We all face challenges each day. Some are brought on by our jobs, our life styles and in some cases are self-imposed as this post will reveal.
Today completes our Spring season with a new musical in town called “All Hands On Deck”. I would consider this the most enjoyable show I have played in Branson for the music is well written, the actors/ entertainers are top rate professionals and plot is very patriotic.
In my “never ending” and “never succeeding” quest for perfection, I began making notes of my performances to see how accurate my playing could be. After each show, I rated my performances in four categories as illustrated below.
1- Perfect performance with no errors in any way.
2- Good playing with mistakes only recognized by me and my section.
3- Obvious mistakes which could be recognized by the audience.
4- Undeniable blunders!
Category #1
Only 4 shows were rated as perfect, flawless, exceptional performances. From the first note to the end of the show, I had the feeling that nothing could go wrong.
Category #2
This section was by far the most representative of my playing in a live situation. My errors in almost every case were linked to concentration problems. This show is very intense with over 65 numbers with quick mute changes and segue songs and medleys. This, in addition to a few monster page turns, made the show very challenging when striving for a perfect performance. In this second category, I logged 28 near perfect performances.
Category #3
The performances in this section were again from concentration errors and not playing errors. Even though the lead part has over 80 high Cs and above, the high notes were not the problem as much as the concentration on the part. This section fortunately only had 2 incidents during our performances.
Category #4
This section also garnered 2 REALLY BAD CLAMS, and fortunately they were reserved for our final rehearsals with only the band present.
Some might wonder why anyone would admit to making errors during a show. To be honest, I have not witnessed anyone playing live shows that do not make a mistake at some time during a show. Some will say that they don’t make mistakes and I applaud them, if it is true. But for us, mere humans, a perfect performance is usual a performance were we didn’t get caught!
