Successful performance

There are probably many definition about the meaning of being successful. Of course I didn`t read all of them, but I`ll write what success means:

1. The favourable outcome of something attempted;

2. The attainment of fame, wealth, or social status;
3. An action, performance, that is characterized by success;
4. The accomplishment of an aim or purpose;

How would you describe a successful performance? In my point of view, it means to be yourself on stage and to play at your best potential when it matters most, in some important moments like: exams, competition, auditions, concerts, in front of other people. Being yourself and playing at your best potential will bring you harmony, satisfaction and a nice remember about a great performance.

Let me give you an example. You are in the front of an upcoming performance ( an exam, competition or concert). You prepared yourself very good and practiced a lot. Now, the expectation is to play as good as you can but the result is totally different. You are doing more mistakes than usually, your sound is not so beautiful and maybe the technique it creates you some unexpected problems. Exactly now, in this very important moment! It sounds familiar? How does it feel? Of course, very frustrating; First, because you were not able to play as good as you can, and second, because you consider your performance was bad and you still ask yourself why did it happened to you? What was wrong? It was a bad day, you were unlucky or to much tired? Hmm, I believe that`s not the answer. Try to remember about your goals before playing on stage and about the conversation with yourself during your performance. Which words did you addressed to yourself? Maybe you think that`s not so important, but in fact it is!
When I was student I took part in many competitions and I played many concerts in front of the audience. Rarely I played below my potential in some important moments, but it happened and I know why. It was because I compared myself with other flutists, colleagues of mines or I tried to fulfill  some expectations of my teachers, or I thought about winning the first prize. Well, this goals were for sure not the right ones for a great performance, but I learned something from my own experiences and today I would like to share this with you.

My message for a great performance is quite simple: I strongly believe that our goal on stage should be very clear: To play at our best potential- no less, no more! Giving your best is more than enough to feel happy and satisfied about your performance. This I`ll call a successful performance. It worked for me and I believe that it can work for you too!

Share your opinion about a successful performance! Your story can help and maybe inspire other musicians!

Back in shape

Sometimes it`s nice to come back, isn`t it? After a long break we can start again to do what we love, with much more enthusiasm and joy than before.

In the last article I wrote about short, medium and long breaks and about my decision to take this year a longer break than usually. I`m happy about this decision, and for this reason I would like to share with you some good things that happened to me. The warm-up exercises were little longer than usually because the sound quality it was not the same as before. But this was the first impact with my instrument after a long break. For the beginning I started to play some easy pieces. It was not a new material, I played them many years ago. It`s better to start with something what you played before and to let the new material for later. The pieces once played are still there in our memory and they can be recall quite fast. It`s very  interesting to realize that after some minutes of practice our sound and technique are almost the same as before. What it changes sometimes is our point of view about the interpretation. I think there is a very positive aspect when we can see and hear more details than before and we are able to play a piece with more maturity. After spending some time with easy pieces I decided to work some difficult passages from the orchestral repertoire. The difficult passages which I played into the past frustrated me a little, because I expected to recall them faster than it happened. But it is normal, difficult passages are still difficult also if you practiced them a lot, so be patience! With the new passages the result was good and at some point much better than I expected because I was confident and ready to learn something new again.
As a conclusion from my perspective: a short, medium or a long break is just a break, time to rest and to forget about performance. Don`t be scared to play what you want, also after a long break. The sound, technique and interpretation are still there. Start the practice session gradually, with some warm-up exercises, easy pieces and then practice also something difficult. You`ll became more confident realizing that it works and you are very fast in shape again!