12 Tips for Overcoming Piano Performance Anxiety
Perform in front of audience
Gather with friends or family and let to listen to you playing Piano. Make this into an event by leaving and entering into the room and once your audience is settled, come in and play. This creates a wonderful atmosphere that is friendly and respectful and it will help you to gain confidence whilst you play the Piano.
Sing the music when you practise the Piano
While singing phrases can help give your piano music shape and fluency, your oxygen levels will also rise as you breathe more deeply and this will make you feel more awake and more confident. Soon enough, you will engage with the piece in more personal level and this is crucial for your performance.
Reject negativity
Before you play the Piano, enter your music zone with positive thoughts. Put the negative thoughts behind you as they will drag you down and can cause you making a lot of mistakes.
Enjoy your Piano performance
Playing the piano is very special as not everyone can do it. Enjoy your performance and see it as an opportunity to share your gift with others. Remember that your audience is not interested in finding mistakes, but they want to be moved and inspired.
Stay Focused
You need to train yourself to stay focussed. How do you do that? Don’t stress about not putting enough hours into practice, but how often you practice the piano.
· Plan an agenda for your practice
· Take a break, stretch your legs, go for a walk, read, or make a cup of tea
· Reward yourself for a good practice by treating yourself to a something you desire
With these tips, you will overcome the stress of “I didn’t do enough practice”, which can be mentally very challenging. These little steps will help keep you going and will reduce anxiety before your piano performance.
Stage Fright
In my personal Piano Performance, I would always close my eyes before I begin to play. For those few seconds, everything around me seems to dissolve. I take a deep breath and when I open my eyes again, it’s just me and the piano. Your mind should be at a very simple state of silence, where you don’t think of every tiny detail as this can contribute to more anxiety and this can cause you making mistakes.
It certainly takes some practice and performing before audience such as friends and family, can really help to train your mindset and better your performance.
Prepare your piano piece in detail
For any pianists, their piece should be prepared in great detail. It’s important for you to highlight all dynamics and landmarks in your piano piece. Engage your body physically so you know what to do with your arms and body.
Get Plenty of Rest
Studies have shown that sleep is essential for better performance. Make sure you get plenty of rest before your performance as the sleep-deprived performances can end up really bad. There’s never a worry in my mind about being tired or disengaged and I’m always alert. In some cases however, the critical judgmental voice in our head can be less active and you are more easily to enter the relaxed flow state and your performance could essentially be unexpectedly good.
Choose your piano recital well
There’s no greater contribution to stress that when you choose pieces that are too much to handle. I’ve had an experience, where I chose to play Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, Liszt and Rachmaninoff and this was clearly too much. The pieces were long, I underestimated my skills and of course didn’t prepare well. My advice would be to not over-program your recital as this will most certainly affect your performance. Think strategically about your program, ask for advice from your piano teacher or friends and think about what it is you’re trying to achieve. Looking back at this experience, I would now consider picking 2 pieces that are easier and I would add additional 3 pieces that are more difficult.
Conclusion
Be well prepared, choose your program smartly, and then perform the music to your best ability. Playing the piano is an emotional task. To become truly great pianist, it takes years of hard, intensive practice habits, being able to recognise any errors, commitment and well-structured program. It’s clear that a pianist who performs in front of large audiences doesn’t only require technical skills, but must be able to control her thoughts and channel them into the right positive places. To summarise this, don’t over practice as this may get you to a spot where you become overconfident in your abilities and this can also affect your performance.
Enjoy the experience and wonder about the scene, sounds and smells before you go on stage. This can really broad your mind in terms of something sensory, instead of worrying about certain aspects of your performance.
Finally, practice centring yourself. Find a fine balance, where you feel comfortable with you and the piano. Take a deep breath, which helps you to be physically calm, shift yourself into best posture and there you are, ready to show your audience the best piano performance of your life!
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