Exposition and performance

In the exposition of my activities and work I was more comfortable than the first time I talk in English in front of an “audience”, and beyond my improvements on the language, I think the fact of being familiar with the people who were listening to me and that I was talking about something that I knew pretty well helped a lot.

My biggest problem was the time, because I was focused on not use more than what I should so I stopped the videos soon without knowing if it was enough for the listener. I skipped a few videos and explanations conscious and unconscious and I tried – sometimes – to speak faster, but the perception of the time in that situation is different than the real time so I end up without knowing if what I said was enough.

Another problem that I personally have is that I try to be “friendly” in my expositions, sometimes forgetting that is an exposition and I have to be formal. So when I was speaking about a study and forgot the name of the leader of it, I could have just avoid to reference it in my speech, but instead I said that I have forgotten it. The second time something like that happened was with the name of a book that I had in a chair, so I took it to remember the title but I drop it before I could see it. Therefore, to avoid awkward moments in future presentations I will write down the names or be sure of knowing them.

The song finally had two full verses and another verse chord sequence with a cello solo and few lyrics at the end.

I think that is good enough but I will probably add a better intro later. And change a couple of notes in the cello part.

I have to translate the lyrics to Spanish, because the point of it is that my god-daughter listen to it, so I will change some phrases that sound too “cheese” for me.

The performance in general lines was the best I could do in those conditions. I finished the work the night before, so I didn’t knew well the melody – of course, it would have been impossible to play the cello – and didn’t sleep enough which is why my voice was not in the best conditions for singing.

But beside those things – that can be easily arranged – there is something that I have to learn to manage and is performing in small crowds (really small). All the opposite to the exposition, when I perform in front few familiar people, I get shy, avoid eye contact and sing or play quietly, almost without moving. Even though there was a battle inside my mind, because I knew that I had to at least look at somebody when I wasn’t singing, I was terrified of doing it.

All those things come out now in here, things that I knew before and thing that I realized now, so I think I am more able to work for solve them and get better.