Choosing The Right Repertoire | tonebase Tips
In this week’s post, Francisco Chaves shares a few tips for selecting and curating your next concert program. Whether it’s for a high-stakes DMA degree recital or an intimate house concert for your close family and friends, these ideas hold true!
I would like to start by saying that the pieces you are going to play in a concert and the pieces you are practicing at the moment should not be the same.
Let me be absolutely clear: “The concert hall is not the time to do experiments or to try things out.”
In the concert hall you play pieces that you feel secure, pieces that you master, pieces that you already played many times. Performing in concert is not an easy task and you should not go out there and play pieces in concert that “might go wrong.”
Even jazz musicians, who improvise during concerts — they “prepare” their improvisations. They improvise on tunes they feel comfortable with and that they know inside out.
With my students, every time there is a concert or audition, I make them play “easy, comfortable” pieces. Usually, I get the reaction: “Oh, but that piece is too easy! I am a much better guitarist than that!” I agree, but I still insist on this point because when they go on stage and perform, they feel super confident: “I am going to play an easy piece! It can’t go wrong!” That confidence is then transmitted to the audience. Everyone enjoys the experience — audience and performer.
I know you want to show your “better self” — you want to show “your best.” Therefore, you might be tempted to choose a very hard piece. Then you go on stage and insecurity kicks in. That is why I insist on being a bit more humble and playing something so easy, so natural to you, that when you get on stage there are no feelings of insecurity or nervousness.
After you decide on your “easy pieces,” in which order should you put them? Should you group them by tonality? Speed? Composer?
This is a very subjective discussion, but I think you should empathize with the audience and put yourself in their shoes. Variety is always good to keep them engaged. Even if your artistic goal is to play a concert dedicated to only one period or composer, the music should feel different. Therefore, it is not advisable to play 2 or 3 consecutive pieces that have the same speed, tonality or mood.
It is not by chance that the movements of a traditional Symphony or Sonata have different speeds.
The 3rd Symphony by Henryk Górecki is perhaps one of the very few successful symphonies that consists of only slow movements. An exception to the rule.
Along with speed, another important consideration is key. Most of the guitar repertoire is built around the keys of A and E (major or minor) which makes avoiding consecutive pieces in the same key tricky.
One time while attending a concert, the guitarist finished one classical piece in E Minor with open strings. The audience applauded and then he started the next piece, also in E minor and again with open strings. Even though the pieces were completely different, at that moment, the “concert illusion” broke. I got distracted and thought to myself, “Oh, again E minor… The guitar repertoire is really limited…” If he did not have put those pieces together, that negative thought would not have come to my mind.
There are many more things to say about this topic. Every guitarist has a different opinion and this is a very subjective topic. In the end, you should play something that you enjoy and that reflects your personality. You cannot go wrong with that.
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