What to expect.

[xhunterjx]

Will be playing in front of some judges for  a local festival.  Nothing serious, but just a Gold, Silver, Bronze, or thanks for coming.  I have never performed for anyone before, and I am wondering what to expect to go wrong so I can work on it.

By the way, the piece is Prelude in Ab Major Op.Posthumous  by Chopin

Thanks in advance,
Hunter

[mike_lang]

Will be playing in front of some judges for  a local festival.  Nothing serious, but just a Gold, Silver, Bronze, or thanks for coming.  I have never performed for anyone before, and I am wondering what to expect to go wrong so I can work on it.

By the way, the piece is Prelude in Ab Major Op.Posthumous  by Chopin

Thanks in advance,
Hunter

Of course you'll be fine.

In advance, you might want to gather some friends that you can play your piece for, just to get used to playing it in front of people.

Regarding the memory:  I'm not sure if you have problems with this; I do.  It is good to know each hand separately if possible, and to practice through your piece VERY slowly as well as a tempo.  If you are able to do this, you will know your piece more thoroughly and eradicate the chance of a slip-up in the competition.

Best,
Michael

[pianote]

just have fun with it and you'll be fine. see these competitions as a means of gaining new experiences and growing as a pianist.

[lostinidlewonder]

Hopefully you can expect to get a sheet back with comments the adjudicators had for your playing. That would at least make the time playing there worth something more instead of just having the experience playing under pressure. If you don't get anything back then you can suspect that the adjudicators are crap and don't want to reveal HOW they judged your playing, or the competition doesn't care too much about the players growth as musicians. These comments I think are the reason WHY you go play, to get opinions of other musical minds of your playing.

If you have never ever peformed for anyone in your entire life then to do it the first time in a competion is very daring. Nerves can do a lot to a person, and randomly change your playing ability for the better or worse! It is all different for everyone, but for sure make sure your nerves don't get the better of you and make you forget about listening to yourself play instead of thinking about what others are thinking of you.

[donjuan]

I play at these things every year!  Usually, the main focus of festivals like these is to encourage students and give helpful feedback.  Don't take it too seriously and you'll be fine.  Adjudicators are typically much nicer than teachers; it's their job to be nice..

The typical problem I see people have during these performances is forgetting the music.  Also, the most common comments for students who play at this level is "melody not loud enough" or "accompanying voices too loud" or "stop cheating with the una corda pedal" -you know, all the obvious, elementary stuff your teacher warns you about all the time and you thought you were doing during the performance.

Usually, the person who plays the most technically difficult piece wins, no matter how badly he/she plays.  The performance level at the festivals is usually pretty low, so the winner is the winner on the basis of having the guts to play a harder piece than everyone.  (just from my observations, anyway)