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Concert

I'll be singing in an ensemble holiday concert in a little over a week. I've been in concerts since the third grade, not every year but most of the half century since then. The stress/anxiety/insecurity has faded a good deal over that time. I tend to focus on doing the best I can, minimizing errors, and most importantly recovering from errors. 

I think about that a lot when I coach students on giving presentations, particularly ones of moderate or great length. Mistakes happen. How you handle them is what's important; despair can strike suddenly and you can fear that you can't recover.

As with most things preparation can help. Practice sets a rhythm, and one of the things you can do with practice is recovering the beat, the rhythm of successful exposition when something goes awry. Coming to a full-stop is a temptation with no benefit whatsoever.

Every now and then I and others have to face hostile audiences. I am grateful that for me that has been very rare. Facing folk that want me to succeed is a strong encouragement to continue past any missteps.

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