Performance anxiety

After joining a Piano Commons and voicing my concerns that nerves may shorten my lifespan, my teacher explained that playing a piece isn't about me, it all about the music. Once I am comfortable with all the aspects of the piece, I practice incessantly for 2 or 3 weeks. No talking during the performance, ie "Ooops" "Aargh" or favorite cuss word, always get the last chord right, smile when you stand up regardless and remember - its about the music.

Works for me.

Animisha Take care though that you don't stumble on the stairs.

Always good advice!

pianoloverus I guess when you're dealing with an audience who is likely to be both hard of hearing and suffering from various degrees of dementia, you are performing for them, and it's not really a question of how well you play. I've played music at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and the audience in general is almost always appreciative.

A not often discussed point is that a piece should be more solid and ingrained in us to be secure enough for a public performance than it needs to be to play it well for ourselves (or a teacher) at tempo. Ideally, I want not to be dependent on muscle memory, but able to play the music in my head end to end and write out the notes at any point from memory.

Unfortunately, that may involve putting a lot more prep time in than I may want to do if just planning to play for myself, family, and friends.

@pseudonym58 and @twocats oh my, those are truly heart attack-inducing occurrences!

@sweelinck definitely the degree to which a piece is polished is also key.

Although last fall, I came to think that another benefit, at least for me, from doing these public performances is just the “hard-fast” deadline aspect of it, that the performance date comes whether I’m as ready as I can be, or not. So another goal I have for myself is to be able to prevent nerves from getting in the way of me doing my best, whatever level of ”my best” happens to be.

Part of how I came to this conclusion is connected to the fact that I have always wanted to record and share pieces I’ve polished, but I never feel like they’re at the “truly polished stage,” so I end up recording only very few of the pieces I work on.

But the recital date rolls around whether I’m ready or not, and my pieces are “close enough” to share. So I’d like to be able to play at that “close enough” level without completely falling apart.

Studying at the university, I have to play regularly on different pianos which I never used before and in different set ups. I simply accept the fact that it will be what it will be. Most of the issues people experience with the piano being different or the light, the bench and all these other factors are essentially just psychological, ie it is not so much the set up in itself but the fear we have that makes us concerned about those differences. Over time I got used to just get at the piano and play within the given set up. There are certainly things that will make me play differently than what I do in my usual home set up but I am not trying to play exactly the same way or at least I accept that it will be different.

@iternabe thanks, I'll take a look!

twocats Here are some takeaways:

Wow, thanks for listing those up! I will get to watching these videos soon, but your summary is great!

perform cold daily (can stretch and do cardio, but don't create sound at the instrument until you "perform" and also take bows before or after like you're performing)

I actually did this in prep for my two performances in November... Not sure if it helped or not in that I still got the shaky hands... but at the same time, at least I knew I could sit down and just start playing. I'll definitely keep it in my toolkit.

for 6-7 weeks before the performance, perform at different pianos every week

If only we could all do this! The closest I got was playing a "public" piano on campus, which turned out to have a depressed key, the key below middle C, so that meant I couldn't even play one of my pieces! :/
Nevertheless, this is excellent advice!

if you bomb in a practice performance, it is actually a good learning experience. All performances are useful and quantity leads to quality
if you perform (for real) and you're unhappy with it, it's just one moment in time. It happens!

I love both of these points! I have actually been able to believe the first one, it makes a big difference in being able to use the performance as a learning opportunity.

The second is a little more challenging, because it's hard not to feel disappointment when a performance doesn't go as well as you hoped. But I am work in progress, and these reminders are super helpful!!!

twocats That's wonderful!!

From what I understand, many performers rely on the beta blocker propanolol to keep calm and keep their hearts from racing. It is primarily a heart medication, but it also is used for essential tremor, and many doctors prescribe it for performance anxiety. I think it comes in a range of strengths from 10 mg to 80 mg. I'd recommend trying it at home before using it for a public performance.

@AaronSF yeah, a pharmaceutical solution is not one I'd consider. Especially given that I'm fine with public speaking and other situations. My problem with piano performance anxiety isn't medical.