Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Could you be totally in your own world while you perform?

I would doubt that imitating someone else's performance style is necessarily a way to achieve an outstanding performance. I would doubt, also, that you know this person's mental process, how he analyzes and prepares his performance, nor that you know the process that enables him to detach himself from his surroundings in order to achieve what you say he achieves.

Moreover, I think that performance is all about communication, and I don't see how a complete detachment from the audience can achieve communication.

I would think that you have to determine what a piece of music means to you, how you want to communicate it and develop your own sense of how to achieve that communication with your audience. Simply copying the way someone else plays is not necessarily going to connect your audience to your performance, since it's not your performance style but a copy of someone else's.

Regards,

just a little personal though: when I start a program in front of an audience, I'm hugely aware of their presence, and my task to convey the composer's thoughts, a very heavy burden indeed, as they have bought a ticket for the event. Sometime later, I just forget about it all and play as I, and only I, like/can/will, at the end of the piece their presence comes back in the form of applause, big or slight, and the same process repeats itself during the next item, the only time I'm really conscious of why I'm were I'am, on a stool in front of a grand on a podium, and were they are, in the hall, seated to hear and watch me make music, is during some lighthearted encores, just played to thank them for their patience/gratitude. Histrionics, that are sometimes practiced, oh horror, are not in my vocabulary.

I do not understand when people say communication between the performer and the audiences. It is not like a talk show that the artist will see immediate reaction from the audiences. It is purely one way thing. You play and at the end you will know their reaction. During the performance itself, how a pianist can even pay attention to his or her audience reaction. If we have the ability to sense the audience reaction while we are playing, your communication argument makes sense.


What I mean is not the imitation of his style, but immitate the ability to totally free from audience influences.

As others have mentioned, it depends on your definition of "in your own world"

My thought on the 'ideal' way to be 'in your own world' when you perform, is to be good enough to be totally engaged in your music-making is as follows:

listening intently to the sound coming from the piano, adapting your playing to get the most from the instrument for the piece(s) you're playing, skilled and practiced enough to be in near total control of your playing and in partnership with the instrument

The reality for too many of us is we're just trying to juggle everything sufficiently to avoid a catastrophic public crash! To me, to be 'in my own world' would indicate a relaxed mastery. Far from 'ignoring the audience', it would be the type of playing I'd love to watch, and even more love to perform!

I don't even see why you would want to do that. Even if the communication appears to be a one-way street, it is not at all. If you seem completely committed and focused on the music, then it will hold the audience's attention and you will feel the tension when you pause and notice you can hear a pin drop. If you act it out for the audience, then you'll carry the audience along with you and if you don't ignore it, you will feel the audience reactions. It's my favorite part of performing.

I really like it when people are completely into their music when they preform. If you are into your song and feeling every emotion that was ment to feel from the song then I think that the story of the song portrays to the audience better and they will feel it too. I get very nervouse when I play and I've been doing it for a very long time (19 years), but once I start to play its like nothing else matters, I remind myself that I am up there playing for the audience and they are there to hear me, I want them to feel what the composer of the song ment for people to feel, and that helps me to not be nervouse. I think that sometimes when I person preforms it feels like they have to meet someone's expectations.

I don't think it is the best thing for a performer to be in their own world while performing. When I was first getting used to performing, I got extremely nervous, so my teacher told me to imagine that I was by myself, so that thinking about the audience wouldn't make me scared and distract me. But now that playing in front of people doesn't bother me so much, I am beginning to learn that it is better not to act as if playing for myself in a performance. After all, the whole point of performing is to share the music with the audience, not to play for yourself only. Because of this, you have to be focused on the sounds (and even visuals) that you are creating, in order to best portray the music TO THE AUDIENCE.

I'm not sure what is meant by "in one's own world" but I take it and interpret it in the same way as 'jeffrey jones' does.

What does seem to happen to me over time with certain pieces, is that I become too involved with them and I then begin to envision the pieces in a very personal way. In this sense I can be in my own world, however, a world which is derived from the the very work.

I did like the point made about being completely focused on the work and how that contributes at times to an audience's perception and the way they listen to the work. In my kind of current repertoire I feel that's very important because contemporary music is criticized too much, almost always on any excuse.
I recently performed a piece (which I'll be performing in NYC 2011) where I sensed that it was my seriousness, my intensity of concentration that kept this work alive and made it interesting for my small audience. I was even told by someone that they appreciated the effort because towards the end it looked like I was sweating a lot and the piece seemed to be quite difficult. I was however shocked that the reception of this interpretation was a positive one, because in all honesty I thought my audience would leave if this piece didn't convince them that it was music to begin with. I feel very strongly about the work, and I'm quite near commissioning a work from this composer myself. It's rewarding to give a piece every bit of attention and devotion, and then see an audience appreciate the effort. So YES 'jeffreyjones', I can certainly agree with you there.

The appreciation, then, was for the effort and not for the result, and all the more so because your physical involvement showed that the piece was hard? That sounds either like somewhat of a back-handed compliment or that the person saying it didn't know much about music.

Regards,

Doesn't this mean a one way communication? You create the best music for your audience. Again, what is the contribution of the audiences, they just sit there in the dark. They make no noise, no hand gesture....just totally sit in silence. If you have six sense and can feel what they feel, I can understand that there is an interaction. Otherwise, it is totally the artist who produces the music.

As you said above that we have to be focused on the sounds (and even visuals) that we are creating, in order to best portray the music TO THE AUDIENCE.

The question, could you do the same without audience. If you do, which I believe you can, the audience is not one of the variables in this equiation.

But then, what fun is it to play for 4 walls? Playing for a live audience is so, so much better. Even though you ARE in your own world during, you are still communicating. And it makes your performance so much more charged. You have to have something to say - if you don't, you won't be a good artist..

P.S. really liked dolce's answer

But that is the whole difference. The audience is part of the equation. Have you never gone into a room already occupied by others and felt the atmosphere? The phrase "You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife" applies. Equally we immediately recognise a welcoming atmosphere withou any words or body language. It's not a sixth sense, it's a normal human sense.
Playing to an empty room is not the same.

When you entered the room, you have not even performed. So how can the audiences even react to you. As a performer, you do not hang out with the audience before your performance, you are in the back of the stage. Your only face to face interaction is when you enter the hall, walk to the piano and bow to the audience. You cannot even see the audiences...it is dark already. I really believe the performer should have had plan and concept of what he or she would like to perform and should not be affected by the audience....anyway, I do not see how audiences can affect your performance. You sit so far away by yourself infront of the piano.

(being quoted just because it's worth being seen again)

Didn't Stephen Hough said he sometimes fell asleep while practicing? I am sure he was not exactly sleeping, but he was in his own world of music.

I think any fine pianist can still play his/her best whether he/she is in an empty room or in a concert hall full of people.

Why not?
You mean you haven't fallen asleep while practicing?
I have.

I've also woken people up.

P.S. I don't agree with that last part about playing at their best in an empty room too. But of course it depends what we mean by "best." There's an aspect of being "turned on" that I don't think can happen quite exactly to the same extent in an empty room -- plus the "communication" aspect.

I am not in my own world when I perform, rather, I am outside my own body observing the room as a 3rd party, acutely aware of the audience when I perform. I can hear people shifting in their seats, each movement of pencils, whispers in the back, each click of the camera, etc. So, obviously, I am unable to completely concentrate on my music. However, this is not received by the audience and I often receive comments regarding of how deeply into my music I must be when I play. This awareness is sometimes positive as it is an immediate feedback loop so I can incorporate it into my playing.

When I wrote "room" I meant "room", any room. Nothing to do with performing. We all have the ability to sense atmosphere. When we are performing, because we are concentrating so intently, our senses are heightened. We can therefore sense the mood of an audience. We can sense (if not hear!) if the audience is restless, not involved. Equally we can sense the concentration when our music making is getting through.

@Marc, have you ever reached the stage where you were totally engulfed by the music that you were playing? Were you still paying attention to what audiences do? When I was totally playing with my heart, I heard only the music that I play, I did not pay attention to anything else, because what in my brain is only the music.