Watching a few classes or rehearsals
from out in the auditorium seats this past week, I was thinking:
- it's very hard for the students to maintain full-body focus for more than about a minute and a half - literally.
- it's very hard for the students to maintain full-body focus for more than about a minute and a half - literally.
- it's hard for them to infuse
sufficient energy into the quieter parts of a pop song - usually the
verse, that is.
Let's face it - these are aspects of
performing that take years to master.
If you notice, on all the vocal
competition shows these days (American Idol, X-Factor, The Voice)
contestants compete using 90-second versions of the songs. This is
usually
verse 1
chorus
bridge
chorus
I usually make customized cuts in
whatever goes onto my concert programs. I get complaints about this
before the concert itself - from students who don't want to give up a
single second in the spotlight, from colleagues who are purists. But
I get very few complaints when the students have just performed, and
have given an exciting, energized performance from beginning to end.
I think we should be very mindful of the audience, and how the energy
level, and the fidget level comes across to them. You know your
students; you know how long they can maintain an intense focus. Go ahead and tailor your arrangements to their current capabilities.
Keep introductions short - the audience didn't come to hear your piano accompanist. Until students are very experienced, keep quiet verses in the beginning of the arrangement. Once they explode with the contrasting dynamic of the chorus, keep the energy high out to the end. Keep the arrangement short, and do another song.
I find from my experience that kids are
able to maintain or snap back to focus when each new song starts, so
I'm always more inclined to put two abridged performances (each about 90
seconds) on a program rather than a three- or four-minute rendition
of a single song which uses the same arrangement as the hit record.
And of course I practice the full body stance, the attitude, the
facial expressions, the head and arm movements with the class as part
of our rehearsals.
What we do in class isn't always the
same as what we want to put on the concert. (We may do six verses of
a song in class, so that every student gets a chance to sing a solo
line or two.) But on the concert, the audience is not coming to see a
demonstration class. They're expecting, maybe not consciously, to be
getting a performance, and I think that's what we should do our very
best to give them.
Do you have any thoughts on this subject? Please let me know at
nycmusicteacher@gmail.com