As I prepare for my concert with the Echoes of Peace choir in Duluth this week and my students ready themselves for their upcoming recital, I’ve been thinking a lot about the differences between practicing and performing.
“Practice: systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency”
I’d add that practice is often a solitary endeavor. Usually carried out in a room (or car if you’re a singer *smile*) by oneself, practice is about learning. It involves technique, study, self crititque and repetition.
As we practice, we learn the notes, words and form of the song and work to rid ourselves of gestures or “tics” — vocal and physical — that might distract an audience. We concentrate on tone production, diction, phrasing and breath support. We repeat these things over and over again to train the voice to respond as we choose.
Rehearsing is another kind of practice that further prepares us to perform. We rehearse with a band or accompanist to practice entrances, cues and endings. We organize the structures of pieces and the order of the set.
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With so many things on which to focus, it’s easy to get stuck in the world of practicing or rehearsing; it makes sense — we want to prepared. If a little practice is good, a lot should be better, right?
If I have learned anything from improv, however, it is that repetition and preparation are not necessarily the same thing. We practice, in part, to teach ourselves that we can rely on technique without having to consciously attend to it. Otherwise, you can focus so much on technique and execution that you fail to engage in the music.
You can practice a song so often that you rehearse the life right out of it.
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From an audience’s standpoint, a performance should feel prepared. (It’s kind of awful for everyone when one doesn’t. *grimace*)
But, a performance also needs to feel fresh and present, as though the music being made or the song being sung are being created as we watch. (My former voice instructor often told us to “sing a song as though it were the first and last time it would ever be sung.“)
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Take the piece I am composing for this weekend’s concert, for example. While I will provide the core concept and structure (and we will practice it *smile*), the piece will be improvised.
I will rely on the qualities
of chance and contributions from the choir to perform the piece so I will not be in charge of all the components of this composition. Nor would I want to be. Much as a playwright looks to her actors to bring her script to life, I will rely on the skills and additions of my fellow vocalists to enliven the work.
It will become and exist in the moment it is created. And in that way, it cannot be practiced or repeated.
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There comes a time when all the thoughts of technique, phrasing and diction (and I’d argue composition) must be set aside in order to perform the music.
“Perform: to accomplish (any action involving skill or ability), as before an audience”
The key part of the above definition for me is “before an audience.” While practicing may be solitary, performing is about communication and connection.
It is about sharing what we have discovered while practicing so an audience can experience, learn from and feel the music we make.
