ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the preparation for performance, the occasion of performance, and the evaluation of performance. Without in any way denying the importance of performing at auditions and on the radio and television, it illustrates opera and the concert platform. Students are well advised to avoid the performance of songs that contain technical or interpretative pitfalls that they have yet to overcome. There are three main approaches to learning songs which apply to children and adults: immersion and phrase-by-phrase, and a combination of the two – the whole/part/whole. Songs may be sung with the correct time values but they do not sound right if the feeling of rhythmic progression is absent. Much of the great song literature is composed to poems in a language other than English. Singing is communication and communication needs someone on the receiving end. Accompanist and singer are equal partners, and both are well advised to use a notebook and/or a tape recorder when working together.
