A Performance Checklist

Of course, we have all been there. We have all walked away from a less than fantastic performance situation and thought to ourselves, “Well now I know how I should have practiced.”

These moments are brilliant opportunities, and yet for years I left such ripe insights on the table. Then one day I picked up The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande.

Gawande is a surgeon and essayist who writes about improving systems within the medical field. In this book, he studies the effectiveness of simple checklists on hospital care. What he finds is startling. By employing basic checklists ( Wash hands. Check instruments. Medical team introduces themselves before surgeries. ), patient safety increased and preventable infections radically decreased. Gawande is stunned by the results: could patient care really be improved by doctors and nurses using a checklist? It seemed too simple to be true.

This got me thinking. Could something as simple as a performance checklist work for musicians? It couldn’t hurt to try, I reasoned.

And so, slowly, I began taking notes. I took notes after my own performances ( I should have reviewed the gnarly key changes in the development ), I took notes after witnessing the performances of my students ( Have students practice walking across a room before sitting down at the piano and starting a recital piece! ). My list of insights lengthened, and how I prepared both students and myself for performances changed. One cannot control every aspect of live performance situations, for sure, but it turns out, we can do far more than cross our fingers and hope for the best.

A Simple Performance Checklist:

(Perhaps this is the musician version of “Wash your hands.”)

Coldplay

This has nothing to do with the British rock band. Coldplay is exactly what it sounds like: Practice performing, not after a thoughtful and thorough warm-up, but cold. This, after all, better mimics actual performance situations. Practice performing multiple times a day. Practice performing in different places on different instruments. Practice performing various sections out of order on demand.

Create an Audience

Actually, create 10 different audiences. At least. It seems so obvious that it is a good idea to practice playing in front of people, but it takes intention to create these scenarios, and so it is all too easy to skip this step. Different audiences provide different pressures, so mix them up in terms of situations and sizes. Play for your goldfish. Play for your neighbors. Play for your best friends or, better yet, your worst enemies. Every one of these scenarios provides different challenges, so every single one is helpful.

Stop Game

This technique tests our ability to stay focused under pressure. There are two ways to do the Stop Game, but both need an assistant, a friend to shout “Stop!” “Start” at random times.

It works like this: Begin playing. Without warning, the partner calls out “Stop!” Stop playing immediately, no matter how awkward the timing. Wait. (Wait a really long time.) When your assistant says, “Start,” begin playing again either in the place in where you left off, or jumping to the next memory spot in the case of a memorized piece. Continue stopping and starting in response to your partner’s cues until you reach the end of the piece. The longer you wait between “Stop” and “Start” the better.

Performance Runs

This is another obvious—yet should not be taken for granted—practice. We forget that in performance situations it is sometimes the little things that throw us for a loop: walking up, putting music on the stand, checking to make sure the bench is the right height, and so on. This performance technique makes sure we remember the small, yet very important, steps. A Performance Run has three components: walk up and get into place. Play. Bow and return to your seat.

Dress rehearsal

Sometimes a real live dress rehearsal in the space on the instrument is a luxury. But if it is possible, it makes such a difference. Take the extra effort to do a dress rehearsal. It will help minimize possible unwanted surprises—bad lighting, wobbly stand, stuck key—and hopefully will turn an unfamiliar situation into a more friendly one. This falls under the category of “Never take anything for granted.”

Wash hands. Check instruments (quite literally!). Bow. Check. Check. Check.