Mike's Musings: Performing to the Crowd

If there’s one aspect of my life and times in the Play It Strange world, it is my bearing witness to the achievements in confidence-building that such an environment offers. And in particular, that which it brings to young songwriters.

Sure, success in our competitions plays an integral part in that. But let’s step back and look at this.

Even entering one of our competitions alone, with perhaps no success in the judging panel outcomes, can play a large part in future lives from that creative pursuit. This unique endeavor comes with the writing of songs and the building up of one’s repertoire.

But then what really brings a young songwriter’s vibrant potential through to the surface? Into the public arena? To the ears of the public and to which it portrays the songwriter’s sensibility?

It’s simple. It starts with one or more of a student’s songs being judged to a successful status in the competitions.

And from there, the appointment of the songwriter to take part performing their successful song(s) on the stage. Usually, it is the songwriter themselves up there. And what is that environment? What is that stage? How is it best described?

The stage is a magical playground. To walk on it and face an audience such as to perform your own songs is the chance to shine and prove one’s capability. And it happens every year with Play It Strange. It is there that the songs and their highlights run through the whole gamut of time.

There is a real and emerging power that surges from the stage when the pattern of a performance sustains via the Play It Strange songwriter. The outcome of the bringing forth of the music… which is abstract by its nature.

Music in illuminations and mysterious interpretations.

Greer Castle from Te Whanganui-a-Tara performing at the 2025 Play It Strange Annual Showcase

If we stand back and discern the melodies and lyrical references of those sectors of the story – of the journey – punters, the public, students, parents, teachers, realists, the ambitious, et al… All are metaphorically led to the gate of revelation and when a standing ovation emanates, the truth is known in reality.

A young teenager, as a typical example of a Play It Strange participant, needs to sense the forward motion of creativity as songs are shaped and projected out to the people that surround them. The awareness of that special ignition housed in the imagination is a unique outpouring and brings with it the colours and variety of their life.

There is a true exposition, and the release of the weaving melodies and lyrics of new songs is enticing and draws the best out of the listeners. It is this magnetic sense that embroils the whole listening experience.

Yes, it is listening. But it is empowering in the grand moment.