Page 58 - How to Shine on Stage

These two aspects constitute the first requirement to be met before
starting to plan a performance. They can be divided into three interac-
tive steps:

1. an appropriate mental image of the music being performed, togeth-
er with a plan for transforming it into sound
2. practice to a standard that suits the desired goal
3. specific preparation for the performance
56 As all of these factors have already been addressed in this mono-

graph, I will not elaborate on them here.
The importance of monitoring in the self-regulation process is in its
provision of information regarding the adequacy of an activity or its in-
How to Shine on Stage stein and Mayer (1986) claim that all metacognitive activities are at least
adequacy and the need to change a behaviour or activity. Claire Wein-

partly monitoring.
Monitoring strategies in learning an instrument include directing
attention, counting out loud, reading notation aloud orally, practising
with a metronome, playing along with one’s teacher, and using feedback.
These strategies alert the student to possible lapses in attention, to a lack
of mastery of the technical and interpretive elements of the piece, which
can be remedied by the regulation strategies. The early stages of instru-
ment learning involve plenty of relatively explicit monitoring strategies.
Gradually, the monitoring mechanisms become internalized and to
some degree automated. The first condition for monitoring is the abili-
ty to concentrate.
An important self-observation strategy is to consider feedback. Feed-
back provides information on the degree of performance success. It can be
subjective or objective; subjective refers, on the one hand, to one’s feeling
of satisfaction during the performance, to one’s own opinion and feelings
after the performance, and, on the other hand, to the opinion of the audi-
ence, to the opinion of the individuals whose professional opinion is valued,
to the applause following the performance. As to the objective feedback,
it consists of various audio and video recordings allowing the perform-
er to analyse their performance and get a clearer perception of their own
success. Feedback is a very powerful way of examining one’s own perfor-
mance, as it helps to identify the positive features as well as the shortcom-
ings of one’s performance. It allows for a systematic monitoring of progress.
We distinguish internal and external feedback. Internal feedback
is information which is almost simultaneous with performance and is
directly perceived by the performer. External feedback is substantiated