Why you should record your every performance

Today my friend @pauliakaz played a lunchtime mini organ recital at Vilnius Cathedral. On the program was music of Johann Sebastian Bach (Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 545), Juozas Naujalis (Prelude on the Lithuanian hymn tune "Jėzau, pas mane ateiki" and Leon Boellmann (Suite Gothique, Op. 25).

I brought my tripod to the event to help @pauliakaz record a video using his phone. He also asked me to record an audio with my phone. I suggested we livestream it to Facebook in a mode where only we could see it but he preferred a raw video recording with a better quality.

If you know me, you probably are aware how often I record my own performances and practices. Therefore it's no surprise why I thought @pauliakaz did really well by choosing recording his performance today. He said he will use this file to split it into separate videos and upload to YouTube in the future (and hopefully share it on Steem as well). In fact, he played so well today that it could easily have been livestreamed today.

I know that most organists from my country don't usually record their performances. They simply haven't created a habit. They don't want to show their work in public in fear of criticism or lack of technical skills. To them the pain of owning the consequences of sharing your video online is greater than the benefit it provides.

Here's the thing - showing your current work is the best way I know to get opportunities for future work. In other words, having an extensive archive of your performances online increases chances to get invited to play recitals in the future. Personally I have been invited to a number of recitals in Lithuania and abroad by organizers who found my work online in the form of text, pictures, audio, video or any combination of them.

Of course, not every performance is a perfect one and today @pauliakaz knows things that could be improved. In my opinion, he could work on keeping his fingers in contact with the keys at all times. He could work on his pedal articulation in the early music, although @laputis who was downstairs in the audience said it wasn't an issue. However, she did mention the value of practicing piano etudes and Hanon exercises to strengthen his finger technique.

A lot of organists feel their shortcomings, real of imagined and think they are not worthy of sharing their work publicly. Here I'm talking about making a recording but take it one step further and you will see organists who don't perform in public at all anymore.

Although constantly striving to become a better organist is a healthy approach, perfectionism isn't. People who say they are unworthy because their performance isn't perfect are simply hiding. If they are waiting for the day when their playing will be spotless and without mistakes should know that this day might never come.

But we aren't in the perfection business. We are in the sharing business.
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PS In this rehearsal video @pauliakaz compares one passage of Introduction-Choral by Leon Boellmann while playing it one octave lower to produce a fuller, darker and more French Romantic-like sound on a German Neo-Baroque organ: