Go to Concerts, Good and Bad

My first music teacher once told me to see all the concerts I possibly could, (chamber, orchestral, solo, etc!) because that's one of the best ways to learn, and also how you learn some of the things that can't be taught.* That advice has only become more and more true as I become more advanced in my own learning.

One can of course learn from good concerts, in a monkey-see-monkey-do kind of way. This is valuable in that you can see someone who is successful in action, someone who has mastered your trade, and someone who knows what to do from experience and is showing you what you'll be doing if you get to that level. Hopefully by watching the great players, you can absorb some of what they've got, and be inspired to keep striving for your goals.

And for the masters of older generations, there are recordings and Youtube videos, though they're never the same as seeing something live! Check out viola virtuoso William Primrose (pictured) and his amazingly relaxed left hand (in Paganini, no less!) here.

However, one can also learn from the "bad" concerts, or concerts where you didn't enjoy the way someone was presenting something. Doesn't matter if it was a bad setup, bad venue, bad program or even a downright bad performance, you need to be looking at these with the idea of learning from them. You can see what is effective and what is not effective by watching the mistakes of others, and learn from everything around you. And even more importantly, you may even find out new things about yourself and your personal tastes if you see something you like that you hadn't thought to try, or see something you didn't like that maybe you still do yourself because you didn't realize how it sounded or came across. Specifically defining what you want to produce is the first step to actually producing those results.

This is the way to attend concerts and events with a positive attitude and no regrets. Rather than complaining about how lacking a performance was or wishing you hadn't wasted the time and money, use the experience, good or bad, as valuable information about what you do and don't like and how you are going to present yourself when you perform for others in the future. As an added bonus, the people around you will appreciate your more positive attitude too!



*Arguably, nothing can be taught, as teachers serve as guides for a student's own learning. More on this later!

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