In the previous three installments of this series we have looked at a number of techniques and attitudes that can help prevent or reduce anxiety in performance. Now we will look at reducing the likelihood of anxious situations for our students by working to insure that the material is appropriate, the performance engaging, and the path of preparation well planned and well paced.

But first let me acknowledge something critical to many performance anxiety situations, that of memory failure. In my observation, memory issues on some level are the common denominator in occurrences of performance anxiety. They may not always start the ball rolling down the hill but they eventually become a part of almost any performance crisis.

Good "depth" memory skills can prevent many anxious moments or allow quick recovery from them if they occur. By depth memory skills I mean those that go beyond muscle memory. Muscle memory is a huge component in performance, but often fragile if interrupted. There are a number of effective and important tools for developing depth memory skills, and in March I will start a new series to present them. Even if memory is a particular student's key issue, everything we have covered so far should still provide important steps toward his or her performance success. So keep all of these ideas in mind and check in later for further thoughts on directly addressing memory issues.

No doubt, all the methods outlined in the previous articles for framing and pacing the performing experience are still dependent on being well prepared to present the music.

I keep four points clearly in mind as I coach students in performance preparation.

1. Use music that is well memorized.
2. Use music that is easily within a student's level of capability.
3. Guide students to become involved with the music through presenting a level of expression beyond just playing the notes.
4. Pace the preparation of a piece in order to resolve memorization and execution problems well before it's time to perform it.

Let's examine each of these points individually:

While a young or beginning student may gain from early performing experiences while reading, I find it best to move on to performing from memory sooner rather than later; if possible, begin with memorized performance. Adding the challenge of reading to the execution of a piece with any level of difficulty can often be more of an invitation to performance problems than outright memorization.

It is of paramount importance to select a piece that the student can manage very easily. The acceptable levels of challenge that push along and expand a student's boundaries in lessons and practice may be beyond what they should attempt to perform, at least until they have reached a clear level of experience, comfort, and confidence in the act of performance.

In addition, if a player has already been having less than successful experiences in performance it is even more important to select easy pieces. In that case, the beginning of their retraining or desensitizing to anxiety in performance will likely need to incorporate starting with pieces that are even further "beneath" their current physical "non-audience" skill level.

I mentioned the use of easy pieces in the first article in this series. In that case we used it to bridge from the relaxed good breathing and positive visualization approach of a pre-warm-up to more standard practice material and playing approaches. In this case it can help a student cross the bridge from successfully playing a piece in the practice room to successfully performing it in front of others.

Developing the ability to not only play the notes, but to add musical aspects such as dynamic changes, rubato, color and vibrato depends on having the physical skills needed to execute these elements; again, adding these elements of musicianship depends on initially choosing pieces that don't tax the student's ability to simply play the notes.

As a student's skills mature and allow musical expression, the resulting emotional involvement a player experiences can eventually be of great help to get beyond the self consciousness that contributes to performance anxiety.

Anxiety is often triggered by distracted thinking that occurs when we are not sufficiently involved in the music we are performing. It's often a challenge to persuade a developing player to choose to perform a piece which they can manage well enough to include expression, but when the time is ripe, this step not only brings students closer to artistry but can also contribute mightily to successful performance.

We are all susceptible to the following tendency to some degree, but the young and the highly motivated are especially prone to want to play an "impressive" piece while they may have trouble getting motivated to play a simpler work. Playing a piece with musical expression can be very impressive in itself, however, and more fulfilling for the audience than simply pulling off the notes of a difficult piece. If we believe we are here to serve our audience, and not to impress them or aggrandize ourselves, this approach to choosing repertoire may gain favor even among the young and most highly motivated students.

I have experienced success with my students not by stopping them from playing the more impressive, physically challenging pieces that they are just able to pull off, but by also requiring this kind of work as part of their training and performing. I openly require each of them to learn and perform a piece that is clearly "beneath" their current physical skills, and to do it with the utmost expressive concept and skill.

The assignment pushes them to find as much challenge in adding interpretation to the simple piece as they would find in learning a much more difficult piece. This approach has led to tremendous success in developing more meaningful interpretation and persuasive performances, and students often have their most intense experience of "feeling" a piece as they are playing it while being fully focused and present. This is a great confidence builder for young performers, and again a step towards artistry.

In last month's Guitar Sessions article on reasonable expectations I discussed perfection being a relative goal. Teachers must judge how fully all problems can be solved for each student at a given stage of their development. Whatever that peak level of mastery is, the student needs to reach it well before any performance.

Simply getting a piece "finished" and ready for performance just days or a week in advance creates a very risky situation in itself, one that is likely to lead to more anxiety or a troubled performance. Given that the repertoire is level-appropriate, it's a good minimum rule of thumb for students to have a piece well in-hand at least two weeks prior to any performance opportunity; that is, if it's a piece which they can physically manage without excessive tension, risk, and stress.

Then, by using a paced performance experience program such as the one presented in the November article in this series, additional weeks are added to the process and a student can end up having a piece finished for up to seven weeks by the time they are in a standard "real' performance, such as a recital or performance/studio class.

Next month we will close this series with an article on reducing anxious moments by having the equipment we need at the performance, taking care of ourselves ahead of time, and practicing appropriately on the day of performance. We will also look at an often plentiful and appreciative environment for putting our student's performance skills to use.

Happy New Year and I'll see you next month!

John Wunsch

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