Tag: performance

Climbing the mountain….. Enjoy the journey!

Nicole NealLeave a comment
English: Mount Buller from the Howqua Valley
Mount Buller, Victoria (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we’ve set ourselves a certain goal, such as taking a grade exam, or mastering a certain technical aspect of our playing, or getting out there and performing that goal can oftentimes seem pretty daunting, far away and almost kind of surreal. A bit like standing at the base camp of some snow-capped, wind-swept mountain knowing that in a few days time you’ll be all the way up there.

Sheesh. Seems weird.

And really overwhelming too. All the way up there?! But I’m all the way down here!

You’ll have plotted put the best route or routes (allowing some contingency in case something prevents you using your preferred route). But, like all great journeys, it starts with putting just one foot in front of the other and taking each step one at a time and as it comes. Some days you make more progress than others, some days you cross easy gradients and well-worn paths. Other times you struggle onward up sheer cliff faces making millimetres of progress.

So we do with our guitar playing goals.

You want to take that exam by this time next year? This is the top of your mountain. How is the best way to get ready for this summit? Which is your preferred route to take? What other routes can you take in case things don’t quite work out as initially planned?

Break it down month by month or week by week depending on what your “summit” is and when you want to get there.

And then get on with the journey!

Take the first step. And then the next. And then the next. Keep on. Even when the gradient is a little harder than you’d like, and progress is seemingly slow. Just know that the cliff face will even out eventually and you’ll likely have a nice smooth pathway to walk on just over the brow of the next bit. Just keep on.

And whatever you do, remember to stop and take a look around once in a while – check out the scenery, check out how you’re feeling, check out how far you’ve come so far.

And once you get to the summit enjoy it! Celebrate it! Celebrate that you did it and you got yourself this far. Then take a look around… All the way down there to where you came from. You did get all the way up there after all. Just by taking it a step at a time.

And then continue to look around. What do you see?

There’s another peak beyond this one! Another summit for you to conquer, another journey for you to embark upon!

Go get up there! But most importantly enjoy the journey. After all, you spend much longer on the journey itself than at your actual destination at the summit.

What summits are you going to scale in 2013?

Just get out there and do it!

Nicole NealLeave a comment

I’m talking about performing…. Performing in front of others…. Others that don’t include your teacher, significant other, the goldfish or the dog.

Ooh the mere thought of it sends some into veritable conniptions!

Feelings of nausea, dread, impending doom, going into battle or even to one’s demise are feelings that most of us have experienced at one time or another when nearing a performance.

And that’s ok. Seriously. It’s a completely natural reaction that the mind and body has to a perceived threat. That threat is obviously not a physical threat – no one’s going to punch you out for fluffing a note or two, at least you hope not. It’s a threat to our egos and our self-esteem. I’ve spoken a bit about this subject before in a recent post.

And for those who are stepping up to the plate for the first time these feelings may not really have been experienced before or not in the intensity with which they now appear, I can tell you that it’s all perfectly natural. It’s ok. In fact it’s more than ok to have these feelings (first up, it means you care about what you’re going. Always a good start). Not only that, you have permission to feel these feelings – don’t try and run from it, suppress it or hide from it. What challenge or issue was ever really truly solved by taking that course of action, hey?

It’s just our brain’s protective system trying to look after us. It’s trying to do us a favour. It’s trying to keep us nice and comfortable.

Some people are happy with comfortable. But nothing much was ever achieved with comfortable. To learn, develop and grow one needs to get a little uncomfortable. Think on the nerves as growing pains. An inevitable part of growing up.

And I applaud wholeheartedly those that step forward, step up, willing to take the feedback, willing to learn from their experience. It does take courage, it is a little bit icky and challenging. That’s half the “fun”! If it were so easy everyone would be doing it! But you, considering performing, or getting up there for the 100th or 1000th time, you’re special for doing that. Don’t forget it! You’re bloody awesome whatever the outcome of the performance. Just remember to use the experiences of the performance to make yourself, your playing, even better.

So my advice for those just getting into performing just get out there and do it! Like most other things, the more you practice performance, the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it. So dive in and roll with it, feel the feelings, embrace shaky hands, embrace fuzzes and buzzes and memory black spots and grow with the experience.

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