Learning is done at home

"On stage, play what you know. At home, play what you don't know." That was the sage advice I heard tonight during my lesson.

I learned this lesson last weekend when trying to sing for friends in my new and improved way. Unfortunately I haven't internalized this skill yet and ended up sounding worse (if that's possible).

I know this lesson from teaching canoeing. I start whitewater students on a lake to learn the skills. Even if the students grasp the skills on the lake, once they get on the river (i.e. under pressure), they revert to old habits or mess up on the new stuff. Under pressure, normal folks revert to survival instincts or ingrained habits, rarely what they just learned. My advice to students is go back to the lake over and over again until the technique is second nature.

The same goes for performing, the learning should be done at home. When you get on stage or even singing for friends the pressure increases. Trying something that is new is asking for mistakes. To minimize the mistakes, do the learning at home.

Of course swimming is part of whitewater canoeing and so is making mistakes while performing. Just have fun....