self-talk

When I wrote my review of the classic performance book The Inner Game of Music, I knew that a lot of people wouldn't like it.  It wasn't the most glowing review, to be sure, and the book itself has a lot of ardent fans around the world of musical performance.  One such ardent fan is Liz Garnett, a friend of mine from the UK who publishes her own performance related blog, focusing mostly on harmony singing.  (Liz is also listed in the OTS Coach Directory)  So in light of her comments, I'd like to clarify some of mine!  Hopefully the back-and-forth will be useful for everyone.

I'll quote a few paragraphs from her article, and respond.  First we talk about Self 1 and Self 2:

[Tom's] first point of contention is the division between Self 1, the nasty inner critic, and Self 2, the honest musician who would do a much better job if Self 1 would only shut up and let them get on with it. Tom finds this device unhelpful, and thinks a more holistic, rather than ‘schizophrenic’ approach will be better for performers. But I think that’s actually the Inner Game’s point: the Self1/Self2 idea is presented as a way to describe an essentially dysfunctional state that the book aims to help us leave behind. Describing the split is necessary if people are to diagnose that they have the problem.

The first thing to realize is that we're discussing models and metaphors here, not hard facts.  Of course there is no Self 1 and no Self 2 - they are inventions of Tim Gallwey, which he defines as everything that works for you, and everything that doesn't.  Everyone has things that work for them and things that do not!  It doesn't take a stroke of brilliance to realize that we want to get rid of the latter.

Having said that, a metaphor has value if it works, and this one has worked for a lot of people.  There are many paths to the promised land!  I just don't find the Self 1/Self 2 breakdown a particularly useful model for me.

Next topic is what should the performer hold in their head.  Inner Game of Music author Green says it doesn't much matter - anything to distract you from your negative self-talk and head games.  And to some extent I think that's fine.  I think it would be better to have something up there that pertains to the purpose of the piece, which I have called the "scene."  Liz takes exception to that term:

The focus on the ‘scene’ betrays a very character-based, verbally-defined performance context. Plays have explicit scenes, songs evoke scenes: the performer has a concrete persona to inhabit in these artworlds. But instrumental performers (who are the ones who might be focusing on their instrument) often have a much more intangible set of musical ideas to communicate to their audience. The soloist who is going to build the long, highly structured stretches of musical time in a Brahms sonata into coherent experience needs focal points that will take them into that abstract imaginative world. It’s not ‘navel-gazing’, it’s an important mental skill for that artistic world, just as the ability to focus creating scenes is an important skill for the singer.

Again, if focusing on your instrument works for you, have at it!

I'm a singer, and hardly an instrumental performer at all (not since high school!), but even so I suspect that the very best instrumental performers have something going on in their heads that is more explicitly about the artistry, and less about simply distracting their Self 1.  If the goal is just to rid yourself of stage anxiety, and that's a worthwhile goal for sure, do what you need to do.  If you want to reach higher, it's not going to happen by itself!  It takes focus on the emotional content of the music.  At least, that's my two cents.

I suggested also that "relaxed concentration" may not be the ideal emotional state for all performances.  Liz kind of disagrees with that, and refers to a book called "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" that I have not read.  So I've ordered it!  I'll read it before I comment on it.  Looking forward to that one.

Finally, in my original article I didn't comment much on the trio of Awareness, Will and Trust, and that's basically because, let's be honest, I just didn't get it.  Liz feels it's very important, and I suspect she is right - I hope she will consent to write a blog article about it that helps me understand it better!

Thanks, Liz, for the lively discussion!

OK, if you've been following along with this series, you've already developed all the singing skills you'll need.  You have put yourself in the judge's shoes.  You understand the music in terms of its notes and words, story, scene, objective and development.  You have exercised all your creativity and intelligence to make a truly a great plan.  You're already miles ahead of 99% of the groups in terms of your preparation.  Unfortunately, if you fail to execute during that six minutes when you're doing it for real, some would say that all your hard work was for naught.

(I'm not one of those people - I believe the journey is more important than the destination, but I suppose it's easy to say that when you've already got a gold medal!  LOL.)

I believe that if you can come to the stage well prepared, your voice is in peak form, and you're in the right state of mind, you will knock it out of the park.  Let's treat each piece separately.

Come well prepared

Yes you have a fantastic plan.  It's creative, it's insightful, it's engaging.  But making the plan is the beginning of the journey, not the end.  I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times, but amateurs rehearse until they get it right, but professionals rehearse until they can't get it wrong.  Your best insurance policy against something going wrong at exactly the wrong time is to rehearse to a professional level.  And that doesn't mean getting together with your group and banging through the tunes a hundred times - that isn't going to do it.  If someone tells you they have ten years' experience, do you ever wonder whether it was ten different years or the exact same year ten times?  Makes a big difference.

Professional rehearsals follow a pattern.  If you're staging a play, you start by memorizing your lines, understanding your character, your motivations, and objectives in each scene.  Then you read through it with your fellow actors.  Then you run through it many times on the real stage, under the guidance of the director.  Then generally you'll have a "preview" performance of some kind, with a well-chosen audience, usually friendly.  Then and only then is it opening night.

So let's steal what works, shall we?  Learn your stuff, make your plan, and then move through the professional rehearsal pattern.  Start with just the foursome and a video camera.  Then invite a few friends to come watch and give you feedback.  (Keep an open mind.  They are right - you are wrong.)  Then take the contest tunes onto the stage for a real audience, like on a chapter show or some other public performance.  Video tape that, and review the tape together with your trusted advisors.  At each level you will learn a lot - bake those lessons into your performance at the next level.

The key is that you'll be rehearsing what you're actually planning to do, in an environment that is closer and closer to the one that counts.

Get your voice and body in peak condition

All that professional level rehearsing was a lot of work, so let's not blow it in the last four hours before going on stage.

One of the most important things is making sure your voice is 100% when you hit the stage.  Stay healthy, be well rested, stay hydrated, take your allergy pills - whatever it takes to feel right.  You don't need distractions like a tickle in your throat.

Being at the peak of your potential vocally means warming up the right way for your voice.  With all that pro-level rehearsing you might be in what we call "perma-warm" which is an awesome place to be - do enough singing every day and you'll be ready to sing without much work at all, and your stamina will be fantastic too.  If you can arrange it, sing every day for a few weeks before the big day.

Another pitfall many groups fall into is banging the tunes a dozen times in the warm up room.  I think they do this because at some level they know they are underprepared, or they just don't know what else to do when they're together.  Of course you'll be rehearsed to a level where you can't do it wrong, so you have the luxury of not worrying about it on game day.  Hit the intro of each song a few times.  Sing other stuff that isn't strenuous.  Play with your iPhone - whatever.  Metropolis used to play hackey-sack!  Whatever you need to do, to stay relaxed and focused.

Head games on game day

A lot of this is covered nicely in my previous series on stage fright, but that's not the whole picture.  You get to choose what kind of dialog goes on in your head, and in the last two hours before you go on stage it's even more important that the self-talk is heading in the right direction.

Which of the following phrases would you like to have running through your head, as you prepare for the big day?

• Everyone is going to pick us apart out there.
• They are going to love us - they won't know what hit 'em!
• What if I trip as I go on stage?  What if I wet myself?  What if the theater burns down??
• Everything is going to be fine.
• If anything unexpected happens, I can handle it.
• Gosh my butterflies are getting worse!
• I can feel the adrenaline pumping, ready to back me up.
• I know our baritone will be flat on that note, and everyone will notice.
• Little imperfections are glossed over when the story is strong.
• We never duetted the last two phrases!!
• We are the most prepared group they will see today, and our plan is awesome.

Take your pick - what you hear as you go on stage is all up to you!  One tip - if you're one of the people who like to tell yourself negative things in order to motivate yourself, game day is TOO LATE for that marginal strategy to do ANY good.  Ditch it.

It's also important that you stay on the same page with your fellow singers at a time like this.  Try reminding them about the best phrases in the above list if it seems like they need it.  In extreme cases, you can also take them by the shoulders and say, "we're never going to make it.  This is going to suck."  That usually breaks the ice.