How do you help students be both self-critical and proud of their performance?
I want you to be constructively critical of your work leading up to a concert. That’s how you get better.
I also want you to be proud of what you’ve done in the concert, regardless of what could have done better.
That cognitive dissonance is hard for anyone, and it’s particularly hard for young musicians. I think that that’s because young musicians don’t have the benefit of years of performance experience, informing and contextualizing the current performance. What I mean is, my reflection on today’s performance might be different than my students’, because I remember performances from 5, 10, 20 years ago.
Students have a hard time turning off the criticism they’ve been developing in preparation of the performance, and the outcome can be disappointment, frustration, or finger-pointing…at the very moment when they should be proud of their accomplishments.
Three solutions I think of quite often:
First, I discourage my students from watching or listening to their performance, especially watching or listening without me to help them contextualize. If we listen together, I can help soften their self-criticism.
Second, I encourage adopting The Real Group’s philosophy of allowing zero negative talk for some period of time (30 minutes, an hour) after a performance.
Third, I explicitly direct my students to accept all compliments after the concert, regardless of whether or not they agree with them.