Students of the Mitchell Conservatorium in Parkes have proved they have many talents, not only playing beautiful music at their term one concert but also offering practical tips for performers and concertgoers at the same time.
The concert was designed to combine performance opportunity and ideas on effective practice by the 12 participating students. They played a variety of string instruments and spoke about techniques they found helpful in practicing the piece they performed. Some of the tips offered included breaking the piece of music up into smaller sections to practise each section separately; experiment with different rhythms, volumes, accents and touch such
as staccato and legato (sharp and smooth) when working on particularly tricky passages; use the metronome to achieve a steady, even beat and to slowly ‘winch’ sections up to speed and to avoid just playing through your pieces from beginning to end – don’t kid yourself into thinking that playing them through quickly equals effective practice!
Most importantly, when preparing for a performance, remember to take your audience for a musical ride they can enjoy and to enjoy the music yourself… and keep going even if you stumble or make a mistake!
The next free Mitchell Conservatorium Concert will be held on Tuesday, 21st June and the theme of the concert will be ‘home grown’. Performers who would like to play music that they have either written themselves, or that has been written by someone local, are welcome to play at the concert. As this concert will be close in date to exams and eisteddfod, there will also be opportunity for students wanting to play or recite pieces they have been working on.
Enquiries should be directed to Pam Parkin at poshandjam@outlook.com.