Many of the RCO Academy classes are held in St Giles Cripplegate church, which boasts no fewer than three organs. This class was on a rainy London evening earlier this week, topic: concentration, tutor: the excellent Daniel Moult.
Daniel was helping us on the elements of music performance which actually trip us up – 80% more likely to be mental issues rather than physical. The sports psychology guys have been onto this for several decades he said, but music conservatoires are only just putting Mental Skills Training into their mainstream teaching.
The old school music teacher would shout encouragement along the lines of “Watch what you’re doing! F sharp! F natural!! CONCENTRATE!!” Seldom productive of a great performance. The focus, said Daniel, should not be on watching the notes as you play them, but thinking ahead in the music.
Your piece ultimately should be so thoroughly grounded in your muscle memory, that the music is just an aide memoire. And if your playing of a particular piece isn’t automatic enough to withstand chattering bystanders, or vacuum cleaners in the nave, it’s not ready for performance.
Daniel gave us lots of mental exercises on focus, confidence, coping with anxiety, knowing when a piece is ready – and you have to practice this in, he warned, no good thinking you can paste it into your performance on the day.
I am now working on reading one or two bars ahead of my playing, in pieces I know well – it’s difficult! I tried really hard today, and can manage it briefly, but fall back into old habits…
I’ve added a page of psychology books for organists.
Daniel Moult is an international concert organist and teacher. You can catch up with him here.
