If there's one disconnect that music students have, it's that practice isn't performance. This shows up in a couple of ways. Students often seem genuinely satisfied with their performances in lessons. But when they perform with a similar level of accuracy during a recital, they are devastated. It's as if the rules don't apply until you're in the lime light. For more insight into this problem check out Why an A in Math is Still an F in Music.
The second way this performance-disconnect manifests itself is what this article is about. Many musicians can actually perfect their songs in the practice room, but when they get in front of an audience, all of that hard work seems to turn into shaking hands, memory gaps, and other dissatisfying outcomes. We've all been there. Although there is no magic pill that will turn you into Horowitz overnight, there are at least three ways to practice performing. These techniques should apply to any performance art, not just music.
1. Pretend- This seems obvious, but something happens when you actually visualize the performance experience. Before you play your piece, sit in a chair somewhere as if you are backstage or in the front row of the audience. Close your eyes, and imagine your new surroundings including all of the people waiting to be thrilled or disapointed. Gulp! Now hear your name announced and the applause from the crowd. Take your bow, and play your song. Now take another bow when you're done. If you're like most people, you are many times more likely to mess up with this imagined pressure than when you're sitting at home in your comfy chair, sipping a big grape Nehi. Pretend you are actually performing.
2. Record- Everybody who has ever been to a recording session knows that you can't play "on tape" the way you do on a gig or when you're practicing. The realization that your musical successes and failures will be preserved, possibly forever, for all to hear is a game changer. It's hard to really go for it. And many people freeze under the incredible pressure. This sensation is at least similar to the performing experience. The great thing about it is that you can do it at home any day of the week. Turn you camera or recorder on and try to pull off a perfect take. It's harder than you think, if you haven't tried it before. Besides developing a greater confidence in performing, you also get a chance to listen back to your performance. Often you will hear both good and bad qualities that you are unaware of when playing. Start recording yourself.
3. Do it...a lot- This one seems too easy, but it's the most sure-fire way to get better at your performance skills. You can get used to almost anything if you do it often enough. So find places to play for free. They don't have to be quality venues or paid gigs. Think about retirement homes, churches, community centers, libraries, your neighbors, your extended family, etc. If you do it for free, you're bound to find someone to play for. The formula for an absolute performance nightmare is spending nothing but hundreds of hours in a practice room before giving the big concert or recital. You have to test-drive your music program. You need to have a few beta tests before you launch your big performance.
Don't spend all of your time practicing music. Practice performance too.
Today marks the beginning of a Friday segment that I intend to publish every week. The Week-In-Review posts will be a roundup of what I've found interesting on the web. I'll be looking to post any relevant music industry news, at least one great blog post, and one YouTube video.
In the long term, the success of this segment will largely depend on link contributions from readers. Please send any news, articles, or videos to my email: [email protected]
-Besides the Beyonce lip syncing controversy, the biggest music story at the inauguration may have been Lupe Fiasco being escorted off stage after an anti-Obama rap. (warning: explicit lyrics)
-Check out Knoxville pianist Keith Brown's adventurous performance of the standard Sweet and Lovely. Be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel as well.
Several weeks ago, I sat down to interview a fantastic jazz musician living in Greece. Because of the violence and political persecution he sees on a regular basis, he asked to keep his identity secret. As you will read, Greece is becoming increasingly unstable with no end in sight. Political, social, and economic conditions seem to go from bad to worse. A recent headline reads Greek Unemployment Soars to New Record 56.6% of 15-24 year-olds without jobs. The following is an edited and condensed version of our conversation about working as a musician during an economic collapse.
BD: Mainstream media often
characterizes the Greek bailouts as being relief aid for the people.
Contrarily, alternative media has accused banks and governments of essentially
robbing the Greek people.
I
totally agree with that side of the story. The other side of the story
does not affect anybody. It only affects the people in Sofokleous Str.,
which is the equivalent of Wall Street for you. Okay, so if for some
reason the fiscal danger decreases, or whatever, nothing of that in any way, in
any percentage, has anything to do with the way we live, ever. That’s
only for them. So it’s them and us. If you’re not a money making
business, you don’t make any money. So, if these guys actually, through
the deals and everything, manage to cut some profits here, make some profits
there…that never in any way, whatsoever, has any bearing on the Greek
people. I can tell you that. I chase the news over banks over
time. I have like four or five news outlets only on banks giving me
feedback. And I know what’s happening. I can tell you, I’ve never
seen any change in my life because of any deal of any banker ever or the
government. Only for the worse, never for the best. So of what you
told me, believe to a pretty good 70% to 80% what the Indie-media tells you,
and the rest is baloney.
BD:
How have the economic problems in Greece affected your music business?
Have you lost work?
As
far as I’m concerned, it’s a different story. As far as some other people
are concerned, again, it’s a different story. I’m a musician, so I never
was rich. I never was wealthy. And for some incredible reason, now
that it’s full crisis, I get more work, but less pay. More work, but less
money. And it’s all got to do with the popular music establishment.
When people have money, they want to show off the money, especially if you’re
like the modern Greek guy, which I detest. They go outside and go to
those large music halls, -you know, music halls in quotations. You
understand what I’m saying here-arenas basically. They go there, and they
have that music which we call here doghouse music, which is a kind of pop/folk
with a mixture of rock and a mixture of buzuki music and all that s---.
We hate the guts of that thing, but we’re like a tragic minority because
everybody else loves it. For example, whenever I take a taxi and tell
somebody I’m a musician, the first thing they ask me is which “music hall” I
work in. I tell them, “Guys, I’m not of this. I’m sorry.”
Then they say, “Then what the h--- job are you doing?” So basically,
that’s the way things are. For some people, they experienced a very huge
economic growth after we were introduced to the Euro. For me now, the
story goes like this; in 1998, you could make some pretty good living with what
was then 200,000 Drachmas, which roughly corresponds to 600 Euros today.
Because when the conversion started in 2000, it was 341.75 Drachmas per
Euro. That was the exchange rate. You needed 341.75 Drachmas to buy
a Euro for the exchange. So basically, it was like a ratio of 1:3.
When you see 200,000 Drachmas, it’s about 600 Euros. You could live very
well, not extremely well, but okay. You could manage. In 2000,
there was this incredible thing when we went to the Euro, when the 100 Drachma
bill was superseded by one Euro. One Euro is not 100 Drachmas, it’s
341.75. So, in like a year, everything just tripled. So you knew
something was like 100 Drachmas to buy. Then in a year, you need, instead
of 30 cents, a whole Euro to buy it. So in the end, one Drachma became
one cent. But the wages were not higher. The wages were simply
converted with the exchange rate, not increased. At least at that time...
BD:
So the introduction of the Euro caused inflation?
The
inflation, now is a very good question, because inflation is not just based on
the stuff that you live on. But it’s also based on other things like the
car, for example. Now car prices went down, because with the Greek
entrance in the Euro zone, you had cars that cost less. But everything
else was three times higher. So there was no visible inflation, but huge
rise in real life expenditures. They cooked the numbers basically.
BD:
In the U.S., the Fed likes to use hedonics, weighting, and other accounting
tricks to do the same thing. If something rises too high in price, they
just swap it with a less expensive commodity.
Yeah,
but nothing is accounted for, especially after what they did now pouring lots
of money into the economy. Man, you will constantly need wars to keep
this bubble afloat. Without wars, you’re done. I’m talking
American.
BD:
You're talking about protecting the Petro-dollar?
Yeah,
keep buying oil with dollars. Exactly, you got the game. Now
imagine if the countries that produce oil had a choice. We could buy it
in, say, Rubles, we can buy it in Euros…There’s no American economy the next
day. The next day, there’s nothing.
BD:
It would be hyperinflation.
Super-hyperinflation.
Yeah. And nothing would be worth anything. The US dollar would only
be good for burning. It’s not a hard currency.
BD:
Would you say that your knowledge of economics is typical of an average Greek
citizen, or are you particularly savvy when it comes to this stuff?
I
am savvy. I truly want to stay ahead of the situation, because I have a
family, and I have to plan what I’m going to do. I’m definitely leaving Greece
with my family, so I have to see where I’m going to go. I have to keep
abreast of the whole thing. But apart from that, many Greeks know what
I’m saying. What Greeks don’t know is their own things, just like in
America.
BD:
How do you plan for the future?
I
have to take into account A. whether I have bread tomorrow, B. whether I can
pay my electricity bills, C. if I can pay my water bills, and D. if I can
sustain the education of my children. I got three kids. That’s
it. Because at the time when I was young, they say “Have kids, and we’re
going to help you.” And of course, instead of helping us they tax us more
when we have more kids. I’ll tell you some legislation that will make you
go nuts. You won’t believe it. For example, you and I are in the
same job. We’re selling Greek gyros. Imagine we’re both working
there. And for some reason, you never went to college, but I did.
The state with the new legislation which is about to pass will tax me more
because I have a degree, although we’re doing the same thing. Now, go
figure the logic in that! And of course, I have three kids. The
third kid, now, is a liability. So what’s this mean? I have to pay
more taxes, because I have three kids. So, in order to have three kids I
have to have money to support it, so I pay more taxes. Can you get it?
Not only that, but if their programs don’t come around, they’re going to be
adding new measures by the month. Greece is a place where every six
months to a whole year, maximum of a whole year, they have a new system of
taxation, entirely new. Now my question is can you imagine a state where
the taxation system, the whole thing, the whole infrastructure, everything
changes completely every six months?
BD:
No I can't.
Every
six months, I don’t know how I’ll be taxed next year. They might change
everything. From last year, I have to pay 3,000 Euro out of
nothing. Last year, I got money back because I pay my taxes when I
play. I have a receipt, and they take the tax. Now I have to pay
out of nothing, out of thin air, 650 Euro just because I have the right to cut
receipts, and 26% tax from the 1st Euro, so for the first 5,000
Euros, I pay around 2000 Euros as tax, about $2,650 tax. That is a good
40% tax in reality!!! Not to mention that whoever hires me pays a nice 13%
V.A.T., and also has to pay my insurance, which means I cost twice as much as I
get paid. And of course they don’t give a d--- about me having three kids.
Actually they tax me more! You understand what I’m saying here?
They don’t give a s---. And next year, the whole system might change, and
I might have to give even more. Greece is the state of constantly being
in flux, never having a stable condition. There’s no stable condition in
Greece. There’s nothing that stays the same, especially with taxation
systems, especially with legislation about all of that for than 3 months, 4
months, 5 months, 6 months, a year max. Everything is changed next
year. Everything. And I’m saying everything. Now try living
in a place like that.
BD:
Wow. I hear Americans complain about presidential elections every four
years.
Americans
should have this life-size sculpture of Uncle Sam outside their door and
worship it all day. (laughter) That’s what’s keeping you
alive. But of course, we don’t have a military machine like you guys, so
there’s nothing keeping us alive. (more laughter)
BD:
But you don't have enemies like we do.
Oh
yes we do. We have enemies. In difference with you, you don’t have
enemies that can actually swallow you whole. You have enemies that you’re
going to go to war with and probably annihilate yourselves and be done with
it. But basically, if they wage war against you, you’ll annihilate them,
and they’ll annihilate you, and I don’t know what else. But they won’t
eat you alive. We have Turkey, which can amass an army with as many
people as there are in Greece. Their army can be as big as the whole
Greek [population]. They have two plants to construct F-16s, the
planes. We have to buy each one for hundreds of millions of dollars from
you guys, and they construct them from pieces, from parts. We could be
shooting down twenty planes each [day], and the next day, they have twenty
more. But we have to pay [for] each and every plane [with] cash if we go
to war. None of our enemies are benevolent, and none of our enemies…
wait, I’m a musician, so I don’t have any enemies any way. I mean
nationally. I’ve played with musicians from everywhere, from all of these
countries, and I love those people. For me, it’s peace everywhere.
I’m not a right-wing nut job or something. But I know what’s
happening. In a military sense, we’re f-----. In a military sense
–not my sense, because I’m not like this- there are none of our neighbors
except Italy who are benevolent. We’ve been to war with everybody.
We’ve been to war with the Albanians, with the Serbs in 1913–they say that they
are our brothers because we are both Christian Orthodox, because of the
religion (religion for me personally is the greatest BS on earth btw)... Anyway,
we’ve been at war with everybody, with the Turks, with the Bulgarians, with the
Albanians, -with the Libyans I don’t remember- but we’ve had the Arab pirates
way back. (laughter) Pretty much everybody. We were at war
with the Italians in 1940. The first battle was with the Italians in
1940, not with the Nazis. They actually came here to save the (battle) of
the Italians, when the latter lost.
BD:
You mentioned the Germans. I've seen news stories where Greek protestors
have signs up calling the Germans Nazis.
You
know when I hear of that, I do one thing. There’s a universal language
for it. It’s this (makes gesture). I find this completely
stupid. It’s a mixed up situation where the New Greek guy, which is a
completely abhorrent creature (laughter). I don’t know how the h---
you’re going to write all of this (laughter). You have to write it in a
way that will not get me shot in the street, though. (laughter) You have to
make it as soft as possible and avoid the political coloring I’m giving you.
I’m giving it to you, so you know. You make sure I don’t die
tomorrow. Alright? (laughter) There’s no freedom in Greece anymore,
so imagine that you’re writing about someone from Saudi Arabia. And if
somebody reads something which should not be read, I’m going to have the Golden
Dawn A-holes outside my door tomorrow. (laughter) Or the communist party
A-holes.
BD:
I hope you’re kidding.
No
I’m not. I’m not joking at all. Really. So, be extra careful
how you formulate things. Keep the political stuff I’m telling you out of
the picture. Keep them for yourself and people you know, and keep me out
of it. Or write the whole thing anonymously. That’s perfectly fine
with me. Don’t write that I’m the guy.
BD:
Okay.
About
the Germans and all that s---, I’m pretty sure that the average German guy, not
the Germans that I’ve played with who are the greatest people…the greatest
person that I’ve ever met is a German. I'll keep his name a secret
because they can easily associate me with him in Greece. He’s the gentlest
human being I’ve ever met in my life, bar none. So he’s a German.
Now, I’m pretty sure that the average German is not like this guy, but I’m
pretty sure that the average German has also been brainwashed by their media to
believe that we’re nothing but lazy slobs that do nothing all day. That
actually is true for a certain percentage of the population who were put in the
public sector jobs with political means, people that were completely worthless
to do anything on their own. And the mentality was let’s put them in the
public sector, because the poor guy’s incapable. Now these guys live off
me. Those are the guys that the government wants to fire, but it can’t
because the government themselves hired them in the first place. It’s a
lose/lose situation. It’s extremely funny if you look at it, because the
Troika –you know Troika?-
BD:
Yeah, the three financial groups...
…they
come here every once in a while, so that they see what is going on with the
Greek economy, so they can give us our next installment which, again, goes to
the bankers. We don’t see any of it anyway….
BD:
Right. Since Greece had too much debt, they give you more debt.
The
debt was nowhere like it is now. But we have to give the power to that
piece of s---! GAP, George Andreas Popandreou. That m-----
f-----! He and his friends just chopped us into a hundred billion Euros
of debt in a year. And you know what else? His brother, GAP’s
brother, the prime minister’s brother is a huge investor in CDs. He made
huge amounts of money out of the policies of his f---ing brother. If you
do that in Wall Street, you go to jail because of insider information.
BD:
Sadly, that's not even always true anymore.
So
for the Germans, since you asked, we have our own mainstream media here.
The mainstream media here is for people to puke on their TVs. It’s
incredible. You wouldn’t believe it, how much brainwashing goes on to the
Greek to say okay to all these austerity measures and make him believe that he
is the reason that they are there. You wouldn’t believe how much guilt is
being fed to the people on a daily basis because of those mother f---ers
(unintelligible). They need scapegoats to channel the justifiable wrath
of the people, to get it crushed every day. Who are the scapegoats?
The scapegoats are very specific: the Germans that did all that, and of course
there is a very true thing about the German reparations from the war.
They never gave war reparations to Greece. They never did. If they
gave them, that could be a very well needed 90 billion (Euros). It would
be very useful. Thank you very much. But apart from that,
everybody’s wrath is on Merkel. Merkel is the very bad woman here who
wants to kill Greece. She does her job. She’s good for her own
people, maybe not even good for her own people anymore. I don’t know.
But she has her own country, and if she kills our country for her own,
then she could turn out to be good for her people. She’s not good for us,
but she shouldn't be the object of our wrath. We ourselves should be the
object of our wrath, with the foul politicians we elect year after year, and
the client relationship we have with them, and for the deep corrupt state we
let them built, because it was convenient for us. Another scapegoat: the
thing with the illegal immigrants in Greece, which is a huge problem. And
it’s a huge problem because of three things. One thing is that Greece is
at a border point of Europe. It’s a border. Right next to us are
the African (peninsula?) below us and Turkey to the east. GAP, George
Andreas Popandreou, the a-hole, signed the Dublin II Treaty, which you must
search and see what we signed. We signed that if they catch an illegal
immigrant in Belgium and they ask him, “Where did you come from?” He
says, “I came from Greece.” He’s instantly transported to Greece.
Can you imagine what this is going to bring to Greece? Every illegal
immigrant who says they came in the EEC from Greece will come back to Greece!
In a country that can barely hold ten million people. Imagine us with,
currently speaking, two and a half million illegal immigrants, which is
twenty-five percent. Now let’s make this analogy with the United
States. How much is your population?
BD:
Over 300 million now.
Okay,
suppose that it’s 300 million exactly. If you had the same amount of
illegal immigrants as Greece, you would have one quarter of that illegal
immigrants. Do the division. You’d have 75 million
immigrants! Nobody wants to stay at a place that has no future.
Greece has no future. It’s a dead place, now as it is. It’s getting
worse by the minute. Now who in his right mind wants to stay inside a
place that is basically very bad? Nobody, illegal immigrants included,
but they can’t go anywhere. They cannot leave Greece. They’re stuck
here, and the Greeks are stuck with them. So the Greeks hate everybody
who’s not their own skin, which creates KKK mentality in Greece, which I am
extremely frustrated with that. I’m a musician. I love people of
other cultures. My whole life has been playing with Cubans, with people
from other cultures and loving every moment of it and thanking God for this
incredible gift of sharing with other people of other cultures. And I
fought very hard to get to the level where they will accept me and make music
with me. But today this whole thing is reversed. They have search
parties out from Golden Dawn. You know Golden Dawn and all that?
BD:
No I don’t.
Golden
Dawn is the party of the Nazis, of the fascists here, the far right-wing.
And they created a whole army. We call this “tagmatasfalites”. It’s
not an army in the traditional sense of an army. They recruit people that
work like the same way that hooligans work in England with the football club
where they go and raid places. It’s that kind of thing but at a much
deeper level in society. What is being done here in Greece is that Greece
is getting ready for a civil war all over again [between] left and right.
That’s what they are about to do. And the police has been infiltrated with
the Golden Dawn, and it has been to such an extent that… they do raids against
illegal immigrants all the time. It’s called “Xenios Zeus” (hospitable
Zeus), which is very ironic actually. “Xenios” was the name that the
ancient Greeks gave to Zeus for hospitality. So it’s a hospitable
Zeus. And this is the name that they use to raid illegal immigrants,
which is an oxymoron. (laughter) They raided illegal immigrants, and
among them –for some unknown reason he was just passing by- was a guy from
South Korea. And they took him with the rest of them, the
Pakistanis. They beat him up –because that’s what happens in the police
force. Okay? Let’s not hide behind our finger here. A lot of
beatings…Greeks too. There’s no difference.- And it’s super funny,
because the guy just tells them, “I’m a tourist! I’m a tourist!
Leave me alone. I want to go.” (laughter) Then they
understood, “Oh s---! He’s not one of them. He’s a tourist.” So
they let him leave. And then the Korean government protested against
Greece. (laughter) This is pretty real. This s--- is really
happening here. You have to know that. None of that is
legendary. This is really happening. One of our neighbors has a
person that occasionally drops by there to sleep for a night or two who signed
up in Golden Dawn yesterday. It’s incredible.
BD:
That's frightening.
It’s
a new era for Greece, which I truly don’t want to live through it.
BD:
And you can't leave?
I
can leave, but the illegal immigrants cannot leave.
BD:
Where would you go?
I
was thinking of three or four places. One of them was central Europe to
be near the guys I know and have gigs and all that. The other was
actually the United States. I thought about coming with my family to the
United States. I’m also a [redacted], so I could work at a high school at
first before I enter the scene. That was an initial thought. And of
course, I could go to Australia where I have people of my family living
there. The problem is that I’m not a citizen of the United States, and
I’m not a citizen of Australia either. So that would create problems for
me, and central Europe would be easier. But I do not really know what the
long term thing would be for me. I’m just thinking of going to Europe for
a year or two and see how things are, and look around the world to see where I
can take my family, and go then and make a fresh start, because I won’t subject
them to what is going to happen. I don’t want my kids to suffer…
BD:
I read recently that the U.S.'s debt to GDP ratio is as high as it is in
Greece, and we're not the only western country with debt problems. How
would you advise other musicians to prepare for something like this happening
in their country?
Good
question. Really good question. Unfortunately, and gravely enough,
I don’t think that there is any way for anybody to be prepared for something
like this. The only thing they can do is to learn from the example from
Greece, read about our history and understand why this happened and how it has
happened. Basically, they need to know more about what is politics to be
able to understand what is going on. They truly need that. They
need to know about their politics. They need to be very aware of what’s
happening politically around the world in major places, the major decision makers,
and to leave the details out of the picture and see the bigger picture.
They have to be very keen and savvy in order to understand how things go.
Now I know it because I’ve been burned, and my country has been burned
too. It can happen anywhere. It will most likely happen in the
so-called PIGS countries. You know, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece and
all that. But it could very well happen in America but for the
military. The military won’t allow this to happen. So you should be
prepared for something completely different than us. You should be
prepared for the very bad thing that if your economy is about to collapse,
since the American debt is to a great extent bought by the Chinese, so if they
decide to burn your economy, they may very well do so – although that would
affect them as well, but that is another story. And then there is the new
Russia. Since they both are nuclear powers, they probably would wage war
against a nuclear power if need be, and that would achieve the annihilation of
the world. This is not conspiracy theory stuff. This can actually
happen. The stuff that’s happened in Greece was a conspiracy theory, and
we see it every day. We see every conspiracy scenario in front of our
eyes. So be prepared for everything. How can they prepare
themselves? I don’t know. Move to Australia.
(laughter)
It’s
a very frightening thing to wake up to be [redacted] years of age and having to
start over again in places you don’t know, in conditions you don’t know, with
kids in a country that most likely you won’t speak the language there.
And take your children too, which have been used to standard of living in
Greece and start over from nothing, from scratch. It’s not an easy
thing. I just don’t want to do it more than once.
BD:
Are there any projects you would like to promote?
Okay,
let me think about that. Basically, I have three sides to me. One
is the composer side. The other is with the trio. And the other is
from current projects. I also have collaboration with Cubans as long as
they stay in Greece and as long as the Golden Dawn doesn’t raid their
houses. They are darker skinned than us, so they might take them for
Pakistani and beat the h--- out of them. (laughter) I’m saying this
laughing, but it could actually happen right now. It’s crazy. You
wouldn’t believe the stuff that’s happening. There are places inside
Athens where the immigrants are more than the Greeks and they’re slaughtering
Greeks. They are slaughtering Greeks, and the Golden Dawn goes there and
slaughters them. Really. I know this personally. I have
played many festivals with many people. Right now with the political
situation in Greece, nobody comes to Greece. So I don’t play with
anybody, unless I leave Greece and go somewhere. Then I can play with
them. (laughter) It’s like a vicious circle, like a snake eating
its own tail.
I know this is a little late and that most of us are trying to forget Christmas music, but I needed to follow up on the arrangement that I did last month. If nothing else, it will be easier for me to relearn it next year with the sheet music. Here's the original post with video in case you missed it. The chart has a frustating amount of slash chords. It didn't seem that complicated before I wrote it down. For a refresher on slash chords check out my previous post.
