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The real results are not so predictable

Posted in Play: February 2015

I will start this interesting topic from the point of view as a performer. We all have expectations before a concert, audition or exam. We know the program, we practiced enough (or not) to be good prepared and this gives us the feeling of predictability. Most of the times, the result is more or less right with small variations. Sometimes it can happen a big surprise like for example to be very good prepared and suddenly your performance is very bad or the contrary, to play much better than you expected. Why? Our feelings are very exposed in the moment of performance in front of a public. It is not so comfortable for everybody to be so open. Some of us will experience nervosity, fear, anxiety. For some of us little from this feelings will be perfect to push us to perform at our best level but for others will be an inconvenient. So, it is absolutely clear that we are different and here is the beauty! Still, I believe that the results are quite predictable in our case, as a performers.  

Now I would like to speak also from the point of view as a teacher. It`s almost the same. Our students are facing also anxiety before playing and they have also some expectations, but I saw one difference. Their results are not so predictable as our results! Simply, we can see a lot of variations between our expectations and the reality. I can give you an example with one of my students which was good prepared. Before the exam she was so happy, so full of energy and so excited to play! I was expecting a good performance, but the truth is that during the performance she played really bad. A weak tone, lack of concentration, many mistakes and some memory lapses. I was astonished! It was  a change of 180 degree in her attitude. Well, I couldn`t guess what will happen so I was not able to help her. I felt frustrated, but then I understood that she was also surprised about what happened. Now I`m more prepared and from this experience I`ve learned something.  

The next time I`ll be more reserved with the predictions and more open to a real result vs an expected one!