What if I forget the words?

We promise, the show will go on--and you’ll live to tell about it

No matter how much you prepare for your moment in the spotlight, anything can happen on stage! This unpredictability makes performing lots of fun, but it can also be scary. However, if you prepare for your performance the right way, you can even forget the words to the song you’re singing and still deliver a top-notch performance. Professional musicians and North Main Music instructors, Lizz Potter and Sibvon Rose, have experienced their share of performance blunders and lived to tell about it. In this article they share some of their experiences and offer advice to musicians who may be worried about making mistakes while performing live.

Tell us about a past performance during which you made a major blunder.

Lizz: I recently had a gig in Boston. It was a 3-hour solo set and it went well overall, but as I was both singing and playing piano, I was trying to read lyrics and chords at the same time, so I screwed up both a couple of times and panicked. However, I recovered as quickly as I could and as strongly as I could.

Sibvon: I can’t recall a specific performance with a major blunder, but I will say that I’ve learned from past mistakes that you have to learn to cover them really well—don’t let the mistake show on your face and in your body language. The audience won’t have a clue that you’ve screwed up unless you show it in your facial expressions and body language.

How do you recover from mistakes during a performance?

Lizz: Finish strong—people won’t remember a flub in the middle of a song if the rest of the performance is solid.

Sibvon: I always tell students to “own the mistake.” In other words, if you do a part wrong, one great way to cover it up is to purposely mess it up again. It’s a way to stay in control of your performance.

What advice would you offer to budding musicians who may be scared about making mistakes when performing live?

Lizz: Even if you’ve practiced a song 1000 times, mistakes can still happen, and that’s ok. Throughout my career, I’ve found that using breathing exercises as a method of relaxation is very helpful and important. Breathing helps me to be less in my head and more in the song. And, remember, have fun with your performance no matter what happens.

Sibvon: Audition for everything you possibly can. The more your audition, the less scary performing live will be. And use that nervous energy to your advantage; harness it and use it to take your performance to the next level.

Lizz and Sibvon teach piano and voice at North Main Music and both have been studying and performing music since childhood. To learn more about their musical backgrounds and teaching philosophies, click here for Lizz and here for Sibvon.


The above article was inspired by and partly adapted from this article on takelessons.com.

Habits of Excellence in Music

Welcome to the North Main Music blog! Through this blog, we’ll be sharing with you tips on improving your musical performance, instrument maintenance, and interesting articles we have discovered that discuss issues around music education and how music impacts our everyday lives.

Seeing as it’s the start of a new year, and many of us begin a new year with a resolution, often to break a bad habit or adopt a new one, this first blog post is about some of the habits of excellence that can lead anyone to greatness in their music studies. Enjoy! And as always, we welcome your feedback and comments.

HABITS OF EXCELLENCE IN MUSIC

Madi C. Pineau at Fall 2013 student concert. Photo: Sid Ceaser.

Are you driven in your musical pursuits? Do you love to excel? Whether we’re practicing or performing, all of us musicians are striving for excellence. But do music students always understand what excellent musicianship entails?

After years of striving for excellence in my own music career, working with top musicians, and observing incredible musicians, I realized that there are universal habits that enable people to achieve excellence in music. As Aristotle would put it, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." 

I’ve seen time and again that when we embody these habits in our study of music, excellence becomes our ‘default setting’ in rehearsal and on stage. These habits are not traits that a select few are born with--they are habits that anyone like you and me can cultivate.

1.     Have the end in mind. Everything begins with the end—the goal or the vision you want to fulfill with your study of music. If you don’t know what the end is, then there’s no way of getting there, is there? It’s important that you form clear goals of what you want to accomplish with music. What is the end you envision? What are your personal goals and dreams for yourself? Your dreams remind you of exactly what you want and can drive you to practice every day.

2.     Play/sing what you love. When you do something you love, it’s like you have unlimited fuel that keeps you going—day after day. What types of music, or specific songs, do you love to play? If you’re not sure what music you love yet, then what is something you are most eager to try at the moment? Your passion and interest are fuels that will drive you towards excellence.

3.     Work harder than anyone else. I don't know of anyone who has achieved excellent results who hasn't worked hard for them. A big component of excellence is hard work. Sheer, unadulterated hard work. We can streamline processes, choose effective strategies and steps, but ultimately the hard work will still have to come in. Fortunately, if you are doing what you love (step #3), work wouldn't even be work at all.

4.     Make use of every moment. Every moment counts. Excellent people know that time is highly valuable. There's this quote by Donald Trump that I love. He said that time is more precious than money, because you can earn back money, but you can't get back time. That is absolutely true. So try to maximize every moment. If you have some pockets of time, take out your instrument and practice.  Note that this habit doesn't mean practicing 24x7. Making use of every moment also refers to knowing when to rest and rejuvenate when it's needed, because this will help us walk the longer mile on the path of excellence.

5.     Take action to achieve your results. Achieving excellence in your musical studies means being a proponent of action. Whatever we do or don’t do will determine how much we can grow or succeed as musicians. If we want to attain excellent results, we need to take the equivalent actions to reach the results we want. So, instead of just thinking about practicing, pick up your instrument and do it. Don’t just dream about playing in front of an audience, sign up to perform at a North Main Music student concert, or seek out an open mic night near you.

6.     Continuously upgrade yourself. Learning to play music never stops. There is always something we can do to become better. Excellent musicians are always learning, reading, exposing themselves to new knowledge, new people, new contexts and honing their skills. We need to always be leveling ourselves up to achieve excellence. 

7.     Ask for feedback. No matter how much we practice and try to improve, we will have blind spots, and we can’t improve on things that we are blind to. Asking for feedback from your instructor and peers is an effective way to improve. Sometimes you’ll get feedback that is predictable, but other times it won’t be, and often times it will lead to an epiphany on some level.

8.     Positive attitude. It takes time and diligence to acquire the skills of an expert performer, and all of us deal with triumphs and stumbles as we progress. Remember to stay positive by setting specific goals, maintaining a degree of detachment, and fueling your motivation.

Adapted from 7 Habits of Excellence on www.themusiciansway.com/blog and 7 Habits of Highly Excellent People from www.dumblittleman.com.