The Difference Between A Good Performance and a Memorable School Music Performance
- Music Room
- Jul 29
- 6 min read
Think of the last show or concert you have gone to where it REALLY made an impact on you. As an educator, musician and music teacher, you have a really good idea of what kind of performance is going to give you the physiological effects of amazing music. The goosebumps, the chills, the increased heart rate- even the tears. The best gratitude you can do at the end is to earnestly stand up while applauding. Sometimes even that doesn’t feel like enough. A truly memorable music performance will truly transport you somewhere else or into a physical state like this.
We all know what this looks like and recall distinct performances that made us feel this way, and we have probably told others how amazing it was, so that they can experience it too. But there’s one issue with this whole thing. Are performances like this so untouchable that only purchasing an expensive ticket will grant us that experience? Or is there a way for our own school performances to dip into that realm, to give the families in your school this experience as well?
See, we are educators of the performing arts. Of course we need to teach the skills for students to learn to become accomplished in their discipline, but people are looking for so much more. In an age where people are constantly entertained by mini-performances (reels, stories, videos) on their phone that make them laugh, talk to others, get their heartstrings pulled, or even cry, what is stopping us from helping our students do that to their audiences also?
Musically Memorable Singing Performances
I once (maybe more than once) overheard people talking about dreading a school choral concert performance because it was going to be boring. They were going for their children of course, but you could tell it wasn’t how they wanted to spend their time. What would have made it more worthwhile?
How can peaceful, slow melodies begin to transport audiences to another place that gives them peace? How can it be haunting and help them feel like they are in another time in history completely? How can the beauty of the song make them smile with pride instead of feel shut down from boredom? The upbeat, faster performances should be rousing, and wanting to help audiences get up out of their seats and dance with them. The words are clear and aiding the audience in this journey to go with them for the ride.
Instrumental Music That Touches The Soul
How about the philharmonic performance that gives you chills every couple of minutes? The silky tones of the layers of instruments caressing the skin like expensive fabric makes you want to not stop hearing it. The way the phrases develop make you lean in and sit back without being too overdone. Even without words, even without programmatic titles, the music is still telling you stories, evoking your imagination, and dredging up memories that you didn’t even know you had.
It is so powerful. But you know this. You may even be able to reference the score in your head and know exactly what you heard to make it that way. The problem you may feel like you have is how to reproduce it. Why can’t someone with your experience and training be able to evoke this response in your students when they are in rehearsal, to help them FEEL it the way that the audience does in a philharmonic concert?
What is the difference between them? There are children in the professional performing arts that are capable of this. Just watch one of the televised talent shows out there. Some of those performers have fewer years of experience than your students. Some of your students have more years of musical training than those performers have of being alive.
What do they have that your students don’t? We can see it in our heads, but the main question everyone has is HOW? How can you give this beautiful gift to them?
Cracking the Code… In a Nutshell
It’s going to take energy, and only you, the educator, can lead that energy production. You provide the fuel. You also provide the safety to be able to express this way in the public atmosphere of a classroom. You also need to teach students how to prepare: how to get through the basic mechanics of preparing a piece, so that they are bogging down any expressive work that comes next, at a pace that is appropriate for the age group. Lastly, you need to provide a system to instill the correct emotions into the performance.
Let’s examine this a little deeper.
How expressively do you perform? Have you ever, as a soloist, moved an audience member to tears? Can you make people laugh consistently with a comedic monologue, even if it wasn’t your own writing? Can you get people fired up if you rant about something they agree with also? Has anyone told you that your performance moved them somehow, or transported them? Yes? Then you’re done with step one. If you are able to outwardly exude this energy, then you can teach others to do it also. Because you’re going to have to be afraid to model it for them. Failure to do so shows students that your rehearsal space is not safe enough for them to give this energy back, since you did not prove to them it is safe enough for you. Harsh truth, but that is how they will think.
Can you break down phrase development into both objective and subjective descriptors and components? Some students will understand one, but not the other, so in order to diversify your teaching style of this enough, you’ll need to know both ways!
Do your students keep up with the pace of instruction? Are they inspired to make amazing musical performances as a group and by themselves? Have you helped them understand that these goals are attainable for them, and that you will safely guide them to do it correctly, so they may not make fools of themselves by doing it wrong?
Have you shown your students how to fail successfully, that failure is good, welcome and necessary? Have you shown students how to think through failure, frustration and improvement to maintain the momentum of their growth? Are you and them well-versed in Growth Mindset?
They say in sports that skill development is about as much physical training as it is mental training. I’m not going to put down the statistics because every time I see it again, it’s different. Development of a musical performance to be as successful as the pros likely follows the same idea. You can physically prepare your hands, breathing and voice as much as you want, getting that routine down, but without the mind game of performance mindset preparation, recovery and continued growth, talent stagnates.
They also say that music teachers wear many hats. Because of this mind game, or mental toughness needed for high-level musical accomplishment, I guess we are also mindset coaches in our own world.
If you have wondered how to get started, or how to answer some of the questions above, Uplevel U: Music has answers for you. Uplevel U: Music is an online collection of professional development courses and resources for performing arts teachers to solidify pedagogical skills that are often overlooked or not taught for long enough in college prep programs. Vocal Pedagogy for Non-Voice Majors helps instrumental-trained teachers be confident when teaching choir students and musical theater, Character Development and Stage Presence for Theater Educators directly helps some of the issues we stated above, Growth Mindset for Music Teachers revolutionizes your thinking as an individual and as a teacher in a personalized, integrative way that you can teach, and How to Teach Musicality and Expression is the method to teach, especially instrumentalists, how to play with expression in an objective way that can be used for any piece of music, and reproduced for later projects. Coming soon to our collection is a course to integrate all forms of musical expression into vocal performances, set to be released in September 2025. Bookmark our live, interactive Resource Catalog to stay on top of everything we have to offer!
This article was written by Music Room/Uplevel U: Music's owner and creator, Karen (Kay) Janiszewski.
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