3. Practice repeating (out loud), at least 3-5 times, all the necessary things that you must say in your speech: every name and event you must address. It is important to get the physical feel of the words you must say on your tongue, because there’s a decent chance that your mouth will slip up during your speaking when it comes to one of these things to say, if you hadn’t repeated it enough to be familiar with it for perfectly instant recall. This was what happened to me and my announcing a competitor; I was trying to recall too many things to say in a short amount of time, and ended up initially mispronouncing that competitor’s name due to lack of familiarity (which I believe could have been achieved through just a bit more repetition).

And… a second point: always serve the music. The more I thought about it, the more I regretted playing my work instead of a more lyrical piece. The recital material was very spur-of-the-moment, as I hadn’t played Bumblebee in years, and had only practiced it for maybe 10 minutes total leading up to that time, so maybe I’m a bit off the hook. But we should always contrast fast/technical and slow/lyrical works. Never play two fast pieces in a row unless they are both very short (likewise the other way around, especially if they are very long!). Going back in time to play Tausig’s equally-unplayed second Concert Etude instead of my work would be very nice.

I’ve been meaning to get a video of that very piece up on YouTube for some time now (people should know the greatness of Carl Tausig!). Perhaps, after tonight’s finals and before I head off to the new job, I can get that up.

But first… www.lapianocompetition.org/competition awaits! 6pm Central Time, tonight: Tchaikovsky 1, Schumann, and Liszt 1 concerti!

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