Facial expression during performance [Bob asks]

[Bob]

I was just reading the thread on unusual performance quirks that made me think of this.

How important is the performer's facial expression to the piece?

Is this something you practice?  How do you practice it?  And how do you pull it off during a performance?

I know a performer who I'm pretty certain practiced facial expressions.  I knew the guy well enough to know how he thought about a certain piece, but when he performed it, his eyebrows were raised.  I didn't buy it -- It looked "placed" and I know other stuff he'd done that was placed like that.  However, after about a year, I did believe the expression I saw during a performance.  That makes me wonder if the "placed" expression was a tool that grew to be natural after being purposely added, or if the "placed" expression actaully generated the feelings by itself (like if you force yourself to smile, do you feel happy?).

[Brian Healey]

One thing I did sort of "practice" was my reaction to mistakes. For long time, if I made a mistake, I would make a sour face, and sometimes I would get flustered and end up making more mistakes.  Basically, it was obvious to even the most musically ignorant person that I had made a mistake. For a little while, I made sure to smile every time I made a mistake, as if it was amusing to me. It had actually had quite affect. It seemed to make me care less, made me more relaxed, and therefore improved my performance tremendously. Actually, I also began studying meditation around this time, and I'm sure that was a huge factor. But that was one time I actually practiced a facial expression.

[faulty_damper]

As a performer, people will look at you.  Most people will not just listen with their ears but see with their eyes the sounds that they are hearing.  This allows the persons a better perception of what they are hearing because they are using more of their senses to gather information.

As for how far this goes, imagine that you are talking to someone, a friend and he is talking about how his day at work went.  It went fine, nothing out of the ordinary, but when he spoke he kept of sticking out his tongue and making kissy faces and he has never done this before.  When you see this, you think something must be wrong with him because he is comunicating with you non-verbally.

When you ask him why he is making faces he says to you that it was a test to show how it is not just what he says but the non-verbal communication that you percieve that conveys information.

Now place non-verbal communication on the concert scene.  If the pianist did nothing but sit there like a rock during the most expressive and beautiful of passages, made no other movements with his face or body except to press the keys, he would most likely be thought of as "emotion-less" even though he played the passages the best anyone has ever done.  The audiences opinion was not of what they heard but what the saw.

But the opposite, when a pianist fakes facial expressions, the audience will easily percieve fake emotions.  The reason is due because their expressions do not match the information they are percieving.  If the pianist happens to be Lang Lang, then it is a gaurantee most people would not be primarily listening to the music but looking at this oddity.

We percieve "micro-expressions" and it allows us to detect any signs of incongruity, whether it is a lie or deception, or genuine emotions.  These are the very minor expressions that are upon our faces that are barely noticeable but convey far more.  It's not as obvious as a smile or frown but the subtlety of it we immediately pick up on, even if we don't realize it.

The best facial expression are the ones you don't try to express.  They just come naturally and help convey the music better, if you are looking.  But most people who look do not understand how to listen to music.  But this assumes that the music is played well.  If it is not played well and the information entering our ears is incongruent with what it should be (tempo too slow/fast, a lot of mistakes, forced expressive techniques, etc.), we open our eyes to see what could be the problem.

[Tash]

funny story: in the choir at uni this year the cellist was apparently making faces at the sopranos, so one of them sent him a ransom note saying that if he didn't stop pulling faces at them they'd throw his cello into the ocean! he stopped after that

[hodi]

another funny story: when i was at a concert at a local conservatory, 3 years ago, a pianist (girl) played the piano with such facial expressions as if she is going to cum.. that was so funny.. i saw people sitting near me really make an effort not to laugh..

[Daniel_piano]

I don't think facial expressions are voluntary are required
It's just a subconscious response to the mood of the piece
If you try to put emphasis on a sad passage you won't be able to that without looking sad yourself, try it in front of the mirror and you'll see it's the truth

Many people do the same facial expressions when they listen to something on their portable Cd-players, they not doing it for people to see it's just an unavoidable unconditional reflex that no one need to practice
Film yourself while you're watching a movie
You'll see you will do consciously a lot of strange facial expression according to the mood of the scene (especially the sad ones)

Daniel