Ani, a reader, asked some great questions as a comment to my last post. Here's what she said:
"Nice article. I experience the same nervousness when playing for my teacher. Similarly, I am nervous when I film or record myself playing. I indeed tend to focus on not making note mistakes, rather than expressing all the dynamics and phrasing.
I even found out that playing my exam pieces three-in-a-row affects how I play. If I made a mistake in the first piece, I could still be thinking about it during the second piece (amazing how the brain can multi-task, albeit inefficiently), and lose focus, hence making mistakes in the second piece as well. Often, my mind drifts and my fingers suddenly forget what comes next. Then comes the puzzled look on my face,"What fingering did I use at home? I have forgotten now. I have practiced it for the past few months without errors, and now I can't remember."
I wonder what I should be thinking or focusing about when I play. If I focus on the sheet music too much, my fingers occasionally mess up. If I think ahead, with the music in my inner ear, I get a better chance of playing well, but at the same time risk playing in a hurried manner when nervous. What do you think about when playing?"
I started to write out a detailed response and realized that the answers should be shared as widely as possible and that they contained this week's new essay. So here it is, and I recommend anyone who ever performs for anybody read it and use it.
*******************************************
Ani, I, and every other pianist, knows what you are going through. Here are some answers:
The key is "muscle memory" which means your muscles' ability to recall the exact sequence of actions which will, in effect, play your music for you. You use muscle memory each time you drive or even walk. However, those skills, like playing a piece of music, require full mental concentration until the point they became "grooved in" to the muscles.
Thus the sequence in learning a new piece goes: Full mental concentration to command the hands and fingers in the exact sequence of actions necessary (this would be what we pianists call "the fingering" of the piece) followed by a diminishing need to concentrate, even though the hands are still making the right motions. At some point, there is literally no need to do more than command the hands to "start moving" for them to play the piece.
At this point, the pianist might still have the sheet music in front of her, but the symbols are not being processed in the same way as they were when the piece was new and no muscle memory was present. Instead, those symbols are serving as "cues" for the muscle memory. The eyes track the line of cues but the mind has no real need to focus, just let the symbols serve to cue the muscles to handle the playing of the piece. You are not really "reading the music" but rather just keeping your place as you play. (This, too, is a skill that must be learned.) In other words, the music has now been "memorized" by the muscle memory. It's the muscle memory that handles the details of fingering. The mind has done its work and isn't needed for this particular aspect of the task.
So what does the mind do, if it's not needed to command the hands and fingers in present time? It focuses on the overall, that is, the music that is sounding. It's in the context that the music lies, and this is what you think of and focus on. Another way to put this is that the instructions on the page of sheet music can be roughly divided into two types: MAIN POINTS: which keys to hit with which fingers and for how long (in other words, note identity, fingering, and timing) and FINE POINTS: how fast and how loud and with what phrasing, etc (in other words, tempo, dynamics, touch, etc.) Muscle memory can be depended on to handle the main points so your mind can focus on the fine points.
This understanding leads to an understanding of our problems and what to do about them. Here's what goes wrong.
We start a piece and, via our practice, get it thoroughly learned in the muscle memory. This means the muscles are responding to the training we have carefully given them in the past. We no longer need to command them in the present for them to work and work properly. This state of affairs usually occurs at home when we are calm and can allow this natural process to take place. Then we get to the lesson or the performance and, rather than allow the training we have carefully done to move the hands appropriately, we decide to try to take command consciously. It's like a vote of "no confidence" in the muscle memory.
Now the muscle have two commands working: one from their past training and one from our present conscious control. And these commands mess with each other and lead to mistakes. The pianist then thinks, "Ah ha, I made a mistake, and the best way to ensure I make no more is to increase my conscious, present time control of my hands."
wrong, Wrong, WRONG !!!!
The only thing that will save the pianist now is to get out of the way mentally and allow the hands to take control, just the way we did at home. But that seldom occurs. And the more nervous we get, the less we allow the hands to do their work. Nerves leads to conscious attempts to control which results in mistakes which results in more nerves...well, you get the picture. You could call it a "negative feedback loop."
The real difference between the amateur and professional pianist is that the professional pianist has learned to use the proper "system" to do the work: the muscle memory to handle the minute details of playing the music, and the mind to handle the fine points of the overall so those details fit together correctly and make very fine music.
When you "play so much better at home" it is because you are allowing the muscle memory to work for you. When you cease to do this, it all goes wrong. (Naturally, allowing the muscle memory to work when it not yet trained isn't sensible, so this presupposes that you have already practiced the music adequately to get the muscle to do the memorizing.)
Please feel free to continue this line of discussion, since we all have experienced this problem and solving it will help a whole lot of other pianists !
"Nice article. I experience the same nervousness when playing for my teacher. Similarly, I am nervous when I film or record myself playing. I indeed tend to focus on not making note mistakes, rather than expressing all the dynamics and phrasing.
I even found out that playing my exam pieces three-in-a-row affects how I play. If I made a mistake in the first piece, I could still be thinking about it during the second piece (amazing how the brain can multi-task, albeit inefficiently), and lose focus, hence making mistakes in the second piece as well. Often, my mind drifts and my fingers suddenly forget what comes next. Then comes the puzzled look on my face,"What fingering did I use at home? I have forgotten now. I have practiced it for the past few months without errors, and now I can't remember."
I wonder what I should be thinking or focusing about when I play. If I focus on the sheet music too much, my fingers occasionally mess up. If I think ahead, with the music in my inner ear, I get a better chance of playing well, but at the same time risk playing in a hurried manner when nervous. What do you think about when playing?"
I started to write out a detailed response and realized that the answers should be shared as widely as possible and that they contained this week's new essay. So here it is, and I recommend anyone who ever performs for anybody read it and use it.
*******************************************
Ani, I, and every other pianist, knows what you are going through. Here are some answers:
The key is "muscle memory" which means your muscles' ability to recall the exact sequence of actions which will, in effect, play your music for you. You use muscle memory each time you drive or even walk. However, those skills, like playing a piece of music, require full mental concentration until the point they became "grooved in" to the muscles.
Thus the sequence in learning a new piece goes: Full mental concentration to command the hands and fingers in the exact sequence of actions necessary (this would be what we pianists call "the fingering" of the piece) followed by a diminishing need to concentrate, even though the hands are still making the right motions. At some point, there is literally no need to do more than command the hands to "start moving" for them to play the piece.
At this point, the pianist might still have the sheet music in front of her, but the symbols are not being processed in the same way as they were when the piece was new and no muscle memory was present. Instead, those symbols are serving as "cues" for the muscle memory. The eyes track the line of cues but the mind has no real need to focus, just let the symbols serve to cue the muscles to handle the playing of the piece. You are not really "reading the music" but rather just keeping your place as you play. (This, too, is a skill that must be learned.) In other words, the music has now been "memorized" by the muscle memory. It's the muscle memory that handles the details of fingering. The mind has done its work and isn't needed for this particular aspect of the task.
So what does the mind do, if it's not needed to command the hands and fingers in present time? It focuses on the overall, that is, the music that is sounding. It's in the context that the music lies, and this is what you think of and focus on. Another way to put this is that the instructions on the page of sheet music can be roughly divided into two types: MAIN POINTS: which keys to hit with which fingers and for how long (in other words, note identity, fingering, and timing) and FINE POINTS: how fast and how loud and with what phrasing, etc (in other words, tempo, dynamics, touch, etc.) Muscle memory can be depended on to handle the main points so your mind can focus on the fine points.
This understanding leads to an understanding of our problems and what to do about them. Here's what goes wrong.
We start a piece and, via our practice, get it thoroughly learned in the muscle memory. This means the muscles are responding to the training we have carefully given them in the past. We no longer need to command them in the present for them to work and work properly. This state of affairs usually occurs at home when we are calm and can allow this natural process to take place. Then we get to the lesson or the performance and, rather than allow the training we have carefully done to move the hands appropriately, we decide to try to take command consciously. It's like a vote of "no confidence" in the muscle memory.
Now the muscle have two commands working: one from their past training and one from our present conscious control. And these commands mess with each other and lead to mistakes. The pianist then thinks, "Ah ha, I made a mistake, and the best way to ensure I make no more is to increase my conscious, present time control of my hands."
wrong, Wrong, WRONG !!!!
The only thing that will save the pianist now is to get out of the way mentally and allow the hands to take control, just the way we did at home. But that seldom occurs. And the more nervous we get, the less we allow the hands to do their work. Nerves leads to conscious attempts to control which results in mistakes which results in more nerves...well, you get the picture. You could call it a "negative feedback loop."
The real difference between the amateur and professional pianist is that the professional pianist has learned to use the proper "system" to do the work: the muscle memory to handle the minute details of playing the music, and the mind to handle the fine points of the overall so those details fit together correctly and make very fine music.
When you "play so much better at home" it is because you are allowing the muscle memory to work for you. When you cease to do this, it all goes wrong. (Naturally, allowing the muscle memory to work when it not yet trained isn't sensible, so this presupposes that you have already practiced the music adequately to get the muscle to do the memorizing.)
Please feel free to continue this line of discussion, since we all have experienced this problem and solving it will help a whole lot of other pianists !
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