Having a Musical "Heart Attack"

ShiroKuro

I was invited to play in a concert at a retirement center, scheduled for Feb 24th. I was all set with my pieces and so on.... then I didn't hear a follow up when I emailed about the program last week... Then no emails.. no emails... So I pretty much assumed that the concert was canceled (in the past, when there aren't enough players, previous concerts were canceled).

And then I just got an email -- it's not canceled! And now I'm having a heart attack. 😅

It should be fine, I actually played for friends last week and yesterday (events I had set up a while back as practice for the concert). But because I had kind of got out of the mindset that I'd be playing, suddenly learning I'm going to play after all has triggered a little bit of the butterflies...

Oh dear... 😃

Jane

Oh No! You'll crash and burn!!! You won't win the Cadillac!!!!!

Or... you'll have saved yourself the stress about worrying about it for days, you'll waltz in, and you'll enjoy sharing something you love.
And the old people will enjoy you. 👍

twocats

ShiroKuro good luck! Are you going to do the exercise thing to burn off adrenaline?

ShiroKuro

Jane not sure I get the cadillac reference 😃 but thank you for the encouragement! 🙂

twocats yes! Although, the concert is in the evening, and I teach on Tuesdays, so I imagine I'll be kind of tired anyway! But my plan is to leave campus a little early, go home and jump on the exercise bike for a bit to get out of breath. We'll see how it goes! 🤞

Jane

ShiroKuro not sure I get the cadillac reference

I was making an oblique jest comparing a high-stakes event (like a competition) with high-stakes prizes (the Cadillac as a stereotype) versus sharing your music with people who will be grateful for your generosity.

My humor is usually opaque to everyone except me... sigh... 🙄

ShiroKuro

Jane My humor is usually opaque to everyone except me.

I'm not a good person to go by, I often miss the joke! 😃

TC3

Jane Those of us who grew up watching 70's U.S. game shows got it. 😃

WieWaldi

Good luck. 🍀
Relax yourself before and keep the relaxation during your performance. Don't aim for perfection, aim for getting one with the music - that should relax even further.

ShiroKuro

I’ll be sure to give a report later! 🙂

twocats

ShiroKuro you've got this!!

danno858

TC3 I was thinking the exact same thing....lol

@ShiroKuro - I'm sure you will do fine. The elderly folks will be glad to have something different to listen to and will be thankful no matter what!

LifelongBeginner

One of my favorite references for things like this is from the original Karate Kid movie, right before the big tournament:

Daniel: Well, I'll probably get killed in the first match anyway.
Ali: So we'll leave early.

Love that she didn't say, "Don't be silly." or "You're gonna be awesome!" or try to convince him the thing he's dreading definitely won't happen. Just calmly points out that we'll just cope and move on.

And if there is some horrible thing that happens while you're playing, you can always loudly tell the audience...on second thought, never mind. The line is too dark-humored for a public forum 😉

Good luck today!

pseudonym58

It's good to perform for a less-critical audience sometimes. Helps you discover where the "weak" spots are, without high stakes.

ShiroKuro

Performance is done! I think it went well! 🙂 I’m super happy I did it! The last time I played here (which was Nov 2024), I was kind of bummed out afterwards because I didn’t play nearly as well as I expected or hoped. And my shaky hands were off the charts shaky!

This time was much better. 🙂

I will have to come back tomorrow and give a more detailed update, but for now let me just say, it went well. 🙂

Sophia

Congrats Shiro! We never doubted you 👍

Monviso

Congratulations on rising to the challenge! I'm very glad it went well

raagamuffin

Glad to hear this went well. I hope you had a chance to interact closely with the audience there. I have found that while they enjoy the music, they like also like to chat a bit, especially about how they learned the piano or another instrument when they were younger; it often brings back fond memories for them .
This is a great service you're doing.

pseudonym58

Yes, there's nothing like performing to get used to performance.
(Sorry, non-native English speakers; that must be an odd phrase!)

ShiroKuro

pseudonym58 there's nothing like performing to get used to performance.

I've written about this here before, but this has always been my biggest struggle, because it's really hard to find/create opportunities for public performance. And I never get the shakes just from playing for people at my house. So I end up having these performance opportunities that are few and very far between, which isn't a good way to get better at it.

Animisha

ShiroKuro Congratulations on a good concert! I wonder, do you think that not preparing and building up a longer low-grade nervousness helped you in any way? Like, maybe you slept better the night before?