Honey and Wine

My performance today was lovely. I was slightly more nervous than normal because it’s the first time I’ve performed in forever, but since it was just a little community thing I didn’t put a huge amount of weight on it, so I wasn’t horrifically nervous (as I would be for, say, an audition). In fact, I was slightly embarrassed after because it was largely piano students performing (like, kids ranging from 8 to 12) so I was obviously outshining everyone else, but thankfully no one seemed to resent me.

Several people thanked me or told me what a lovely voice I had after the fact. As I mentioned, it’s been so long since I performed that I forgot how warm and fuzzy it feels to have people tell you they enjoy your efforts. As I was driving home, I had a thought and remembered something I had once said in an old blog post on my private blog.

I believe it was sometime around my senior recital, when I was pondering the difference between compliments I got from people in my family/random strangers and the ones I got from my voice teacher. At the time I talked about how much better it was to get a compliment from someone who knows the technical work that goes into singing, but I don’t feel that way anymore.

Compliments from people who don’t know about singing are like honey. Simple, sweet, and enjoyable, mixing well with my own feelings about my performance. By contrast, compliments from those who are also singers or musicians, who understand the work that has gone into your performance, are like wine. Subtle, complex, and just as enjoyable, but in a different way.

Today I got a lot of honey compliments and one wine compliment. One mother stopped to ask me if I was fluent in German (Cincinnati is a very heavily German area). I admitted that I wasn’t, but hoped to be someday, and she told me that my pronunciation of my German piece had been very good, ever word clearly understandable despite the fact that I was singing. And that was a very nice compliment, to me, from someone who knew the language.

Neither type of compliment is inherently superior. I enjoyed the honey compliments just as much as the wine compliment, although they don’t always stick in my mind as well because they aren’t as specific. But if I only sang for people who knew the technical process of singing and general musicianship, I would have a very small audience. Even if someone doesn’t know how the sound is produced, how many hours a week I practice, or how well I know the words I’m singing, if they enjoy my performance, that’s enough. That’s what I’m doing this for, after all. I want to spread my love of music this way. And honey or wine, all compliments are welcome. Just don’t give me too many, or they’ll go straight to my head.

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