Understand stress, Manage it and Learn not to be discouraged.
Stress is an essential ingredient in life and playing a musical instrument can be very helpful in coping with stress. The discipline involved in learning a musical instrument can enormously assist young people in applying themselves and then coping with the varied pressures of their music studies, and, ultimately, with the demanding challenges of life.
There is also a significant benefit in having a hobby. The peaceful world of music provides a wonderful opportunity for creative self-expression and a perfect balance to the everyday strains of living in the 21st century.
Music is a vital aspect in the Art of Living.
Harmony and Dissonance
However, music making and even the music itself is not free from stress.
Just think about harmony in the musical sense and how all the dissonances in a piece of music find a pleasant resolution as the piece progresses. In fact, it is more often the beautiful dissonances that make the music exciting and interesting rather than the more predictable resolutions. Even harmony needs the stress that dissonances provide so that the consonances have the desired effect in providing relaxation.
Our muscles work also to the same principle: tension - release = breathing out - breathing in.
Why be stressed? There are many stressful situations in any musician's life. This starts with the first lesson and ends with the last public performance.
People who choose a career path other than music often enjoy their music making more than many professional musicians. Training in music can also play a major part in the success of people's chosen careers and professional lives. For example, Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg were both outstanding violinists.
Don't think of stress as something negative. Stress can be the driving force to make a performance successful. Use this stress to your advantage. Properly understood and managed, your personal stress will elevate your rate of progress, your expertise, standard of proficiency, and the quality of your performance.
Many experienced musicians are worried if they do not become nervous before a performance. Why? Because they feel that there is a danger of the performances becoming flat and uninspired!
Categories of stress In the main, the most frequently encountered stress in music will fall into two broad categories.
1. Pressure to progress/perform
Generally speaking, we all desire encouragement and progress and to then perform as well as we possibly can - and this can only be achieved within our own capabilities. For most people, this is facilitated through lessons and long hours of practice.
I do not believe there is any difference in teaching so-called amateur musicians and professional musicians in the sense that anyone playing a musical instrument will only achieve optimal enjoyment from this when he or she plays at their highest standard that the individual is capable of.
However, the process of learning involves its own stress through pressure experienced during lessons and to a lesser extent during a master course or even a masterclass. This type of pressure can or will usually be applied by the teacher in a carefully planned and calculated manner to enhance the student's progress. Depending on the teacher's personality and style of teaching, each student can usually expect to receive appropriate personal encouragement and support from the teacher during this process.
It is up to the teacher to know each student and their individual requirements, so that the stress and pressure experienced by the student will be there to be supplemented by the teacher's encouragement and support.
Naturally, the teacher will also experience stress as he or she tries to effectively communicate with the student at their level as the teacher strives to bring the best out of the student.
The fact is that stress and pressure are usually managed within the ambit of a close and constructive relationship between the teacher and the student.
Similar stressful situations on a professional level can be experienced during rehearsals for a particular performance. A conductor (or accompanist) will be very encouraging even supportive, although many famous conductors, like Toscanini and Karajan, have been known to be harsh and unsympathetic. Their high expectations required that a musician playing his or her part very well in the orchestra was regarded as perfectly normal. Fair enough, don't you think? There was little room for any praise and encouragement except as special treat reserved only for extraordinary occasions.
However, the stress and pressure involved can be managed in terms of personal relationships and mutuality of purpose, as well as by encouragement from a number of sources including the public and, at times, even fellow musicians.
2. Proof of Proficiency Standards
This potentially stressful situation is like a 'health check up'. It is such "here and now" situations where the musician is assessed or tested, objectively by an independent expert, an adjudicator or examiner.
This can be particularly stressful for young and inexperienced musicians.
I call this situation "proof of proficiency standards" and this mainly applies to examinations, competitions and auditions. This second category of stressful situations is significantly different from the first category "pressure to progress/perform" situations.
First, the primary aim is for the independent expert, adjudicator or examiner to objectively rate, assess and rank a performance that can only be a few minutes in duration. 'HIC RHODOS - HIC SALTA!' - like in the ancient times of the Roman Empire. In this "here and now" situation it is the actual performance that counts, not what might have been and not what might have transpired before the performance.
It is a fact of life that a candidate can show remarkable progress to his or her teacher and can have performed brilliantly prior to a competition, yet this is not taken into account in the rating, assessment and ranking by the adjudicator of the actual performance.
The adjudicator is required to be independent and objective in rating, assessing and ranking the actual performance. The adjudicator is not in a position to rate, assess and rank the candidate's proficiency on any criteria other than the actual performance. For the adjudicator to do otherwise will deprive the adjudicating process of any integrity. Secondly, the adjudicator is not in the same position, and should not be in the same position, as the candidate's teacher.
The teacher has intimate and subjective understanding of the candidate's strengths, weaknesses and potential, usually developed and acquired over a long period of time, whilst the adjudicator's knowledge and understanding of the candidate's strengths, weaknesses and potential is essentially limited to the brief duration of the actual performance.
Similarly, the teacher has or will have a vested interest in the candidate, whilst the adjudicator is or should be free from such vested interests to carry out the task of adjudication objectively, without fear or favour. Thirdly, and most importantly, the candidate cannot and should not expect encouragement and support from the adjudicator, this is not the adjudicators role.
The roles and responsibilities of the candidate's teacher and the adjudicator are substantially different, yet are required to complement each other.
As was said earlier, the adjudicator's responsibility is to independently, objectively rate, assess and rank the candidate's performance. The adjudicator can also offer some comments that can highlight some of the reasons for the rating, assessment and ranking, and which will also assist the candidate. However, it is not the primary responsibility of the adjudicator to encourage, support or console the candidate, particularly when the candidate's performance is not up to the required standard.
An adjudicator is simply not in a position to be effective in encouraging, supporting and consoling the candidate, as the adjudicator does not haven the benefit of a close relationship with or even a good personal understanding of the candidate.
Everybody is different! Some people do better with and require encouragement, whilst others will be motivated far more through the harder edge of criticism.
It follows that the adjudicator will be careful not to encroach upon the teacher's territory, as the teacher is there to be in a far stronger position to know what is best for the candidate (his or her student). The teacher will know or is required to know what is the correct dose of encourage- ment or support to get the best results!
It is true, of course, that the adjudicator, the candidate, the teacher and the candidate's friends and relations can see the performance from a very different perspective. For example, it is extremely difficult, or impossible, for an adjudicator to judge a candidate's full potential from just one very short performance.
It is important to remember that it is not necessary or advisable for the adjudicator to be liked, to win friends, to gain popularity through the process of adjudication, or to expect that the adjudicator's ratings, assessments and rankings will have universal approval and endorsement. Such an approach would negate the integrity of the whole process of any adjudication.
Equally so, it will be counter-productive and contrary to spirit or integrity of a competition for the candidate or the candidate's connections, including the teacher, to blame the adjudicator when the rating, assessment and ranking of a candidate's performance falls short of what had been expected or wished for by others.
Be honest, when your performance is not up to scratch, your piece requires more practice, preparation and care, and the adjudicator tells you how talented you are and how wonderfully you have played, could you take this comment and the adjudicator seriously? Or is the adjudicator lying to all and sundry? And who is then receiving the worst insult? The candidate, surely?
Preparation
It is stating the obvious, yet preparation for a competition is at the heart of this matter. This involves the careful choice (in case a choice is available) of the piece that the candidate is to perform and the chosen piece can be perfectly suitable to enable to candidate to play at the best possible standard that he or she is capable of at this stage. Performing in a competition is "NOT" a practice session. Choosing a piece that is too difficult and demanding for the candidate's capability will only increase stress levels and can produce a frustrating experience for the candidate. Choosing something that is too simple or easy will deprive the candidate of showing his or her capability. When the candidate is inexperienced with competitions, preparation can include at least some 'mock' competitions, as the candidate prepared for these conditions of the competition. In all respects, the candidate is to be able to perform at his or her best.
Conditioning
Different levels of conditioning will obviously apply to different levels and standards of competition. There is also a subjective element involved, as the conditioning must be relevant to and specific to the needs of individual candidates. Over-confidence can be just as damaging as lack of confidence. Particularly with younger people and for lower standards competition, it is preferable not to enter the competition with inflated expectations. Expectations - especially unrealistic or emotional expectations will invariably lead to disappointment. Naturally, every competitor will want to do well, will want to score well and win, when possible. Not unlike the Olympic Games, the correct approach is perhaps to condition the candidate that winning and scoring well is less important than being there and participating, and that nothing more is required from the candidate than doing his or her best and performing at the best standard he or she is capable of on that day and in those circumstances. Success is taking progressive small steps to where we aim to be or plan to be. This journey is just as important, or at least as important, as the destination.
Nervousness
Even some seasoned professional musicians suffer from nervousness. So, it is not unreasonable to find a young and inexperienced competitor or candidate to be nervous to the extent that this can prevent him or her performing at his or her best. However, there are specific techniques that make use of this nervous energy to elevate the standard of the performance.
Equally so, excessive nervousness is only part of the journey, part of the discipline, and a competitor's or candidate's capability of handling the resultant stress and pressures will inevitably increase with more experience and progress, as he or she "climbs the ladder" to success and worthy recognition.
Look for Criticism rather than Praise
A competitor or candidate is to be prepared for criticism, rather than praise, from the adjudicator. A competitor or candidate is more likely to make rapid progress and improvement with the challenge of realistic and practical criticism instead of the comfort zone of praise.
Encouragement and Support
As we communicated earlier, the encouragement and support for each competitor or candidate should come from the teacher, not from an adjudicator, as the teachers are best placed to reflect together on and analyse these outcomes, as well as coming up with the appropriate strategies and corrections to address weaknesses and problems.
Conclusion Use the stress to your advantage convert it to excitement and capture your audience with it. Obviously the demands and levels of pressure i.e. stress increase with the importance of the event. But your capability of handling these pressures will equally increase as you climb the ladder and as you make progress.
Don't overtax yourself by trying to do too much too soon! It is better to thoroughly prepare several works of an appropriate level of difficulty rather than struggle with just one that is too difficult. Then, apart from giving you a more varied education and, when it comes to competing, more repertoire to choose from.
Like the carefully structured training you receive through lessons the various tests and competitions have to be planned equally well for them to be beneficial for your development as musician and as a person. Is it all worth the effort?
Remember: Making Music makes you better in managing most other things in life. Music is a vital aspect in the Art of Living.
Thomas Pinschof
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