Musicians are solitary creatures by nature, and this can be a beneficial thing because in order to perfect their craft they must spend hours upon hours alone in their practice rooms honing their skills and technique. This is a necessary part of learning an instrument, however sometimes I think that a performer has spent a bit too long in the practice room repeating a phrase over and over until perfection. We are taught that practice makes perfect, that repetition is key, that you must hammer away at those notes over and over again. Then why is it that even if you do this you are not guaranteed to be considered a musical genius?
My parents, who are great supporters of music, recently went to a competition where they live called the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation. Neither of them have taken much in the realm of a music theory class so “understanding the music”, as one might put it in a University, wasn’t something that might have crossed their minds. They didn’t go there to say to themselves “well there’s a modulation. We have transitioned from G to A, how remarkable! However did Beethoven achieve this?” They represent the 99%; the much larger amount of people who will go so that they may experience a sensational performance and wish to be guided by the performer who will take them on a journey.
My father would tell me about the performers they listened to that day in the competition and both he and my mother were filled with nothing but praise for the amazing players. They all had outstanding technique, hitting nearly every note to perfection. If they had any mistakes, they were impeccably intertwined into the performance so that you would not even realize that an error had occurred. They were professionals.
So how do the judges choose who is the winner?
According to my father it wasn’t even a contest. By the time competitor Andrey Gugnin had finished his pieces, it was clear to most in the audience who would be heading home as victor that year.
Now this is very interesting that a spectator would know how to choose the winner out of a sea of talented and hard-working performers. How were they able to tell?
Starting at 1:18:30 on this youtube link above, we see the winner Gugnin beginning to play Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. An energetic and enthusiastic performer, he brings his joy for performing as well as his love of the piece to the performance and I believe that this is what sets a professional player apart from an inspiring and incredible player. A piece played with technical skills and perfection is appreciated, but without any soul in the performance it can also be boring. I often tell people that I would rather see a performance where the player takes chances and might make mistakes than a performance that is technically beautiful and perfect but is static with robot-like playing.
The biggest mistake I see guitar players make is that they think if they make facial expressions or dramatic gestures that it will equate to a soulful performance. Let the facial expressions and gestures be a byproduct of your enthusiasm for the piece, as if you are experiencing the music as a member of the audience as well, otherwise it can come across as tacky. If you truly are passionate about the piece, then it comes across and the audience enjoys it more. It’s evident in the video above that he absolutely loves this Mussorgsky piece and he’s trying to convey that love to his audience. His second movement after the Promenade, the Gnomus, is amazing with the dramatic contrasts in dynamics and his facial expressions being organic rather than put on for a show.
That was why he deserved to win, and musicians everywhere should take away a lesson from this.
It is a necessary evil that we repeat phrases over and over again in the practice room, but leave that in the practice room! We spend so much time on a single piece that sometimes we may forget the joy of playing it. Every performance of the piece must be approached with the experience of playing it hundreds of times, but also with the fresh joy, passion and love of hearing it for the first time.
That kind of performance is what makes musical legends.
the music corner 