Music is something that we experience with our ears, right? Yes, but if you only listen to music, you’re missing out on another dimension of performance that makes the musical experience truly special and unique. It’s the reason that some people won’t listen to music unless it’s live and to find examples outside of music, it’s the reason that watching a sporting event live at the venue is so much more fun than watching at home on TV. The more of our senses that are involved, the more an experience moves us.

Music is meant to be seen as much as heard. Why would the biggest name composers of their day spend so much time producing operas that didn’t pay as well as other composing jobs? Because they knew that opera was music in its perfect form. It combined both visual and aural art that moved people in a way that symphony alone could not.

What Does that Mean for Me?

As a musician, regardless of how you’re performing, it’s not enough to play the notes. Your worth as a musician also includes your talent as a performer. How can you address the visual side of your performance as you practice?

Posture

Your teacher has probably told you far more than once about posture. Posture serves not only a functional purpose putting your body in the best position to work correctly but as we’ve all heard, your appearance says a lot about you as a person. People with a slouchy appearance aren’t regarded as confident and lack of confidence is seen as lack of skill or knowledge. In other words, bad posture puts you at an instant disadvantage.

Watch Others

This is why listening to recordings of famous performers isn’t enough. Go to Youtube or even better, go to a live concert of professional musicians in your area and truly watch their performance. The conductor will give you insight in to how to feel the music and even watching how the performers walk on and off stage will be a lesson on how they set first and last impressions in the minds of their audience.
Marching bands and other performing groups spend large amounts of time choreographing movement not just in the form of moving around the field. Modern marching bands learn the basic of ballet, Yoga, and other movement art forms in order to better convey the music visually.

Know Your Piece

Your music teacher knows how much you practiced without asking. All they have to do is look at you while you play. Those with ridged posture are the ones who aren’t confident with what’s coming next. Panic mode over the next line of music is clearly evident just be looking at the performer. The audience knows it too. If your piece isn’t memorized, you probably don’t know it well enough. If playing it isn’t as automatic as walking or talking, you don’t know it well enough. It is only with this knowledge that true performance takes place.

Let Yourself Go

What does the music mean to you? What do you think about when you play it? What would be happening on stage if your piece was used in an opera or musical? If you were watching somebody perform this piece, what you expect to see from the performer?

Most important, do what feels natural to you. Almost everybody shows emotion with his or her body and that is no different when playing music. Don’t forget about the visual aspect of music. Both are important and one will have a positive impact on the other.

The very best thing you can do for yourself in music and piano playing is to take a comprehensive course that covers music theory as well as reading music and improvising using chords. Click here to read about our “Crash Course”