Tips for performances

Someone asked me recently what I found hardest about performing concerts. 

It is not the music itself.  Since I have recorded the music and have been playing it for a while, I pretty much know it by now (though I still make mistakes of course).

There are other things that make concerts challenging. One thing that comes to mind is the technical issues.  There are a lot of things that can go wrong.  All it takes is one bad cable to create a disaster.  And because I travel with limited equipment, I depend on sound systems and sound technicians in the churches I go to.  That creates a lot of pressure.

But by far, the most challenging thing about doing concerts is finding a way to connect with the audience.  By that, I mean finding a way to engage your audience mentally, emotionally and spiritually in what you are doing.

I was watching YouTube videos this weekend of a very good Christian pianist playing offertories in a large church.  He is a very flashy, technical pianist and on top of that, uses a lot of stage gestures to enhance his performance (such as moving his hands high above the keys when striking notes).

What I noticed though was the people in the choir sitting right behind him.  They were staring into space, reading, and even whispering.  For the most part, they were completely uninterested.

This pianist’s inability to make a connection while playing very impressive music illustrates how complex this issue is.  And a pianist hammering a keyboard is completely wasting his/her time if no one is interested. 

Now, I can hear some thinking that a pianist is supposed to be playing to God rather than performing to an audience.  Of course that is true to some extent, but while that is a popular thing to say, it does not really make sense.  Obviously, musicians in church are performing for people as well as God.  And let’s not kid ourselves–playing the piano in church is indeed a performance even if some don’t like that word.

So how do you connect with an audience.  I am not an expert, but here are some observations:

1) Get off the high horse.
I have noticed that there are two kinds of musical performers.  The first kind is a performer who observes what an audience wants to hear and performs accordingly.

The second has an attitude that they know better than the audience what the audience needs to hear.  These performers believe that if they expose the audience to enough “quality” music, the audience will eventually get educated enough to appreciate it.

Now, you can imagine which way I lean on this.  While I see both sides, I am more interested in engaging an audience than trying to change their tastes to match mine.

Does this mean I will play music that goes against what I believe?  Of course not.  But I am going to try engage people where they are and perhaps in some cases, stretch them just a tiny bit.

2) Observe the audience reaction.
With time, you develop a sense of how an audience is reacting to your music.  If you can watch them, do so.  Notice if they are attentive or doing other things. 

Also, listen to the comments you get.  Ideally, you will get comments that indicate that your music did more than just impress them with flashy technique.  “How many hands do you really have?” is fine, but if you are really successful in connecting with an audience, some comments will be much deeper than that.

3) Study other performers.
YouTube is invaluable.  Go there regularly and watch clips of performances and watch how audiences react to performers.  With time, you get a sense of what works and what you should avoid.

As a concert pianist, I have an advantage over pianists that just play an offertory.  I can adapt to what I sense from the audience and can go in different directions if I need to.  For example, I remember a tough church several months ago on a Saturday night when nothing seemed to be working.  I ditched my song order and brought up my daughter and her violin instead.  That was what it took to make a connection.

The other advantage that I have is that I can talk between songs.  Setting up songs with personal stories or testimonies is very effective.  I usually use humor at different points to help out as well.

One thing I am very sure of is this.  If you want to be effective in your music, focusing on just demonstrating good technique is setting the bar too low.  I have seen this over and over.   That seems to be especially true today.  People are just not horribly impressed by flashiness.  This is especially true if the performer does not come across as genuine.

In fact, the best advice I can give is to be genuine.  If you give off even a hint of a fake vibe, you will have a very difficult time establishing the connection you need to be spiritually effective.