By Jaya, Year 12

For the past few years I have performed in the annual Musician of Year of the competition, so I was used to the experience of playing at school in front of an audience. This year however, the competition had to take a different format to be able to still run, and this drastically altered the whole experience of the event. While there are benefits of recording your performance at home and then sending it in, I did face several challenges. Having the luxury to record our performances over and over again if we wished did lead to me trying multiple times to get a perfect recording and avoid any mistakes, regardless of the fact that in a normal performance there most likely would be some mistakes. This led to me re-filming a performance that ultimately only worsened as I continued redoing it, until I finally realised that I had played enough and should just evaluate what I had done and send in the best recording of what I had played. 

Another difficulty that I faced in the online competition was the practicalities of filming my performance. I first attempted to record on my laptop, however this did not work out and I was forced to use my phone. Trying to position my phone at the right angle so I could be clearly seen while also maintaining the sound quality which was the top priority was tricky, but this overall made the final product more satisfying.

While participating in the competition was tougher than usual this year due to these factors, it was an invaluable experience that definitely elevated my performance skills, as having to assess my own playing made me more aware of my mistakes and helped me improve. 

Read all about this year’s competition here.