Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner What are performance conventions?

Yeah, I'll be discussing the result with my teacher this tuesday. :P gonna be a verrryy interesting lesson...

....and remember, there's TWO questions within it!

-- What did the phrase mean? i.e. what Plover and I said, or what Ando and others said, or what Ferdinand said.

-- And of course, what specifically might it have meant about your playing.

Debussyist -- what exam was this from?

This was from AmusA from AMEB. :P The requirements are crazy.

Maybe what ando had said in the other thread you started is indeed the problem of your performance (a little bit too student-like)?

I take the term quite broadly to be how something is usually played that isn't explicitly in the score: retards, articulation, touch, what counter melody to bring out, and so on.

Also, I take it to mean just about any choice we make on stage. According to convention, when does a woman wear a gown, or slacks and a blouse, when does a man wear a tux, or jeans and a sports jacket, how do we sit, where do we stand, how deeply do we bow, how broadly do we smile, or not at all?

Tomasino

In light of Ando's comments about this examiner, and thinking about what tomasino said, it very well could be a stage presence sort of thing.

I was watching some performers at our local music festival this spring, and in one of the senior piano classes, the performer walked up to the piano, sat down, then turned tentatively and said "Should I start?" and the adjudicator said yes. She played well enough, and at the end, played her last chord, made an unhappy face, shrugged, and got up and left the stage. For me, it was cringe-worthy.

One of my pet peeves is when musicians look apologetic at the end of a performance. I want to see some professionalism at this level -- look confident even if you don't feel like it. And at the end of a piece, END IT. As in, do something to tell the audience that you're done -- like lift your hands from the keys and place them in your lap. Or whatever -- it's kind of like how a conductor keeps the baton up between movements but lets his arms go down after the last movement. It makes the audience feel better when they know what to do.

These little things always seemed like common sense to me until I watched young (late teens) pianists fail to do them, and it really looks awful. Maybe some teachers aren't talking about these things with their students?

Hmm. I had been sick from a cough during that day (and the week before...) and I...umm....i coughed...while i was playing the brahms. :L That would've affected my chances of passing i belivee.

I truly hope coughing wouldn't screw up your chances of passing. I did a voice exam a couple years ago with the flu and my teacher told me to make it really obvious I was sick -- blow my nose and cough a lot between songs lol (not that I could have helped it anyways -- i really was sick!). I got an okay mark (not a great mark) and the examiner wrote "Candidate is visibly suffering from an illness." on my exam comments.

Unless someone made no attempt to stifle a mild cough, I can't see why any judge would take off for coughing itself anymore than they'd take off for sneezing. Some coughs just can't be suppressed. But if the coughing somehow prevented you from playing properly than it could have indirectly lowered your grade. But the coughing in itself didn't lower your grade.