Depending on your career path, you might find yourself playing solo, orchestral, opera or chamber music. You might even jazz it up a bit and be involved in stage musicals, ballet, pop, or rock concerts. Or you might choose the odd niche and focus on period instrument performance, film music or contemporary music, to name but a few.
However, approaching any style of music can present its own performing challenges. If a musician has to switch between styles of playing infrequently, it can feel difficult to adapt – for example, when a musician switches from the large concert hall stage to the very different acoustics of a small orchestra pit, it can feel harder to play in certain dynamics or ranges of any given instrument. And that can cause a musician to tighten up when playing, which can lead to stress and anxiety and ultimately, performance injuries.
So how can you quickly refresh and adapt your playing so that you’re ready for a change from Mozart to Meatloaf, or Elgar to Evita, without it feeling like your musical instrument is an alien being?
In the 1980’s the late great French cellist, Paul Tortelier, gave a series of masterclasses on BBC TV and something he said has always stuck in my mind. He mentioned that to be a musician is to be ten different things – a singer, a dancer, a poet, a thinker, an architect, a sculptor, a story teller, a painter, a missionary and a sportsman. Each with their own personality and charm.
Stepping on stage and thinking that you’re just a musician playing the notes in front of you potentially robs your playing of the energy and expressiveness needed for the musical style in question. However, bringing in Tortelier’s ten characters gives you options. It allows you to stop and imagine which character you are going to adopt in any particular musical passage.
The real beauty about adopting a character (or different characters) on stage is that it brings a certain playfulness to music making. And in doing so, the act of music making becomes more fun, more relaxing and more enjoyable – minimising the risk of performance anxiety and stress that might otherwise have been allowed to fester had you focused on being concerned on whether you were playing well or sounded good.
So the next time you’re having to switch to a new style of playing or a new performing environment and you’re feeling worried about how you’re going to make it through, just stop. Give yourself a moment and imagine yourself in character before proceeding to play. You’ll be amazed by the results.