Sorry for the lack of new posts! Thank you for all of you who commented about this blog helping you. I just couldn’t let you guys down and will keep posting! Also thanks to my friend Kevo, who encouraged me to post again! His blog can be found at http://kevo.dasaku.net
If you guys have any requests for piano tips that you’d like me to cover, I’ll gladly do my best to help! Just leave a comment ^^
Anyways! Onto the piano tips!
One thing I’ve always noticed about performing is that it’s almost never the same as when you play/practice on your own. For some reason or another, nerves, anxiety, etc. a playing in front of people is much more difficult than playing alone D: Even playing in front of friends can be an unnerving experience at times.
With all that said, here are some tips that I’ve found to be helpful:
The Days/Weeks Before a Performance
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- Make sure that you play through the entirety of the pieces that will be performed in performance order! It helps you get used to doing the real thing. Hopefully you already do this ^^
- Make sure that you are focusing 100% on the music when playing through the performance pieces! Make sure there aren’t any distractions. Make sure most of all that the only sounds going on are those coming from your piano and possibly an occasional squeak from the piano bench (I hate it when those things squeak D:). During a performance, you are forced to really pay attention to what you’re doing, and the actual music you’re making. If you aren’t used to hearing/watching yourself play because you daydream while practicing, the performance will be much more difficult.
- When performing in front of other people, you also might not get the chance to warm up before you have to perform, and that can be quite the difficult thing to do. Try playing the performance repertoire with 10-20 minute breaks in between. Play through it once, go take a break, watch TV, listen to music, play with your dog, etc. This allows your hands to cool down and get back to a non-warmed up state. It’ll help you get used to performing without the luxury of being able to warm up ahead of time.
- Have several places throughout the piece where you can start from! This will not only help you need to jump ahead if you forget the notes, but it will also help reinforce your memorization.
- Have a set tempo range for each piece that you want to play them at. If you don’t know what tempo you’re going to perform at, when the adrenaline starts pumping before a performance, it’s easy to speed up without noticing.
- Practice every day!!!
Right Before a Performance
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- Breathe!!! Breathing and slowing yourself down before a performance will help a lot with nerves!
- Get the tempo in your head before you start. It’s easy to rush when you’re nervous before a performance.
During a Performance
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- Breathe breathe breathe!! This will help you think more clearly and help calm down your nerves. Really, this is essential. It’s so simple and will help immensely!
- If you can’t remember a section, don’t go back. Jump ahead instead. Often times if you try to jump back you’ll run into the same mistake, it’s almost always better to skip ahead.
- Have fun! Remember why it is that you’re playing a piece. I know this might be very difficult to do during a performance, but if you don’t know why you’re playing, or what you’re trying to get out of this performance, it’s going to be harder to be successful.
I’m glad that you’ve finally posted an update. It’s really informative and helpful. Thank you for sharing. ^^
I was wondering though if you have any tips for impromtu performances? For example, when you happen to be with a friend or two and then a piano suddenly crops up and you’d like to play for them. I find that I forget parts of the pieces I can play okay when I’m by myself. ^^; Also, that if I’m not playing on my own piano, well keyboard actually, I tend to make mistakes that I usually don’t. ^^; Could you give me a some pointers on these?
Btw, thank you too for dropping by my blog and putting in a comment. I appreciate it. Ureshii desu. Jung-mal komawoyo. ^^
I know what you mean! Although for me, instead of having trouble with memory, my hands get shaky xD
I’ll write a post about this soon
if your having memory issues when playing for your friends practice more WITHOUT the music infront of you. thats the best help i can give you on that one (i memorize music from the start due to my vision issues i have.). if you find you cant remember all your pieces make a list of them. work on ones that you know but you dont know as well as others. try to play through this list once a day using randome order.
try to get a real piano…not just a keybaord. a piano functions a lot differantly and you can feel whats going on when you play notes and such. it will also help you work on musicality too.
when playing for others your job is not to pay attention to your audiance your job is to fulfill the requirements of the composers music your playing. play through your pieces untill you get sick and tired of them then play then again till they are apart of you (by this i mean you can hear them inyour head no matter what time of day it is….if you know them realy well you fingers might twitch!).
you have to know your pieces inside and out! you are incontroll of the piano not vice versa! you have the music inside you and only you can bring it out to your friends and others you play for!
hope this helps.
Me too:D I’m really glad you’ve posted something now.
I’ve been following this site since…a long time ago. Any tips for pianos you aren’t used to and keyboards? I hate it whenever I’m doing a piano exam because the examiner’s piano is ALWAYS different from mine. Once, I played on one of the examiner’s grand piano and it sounded as though the middle piano was on for my piano and I stuffed the dynamics for that, help? Happens with impromptu performances as well. My piano is a stand, yamaha one, PLZ HELP!!! Btw, your piano perfromances on youtube rocks!!
Ah!! I don’t know how I didn’t think of making a post about that stuff yet! I’ll write up something about it now
play on as many differant pianos as you can!! its the only way you will get used to other pianos then your own! good luck.
nice tips on performing! i did a performacne a few months ago and it was the best id ever done! i felt that I was in control and NOT the piano!!! i knew the pieces inside and out and i knew just what to do in any situation.
a few tips that i use that might help other in this area:
-play the piece so many times that it literaly becomes apart of you! you can hear where ever you go!
-KNOW EXACTLY WHAT you want to say through your music and HOW you want to say it! this can take a while depending on how good you want you music to sound. i can spend three days or three months on this but boy it really sets you apart from thoes that just ”learn the notes and be done with it”.
-play for your teachers and friends offten. this will help with anziety for playing for others. (dont always play for the same peole…you might get ”to comfortable”!)
-sing passages of you piece. this will help not only memorize but also internalize your music.
-PLAY PIANO OFFTEN!!! the more you play (anything) the more comfortable you will be at the piano…. think of it as your home!!
good luck
Except Christin, whenever I play it so much that it becomes part of me, it gets really annoying cuz I keep hearing it..D:
Any other tips, phillipawalker?
Plus, I often play on different pianos so I can’t get to attached to my own, or else I’ll stuff a performance or exam
Because of these issues, I can’t get to know the piece, back to front and the piano eithe , tips PLZ?
“it gets really annoying cuz I keep hearing it..D:”
how do you learn an address to your friends house? well you might go there and visit them often, you might write the address down several times or say it out loud to your self. these are differant ways you can learn and memorize your friends address. in a short time you ”just know it”!
the same goes too for music! you have to ”just know it”! if you want to play a piece well for your audiance, you have to know it in all aspects. yes it will be annoyoing and it is…not only for you but maybe thoes passing by as you practice, but its you job to know the pieces well that you know nothing will go wrong because you know the music that well! if nothing else, when you work on pieces, try to find something to fix! music can always be improved!
im not sure what else to say.
Thanks for your blog, its very interesting! But don’t put yourself down in the title so much
!
I have seen so many times people bombard themselves with over practice before performances that they burn out on the night! So its important to space out your practice before hand!
I am currently discussing these issues on my blog, including what the fastest way to learn the piano is! Why not join the discussion in at:
http://learn-piano-songs.blogspot.com
Keep it going! Its must know stuff for beginners!
Tom
nice blog