get nervous! help me?

[akaitori]

i cant stop getting nervous in front of people.
when i paly in public, i gotta close my eyes for 10 sec (sometime more than 15 sec) imagine being alone in the hall.

how can i just stop this?
please..............help....me...out...of....this...pain....?

[akaitori]

one more prob.
my hands r wet all the time (i mean all the time.)
(it could be a genetical prob, cuz i and my brother have wet hands.)

will that ruins the piano?

[ramseytheii]

Whatever you do, don't eat too many Bananas.  I had a cellist friend who heard that Potassium would block nerves like a beta-blocker.  He ate more than dozen bananas backstage before his concert, and somehow overdosed on something in the bananas, and fainted after the first piece.

And whatever you do to control your nerves, don't vomit onstage!

Walter Ramsey

[marvelo]

Whatever you do, don't eat too many Bananas.  I had a cellist friend who heard that Potassium would block nerves like a beta-blocker.  He ate more than dozen bananas backstage before his concert, and somehow overdosed on something in the bananas, and fainted after the first piece.

And whatever you do to control your nerves, don't vomit onstage!

Walter Ramsey

hahah thats too funny,, I never knew you can OD on bananas ,,,, thats classic.... -- well,,, there is one thing to be nervous ,, and another having a panic like feeling.  Being nervous is good, because it keeps you sharp.. you just need to learn how to control it so that it doesn't take-over you abilites,,  its like being able to control your adrenaline in a fight. its all mental and you might need some zen type exercises ,, on the other hand, if you have fear of standing in-front of a crowd,, go take a speech class in a nearby college.  as far as your hands go... I've seen similar issues with friends ,, and alot of it was tied with the nervousness symptoms you feel,, however there are other factors,,  -- I have seen creams that will close the pours on your skin,, it is similar to creams/gels that people who sweat alot use.. one example of this ointment is  'certain dry' -- research online im sure you'll find creams that will give similar results,,,   

and no,, you wet hands will not ruin the piano,, just make sure you only touch the keys,, cause you dont want the oils from your hands touching the case.

by the way,, what are you so nervous about?  I believe everyone gets alittle nervous when they are performing in front of a crowd.

[teresa_b]

I think everyone gets nervous to some extent.  Here's something that helps me--I tell myself why be nervous?  The reason for nerves is you are intimidated by the audience.  Well, guess what?  THEY are not up there performing, YOU are!  YOU are the one who has the talent, the hard work behind you, the courage to put yourself out there, not THEM!  SO why on earth would you give them the power to intimidate you? 

They are there to enjoy your beautiful playing, and they won't even notice mistakes.  Even in the case of a competition or jury with judges, remember, the JUDGES are NOT putting THEMselves out there right now, so again there's no reason for you to  feel intimidated--just play your heart out!

Best of luck!
Teresa

[infectedmushroom]

I had the problem of being nervous too, until I started playing in a band. In a band are obviously more people around you on stage, but it did help me a lot to play the Piano alone, in front of people.

[bachfan87]

I had the same problem (and I still do)

I think part of it comes from not being 100% sure with the pieces you are playing. Make sure you do tons of memory drills, know all of the harmony, all of the melodic lines, bass, etc etc...the more confident you feel with the piece, the less nervous you will be.

[the_duck]

Whatever you do, don't eat too many Bananas.  I had a cellist friend who heard that Potassium would block nerves like a beta-blocker.  He ate more than dozen bananas backstage before his concert, and somehow overdosed on something in the bananas, and fainted after the first piece.

  obviously too many bananas can cause you a bunch(?) of problems. but i would recommend one banana about 40 minutes before a concert to settle you down. also, as you get close to the concert, practise sitting at the piano and playing your pieces as though you really were beginning the recital for real (in my weaker moments i've even bowed to an invisible audience!) the hardest thing to do is START a piece, so once you've mastered this the rest should flow. and, above all, try to ENJOY it. this is your moment to shine- make the most of it, and don't be put off by an audience who are there to enjoy your playing, not intimidate you.

[lostinidlewonder]

It is all in your head. Nervousness highlights our insecurity and our fear of failure. If you do not care about making mistakes infront of an audience your nervousness will vanish. So mediate on the fact, either you play for an audience (maybe making a mistake here or there) or you sit at home by yourself playing the piece just for yourself and your family.

People respect that you actually go out onto a stage and try to perform for them, not many people will care if you make a mistake, they are not there to hear perfection just be entertained. Of course if you get people to pay for your concerts then you should ensure you give them their money worth, that is why before you actually go on stage you have already done the concert countless times in the privacy of your own home or control audiences.

I know a lot of people set themselves up with their nerves and they do not actively work against it. To work against it you need to prove to yourself that you can play something without error, how do you do that? By actually playing infront of many people before the big concert.  Nervousness is often a result of being unprepared and not working hard enough to test yourself performing under pressure.

If I am alone and want to test if I can play something without mistake under pressure, I will set up recording equipment and tell myself, ok this is an audience of thousands listening to me, we cannot make a mistake now or it will be devistating, I scare myself as much as I can then sit down and play knowing that I cannot stop if I make a mistake and I must play over all errors as best I can, the same conditions you impose when playing for an audience. Then I'll go back listen to the whole thing and note places I was unsatisfied with, continue process until I get a perfect recording beginning to end (this might take several attempts).

I remember whenever nerves got to me, like the night before a big concert I would quickly run over to the piano and play the passage of a piece which was bothering me. I remember 5 minutes before having to go on stage I ran over to the practice upright piano and made sure that I knew exactly what I was going to start with. For me, showing myself that I can do it removes nervousness, if I can prove that I can play something without mistake 99% of the times without thinking about the notes, then I will be confident that I can do the same when I am on stage, or in any environment.

I find it useful to be able to practice digging yoruself out of errors and make it as subtle as possible. This gave me even more confidence when playing for the public because if I make a mistake I can carry on and very few people will detect the flawl. I have even improvised my way out of a bungle before and people commended my variation of how I played piece! So don't be afraid of mistakes you can play through them and learn to keep them away, but I am still to attend a live concert where the playing was absolutely 100%, there is always something. But we do not go to hear perfection, if you want that then listen to CD recordings which have been carefully engineered.



As for wet, sweaty hands use lots of antiperspirant spray on them. If that fails then go to a sports store and buy some ROSIN POWDER which is used on equipment handles and hands to avoid slipping.

[franzliszt2]

I get nervous, but you soon learn to control them. I'm afraid the only solution is to do more concerts and get used to it. Just relax, and think..."So what if I mess up, we all die anyway" 

[ihatepop]

Breathe in and out deeply, don't worry about messing up the performance, just keep your mind positive. NO piece will sound good when you're anxious, so just go with the flow on the keys.

ihatepop

[cmg]

Great advice here, folks!

One more thing.  Fear only gets greater and bigger the more you run from it.  Ask yourself just exactly what it is you are afraid regarding performance.  Be very honest with yourself.  Then write it down on a sheet of paper:  under-preparation, bad memorizing technique, fear of wrong notes, etc.  You can fix everything except the random wrong notes.  Let that go.  It happens.  Audiences (except in NYC!) are very generous.  They WANT you to succeed.

Play with singers and instrumentalists to get used to peforming.  Where the spotlight is off you as soloist.  Be an accompanist for awhile.  It's great experience and helps with mastering nerves.  Then play solo for a tape machine, your mom, your dad, the dog, the cat.

And avoid too many bananas.  A famous Juilliard teacher gave her LAST NYC recital when she walked out on stage, sat down at the Steinway and hurled onto the keyboard.  I always did suspect bananas, by the way.  Of course, you could call this performance art . . . 

[pianolist]

My first wife was a TV and film make-up artist, and they always used bananas when they wanted to simulate hurling. I hadn't heard that expression before, by the way - it's a cracker!

Try remembering something humorous or revolting, to bring the nerves back down to earth. In the 1980s, my former wife was involved in a TV programme about the poet, Keats, who had been a student surgeon as a young man. The BBC wanted to show an eighteenth-century leg amputation, so she bought a big leg of lamb, and they put the actor on a table, with one leg through a hole that had been cut out. Then they placed the leg of lamb next to his knee, and covered over the cracks with special effects plastic and rubber, and they inserted a number of tubes from underneath, with stage blood and hand pumps at the other end.

When the actor who was playing the surgeon got out his saw, he hacked through the leg of lamb, flesh, gristle and bone, which sounded very realistic (so I was told), the amputee screamed like there was no tomorrow, and the make-up ladies pumped blood which spurted out all over the place. Lost your nerves yet?

They never transmitted the scene, presumably because the director decided it was just too gruesome. I get nerves as much as anyone, but private thoughts like this can be a help. It is only a concert, after all; you are not having your leg amputated. I also talk to audiences, which they really like, and it makes the occasion feel more sociable and less threatening.

[pianistimo]

dear pianolist,

never thought of fright in those terms on stage.  but, whatever works!  i think different things work for different people in terms of mental preparation.  lostinidlewonder and cmg is right about a consistent thing, though - and that is - enough 'rehearsal for stage' preparation.  playing in front of peers, family, etc. - so that when you come to the real situation - it's not terrible.

i had a terrible time with this until taking some 'master classes' every friday afternoon for a year or two.  then, i felt so much better because it sort of trains your mind to work out ahead of time what you are going to do in a 'worst case' scenario and where you are going to start on the next phrase.

it used to be i'd go BACK (before the blunder)...then, i started going forward over the place to avoid this circular thing where you repeat the mistake twice.  don't want that to happen on stage, right?!  and, as your mind gets better with things - you have a spot or two on EACH page that you can go to.  or, in a best case situation - you have enough ear memory that you fake it with the right hand through that measure and just make up a few notes with the left until you get back into the groove.

when i get really nervous i don't skip as many pages as i used to .  sometimes i would entirely rework a piece - putting this here and that there.  it was kind of experimental to see what would happen during a 'master class' - but by the time i got to recital - much much better.  you know where you are likely to make mistakes.  you know what you are going to do about them.  therefore - you are really not very nervous.  maybe a little bit.

occasionally - i'll panic right before and everything goes blank (when i get distracted by whomever is playing before me) - but, then, usually right before they end - i start meditating and looking at the first pages of the score - and getting in  my mind the tempos and the way i want it to sound when i start.  usually i'll have the first couple of lines in mind before i even get to the piano bench. 

it's good that even at the bench - you don't just start right in immediately.  but take a moment.  on the other hand - don't wait too long.  it's like a ski lift - you get off - slowly start - otherwise -you'll be looking down the hill and saying - woah, i don't want to do this.

[jozart]

There is a book by Timothy Gallway that was very popular a few years back. As far as I know, it was being used by music schools throughout the U.S. The book is called "The Inner Game of Music" and it addresses the issue of mental conflicts that detract from our performance. Has anyone else used this book?
Hope this helps.
...jozart

[arbisley]

After quite a few recitals at school last year, I'm starting to be able to use nervousness to control my playing and relaxation rather than letting it make me frightened.

Of the things I have heard of to improve stage presence and decrease anxiety during a performance, there are some things I find quite useful:

-visualise what it is going to look like when you go on stage, what you want to look like yourself, e.g. whether you want a lot of facial expression, wavy arms, what your pianist image is, and don't look straight at the audience, concentrate on a point at the back of the auditorium, but smile, that helps, and maybe announce a prepared speech about what you are going to play. That is all practical, straightforward, just imagining what is going to happen on stage, and how much you want to show all the things you have learnt and how well you can play.

-on a more creative side, think of what you are trying to put across for the whole piece. Especially if you are playing a full sonata, think of the whole piece in terms of what it means from the first note, don't come to the end and have the disappointing feeling that NOW you could play it all with the expression it needs to make it a unified whole. All the preparation, memory, exact phrasing and notes should come together to make a meaningful construct of the whole piece.

This is what helped me especiall for my last and longest recital so far, where i actually did not feel nervous for most of it, but used the adrenalin to relax my arms and concentrate even more on precision and detail while being aware of the overall impression.

[chopiabin]

It is all in your head. Nervousness highlights our insecurity and our fear of failure. If you do not care about making mistakes infront of an audience your nervousness will vanish. So mediate on the fact, either you play for an audience (maybe making a mistake here or there) or you sit at home by yourself playing the piece just for yourself and your family.

People respect that you actually go out onto a stage and try to perform for them, not many people will care if you make a mistake, they are not there to hear perfection just be entertained. Of course if you get people to pay for your concerts then you should ensure you give them their money worth, that is why before you actually go on stage you have already done the concert countless times in the privacy of your own home or control audiences.

I know a lot of people set themselves up with their nerves and they do not actively work against it. To work against it you need to prove to yourself that you can play something without error, how do you do that? By actually playing infront of many people before the big concert.  Nervousness is often a result of being unprepared and not working hard enough to test yourself performing under pressure.

If I am alone and want to test if I can play something without mistake under pressure, I will set up recording equipment and tell myself, ok this is an audience of thousands listening to me, we cannot make a mistake now or it will be devistating, I scare myself as much as I can then sit down and play knowing that I cannot stop if I make a mistake and I must play over all errors as best I can, the same conditions you impose when playing for an audience. Then I'll go back listen to the whole thing and note places I was unsatisfied with, continue process until I get a perfect recording beginning to end (this might take several attempts).

I remember whenever nerves got to me, like the night before a big concert I would quickly run over to the piano and play the passage of a piece which was bothering me. I remember 5 minutes before having to go on stage I ran over to the practice upright piano and made sure that I knew exactly what I was going to start with. For me, showing myself that I can do it removes nervousness, if I can prove that I can play something without mistake 99% of the times without thinking about the notes, then I will be confident that I can do the same when I am on stage, or in any environment.

I find it useful to be able to practice digging yoruself out of errors and make it as subtle as possible. This gave me even more confidence when playing for the public because if I make a mistake I can carry on and very few people will detect the flawl. I have even improvised my way out of a bungle before and people commended my variation of how I played piece! So don't be afraid of mistakes you can play through them and learn to keep them away, but I am still to attend a live concert where the playing was absolutely 100%, there is always something. But we do not go to hear perfection, if you want that then listen to CD recordings which have been carefully engineered.



As for wet, sweaty hands use lots of antiperspirant spray on them. If that fails then go to a sports store and buy some ROSIN POWDER which is used on equipment handles and hands to avoid slipping.

This is really great advice. When I have to perform, I get overwhelmed by a debilitating nervousness that is often so bad that I completely ruin a piece that I can play perfectly by myself or in more intimate settings. My hands get shaky, my heart races, and my mind suddenly seems completely disconnected from the piece. Even if I'm totally calm before the performance, the second I get on-stage the nervousness comes rushing back to me.

My perfectionism, social anxiety, and the fact that I didn't perform for an audience until I was a teenager (and therefore more self-conscious) are all contributing factors to this intense mental block - I hate perfecting a difficult piece only to completely butcher it on-stage, and the "good job"'s and "well dones"'s from the audience members only increase my frustration.

I'm supposed to be performing Chopin op.10 #1 on Saturday night, and I'm worried because it's one of those pieces that is really difficult to play under tension and pressure - supposedly it took Ashkenazy two years of practice before he considered it at performance level.

It is well known that Horowitz disliked public performance and that he shipped his personal piano wherever he would be performing. In "The Art of Piano", it is suggested that the eccentricities and anti-social character of many of the great pianists originate in, or are exacerbated by, the "narcissistic" and anti-social nature inherent in mastering the piano. One guy says something to the effect that the pianist " is left alone with this great machine, and he must daily prove to himself that he is its master, and not vice versa".

Hmmm....interesting.     

[lauramars]

Don't overplay your piece.

Stretch out before performing.