BY BOYD OWEN, AS TOLD TO STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Boyd Owen won first place in the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship in 2017. The dual Australian-New Zealand citizen and singer has studied at the Melba Conservatorium of Music in Melbourne, and across China and Italy – having performed in Europe, the United States, and Asia. In this blog, Boyd shares the secrets to his success in competitions.
I write here about my experiences in singing competitions, however I believe it could apply to any field of competition.
The question I try to keep forefront in my mind in all decisions before and during the competition is: ‘What can I do to feel secure on the day?’. If I let this objective guide me, and I arrive onstage as secure as I can be, it gives me a calm and focused energy that automatically transmits to the audience and the judges.
In my experience, there seems to be a strange kinaesthetic and emotional feeling that transmits between performer and audience. I’ve had many times as an audience member watching others sing: it’s difficult to explain, but you can almost feel in your own body if they are uneasy, nervous and even terrified (even when they are trying to hide it with a smile). On the other hand, I can also feel when the performer is confident, calm and ready – they transmit this feeling to me as an audience member. The latter feeling is something that takes a lot of time and experience to understand and create.
Of course, I have never been able to fully eliminate all nerves and insecurities in my performance, even with the most detailed and consistent planning and preparation. However, the following points are some of the ideas I’ve learnt that help me arrive onstage ‘secure’.
The first few are quite simple, logistical, and preparatory – we’ve heard them all before but it is always good to be reminded. The last few points are more to do with how I manage my emotions and self-talk – I’ve found this is just as vital to the success of a competition as learning my music well.
1. Choose repertoire that really suits your voice and current abilities.
The number one piece of advice I hear from adjudicators at every competition is: ‘Choose repertoire that suits your voice’. It took me a long time, and the help of teachers I trust, to know what is the right repertoire for me. I often chose things I thought would be impressive due to their degree of difficulty, but in the end I couldn’t sing them and my results reflected that. Songs that suit my voice and my level of artistic development give me security on stage, which translates into a much stronger performance and better result.
2. Learn the music thoroughly!!!
This is a pretty obvious one, and something I’ve been told since my very first recitals in my teacher’s living room as a child. I find when I think I’m 100 per cent ready in the practice room, once I add nerves and the pressure of the actual performance, I’m really only about 80 per cent ready (or, on a bad day when I had a poor night’s sleep or I’m unwell, maybe only 60 per cent ready). Mistakes I never made in the practice room appear, or notes I thought were great can sound strained or weak. So, I try to have the music prepared and memorised weeks in advance, and even months in advance if possible. Then, I continue to rehearse much, much, much more than I think I need, to the point where I know an earthquake could happen mid-song and I’d still be musically secure.
3. Never risk anything in front of an audience.
One day, I was in an opera rehearsal watching a colleague attempt a difficult Rossini piece with a thousand notes a second, including variations he had devised himself. Half the time, he sang perfectly. But the other times, he couldn’t make it work. And we were one week from opening night. The conductor gently stopped him and said, ‘Remember, never risk anything in front of an audience’, and they worked together to rearrange the variations so he knew he could do it perfectly every time. The version they finished with was a little simpler than what he had hoped for, but the audience had no idea and he got thunderous applause on opening night.
I had my own experience with this when a few years ago I sang a difficult piece for a competition and added an unwritten top C at the end. In rehearsals, half the time I could get it and half the time I couldn’t, but I just hoped it would be ‘all right on the night’. In the performance, I sang the whole aria really well but cracked spectacularly on the last note. I still received a prize, however the judges quietly told me afterwards: ‘If you had sung the top C well, you would have had first place – but also, you didn’t need to sing it at all as it’s not actually written there. If you had left it out, you probably would have still gotten first place’.
I have never forgotten these experiences, and when I’m learning something and trying to put in this extra flourish or that extra high note – because as a tenor, I always want to sneak in an extra top C if possible – if it’s not working I tell myself: ‘Never risk anything in front of an audience’. And I simplify it to something that I know I can sing it securely.
4. Write everything on a list.
It’s a simple thing to write things down but for me it works, and I actually do this in all areas of my life. I’m a big fan of the system called Bullet Journaling, which I found online. Everything from shopping lists, to people I need to contact, to repertoire ideas – as soon as it comes into my head, I write it down in a single notebook that I always keep nearby. This way, I don’t keep anything in my head and risk forgetting it or find myself thinking about it when I should be focusing on a different task.
When it comes to competitions (because again, my aim is to be as secure as possible on the day), in order to make sure the only thing I need to keep in my mind on performance day is the music, I make lots of list in the days leading up. My lists could include: what I need to bring on the day, what documents I might need, music, what I’ll wear, and even a detailed time schedule of the competition day – what time I’ll wake up, eat, warm up, leave for the theatre, etc. This way, nothing is left to chance and I just work calmly through the list and know I won’t have forgotten anything.
5. Focus on yourself on the day.
I’ve learnt through experience that I needed to just focus on myself and not spend a lot of time listening to other performances on the day. When I listen to others perform, if I’m not careful, I begin to doubt myself and choices: ‘Maybe I should have chosen a different song… They sound so much better than me… Maybe the judges will prefer their voice type?’. All of this is useless mind chatter, and is poisonous to the calm confidence needed for a good performance. If possible, I find a quiet spot away from everything and wait there until it’s time to go to the stage.
6. Learn to tame your inner critic and become your own biggest fan.
This may sound a little funny, but the first thing I try to do when I come off stage is immediately say to myself: ‘Well done – you did a great job!’. Even if I really think I gave the worst performance ever, I still try to say this and I keep repeating it to myself – even better if I can find a mirror and say it looking myself in the eye.
For me, singing competitions make me anxious more than any other kind of performing. I have sung in front of thousands at a time, had performances that carry a lot of responsibility, stepped into important roles at the last minute – but, I don’t know why, nothing makes me more nervous than singing competitions. The first moments when I finish a performance, I can feel quite vulnerable and a little raw. Even if I actually felt like I sang well, my inner critic immediate jumps up to attack and sabotage me if I’m not careful, and so I’ve had to develop ways to tame that voice and stay emotional secure. This is especially important if I have to sing several times in a day.
This small ritual helps stop me from immediately tearing apart my performance and focusing on all the negative aspects – because I am a master at being my own worst critic. Later on, after a few hours have passed or perhaps the next day, I will encouragingly review what I could have done better in a calm moment and then adjust things in the next rehearsal.
I’ve practised this idea of gentle self-talk now for a long time, and it really has made an enormous difference. If I spoke to my friends and family in the negative manner I often speak to myself, I would be very lonely. Everybody thrives when they are encouraged, and in the same way my singing thrives when I encourage myself rather than pull myself down. Think about it, I want the judges to back me on the day – but why should they back me if I won’t back myself?
7. Keep perspective and keep the faith.
I have been doing singing competitions for almost 20 years now, since I sang my first ‘Under 14s musical theatre or pop selection’ as a kid in Melbourne (okay, that makes me feel old…). In all that time, I can count on two hands the number of first places I have received. I’ve made it through to many finals and I’ve had a number of top three placings – but getting the grand first prize has been comparatively rare for me. In fact, after I was fortunate enough to win the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship last year, I still had to compete in three other competitions I had entered that year. For one of them, I received third place; for another, I only made it to the semi-finals; and at a very big world competition, I didn’t even pass the first audition – after working months on the repertoire. It’s humbling, confusing, and frustrating – but that’s what this career can be like sometimes. If I took everything that happened personally, if I zoomed in and focused only on that one moment in my life, then I’d go crazy and soon give up. I always have to remind myself to keep things in perspective: to zoom out and look at my life and singing in the context of my whole life’s journey, as one wonderful piece of many equally wonderful pieces that make me who I am. I have value, regardless of my results and whether they are good or bad. If I do well, I celebrate and enjoy the moment. If I don’t do well, I also try to celebrate the fact that I turned up, and I tell myself to keep the faith.
Learn more about Boyd Owen and keep up to date with his events on his website. This year’s Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship finals take place on 15 July.
Images supplied. Featured image Blondinrikard Fröberg via Flickr CC BY 2.0.
