every musician's worst nightmare...

It happened to me! My worst nightmare as a performer... and I lived to tell the tale :D It made me think: who decides what is virtuosity in music, and what is... worthy?

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[bettina]

I think if someone compares medieval music with Rachmaninoff, they simply have no idea about music. Only a fool would compare a painting by Albrecht Dürer with a Picasso and then consider the Dürer to be too simple. Virtuosity exists in every epoch. It survives the centuries. It is the same everywhere in art. I am very grateful for musicians like you, dear Sarah, because you open a door into the world of music for us “normal people” that we would never be able to open on our own.

[matt_phistopheles]

I used to play guitar in a punk rock band when I was younger. We were really bad but we rocked every stage in our area and people still talk about the concerts decades later. And it's not because we were virtuosos, it was because of all the fun we had together. This taught me a lot about what music really is about.

[jeremiahreilly]

Love your channel. Ouch. What a story. Why would this guy go out of his way to tell he was disappointed? I had the opposite experience. I suffer terribly from performance anxiety, much more when I was young, less now. I played piano in a jazz ensemble in school. After a performance, a woman in the audience approached me and said, "I loved your performance. It was great." I felt very uneasy. I argued with her telling her all my mistakes. She stopped me. "When someone gives you a compliment, you say, 'Thank you.' And tuck your shirt in." One of the best lessons of my life. I am so grateful.

[hannafiddler]

"That's b e t t e r"

I have to give you props for not punching his lights out. Such condescension!

As a violinist I can absolutely confirm it is one of the hardest things to play slowly and beautifully; and having sung polyphonic medieval music, I can honestly say it is some of the most intricate music you'll find.

[chrisisbell]

It takes talent to paint a picture, but any fool can put their foot through it.

[mariaamaideach]

This totally reminds me of my old teacher who always used to say: 'music is not a marathon or an obstacle parcours'. Instead, if you understand your piece then it doesn't even matter if you hit all the notes or whether you're fast enough

[paulhammer]

I was in a recorder quartet (I was Tenor) and I gravitated toward the lyrical pieces with lots of counterpoint and the leader liked the finger twisters. I find the challenge of phrasing in a lyrical piece every bit as demanding as fast runs. Also, maintaining the energy in a gently undulating melody is quite an accomplishment. The technically difficult pieces frequently sacrifice counterpoint and I want every member to have something fun to play.

[sueschultz]

Thanks for the comments, Sarah. As a musician/teacher I always wanted to play as expressively as possible regardless of tempo or “fireworks”. Also encouraged my students, even beginners, to do that to the best of their ability. As I watch your videos, I see that is your ultimate goal. My opinion is that this gentleman needs to do more research before attending a concert so he knows what to expect. He also needs a lesson is not being rude.

[mogret]

A slow movement played with amazing interpretation and singing tone is one of the most impressive things. Like when Brüggen playes the largo from Telemanns recorder sonata in F major or B flat major. It's so beautiful 🥲

[katemorrisguitar]

I remember years ago being hired with some folk musician friends to play folk music at an event for barn dance type stuff, and a drunk woman staggered up to us, looked me up and down and said, “is this it?” I was devastated and said I’d never do this sort of event again. But! A few years later and I’m back doing it again and have a gig this weekend. We usually get lovely feedback. I wish I hadn’t let her comment hurt me so much as I’ve missed out on fun I could have had. Thanks for this video Sarah, let’s have more medieval stuff!

[priestessofkek]

On violin, the notes to Schubert's Ave Maria are super simple to finger BUT making it sound transcendent (or even good) requires virtuosity.

[christianemichelberger]

Having been a musician for 66 years now, I find the best - and hardest- thing is to really make music; to let it tell a story that touches the listener's heart. 
A strange remark I heard was from my brother after playing viola in the orchestra for a Bach Cantata: Why don't you smile while playing? I told him, I smile inwardly. It's true.

Relating to this incident, a funny business failure happened in my area in Germany. Some people had gathered to teach musicians how to express emotions in more ways than just in the music. They had to cancel the whole thing, nobody booked their classes. The comments of musicians were referring to the old style musicians who often stood perfectly still while playing the most beautiful music.

[fossaflute]

I like medieval tunes for their simplicity and clear melodies that are easy to memorize. So they go straight to the heart

[likewhatijustsaid]

At my local Irish session, we choose our pieces just by having someone start playing — the musicians around them will either join in or not, depending if they know the tune and if the first player is loud enough. Relative beginners (such as myself) have a more limited repertoire compared to the experts and if we're leading a set we usually pick easier tunes, but I've never seen any more experienced musicians look down on something for being "too easy". The same tunes appear often enough in sets the experts are leading as well. But you can still very much hear the difference between The Kesh Jig (for example) led by someone with 2 years of experience vs someone with 20.

[mrs.brunke]

It was enlightening to hear what you consider your worst musical nightmare. This is also certainly one of mine but it doesn't stop there - forgetting my music (done that), forgetting my instruments (done that), forgetting my memorization (done that), and yet, like you say, here I am, much older than you, having spent my career as a musician and all has ended well! I love your statement that it isn't really about virtuosity, or technique, or style of repertoire, or venue, size of audience, or amount of fame; it is about sharing a moment of love for the beautiful art of music in all its glorious aspects with the people listening to you. But I will share what has so far been perhaps the scariest moment in my career (you have my permission to howl with laughter): I've played in both the classical world of music and the folk Irish world of music. I was at a folk gig, onstage with my group, at a festival when the director came up and said that he thought we needed bagpipes. As in Scottish highland bagpipes. And we were in luck, because he had a stray bagpiper who was going to come on stage and play with us. There was obviously not going to be no for an answer. We were playing memorized tunes in the fiddle keys, of course, of D, G, A, etc. He was playing in Bflat. I transposed my tin whistle tunes into SOMETHING and I hope to this day that it was perhaps close to Bflat! What a nightmare!

[susannekalejaiye]

very important, very useful, very practical, and oh so human! I wish I'd had access to someone who spoke of this when I took "music for teachers" back in 1973... I wish I'd had more fire within me when the instructors (three) explained how terrible my lack of skill was... four months with a recorder as a first instrument and no real instruction - buy the book (yes), follow the lessons (yes), play one of 20 tunes (yes). thank goodness you came along an reignited that spark! Thank you.

[sunflowerbadger]

That's a really useful story. It resonates with something that happened today!

I play at a very beginner standard. Today I played someone some slow simple folk tunes like The Rowan Tree. She had just had a vaccination, which she found very stressful, and she found the music really helped her to relax. There was much happiness.

In this case at least, simple music did all the heavy lifting.

[IngeZvdB]

I had an opposite experience... I blacked out on stage after playing a couple of measures, I tried again and failed, and again and failed again. My mind went completely blank and after desperately waiting for a minute or two nothing came back to me and I went off stage... Everyone applauded and I didn't even hear it. This experience stunted my progression big time, I even gave up on performing. But! Not anymore! I'm so glad I picked up playing recorder again, and piano, and am learning to compose 😊

[donnasimon]

In teaching my piano students I used to tell them that it's all very nice to hear someone play a highly technical piece but to play with attention to dynamic changes and feeling is true virtuosity. This was particularly important for my adult students that would go to YouTube to hear a rendition of a piece that they were working on and find some 5 year old playing the piece, seemingly flawlessly, and at break-neck speed! :)

[chrishinks]

Many "professional" musicians seem to feel that a piece is only worth playing if it's "virtuosic" - rather than pleasant to hear.