What Makes a Great Performance (with Melissa Mulligan)

Today, I’m excited to share with you a short section from Melissa Mulligan’s Musical U masterclass, “Performance Secrets From An Industry Insider”. Let’s go!

So yesterday we had our mini-interview with Melissa Mulligan, the founder of Music Career Mastermind, and I hope you enjoyed it.

I really love her perspective and it was such a treat to get to chat with her a little bit before the masterclass. She is a super busy lady with all kinds of amazing projects going on, and so it was great that we had the chance to pick her brains a little bit on her ideas about talent and where her whole Music Career Mastermind project came from.

Before we dive in, I wanted to say a quick thank you for the comments and messages about Monday’s episode, which was, “if it ain’t broke, why try to fix it?” And I really appreciate the people who are encouraging me to ruffle feathers a little bit!

Several of you said, you know, don’t worry, it’s a message worth sharing, was what you were saying. And I just want to share one comment from over on YouTube because I think it sums up well what we’ve been hearing in response to that episode. So if I pull that up here, we had JayCee saying:

“Yes, yes, yes, you are so right!

I was one of those lopsided learners, and after ten years learning piano with four different teachers over the time, one of which was a concert pianist, I only learned one H.”

(So he’s referring there to the four H’s: Head, Hands, Hearing, and Heart.)

“I concluded I had a low ceiling of ability and gave up.

I didn’t touch the piano again for about 15 years now, learning a different instrument or three, I took a course and struggled with ear training. Then I discovered I could play by ear with practice, and this unlocked what I was missing. I was missing musicality and developing my ear.

Still a work in progress mind, but it’s making me feel this is what it’s all about. It opens so many doors, all versions are correct, and each develops something else. I wonder if it uses a different part of the brain.

Anyhow, if music is a language, we should learn it like one. We learn to speak before we learn to read.”

So if you’ve heard me talk about that “music as a language” thing before, you’ll know I feel it’s sometimes an awesome analogy and sometimes not so helpful.

And I wouldn’t personally, I wouldn’t oversimplify by saying we should learn to speak before we learn to read. And something I love about the Kodály approach for example, and what we do in the Foundations course and Spring Season is it does everything all at once. And I think that really is the most effective approach.

Also, something I meant to mention in Monday’s episode, and I don’t think I did, but you may have noticed when you hear us talk at Musical U, we are always talking in terms of “can” and “could” rather than “should”. And so that’s really the spirit of that H4 model. It’s not about being prescriptive and telling you “you should develop all four in this way”.

It’s really just about opening up the possibilities. So big thanks to JayCee for that comment and everyone else who’s said similar things and encouraged me that I shouldn’t be too sheepish about responding to comments like that!

Do keep the feedback coming. It helps me know what to focus on in the show, what’s useful for you.

And before we dive in, final reminder to register for YourMusicalCore.com.

It’s a live training this Saturday, and that’s really, it’s going to be a unique session. I’m going to do it kind of workshop style. So running through a few exercises with you live, and it’s designed to help you discover exactly what those four “’s should look like for you personally.

And I’m okay saying “should” there! Because we’re talking about you personally, what they should look like for you to achieve your own musical dreams. We’ve had hundreds of you register so far, which is super awesome, and I can’t wait to see you all there. So so if you haven’t registered yet, YourMusicalCore.com is the place to go. Now let’s dive into this little section from Melissa’s masterclass, which I think really stands alone beautifully and can really shift the way you think about, approach and relate to performing music. Here it is.

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So we’ve talked a little bit about your relationship with performing today. I want to make sure that we hit on just these four topics, how to build some skills, what makes a great performance, how to prepare the way a pro would, and nerves and imposter syndrome, and then anything specific that you guys want to go over, we will.

So can you hit the chat up again with your thoughts on what makes a great performance? Like personally, when you see a performance, what about it makes you say, that was a great performance? Is there something that, you know, you could articulate about that? Yeah. Connection between the musicians and with the audience, for sure. Oh, your own performance and inner sense of calm as I’m playing, it feels spontaneous, not canned.

When you can see them enjoying themselves. Yeah. Enthralling.

Yes. If it touches me, and it’s hard to say. It’s hard to say.

Right. What is it that’s making it touch you that much? The person truly being themselves, the emotional connection with the artist and the lyrics. Yeah.

So, you know, what’s interesting is you guys are all talking about how you feel and what you see. You’re not really telling me anything about what you hear or the performer’s ability. You’re not saying “it was a perfect rendition!”, “It was a flawless Rachmaninoff!”

You know, you’re literally saying, if I feel something or if I can tell the performer, it’s if I can feel something and if I think the performer is feeling something, that is literally what you’re telling me. Right.

But when we are getting ourselves ready to perform, what are we worried about, typically? Do I suck? Am I off key? Am I off time? Is this string getting muted every time I try and hit this one damn thing, right? That’s what we are focusing on a lot of the times.

For me, I boil it down to three things that create a great performer, and it’s creativity, vulnerability, and intention. And what I mean by that is applying some creative thought to your performance itself. Not just reciting a musical piece, but actually putting some creative energy into what are these people going to witness and feel.

And vulnerability. I don’t mean like, oh, I’m crying. I mean, look, it’s vulnerable to try and be funny. It’s vulnerable to just be you and reveal how you really feel in any given moment. It’s vulnerable to have the intention to entertain people. It doesn’t have to be this, like, emo thing to be vulnerable.

And then lastly, intention. Knowing what you are intending to do when you start to play or start to perform is key to leveling up your performance. And it can be, it can be really simple. Like, I’ve been successful if I remembered to breathe. I’ve been successful if I remembered to open my eyes.

Or it can be when you feel more practiced, it can be a more esoteric intention to be like, I’m just going to play today in honor of the memory of my mom, you know, or, I want to sing today because I want to heal somebody’s soul. Right? It can be deep, but it doesn’t have to be. Bottom line is, and this advice I need to give to professionals all the time, okay? So this is not like, beginner advice here, but when you’re performing, your job is not to impress people with your ability, and it is not to protect yourself from criticism.

That is no reason to show up, no reason to show up and do something if your whole intention is to just protect yourself from other people’s responses or even to try and control somebody else’s thoughts or judgments. Your only job is to allow someone in to a moment that you’re having and to let them have space with their own feelings inside of that moment.

That’s it. I think, you know, professional performers get really caught up in, like, well, I want my audience to feel this way or to feel that way or to understand that I’m feeling that way. And I’m like, that’s a little co-dependent! It’s a little codependent for my taste.

Maybe you let them be with you in the moment, and they get to have their own feelings. They get to go on their own journey. Maybe they’re daydreaming and thinking about something else in their life, or you got to control how they perceive it in their mind. I don’t think so. I think that’s a lot to put on yourself, but really, it is all about just sharing a moment with another human being.

Right? And again, it doesn’t have to be this massive, deep thing for people. Entertainment in and of itself is valuable. We all need a little distraction.

We all need a little bit of joy or just kind of, huh, that’s great. That’s valuable. You don’t have to change the world every time you play a piece of music, right? Your time and your energy and your desire to show up are valuable.

And people who want to share that space with you, that’s a gift.

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What do you think? Did that shift things little for you? Honestly, I almost want to play that video again because it’s five minutes of a longer masterclass, but I feel like that five minutes alone, if you really sit with it and you really take it into your own performance preparation in future, it’s a big deal. And I hope some of that hit home with you.

Whether you are regularly performing or you’re hoping to in future, or whatever the case may be, those suggestions around how to think about your performance and what you’re there to do, I think are beautiful.

We always try and bring in the right people at Musical U, and, you know, we have a lot of people interested in being a Guest Expert or being a guest on the show, and we really focus on bringing in people who are very aligned with what we do and how we do it.

So we’re unique in all we do and how we do it. But our philosophy is shared by so many amazing music educators out there, and Melissa’s perspective on performance and musical identity is just perfectly aligned with how we approach it. For example, in our Supernatural Performance course, a lot of what we talk about there gels perfectly with what Melissa presented in her masterclass. And she also, of course, brings a wealth of her own experience and insights and adds so much so that masterclass was a real treat.

And our Next Level members even got the chance to get direct coaching from Melissa, too, which was pretty phenomenal.

If you are a member, you can enjoy that full masterclass right now inside the members site. We’ve got the full replay there for you.

And whether you’re a member or not, remember to register today at YourMusicalCore.com for our upcoming live training.

I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about why, even though I’m often here on camera or on the audio podcast, unlike many people who you see doing that, I am definitely not here to be your guru! And tomorrow I’m going to unpack that a little bit, what I mean by that and why it’s really important, I think, to explain and get clear on.

So I’m looking forward to that one. I will see you then!

Cheers.

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