Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today we’re going to talk about the flywheel effect in your piano playing. This is an essential element that you must embrace in your musical performance. Your audience will appreciate it, and so will you!
It’s important to not stop your performance in the middle.
In a play, occasionally, one of the actors will forget a line. It can happen. If the performer just wings it and improvises a line or two, unless you’re really familiar with the play, you won’t even notice. But just imagine what would happen if they missed their line and then went back a line so that they would get it. It would be obvious to everyone in the audience that they had made a mistake. Now suddenly, instead of absorbing the story, you’re thinking about the performer. It takes you away from the magic. Well, it’s exactly the same with your musical performance!
You must think of your performance as a train. A train keeps going!
Let’s say a train gets slightly derailed for a moment. It could be a complete disaster! But imagine if it just got off for a moment and then bounced right back on track. It wouldn’t be a big deal, would it? It’s the same exact thing with your piano playing! Your performance should be like a train that keeps going. Imagine you’re performing, you have a momentary glitch, and you correct it by stopping and restarting the phrase. The flow of the music is interrupted. It’s like a trainwreck in your performance! Anyone tapping their foot along is jarred by the experience. They might also start to wonder if you are going to miss something else. They might feel sorry for you. It takes them away from the whole experience.
Push through your mistakes.
The secret is to keep going! Use the flywheel effect so the mistakes come and go as quickly and inconsequentially as possible. Unless somebody is intimately familiar with the score, they probably won’t even notice. It’s just like a play. Most people don’t know all the lines of the play. If the actor just improvises something for a moment, it’s fine for almost everyone in the audience. You must do the same thing with your musical performance.
You don’t want to disrupt the flow of the music.
Ignore the mistakes! (That can wait until your next practice session!) Just focus on where you are in the score and let the music keep unfolding. The performance will be fine. It doesn’t have to be perfect; but it must have continuity. The show must go on! I hope this is helpful for you! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
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