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.
Performance anxiety
- Edited
Don't stumble, trip?
Tell me about it! I once played the Haydn D major cello concerto with an orchestra. As I was walking out onto the stage the top of my cello (the peg box) struck the side of the stage's proscenium arch. The cello was knocked completely out of tune, and although I was able to tune it (offstage), the strings did not stabilize and maintain their pitch for the entirety of the performance. A thoroughly miserable experience.
pseudonym58 yikes! At my chamber music workshop, the day of performance a bunch of us were in the side room and one of the guys had his cello on the floor with the endpin sticking out, and I tripped on it. We both had a minor heart attack but thankfully the cello was fine!
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.
- Edited
YouTube pushed me this video by David Chang Music. I am really impressed by his methodical approach to preparing his students for in-person performance. He has a playlist on Performance Training, too.
iternabe thanks for sharing! I also watched his other video that he recommended:
Here are some takeaways:
- 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)
- record yourself daily to be able to identify your problems, he puts dates on the issues so that he can collect more data and see where he messes up some areas more often or whether it's random and just due to nerves
- for 6-7 weeks before the performance, perform at different pianos every week
- "perform" in different conditions, e.g. different lighting, cold hands, just got back from gym and sweaty, when there are noisy distractions. Treat things that will mess you up as useful! If you're a night person, practice in the morning! If you're stressed, perform. Anytime you're feeling that it's not optimal conditions, embrace it and perform.
- perform as often as you can
- 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!
All of this has really highlighted to me how important it is to perform in front of people and on different pianos often if I care about performing well. It used to not be a goal for me but now it is, so I'm a lot more motivated to go to casual piano performance meetups.
Plus, I've been making friends! Some are old friends that I've reconnected with and some are new, but they're mostly very nice people. Having it be social is motivating to me as well! I'm a participant in a quarterly event, have recently been invited to a monthly one, and was given info for a different monthly one. Not sure how much I actually want to go to but there is certainly no lack of opportunity here!
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!!!
ShiroKuro 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!!!
That was just your first public recital if I recall? I would like to remind you that you're very brave for putting yourself out there at all!
I see all of these to be tips for improving over many months and years, there's definitely no quick fix here. But it's a new year and feels like a great time to start something different 
- Edited
twocats That was just your first public recital if I recall?
Sadly, no. I have experience performing dating back to.... 2005 I believe I'm including various types of events ranging from piano parties, to formal "school" recitals where I played one piece, to "concert" type settings, such as one where I played a program with 5 pieces.
However, the two performances I did in Nov. 2024 were my first times playing in public since 2020 -- the pandemic took away all my piano performing chances, and so I was definitely rusty.
But I have always struggled with piano performance anxiety, that's why last fall I made a lot of effort to do performance-specific prep etc. I have no doubt it helped, but as I said, it's hard not to be disappointed when you didn't perform as well as you hoped.
For me, and based on past experience, I think the single biggest factor at this point is having consistent opportunities to play publicly. Once or twice a year will not cut it, but having two performances two weeks apart in Nov. was quite good.
We'll see how it goes, I don't have the kind of opportunities you do, but I'm working on it!
ShiroKuro We'll see how it goes, I don't have the kind of opportunities you do, but I'm working on it!
I know you were thinking about creating a meetup of some kind and I hope it works out!
I feel like two big things I have to work on:
- not stomping so loudly on the Bluetooth pedal
- keeping my hand towel on the piano instead of on my lap -- I have a genetic condition that causes sweaty hands (or if the sweat isn't "on" it's excessively dry and slippery, which is arguably worse) and it's a source of comfort but I can't have it there during a performance and so I should put it on the piano at home. Even thinking about not having the towel on my lap makes me uncomfortable but it needs to be done!
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.