While Professor Ben's suggestions of delving into competition culture had me very interested, I was concerned that it may be too specific and that it would be easier if I included more of a snapshot of it within the larger realm of performance culture.
So, I'm pretty sure that I would like to focus my topic on several aspects of music performance looked across different cultures and music. Some of these aspects may or may not include: performer/audience interaction (ex. classical, jazz, and rock), its purpose/role, cultural expectations, and historical changes. I'd also like to look at some more psychological approaches: anxiety (with relations to different degrees of pressures - for example: competitions/evaluations vs 'jams') and the pressure to be different/creative/stand-out. Clearly, an issue I am having is that this topic can be quite broad. I'm not sure how focused such a topic should be...
Ben made a book suggestion to me: Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi. I found this suggestion to be impressively fitting as I am also concurrently taking a class on Creativity (PSYC 176). In fact, Csikzenmihalyi's concept of "flow" was just mentioned in my reading in Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From in the context of "liquid networks". It is all certainly intriguing material as I'd hope that to be considered a successful performer, one should also be 'creative' (though I'm sure one can argue with an example where this is not a necessary condition...).
Last week my Creativity professor (Prof. Craig McKenzie) had asked the class if anyone was a music performance major. After no one responded, I meekly raised my hand.
Prof: What instrument?
Me: Piano.
Prof: At what age did you start?
Me: 13.
Prof: How many hours do you practice a day?
Me: Uh..two...on a good day.
Prof: And do you hope to perform for a living?
Me: No.
Prof: Good...because it won't happen.
Um...thanks.
I have no intentions of going into performance, so this wasn't at all a depressing wake up call or anything, but I have much fascination with those who do plan this route or already do so. I'm simply in it for the free lessons.
Last night, I performed in Professor Janos Negyesy's "Soirée for Music Lovers". I performed with my friend Schubert's Fantasie in F minor for piano/four hands. It wasn't a 'high-risk' performance by any means. In fact, everyone told me to "just have fun". Unfortunately, that's quite hard for me to do. Performance anxiety is both stressful and draining. How can I have fun when I'm putting myself out there in such a vulnerable position? This is my music, my interpretation, my technique, my dress...anything that goes wrong is clearly on me. But everyone last night was so extremely supportive that I ultimately did have fun. This 'fun' state, however, was so reliant on others. Performance is not a one-person thing.
What I did notice were the other performers. These people were real performers. It didn't drain them like it did me. It fueled them. I wonder if this holds across music and cultures.
odd, I'm not sure that I'd agree with Prof. McKenzie—it sounds to me as though he means as a western art musician, (which, if limited to that, he is probably, though not definitely, right) when it is unclear to me that you might not be able to do so in some other music, were you to start playing a in a different tradition and completely commit to it—especially since time frame of beginning to make your living at it is unspecified either. Perhaps he's also working on the 10,000 hour theory, which is only a theory and, even if a workable one, not absolute. I've little patience for that sort of absolutist "I can predict your future in a very tight definition of music, based on almost no information" myself.
ReplyDeleteDo you think performance anxiety is different across musical cultures? Does it change with practice (ie, the more you perform, the more you get used to it?) is it distinctly personal to do with individual psychology? How much does it depend on that music's approach to performance and the way it views it?
How will you proceed on an ethnographic basis (I realize you've already got autoethnography going here—i.e., yourself, but you'll need balance)? And keep considering how you want to limit this conceptually.
Sorry to Prof. McKenzie as I did conveniently leave out the word "probably". He said it "probably won't happen". And you were right - it was coming off of the 10,000 hour theory.
DeleteI'm not sure if performance anxiety is different across cultures, but I wonder if it is varies depending on the musical environment. I only used myself as an example because I thought it was a fitting start, but I don't plan on going this route. I was wondering if it is as nerve wracking for someone in a Western classical piano performance where the stage is brightly lit and there is no acknowledgement of the audience except for opening and ending applause (and coughing of course) as compared to someone in say, a pop/rock concert where the audience can sing along or jazz where the audience claps after each solo. For my personal case, the other performers' positive "just have fun" attitude already changed my outlook and calmed my nerves. Of course, this is difficult to measure as there are varying pressures even within one style, and is not actually a quantifiable thing.