Now that we’ve laid out what the pathway from practice room to dream stages might look like, let’s explore the Performance Free-Flow framework which can transform “a play-through” into a truly special musical performance.
Performance Free-Flow consists of three parts: Conversation, Creativity and Connection. These are each aspects of performing which are often overlooked—but are always present in the most compelling, impactful, memorable musical performances.
You can think of them as the missing ingredients which explain why a performance might fall flat, even though you “got the notes right”. Or, contrariwise, as the ingredients you can start to include in your own Performance Practice and performances, to produce the experiences you’ve dreamed of, for yourself and for your audiences.
Conversation
Most musicians treat performing as a “recital”. It’s purely about “output”: doing the physical actions which will produce the sounds they intend the audience to hear.
In truth, the best performances are a conversation. Between you, your instrument, your music, and your audience. Input and output, playing and listening, back and forth.
Until you make your performance a Conversation, it will always just feel like you’re trying to hit “play” on a recording, and have it played out for the audience without any glitches.
But when you transform “performing” into “communicating”, activate your musical ears, and allow that powerful back-and-forth conversation—that’s when magic begins to happen. Like when you can tweak the melody just here in instinctive response to how you just saw the man in the front row lean forwards slightly a moment ago… or hold that crucial note juuuuuust a moment longer, to make sure the crowd is with you before you barrel through the next section… or adjust your volume just so, making sure nobody’s mind starts to wander for an instant and their full attention remains firmly and intently on you and your music.
To have a real conversation like that, you can’t just be blindly following instructions. You need to have some choice about exactly what you play when. You need to be able to respond to what you hear, and observe, and experience.
Which means you also need…
Creativity
Although only a small fraction of musicians feel like they “are creative”, it’s possible for any musician to re-discover the vast creative freedom you have to express yourself through music. And that holds true even if you’re strictly playing music “as written”, as we explored fully in the previous chapter on Expression.
Creativity is what distinguishes a beautiful, powerful, nuanced rendition of a piece from an auto-generated “MIDI file” computer synthesis which will never move a human listener.
The truth is, until you internalise Creativity and learn to express your ideas through what you play, you will always feel like some kind of emotionless robot. But when you put Creativity in place, you’ll find a new freedom and delight in performing even the simplest music.
Then, when you’re able to creatively express yourself in musical conversation, the final step is to develop your…
Connection
You may never have thought of music in terms of “connection” before, but if you stop and think about it, you’ll see how the desire to *connect—*with music, with your instrument, with a listener (both loved ones and strangers alike)—is at the heart of what inspired you to pick up and play in the first place.
Without Connection, even the most technically-proficient performance will feel dull, lifeless, perhaps even pointless.
But when you’re prepared to make a true connection, and you develop your intuitive ability to connect, then every single note you play becomes an opportunity to feel more fully and deeply connected to everything around you that you love.
Then you never need to wonder whether you’ll get applause or compliments after the show—you’ve already felt the deep appreciation and admiration of your listeners, every step of the way. And with each and every performance your love of music and love of playing grows even more.
Performance Free-Flow
With these three parts in place, you’re able to tap into a whole new kind of musical performing, a state we call “Performance Free-Flow”.
In Performance Free-Flow:
- Confidence is no longer something you need to work on. In fact, the idea of “working on your confidence” becomes almost like nonsense to you. You don’t need to “get confident” about having brown hair or speaking your native language, do you? Performing music is just part of who you are—so naturally confidence isn’t even an issue to begin with.
- Everything just flows. Part of the method relates to the “flow states” you might have heard of world-class athletes and performers of all kinds tapping into. Getting into “the zone”, where peak performance becomes almost effortless. Performance Free-Flow shows you how to engineer those flow states on demand.
- It’s easy to find that “click”. You’ll find that listening in a conversational way is the secret to getting in the groove with other musicians around you, and creating those moments where everything “clicks”. Even most pros don’t fully understand how to make that “click” happen—they think it’s mostly luck. But we will see exactly where it comes from, and how to make it your “new normal”.
- You always feel expressive, and have charisma on stage. With the 3 C’s unlocking your ability to express yourself fully, you’ll be amazed to find how naturally charismatic you are on stage and how easy it is to interact with an audience before, during and after a performance. All that was holding you back were the limitations and anxiety that the old model of “performing” had shackled you with.
- Finally the Inner Critic is banished for good. As you learn a healthier and more effective way to “self critique” and start experiencing for yourself the near-magical performance states previously reserved for the “gifted” pros, you’ll find all that “head trash” naturally starts slipping away. Your inner “gremlin” voice quietens down, never to return. And you’ll stop all the unconscious self-sabotage you may never have realised was constantly happening.
- Failure is no longer possible. Conversation, creating and connecting are all natural parts of being a human. We create ideas and sentences and communicate them with other people all day long to connect with them. Once you learn how to approach performance as simply a chance to connect with other people and with music, through a creative conversation—how could you fail at that?
When you master this method, “performing” is no longer a special skill to struggle with, or a big event to aspire to and feel intimidated by. To you, it’s now just “letting the music flow”.
With its 3 C’s of Connection, Creativity and Conversation, the Performance Free-Flow framework will reveal to you how even playing relatively simple music can produce a spellbinding performance, and why your level of instrument technique is not the limiting factor in how great your performances can be. Of course, when you do want to up the complexity or sophistication level of the music you perform, you’ve got Chapter 6: Superlearning to help you master tricky sections, eliminate mistakes, memorise easily, and perform up to speed reliably and comfortably.
As we cover the 3 C’s of Performance Free-Flow, you’ll start to understand and experience how to change “performance” from a big, scary final exam, into a musical activity that feels natural, enjoyable, and even easy for you—all while upgrading the experience your audience enjoys when you play.
We’ll do this through the lens of the H4 Model: Head, Hands, Hearing and Heart.