# Playing in front of people is tough



## Jim

Hi I am Jim. I am late 50's and am returning to classical piano after a number of years break. I am practicing Beethoven Sonatas, some Ravel (minuet), Debussy (Sarabande - Pour le piano) and other stuff and am succeeding except that I am really struggling to play in front of others. I dont know if it is simply a "more practice" thing or something else. FRUSTRATED. Any advice would be helpful


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## andruini

The only way to get rid of stage fright, in my experience, is to deliberately put yourself in more situations where you're playing in front of others. Like many things in life, it's just a question of getting over the first few times and just getting used to it. Don't worry about it, though, it's something even professionals struggle with sometimes.. You can't help getting nervous.


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## Krummhorn

I totally agree with andruini on this. More exposure will certainly help. 

Shoot, even after 49 years playing classical pipe organ, I still get nervous just before performing a concert. I always select a well known (at least, to me) piece to start off the program with to help calm the soul ... that tactic has worked for me.


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## handlebar

Indeed it is. Especially as a soloist. Not something I like to do . So i don't do it LOL

Jim


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## Kuntster

It just takes superior concentration.


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## Jim

Thanks for your response - I will certainly take yur advise on this and just do it


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## Krummhorn

Great, Jim ... see ... you are expressing more confidence already ...


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## Rasa

I had the same problem (I'm a pianist), and I fixed it/it fixed itself by:

a) practice more, and practice different: as far as the piano goes, once you have worked the whole piece do the following: set "memory points" at random places in the work, dividing it up in passages. Play the latest passage to the end. Then go the the second to last memory point, and play up until the last memory point, but no further. This will force you to learn the piece by heart in a different way.
Also: pratice the piece at a ridiculously slow tempo, paying attentions to all details in articulation, sound strenght and quality. Practice left and right hands seperately even if you know them together very well and listen carefully to every not you play.

Both of these will immensely reinforce your by heart playing, which is a good thing even if you use a score on the concert.

b) Mindset: If you're at the concert, it's too late to do anything about it. Just play and if you done the work, it will be good. My biggest stagefright problem was over when I conducted for the first time: I came on stage and thought to myself: It's up to the musicians now. all I do is start and stop. It's entirely not my problem. After that I adopted the same thing for my solo piano playing.


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## Jim

*Playing in front of others*

Thanks for our helpful advice. I will take it all on board - sounds helpful at this stage - I will let you know though. I think in the end it des cme down to the battlefield of your mind.


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## michael walsh

Hardly a performer of music I have however had to speak publicly on many occasions. From a few in a room to massive audiences, on one occasion of several thousand. It is a nerve wracking 'business;.

If it is any consolation many of the great composers; Chopin comes to mind, hated public performances and were reluctant to do them. They once wired up some of the men who really test human courage in life threatening situations. Mountain climbers, fighter jet pilots and suchlike. 

Interestingly their heart rate and blood pressure during their professional pursuits weren't too much affected. But when speaking publicly their stress levels were far higher.

My tip: In every audience there are those who through eye contact you know are sympathetic, supportive and appreciative. Concentrate on them ( without making it too obvious ) as if you were playing for that person alone. It worked wonderfully well for me. Good luck.


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## dmg

I recall performing a Mozart vocal piece (tenor), and had a solo part that went up very high (I want to say it was a high Bb). Anyway, I performed it perfectly in practice. Then the performance came, I got to that point, and nothing came out of my mouth. It was awful.

The only advice I can offer is to play in front of people often. Eventually you'll get used to it.


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## bassClef

I played trombone while growing up, got pretty good for my age and played in adult brass/military bands and was playing solos regularly by the time I was 14 - not in front of thousands but probably hundreds - and thought nothing of it! It would scare me to death now ...


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## danae

Personally I belong to the group of people that could totally lose it in fron of an audience. Sweat, cold hands and fingers, dizziness, feeling faint, difficulty in breathing: I've experienced ALL of these frightening feelings while playing in front of people. 

It only got better when I started teaching and accompanying students. There is no margin for error, when another person depends on you.


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## kmisho

If you don't get nervous playing live, you have no business doing it because it's a sure sign you don't care.

When memorizing, practice from the end to the beginning.

I will often use a procedure of playing the last phrase, then the previous phrase plus the last phrase, and so on. By the time I get back to the beginning, the piece feels easier and easier the closer I get to the end.


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## Lukecash12

Jim said:


> Hi I am Jim. I am late 50's and am returning to classical piano after a number of years break. I am practicing Beethoven Sonatas, some Ravel (minuet), Debussy (Sarabande - Pour le piano) and other stuff and am succeeding except that I am really struggling to play in front of others. I dont know if it is simply a "more practice" thing or something else. FRUSTRATED. Any advice would be helpful


Try to think more about music, and what you want to give to it and do for it. The other people simply share in the experience. And if they don't, than feel sorry for them, because they're missing out on something fantastic. You're not there to perform like a machine, you're there to display your own sentiments. They can take them or leave them. Your job is just to put it out there.

Not trying to sound condescending. That's just what I tell myself before I play music for people.


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## kmisho

This is a great question and I thought of some other things I have found very useful (besides rehearsing memorization from the end to the beginning).

Record yourself. It's the next best thing to an audience. You don't quite get the real nervousness of a live audience, but you still have the pressure of wanting to play perfectly. Anywhere that you have not rehearsed enough will show up when you record yourself.

People often say of great performers (of anything) "He makes it look easy." Here's a secret. It has to in fact be easy. If you're playing a piece and it doesn't feel easy, you haven't practiced it enough. When you know it well enough, it IS easy.


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## Emmnemms

I am in the same boat you ar, i hate playing front of people, i rarely even play in front of my parents (who are paying for everything...oops) 
So far the best thing that i have figured out to help is:
1. Just remember, that most people can't play what you are playing, the majority of the population who would be listening, have never tried to play that song, so they will always be impressed (usually)
2. Everytime a different person plays the same song, they add a little bit of "them" into the mix, you putyour own twist on it, so even if the person listening does know the song, rather than picking apart every little fail, they will probably listening as a whole to it, and noticing the little personal touches you make, not the wrong notes or rhythm being off a little.
3. Record your self! (i have a mp3 player that does a good job of it)
4. If you are real nervous, just make sure to play at your tempo (unless you are auditioning or whatnot)
5. Trust yourself. As my teacher is always telling me "Let your hands do it. Your fingers know where to go, but your head second guesses it. Don't think about it" Just let go, your fingers will take care of it.
6. Practice doesn't always make it easy, but makes it easier. Helps you build confidence in your playing. Isn't always Easy, no problem, but takes off some of the worry about wrong notes/rythms

Good luck  I don't know if this helps you at all, its what got me through Jazz band though


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## joen_cph

> Emmnemms Offline
> Junior Member
> 1. Just remember, that most people can't play what you are playing, the majority of the population who would be listening, have never tried to play that song, so they will always be impressed (usually)
> 2. Everytime a different person plays the same song, they add a little bit of "them" into the mix, you putyour own twist on it, so even if the person listening does know the song, rather than picking apart every little fail, they will probably listening as a whole to it, and noticing the little personal touches you make, not the wrong notes or rhythm being off a little.


 Heard an interview with a very competent Danish bassoon and clarinet player, Peter Bastian, who has studied with Celibidache and the most well-known Bulgarian folk music clarinet players (those people really know their stuff too, you know). Bastian had a refreshing, if somewhat provocative, remark: when young students came to him telling of their worries about their audiences "obviously intensively occupied with their music-making and whole appearance" he would answer them: 
"no, most of them are not intensively occupied with you and your playing - they tend to be intensively occupied with _themselves_ mainly." 
Or, one could say: the audience member´s attention should be _liberated_ by the commitment of the musician. And if this does not happen, it is _not_ necessarily the musician´s fault only.


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## Josef Anton Bruckner

I have the same problem with my piano-playing. I hate it....


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## Jim

*Playing in front of others*

Thanks to all you 'guys' who have responded to me re playing in front of people. I think in summary it comes down to 2 things:
1 What is going through your mind when you are playing in front of an audience. eg My mind keeps saying to me "are they impressed with my playing - are they thinking yeah Jim can play piano" - as sson as I start thinking this i lose my concentration and break down - ie make a mistake that stops me.

2 Practising more than enough so that (like the Canadian Bassonist says) "it is easy"

Thankyou everyone - I am still aving trouble with it but need to keep going.


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## christopher

*How to regain the confidence ?*

I can understand your problem but it is not a big problem dude.It is just about the lake of confidence that can be regain by playing it in front of your friend & relative who really believe in you.Once you started to get appreciation your confidence automatically increase.So just start to do it then see.


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## lavenderchild

I had never perform in front of anyone before but I get nervous during my exam. What I did to make myself less nervous is while practicing, I always imagine how the situation will be (like imagine where the audience will be seating and while you play, feel the stare from them). 

Of course at first it may be nervous and you will make mistake but as time goes by, you will be able to handle the situation of "performing while people watching". This method works very well for me as I didn't feel nervous AT ALL for my Grade 8 exam.


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## Ernie

My worst case of nerves on a concert stage came with *no one* in the room. I was not a performer, I was the piano technician. I was there to tune a Baldwin concert grand for a Ray Charles concert which was to begin at 7:00 pm. I arrived at 4:00pm only to find that the piano hadn't been delivered yet. It arrived at 6:00 pm and I had an hour to tune - not too bad - I can do that. When I sat down at the piano I found that the F above middle C did not work - at all. Ray Charles, who loved to play Blues in F, was about to play on a piano with no middle F. I started sweating as I removed the action from the piano. The F whippen was totally destroyed (how, I'll never know). With the sweat pouring from my head, and my hands shaking, I swapped the broken whippen with the C88 whippen, re-regulated the note, and put the piano back together. I now had 30 minutes left to tune and the ushers had to keep the audience out of the hall until I finished at 7:15. That night, I learned that I was not cut out to be a concert technician - way too stressful for me. Some things cannot be overcome with repetition. For me, the fear of a similar situation happening again was more than I was willing to handle. Lesson learned.

Ernie


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