The benefits of accessible music
Tags: choosing repertoire, creative process, creativity, deep practice, goal-setting, how to practice music, injury prevention musicians, motivation, music education, music performance, music practice, performance anxiety, practicing music, self-motivation, The Musician's Way
Time and again, when I hear students audition, some will attempt to perform music that’s beyond their capacities.
“This’ll be impressive,” they surmise, as they struggle through one phrase after another.
Such students seldom realize that their misguided choices of repertoire don’t just fail to impress but also hamper their progress:
- If students are habitually overwhelmed by technical challenges, they ingrain habits of tension that limit their fluency and increase the likelihood of injury.
- When musicians tackle compositions that are beyond their reach, they rely on rote learning strategies that lead to frustration and performance anxiety (see my post “Deep practice“).
- Students who fumble through unattainable music acquire imprecise habits – their timing, intonation, tone, and so forth perpetually sound ragged. In the end, they miss out on learning how to shape exquisite phrases and present compelling performances.
Some of you might be thinking, “Doesn’t challenging repertoire motivate students and extend their skills? Isn’t it essential to musical development?”
Let me be clear: appropriate challenges inspire and educate; excessive challenges don’t.
As I explain in my book The Musician’s Way, to stretch students’ technical skills, I employ exercises and etudes. But when it comes to choosing repertoire for auditions and concerts, only accessible material enables students to acquire the habits of mastery that beget secure, artistic performances.
To illustrate this point, let’s consider the differing demands that hard versus accessible music place on musicians’ artistic, technical, and higher thinking abilities (we use higher thinking skills to direct and evaluate our execution).
When students take on overly difficult music, they toil to get the notes, and then the overload on their technical and higher thinking resources leaves them with little mental bandwidth to devote to artistic expression:
Overly difficult music obstructs artistic expression
With accessible repertoire – that is, music that can be mastered in a day to a week – the technical and higher thinking requirements fall well within students’ grasp, so they have ample capacity to sculpt their music and perform securely:
Accessible music promotes artistic expression
Accessible repertoire makes it possible for rising musicians to become true performing artists. It leaves them with the mental and physical space they need to develop their interpretive voices, build their performance skills, and craft their stage presence.
What’s more, by assembling large caches of accessible pieces, students can perform without needing to practice at length. Regular performances can then become part of their lifestyles. Plus, with their fundamentals in place, they can mix some tougher repertoire into their practice lineup without becoming swamped.
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Topics of practice and performance are discussed at length in The Musician’s Way, and additional matters of repertoire choice are explored in a section titled ”Choosing New Material” (p. 14-16). I hope that you’ll study the book’s recommendations and then share your thoughts here.
Related posts
Clear goals, clear process
Deep practice
Mental imaging
Practicing performance
Self-evaluation: the key to artful practice
© 2009 Gerald Klickstein
Laura Bruno Lilly said:
Jul 14, 10 at 11:18So, so true. I just finished playing a solo concert-gig last week after having played primarily in various duo ensembles for the past 3 years with solo pieces intermixed from time to time. In getting prepared, I had just finished a new arrangement of a celtic piece and really wanted it to be performance ready by the time of this concert-gig. I viewed it as a challange to get it stage ready as well as debut it with my own re-debut as a soloist. I kept faltering in my practise performance times when this piece was included in the programming, but was determined to overcome the obstacles…I finally decided to just set it aside to perform at another time when it truely was ready to perform and the minute I let it go, the other pieces I had programmed (all “accessible pieces”) flowed well with not a trace of tension or “fear”….I am so glad I didn’t stubbornly hold onto performing it prematurely! The re-debut concert-gig was truely a great success as well as a personal best for me. Yippee!
Gerald Klickstein said:
Jul 14, 10 at 12:59Wonderful story, Laura – thanks for sharing. And congratulations on a successful concert!
Elissa Milne said:
Jul 26, 10 at 13:36Gerald, I love this post, and absolutely concur. Artistry is a poor second cousin to note naming for many a student, and it’s no wonder that their performances are strained and their motivation intermittent. Learning repertoire that is within the technical capacity of the student allows them to develop the vitally important communication skills that artistry encompasses. Love it.