whenever I play at a piano competition my hands shake!?

When I was younger, I felt the very same way about competitions and performing in front of people. It was not until I was in college that I finally overcame this nervousness. But, it wasn’t necessarily just about getting older. I think the key to letting myself relax in these kinds of situations involved a change in the way I thought about the circumstances. I believe there were four things that helped me change my attitude and helped me relax.

First, I remembered how much I really enjoyed the activity I was performing in. I was good at it, maybe not the best always, but I was dang good nonetheless. So, I concentrated more on my enjoying the activity and less on competing.

Second, I had to admit to myself that there might be others who were better than I was. About this time, I read a quote from someone famous and extremely successful in my field who said, “There is no shame in losing to a superior opponent. The only shame is if you don’t prepare to do your very best.” So, I quit trying to beat the other guy and instead simply tried to do the best I was capable of. Before, I think a big part of my nervousness was because I wanted to win and then tried to do more than I was prepared to and capable of doing. When I stayed within my limits, I made fewer mistakes and gave a far better performance.

Third, I began to concentrate more on my preparation. I found I was more focused on the details of what I needed to do. And, I took another famous quote to heart that says, “If you are prepared, then you have no reason to fear.” Again, I did my best to prepare and then let the performance come from the preparation.

Finally, from another source I was told that people watching you perform are on your side, they want you to do good. This is especially true when they connect with you an a more personal level. So, I started to let little bits of my personality come through in my performance. I talked a little bit with the audience, told personal stories and let them get to know me a little. And, I found what I had been told was right. If you let the audience know who you are a little bit you do feel them on your side and it helped me to relax and be more natural and relaxed in my performing. This same source also recommended to NEVER apologize for a mistake. First, it lets people know you made a mistake. But more important, it makes the audience uncomfortable. Just remember, they want you to do good. They don’t want to hear about your mistakes, they would rather over look them and enjoy your performance.

Today, I really enjoy performing in front of an audience. It is fun and I actually look forward to the opportunity. I prepare as best I can. And, if I make mistakes during my performance (which doesn’t happen very often), then, oh well, I just do better next time. Most people don’t know the mistakes any way and if they do, I just shrug it off and move on because I am satisfied with simply doing the best I can do.

If you can make these changes in your head and in your heart, I think you can replace your dread for performing with a genuine enjoyment.

Good luck.

TU to Kay This is something everyone goes through – eventually you will become more comfortable with performance and even look forward to it. It’s a great feeling when everyone applauds! Thats the thing you should visualize: performing successfully and the crowd loving it! Visualize it and it will happen. When you do your warmup, concentrate on playing the piece all the way through and not stopping once you start. My stage fright story: from about age 16 to age 19 I was in a wildly popular local band that played to huge crowds and made great money on a regular basis. I loved being on stage was really pretty cocky about wanting to get up there and show off. When that band broke up, I went to college as a music major. I had over ten years of public performance experience under my belt at that point. To my utter and profound surprise, my solo classical guitar performance class caused me severe stage fright, complete with the shaking hands. I was terrified that my symphony conductor teacher would take apart every little mistake I made. I learned that all you can do is give the best performance you can, and whatever happens, happens.Yup, he called me on every single error, but I did not die. Everyone else in the class went through it. Your recital is a bit friendlier than that: the audience is family and friends who are there to support you, not to take you apart. Enjoy your time in the spotlight and don’t worry about being perfect. Eventually you’ll get better at performing; like anything else in music, performance is a skill that requires practice. This recital isn’t supposed to make or break your music career, it’s supposed to give you practice at walking out on stage, bowing to the audience, playing a pice, bowing again, and walking off. That’s it. You’re practicing. Practicing at performance. If you look at it as practice, not as a life-defining event, you may be a bit less nervous. Good luck!

It may be stage fright, or you’re just nervous. You have to feel relaxed. I’m guessing you should feel confident that you can win the competition and what I do is I close my eyes, count to three, and I don’t look at the audience. I look at the keys.

I’m very used to playing the piano for recitals, but not for competition. I started when I was 4 so I’m kind of used to the audience looking at me.

I had a similar situation with singing in front of my dad. It’s only my dad that I feel awkward around singing, but the rest I feel absolutely fine.

Hope I helped!

lol! that’s just the butterfly’s! (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s this: your stomach gets a funny feeling)

its called STAGE FRIGHT! changes are you’ll get over it! just practice in front of a small audience (maybe family or friends) then work your way up to the bigger audiences!

NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!!!

it’s ok,

keith

Stage fright. Very common. ~