and capabilities,<боязнь» плохо сыграть, забыть текст, остановиться.
Causes of concert anxiety and ways to combat them
Every performer must know about the causes of pop excitement and be able to deal with them.
There are a number of reasons that cause fear of concert performances: unusual surroundings, insufficient technical equipment, poorly selected repertoire, lack of self-confidence, improper mental influence on the student from the teacher and others.
Let’s focus on the last one, because I think it’s about instilling in the student a sense of responsibility and sense of responsibility.<концертного выступления» – одна из задач педагога в момент прихода его в музыкальную школу.
What should a teacher do to instill good pop culture in a student? How and when should his introduction to the stage take place? Experienced teachers and psychologists believe that it is necessary to accustom a child to the stage as early as possible, from the first steps of learning. It is known that in childhood the qualities of the future personality of a musician-performer are formed. And it is very important not to miss this time when the child’s psyche is mainly aimed at expressing positive emotions, which is a serious prerequisite for the formation of a feeling of satisfaction from one’s own play, pleasure from communicating with listeners.
It is very important for the further development of the student that his very first performances are successful. The choice of program and technical abilities are of great importance for the student. But even a less successful performance should not cause a negative reaction from the teacher to the student. And over time, a belief in one’s own strengths and a desire to communicate with the public should be formed. This is what is important in the further success and formation of a performing musician.
Returning to the reasons for concert excitement, we should consider the unusual environment.
The changed environment causes a feeling of discomfort and uncertainty. Therefore, before the concert, it is necessary to take care of preliminary rehearsals on stage, since each hall has its own acoustic characteristics.
Yankelevich’s observation about the peculiarities of performance in the hall is interesting: “a small painting is good for a room, but a poster is needed in a square. To captivate and interest the audience with your idea, you need to clearly imagine what impression you want to make. Fast technical play in the hall does not make an impression, it merges and becomes shallow. In the hall you need large, convex playing, sharpened... powerful sound, clarity of technical passages. To do this, you need to play larger, more prominently with the piano, but at a somewhat slower tempo, when everything is under control. Then a feeling of calm is created on the stage. While playing fast creates instability.”
Another feature that should not be forgotten. While working, at home or in class, we allow ourselves to play “not at full spiritual strength,” as if practicing, teaching a lesson. I do not exclude the stage of teaching the piece, but in order for the piece of music not to turn into an exercise or etude, it is necessary to play it at the end of the lesson at a tempo, as if at a concert, i.e. in the presence of imaginary listeners.
G. Neuhaus: “Before the composition sees the light of day, I will certainly perform it many times at home, alone, as if I were playing it in front of an audience. (True, I don’t set myself this goal, but since I am carried away by the composition, I “perform” it - for myself and for others, although they are not present.)”
A. Barenboim tells how one of the prominent Soviet pianists is rehearsing a new program that he will soon perform:
“What he does may seem like child’s play from the outside... he comes out of another room (<артистической») к роялю, представляет себе, что находится в концертном зале, раскланивается перед аудиторией и начинает играть программу».
Many musicians believe that a piece cannot be considered complete unless it has been performed publicly several times. At an early stage, in music schools, the student can be taught to play in the presence of other students. It is also useful to perform the program for relatives and friends. Such playing-performances teach the student to immediately become involved in the image of the work, evoke the necessary emotional attunement in himself, achieve complete concentration during the playing process, etc.
Test recordings of your performance are highly desirable - even imperfect amateur ones. It is in the process of such verification that you can identify your shortcomings, which require subsequent separate elaboration.
It is very useful to play a piece from any given point. Another example: playing a piece in your head without notes, you can even combine it with a walk down the street.
However, many similar examples can be given... All this is training of nervous processes, as a result of which resistance to extraneous external stimuli is developed, and a concert performance becomes habitual.
Gaps in technical training have a negative impact on the quality of performance. For example, if before the performance there was still excessive tension in the muscles, then from excitement during the performance it increases many times, stiffness appears in the muscles of the whole body, the hands begin to tremble, and they do not obey the performer well. Wherever the tense state arises and wherever its influence comes from, it always has an inhibitory effect on the freedom of the player’s hands.
The statements of K. Stanislavsky help to take a broader look at the issue of muscle fixations: “bodily “clamps,” even if they do not clearly affect the pianist’s technique, fetter his emotional experiences and creative imagination. As long as there is physical tension,” Stanislavsky writes about the actor, “there can be no talk of correct feeling and normal mental life for the role.” in order to help the student get rid of muscle strain, you can choose this path: temporarily abandon “expressive” performance. Reduce it to a slow pace and develop in yourself, as K. Stanislavsky suggests, a “muscle controller.” With constant attention, make sure that no excessive tension, muscle tension, or cramps appear anywhere. This process of self-examination and release of muscle tension must be brought to “mechanical unconscious habituation.”
Of course, complexes of technical imperfection appear when choosing an “overpriced” program. Therefore, you should choose a program based on the individual mental abilities and technical capabilities of the student.
Another piece of advice that A. Alekseev gives is “to start learning the most difficult parts first, so that they are prepared in advance.”
There is also a psychological point: try not to focus attention on the student’s technical problems, so as not to form a complex in him, since over time, in the process of learning the piece, these will disappear.
Also, one of the reasons for the emergence of concert anxiety is said to be the intensification of conscious control over automatically established processes.
The performance of a work is a chain of automated movements, which in psychology are called skills and are developed in the process of conscious activity. L. Barenboim: “A sense of responsibility forces the pianist..., against their will, to test before the performance and on the stage itself those aspects of the performing process that proceeded well without special attention being directed to them. The automatically established processes are disorganized by this, and he forgets that he needs to continue playing.” How to avoid this? Stanislavsky believes: “... the only possible thing can be complete – without the slightest distraction – concentration of attention on the work of art itself; continuous and tireless concentration on the development of the artistic image. Extreme concentration of this kind will “lure out” passion, creative well-being and help maintain composure on the stage.”
Such composure and concentration largely depend on the method of artistic and pedagogical work with the student and on his own daily systematic training of his attention. But, despite all this, panic excitement sometimes sweeps away everything in its path, including the will to concentrate.
K. Stanislavsky makes pop self-control dependent on the moral character of the performer.
“We must explain,” he writes, “that all these worries... come from pride, vanity and pride, from the fear of being worse than others.” Musicians express the same idea. In response to the question of how to deal with nervousness on the stage, I. Hoffman, among other things, points out: “You must learn to forget your precious “I”, as well as the “I” of your listeners and their attitude towards you...”.
Variety performances require great performing will and endurance, as the musician puts out all his energy. You must be able to mobilize all your energy and at the same time skillfully spend it. To “train” them, it is useful to play the entire program several times in a row, while trying to maintain attention, concentration and control over energy costs.
More often than not, a performer's memory fails him on stage. The functioning of memory strongly depends on individual characteristics: on the development of hearing, sense of rhythm, on the development of technology and the ability to experience emotional experiences.
If the memorization process was built correctly, and both auditory, visual, motor, and logical memory components were involved in memorization, the moment of forgetting will not be a disaster.
There are several ways to learn plays by heart, using which you can achieve more lasting and meaningful memorization. You need to start learning as early as possible, by memorizing individual pieces, after analyzing, identifying the more inconvenient technically and harmonically episodes. Usually a piece is learned by heart on an instrument, with or without notes. It is also useful to learn from notes without an instrument. Some teachers and performers advise learning without notes and without an instrument, for example, while walking, thinking through a composition.
It is useful to analyze the melodic and harmonic structure of the piece, to memorize not only the sound, but also the text itself, the author's instructions and melodic-harmonic structure, as well as muscle sensations. When memorizing a play, it is very important not to forget about the artistic side. Any effort aimed at memorization must be combined with an effort aimed at improving the quality of the game.
The functioning of memory, to a certain extent, depends on the emotional significance of the perceived material. It's no secret that material that arouses interest is remembered easier and more firmly than that which is learned reluctantly. The point here is that when we are excited, all our senses are heightened, we see and hear more sharply, and when we see and hear more sharply, we remember better.
“In a cold soul,” says G. Kogan, “it is as difficult to leave a deep mark as to cast something from cold cast iron.” When memorizing, it is important to focus on the strength of memorization. If a person is given the task of remembering material “for a long time,” “forever,” then he usually remembers this material for a longer period than when instructed to remember it for a “short time.”
Playing at a slow tempo is very useful, not only when the piece is still being learned, but also when it has already been learned and even performed on stage. Playing at a slow pace is needed in order to lay a strong “mental foundation”, delve into the part being learned, listen to the intonation, “examine” all this, as G. Kogan says with a magnifying glass,” and “put it into the brain”<надрессировать» нервную систему на определенную последовательность звукодвижений, развить и украсить психический процесс торможения.
When preparing for a concert performance, it is very important to properly allocate time so that there is no frantic completion of study on the eve of the performance. The work must be firmly memorized long before this. But if a breakdown occurs on stage, there is no need to repeat something, start over. It is best to concentrate and continue to play calmly, remembering the importance of the listener’s holistic perception of the piece. When preparing for a concert performance, you should not direct your attention to negative emotions. The main means of combating “excitement-panic” is passion for your work. As K. Stanislavsky says: “the secret turns out to be quite simple: in order to take your mind off the audience, you need to get carried away by what’s on stage.”
An unhealthy impulse sometimes comes from the teacher himself. Questions and comments from teachers: “Aren’t you worried? “Aren’t you afraid?”, or “Don’t worry, there’s nothing scary here” - often, instead of encouragement, lead to painful excitement for some students. If a teacher is worried, then he must skillfully hide his excitement so as not to infect the student with it. Of course, the methods of psychological influence on the student immediately before the concert depend on his character and well-being at the moment. In some cases, you need to cheer up the student, instill in him confidence in the strengths of his game, omitting the shortcomings, in others, to defuse excessive tension with a joke, but if the student has loosened his nerves, even a shout is possible to bring him to his senses. The main task of the teacher in the psychological impact on the student is to switch and reorient “excitement-panic” to “excitement-excitement”.
It is useful to talk about anxiety as an essential part of a good performance. Many artists say that if the performer was not worried before the concert, it later turned out that the concert was not a success. Thanks to such conversations, anxiety takes on a different character: blind fear goes away, and in its place comes the awareness of anxiety as a feeling that is normal, natural in a given situation, and even somewhat useful.
After the concert, you must definitely note the positive aspects of the performance and support the student. Especially when it comes to teenagers, their emotional state is unstable and all reactions are heightened. It is better to conduct a detailed discussion of the concert performance not immediately after the concert, but in the following days, to praise for success, and to outline ways to correct shortcomings. By noting the positive aspects of the game, we contribute to the student’s freer behavior on stage and the development of his artistry. It is necessary to teach the future musician to overcome temporary failures. Let us remember the words of M. Long: “Don’t lose heart - that was my support in life.”
Having examined the reasons for concert anxiety, we can say that the correct psychological attitude of the musician plays an important role in a successful performance, which affects both the efficiency of work and the stability of the performance.
According to G. Kogan, the psychological attitude “... has a very important meaning, much more than is usually thought, often more than is usually thought, often decisive... determining success or failure... This does not mean that the correct setting is enough to achieve success in classes: this means that it is a necessary condition for achieving the greatest success, a condition, the violation of which is sometimes enough to fail.”
The most important factor for successful work is purposefulness of action. G. Kogan puts forward three main aspects that contribute to the greatest productivity of independent work: directing attention to the goal, concentration, passionate pursuit of the goal - desire. To this he also adds the mode of work - as a type of creative human activity, it requires the ability to distribute one’s energy and time.
So, “directing attention to the goal is the first condition for success in work”... “a clearly defined goal, a clearly stated, clearly understood goal is the first condition for success in any work.” In performance, this means: “Listen in your mind to the music that you are going to perform, imagine the sound that you want to produce.” But you cannot see only the final goal - the performance of the entire work. Such a need arises only in the first period of “acquaintance” with the work and in the final period – the period of “polishing”. The middle period requires the dismemberment of the musical fabric into smaller “pieces”.
A vague, unstable goal “...burdens the game with many unnecessary movements... prevents the consolidation of the necessary automation of the developed chain of movements... With a shaky (during exercises) guideline in the brain, instead of one “path for the fingers” occupied, say, in one passage, Twenty such paths are formed... Out of twenty paths, it’s good if one is aimed correctly: all the rest lead to the wrong place. As a result, the enormous labor expended by the performer on laying twenty paths instead of the one needed turns out to be not only nine-tenths unnecessary, but also harmful, since at the right moment the fingers “do not know” which one to run on.”
The second aspect that promotes productivity: focus. The intended goal must be realized during direct work at the instrument, and here the second condition for successful work is revealed - concentration. It is known that the difference between work carried out with full concentration, when the performer does not see or hear anything around him or his activities, differs from work in “semi-concentration”. Extra thoughts lead to absent-mindedness and give rise to unnecessary movements, thereby leading to inferior results.
However, the duration of work with full concentration has its own limit for each musician and depends on his individual qualities (age, level of skill, physical and mental well-being, environment, random circumstances). This limit is like a signal for a job change. need for rest. “The mind, like the eye, gets tired if you focus on one subject for a long time... not everyone realizes that overextended attention loses the sharpness of perception, and this circumstance, in turn, can lead to a distortion of the imprinted image.”
I. Hoffman says: Concentration is the first letter in the alphabet of success. Only the one who is able to restore order in his own brain, calm down for a while the crowd of images crowding in the imagination, and stay in the “queue” of their impatient petitioners for embodiment, becomes a master.” It is important “... not only to be able to see, but also to be able not to see, to be able to temporarily close your eyes to many things... to narrow your circle of attention, to collect the latter into “focus”, to concentrate on the nearest “small” goal.”
But even the most accurate goal setting and the highest concentration will be unnecessary if there is no desire to achieve the final goal. Therefore, desire is the third condition for success in work. Desire should not manifest itself as a short-term impulse. The desire for victory only becomes full-fledged if it has perseverance. Such a desire is not afraid of difficulties and obstacles, and, despite a number of objective reasons that turn out to be truly insurmountable, the overwhelming majority of failures in art (and not only in art) stem from an overestimation of external obstacles and an underestimation of internal merits. “If you stop in fear and doubt when faced with an obstacle in life, you are almost always defeated,” says K. Stanislavsky. “Desire is an order of consciousness that mobilizes and throws into battle all the forces of the body, activating hidden reserves of enormous power, hidden unknown in every person and paving unforeseen paths to victory.” The desire for success is not a criterion for a good performer. “Passionate passion, passionate love not only for a goal, but also for the work leading to this goal is one of the brightest hallmarks of talent,” said I. Hoffman. “(Only such passion, passion that has turned into concentrated work, into the most methodical exercises, the fierce composure of which is fed by the high channel of the undying “I want” - only such passion has value in art, only it gives birth to skill."
The main thing in the process of preparing for a performance is the ability to develop a sense of confidence and calm. “You need to accustom yourself to the stage with the right systematic training regime, the right attitude towards music” - B. Strune.
Speaking about the general regime before a concert, we can say that it should not differ sharply from the rhythmic life and work of the performer. It is best to be alone and calmly think about the program, since empty chatter is harmful. Some performers resort to breathing exercises; B. Strune gives the same advice, noting that anxiety is accompanied by an increase in impulse and increased breathing.
We must not forget about the diet, the main thing is not to play at a concert when you are full, as overall activity decreases and muscle activity interferes with digestion. As for activities on the day of the concert, this is purely individual. Some people gain confidence by studying for six hours on the day of the concert, while others take no time at all.
Yes, we look at some means of dealing with anxiety, but the main thing is that, when going on stage, the performer believes in himself, in his performance. We need to develop a joyful attitude towards a concert performance so that it is a holiday and not a “terrible judgment.” There is no need to be afraid of emotional speeches, because to be afraid of them means to be afraid of life. Emotion is an expression of life and not having them means not living.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I would like to say that, of course, gaining confidence on stage is a long-term job for a musician. But often, due to an increased sense of responsibility, breakdowns occur on stage. Wonderful violist and teacher V.V. Borisovsky admonished his students before the performance: “Don’t play better than you can,” thereby removing the excessive focus on maximum performance, which leads to tightness.
Full dedication to the embodiment of the musical image, the process of discovery, showing the beauty in the work, care for every detail and the desire to reveal it in real sound - this is the way to overcome stage fright.
Bibliography
- Alekseev A.
M. 1959.
Concert and competition performances
The difference between concert and competitive performances
A music competition is an opportunity to prove your professional capabilities. The main goal of the competition is to prove your personal advantage over your opponent. Achieve the advantage awarded by the jury. The jury's assessment system does not allow for concessions or consideration of the physical and mental state of the contestant, or his technical errors. At a competition, the performer experiences the highest degree of nervous tension.
There is no element of comparison in concert activity. Each participant, regardless of the quality of his performance, can count on the sympathy of the audience, which is caused by one or another of his qualities: courage, virtuosity. The main criterion for a concert is the reaction of the audience, the absence of a very high level of responsibility and maximum tension, in comparison with a competition.
A performance is the result of the intense creative work of a student and a teacher, which is a responsible act for them that stimulates further creative growth. At such competitions, will is developed, stage endurance, skill and many other qualities that shape the future musician.
It is necessary to educate a student - a “fighter”, capable of independent thinking, able to work hard and work on mistakes, withstand great physical and moral stress, not lose a sense of optimism, and also be able to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and abilities in practice. Successful performances are accompanied by high spirits, a desire to play well, a special fighting spirit, lack of fatigue, good relationships with others, and normal physical well-being.
Any competition is a hard work of the team: student and teacher.
The task of any teacher:
Organize the work correctly;
Choose your repertoire wisely;
Learn the program;
Social approach to working on the program (form, harmonic and rhythmic features, etc.);
Work in parts, working at a slow pace;
Collect the parts together and increase the pace, work out difficult places;
Multiple playback;
Finding mutual understanding, being on the same emotional “wavelength” - these are the components of success, winning competitions.
As you know, the status of music competitions varies:
Cool;
School;
Urban;
Regional;
Competition - festival;
All-Russian;
International.
Every teacher is interested in his students performing as best as possible on stage.
Preparations for a concert performance
A musician’s performing readiness for concert activity consists of several factors: technical and performing preparation, as well as psychological preparation for a performance.
All the work that has been done by the student on a piece of music in the classroom and at home is “tested for strength” in a public performance; Only a concert performance determines the level of mastery of the material, the degree of talent of the performer, his psychological stability, and much more.
Of course, one cannot equate the success of one or another open performance of a young musician-performer with his performing qualities. Situations are possible when a well-prepared and even gifted student suffers a stage fiasco for one reason or another; or situations arise when a student who is not very gifted can show himself well. And at the same time, it is during the performance that absolutely everything is tested: the complex of natural musical-performing abilities, the “technical” potential, the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities, and mental stability.
Concert activity has a great influence on the personality of the performing musician; for the formation of a mental state of creative uplift during a performance, the following needs are the most valuable:
The need to experience beauty by participating in the performing process;
The need for creative communication with ensemble partners and with the public,
The need for self-expression, the desire to capture, preserve, and convey to other people your idea of a musical artistic image.
A lesson is the main form of preparing a student for a concert performance.
A lesson is the main form of a long process of pedagogical communication between a student and a teacher. It is here that the main tasks of learning are set and largely resolved, creative interaction between two individuals occurs, achievements and shortcomings are assessed, goals are set, the pace of progress is determined, long-term plans are made, etc.
The following are the most typical forms and methods of work in the classroom:
1) mutual creative search , expressed in in-depth work on the creative concept of the composition, its imagery, the necessary character of the sound, the solution of a particular technological problem;
2) listening with subsequent adjustment;
3) creating a performing image when this or that episode, this or that phrase is brought to an ideal qualitative state and acquires a certain reference character that helps to understand the essence of the performing task;
4) demonstration by the teacher of the required level of play for a given composition or specific technique;
5) training (“coaching”) - repeated repetition ,
6) verbal instruction with a specific analysis of both the whole and the details,
7) independent work of the student under the guidance of a teacher,
8) collective activities.
An important point in conducting a lesson is to develop in the student a sense of responsibility for his game, for completing the teacher’s tasks, and for his creative development.
A favorable creative atmosphere plays a big role: the friendliness, smile of the teacher, a few words he said about the student’s readiness and well-being. This psychological “tuning” greatly contributes to the removal of excessive constraint, anxiety of the student, and his emancipation.
The most responsible parts of a concert performance
- Final rehearsal
- Psychological mood before a performance
- Exiting and leaving the stage
- Beginning of the performance
- Focus and continuous, tireless concentration on the development of the artistic image of the work
Causes of variety excitement
- Unusual environment;
- Inconsistency of the work with the musical and technical capabilities of the student;
- Uncertainty due to the fact that the student worked on the work automatically, unconsciously;
- The text has not been studied well “by memory”;
- Increased self-esteem, excessive attention to one’s personality;
- Weak nervous system, pain.
How can they be avoided?
- Conscious and confident mastery of a piece of music;
- A clear idea of the work as a single whole, as a natural development of musical thought;
- Conscious mastery of technically coordinated episodes;
- Active, conscious learning of a piece of music by heart;
- It is necessary to establish an appropriate relationship between consciousness and automatism, which depends on the degree of complexity of the musical text;
- Training in front of an audience that provides courage, composure, clear thought, focus;
- Maintaining the body in good physical shape (vitamins, nutrition, self-hypnosis skills, sleep, rest).
The importance of concert activity in the development of a young musician
Since public speaking can include all forms of performance in the presence of one or more listeners, accordingly, every student, no matter what specialty he is studying, has to constantly deal with this kind of event during academic concerts, exams, tests, auditions, festivals or competitions . It is public speaking, being an important element of the educational process, that contributes to the development of certain performing qualities in students.
Acquiring the skills to successfully perform on stage is an important condition for many students to continue musical performing activities in the future. But in any field of musical art - be it solo performance, accompanist skills, work in a group or teaching - the stage experience accumulated over the years of study, possession of the necessary theoretical knowledge and practical skills in preparing for performances are of great importance. Therefore, already during training it is necessary to provide students with the opportunity for creative self-realization in performing activities.
High-quality preparation for a performance is the basis for the success of a child performer’s concert activity and one of the main conditions for motivating him for further studies. Psychological preparation means the ability of a performer to successfully implement his creative intentions in the stressful situation of performing in front of an audience.