And time to perform!

Yes, this is something I must do more of in the company of other people, or even just for a recording. I get so nervous playing in front of people that I end up making silly mistakes I wouldn't have made otherwise; I need to get over this, and that simply means doing it more often until I'm comfortable. Oy!

Here's one thing (of many) that I find so very interesting about my favorite pianist of ALL-TIME, Glenn Gould: Glenn didn't like performing in front of other people and concertizing ... and that's probably putting it lightly. I remember seeing this one clip where you could see the sweat pouring down his face as he played. Perhaps it was for another reason, but it looked like anxiety to me. Anyway, but the thing is, Glenn LOVED recording in the studio - and wasn't nervous about this at all. The way I see it, you're still performing in front of people (the recording engineers, at least), and I, myself, would be just as nervous as if performing a live concert. If he didn't know any better, one might be tempted to think Glenn used the recording studio as a way to make up for mistakes and imperfections in his playing by editing/splicing various takes - but this is not the case. I recall reading one recording engineer commenting that Glenn Gould needed fewer retakes than any other musician he had worked with in his career, and most of them were due to changes in interpretation, phrasing, etc. and not mistakes.

Another area I really need to work on is my sight-reading. I've decided I'm going to make myself play out of a hymnal every day to help this along. I've resolved to do this before, but I mean business this time - after all, what am I waiting for? The only problem I can see using a hymnal as a tool for sight-reading is the fact that the harmony and voice leading changes more or less on every beat, so rhythmically you don't really run into the challenges you'd find all over the place in other types music. But I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, and worry about proficiency reading out of the hymnal first.