Also entitled, You Probably Shouldn’t Leave Your Sheet Music on the Stand at Home
Exciting things are happening, but, as frequently happens, they bring great stress with them. For me, that usually leads to an increase in absentmindedness (which is usually at pretty significant levels to begin with). From this comes the following tale:
A few days ago, I was scheduled for a solo performance during a class. I didn’t have the music very long, but I did everything in my power to prepare it. The night before, I made sure that I had my performance-day schedule ready and I went to bed early to get a good night’s sleep. What I did on performance day is not particularly important, but my accompanist’s arrival the hour before is when the day got interesting.
I went to warm up while waiting for a piano to be unlocked and discovered something terrible: My music was not in the stack with all my other music-the place I had kept it ever since I had received it.
This was a problem. However, I distinctly remembered packing my music so I went to check my other folders.
Nothing.
I found a friend to double check my music and folders.
Nothing.
I thought about doing it from memory, but after checking some things with my accompanist decided it would be a bad idea. So, with just under half and hour to go, off I went to get the piano part copied so I could cut and paste a part together. As I began to cut the cello part out, I realized there was no way for me to get the part assembled in time. Therefore, I once again enlisted some help.
With just a few minutes to spare, my accompanist and I raced back to the performance space so I could run through the part and adjust to the smaller notes, greater number of pages, and what I would soon discover was not the same exact part as my copy.
It ruined my carefully laid out plans. It was frustrating. It was stressful. Without the people that helped me put my new copy together, I wouldn’t have had any time to adjust to the part whatsoever.
But it was also ridiculous. And downright hilarious (now, not as much at the time). I’ve never smiled or laughed so much about a performance in my life. If you have ever had to piece together a part at the last minute, you might know the feeling.
I share this because it is an important reminder of some things:
1) Be Prepared: When you find yourself using an emergency part, knowing your piece like the back of your hand can save you. Why? Because the visual cues are almost certainly going to be different. It changes how you coordinate your eye movement with whatever else you are doing. And, as I found out, sometimes you have to make something up/correct notes as you go along. Even if you don’t plan on playing something memorized, knowing it just as well can be extremely helpful.
2) Just Go With It: If/when something like this happens, it is easy to fall apart in a complete state of panic. Fortunately, instead of doing that I just dealt with it. You have to do what must be done in a given situation. You might have to make tough calls. But, you also don’t want to make bad decisions (as performing from memory would have been in this case). Sometimes, you have to figure the course of action that is most likely to work and just do it and see what happens. Sure, it might not work. But, as I think I’ve mentioned before, it’s okay if something doesn’t turn out okay. Lesson learned for next time.
3) Have Fun: This one is so easy to forget. We mustn’t ever take ourselves too seriously. Fortunately, by the time I went onstage, I was beyond the point of being able to do so. As a result, I had more fun onstage than I think I ever have had before (definitely going to try to replicate this in the future-the feeling, not the pre-performance events). If I had tried to force myself to take things seriously, I would have been paralyzed by the need to process what had just happened. I would have been far too distracted and my performance would have been terrible.
Things like this are just a part of life. They are wonderful teaching moments, and usually lead to some good memories. I think if you have stories like this, you’re probably doing something right. You have to be putting yourself in situations that run these types of risks to grow.
A Musical Mentality 