50% RULE!!

[onemanband]

No matter how hard and how well u play in your practice room , it comes out only 50% in your recital! I remember the first time I played Chopin's Etude in my recital and I couldn't  even move my fingers and rushed from the very beginning till the end. However, I practised pretty good in my own room. How comes? Only 50% percent or less??? I could feel my body was shaking and my shouder had too much tension there and I felt like a dump who never played piano before!!

Despairing ,Frustrated, I felt like spewing at that moment and I didn't feel like eating anything one week after that!!

I thought playing the piano is so enjoyable , but it made me feel sick since then. I hate myself so much.

[chopiabin]

This has happened to me before. At a recital a couple of months ago I didn't even play the opening chord to my piece correctly. I screwed the whole thing into the ground and ended up starting it about 5 times, but what made it worse was the fact that all these people would come and say "good job" when I knew they thought I sucked. I went home and played that piece perfectly and passionately. The trick is to just keep performing for people. Friends, family, random people. I just had a recital on Friday, and it went pretty damn well, especially considering the fact that they changed the piano (from the one we had practiced on for three days) to a totally crappy one.

Don't hate yourself.
Chop

[allchopin]

No matter how hard and how well u play in your practice room , it comes out only 50% in your recital! I remember the first time I played Chopin's Etude in my recital and I couldn't  even move my fingers and rushed from the very beginning till the end. However, I practised pretty good in my own room. How comes? Only 50% percent or less??? I could feel my body was shaking and my shouder had too much tension there and I felt like a dump who never played piano before!!

Despairing ,Frustrated, I felt like spewing at that moment and I didn't feel like eating anything one week after that!!

I thought playing the piano is so enjoyable , but it made me feel sick since then. I hate myself so much.

They already have a name for this: topophobia.  
J/k; this is just seems a little bit more seriuos than usual.  I too get extremely nervous playing in front of people.  Once, on stage, I completely forgot the left hand of a piece, and the right hand was just playing on its own for about 10 seconds until I just stopped.  Chopin hated public performance also.  There have been topics posted on this subject, with suggestions ranging from deep breathing to eating certain foods the night before.  
Probably what you need is more practice.  That way, when you are busy thinking about the audience staring at your side and analyzing your every move, you can innately play with very little direct thought processing on the piece.  It is like riding a bicycle- once you can do it almost naturally, you have enough brain processing power to think about other thihngs (in this case, random nervous thoughts that want to end you).

[Odie]

cheer up onemanband.  What you just described has happened to every performer many times.  Like Choplabin said, it just takes practice.  If you ever happen accross an unused lounge piano somewhere, just start to play it.  Perform for whoever is passing in and out.

If you keep playing for people one day you'll realize that you can benefit from the nervous energy.  You just have to figure out how to channel it into performance energy.  I still get nervous on stage but it makes me excited because I remember that I can harness the energy and use it to my advantage.... ultimately putting it all into the music.

Stick in there.  You'll see what I mean.

[meiting]

Just practice twice as fast. Then 50% of twice as fast is normal speed

[IgnazPaderewski]

really analyse every movement at the keyboard and try to understand yur whole bodies movements while you play. otherwise, if you dont really know how you play the piano, you will *** up under pressure. its that simple.

[Askenaz7]

I think it's about how you memorised a piece .There is many kinds of memory and this is the .In the recital exactly the time you start you'll try unconscientiously to express the piece free and feel the music but suddenly you find out that the way you choose to memorized the piece is absolutely wrong .Why ? Because that moment in your attempt to pass your expression to the audience the mechanically your "soul" revoke the memorizing you have done (for example the memorizing of melody the singing without knowing some armonically analysis-this is only one of many many ways to learn) and search for many other ways to execute this "passing" in the audience and the pleasure of totally "master of the technic".I think all we have feel this.(The memorising has written somewhere here but I don't remember the thread.

[bernhard]

Consider the reasons for performing.

Here are two extremes:

1.      You perform in order to show off your abilities. Showing how good you are will bring you fame and riches. You become the centre of attention. Therefore too much is at stake. The music becomes unimportant.
2.      You perform because you want to share a piece with music with someone. You are not important at all. The music is what matters.

Which case do you think may lead to a nervous breakdown?

Now consider this:

At any point in time your conscious mind can only hold 7 ± 2 items. So if you are worried about the audience, about the quality of the piano, about what the critics in the audience will think, why are your hands shaking so much and so on and so forth, that is what will be in your conscious mind. There will be no space for the music, which will then have to be played in automatic pilot. If you have programmed your automatic pilot well (that is, if you have practised correctly) you may escape unscathed.

But if in the middle of the concert your conscious mind throws at you one of these thoughts it usually does like “hey where am I in the music? I hope I will not have a blank”, then most probably the conscious mind will start interfering with the automatic pilot and a big disaster will ensue.

I can’t remember who said that: When I practise I do it as if I was performing at the stage. When I perform at the stage I do it as if I was practising at home.

So here are my suggestions:

1.      Don’t show off, share the music.

2.      Perform as if you were playing at home (assuming the playing at home is good).

3.      Fill your conscious mind with the music and there will be no space for irrelevant material in there.

4.      Only perform music you know so well that you could do it in your sleep.

5.      Perform informally a lot before performing formally. In fact never ever perform a piece you have not performed (informally if necessary) at least three times.

And Meiting is aboslutely right!

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[chopiabin]

I think the most important part is performing in front of people and analysing one's movements while playing through the piece slowly.

[cellodude]

Consider the reasons for performing.

...

5.      Perform informally a lot before performing formally. In fact never ever perform a piece you have not performed (informally if necessary) at least three times.

Hmmm..., sounds like the computer science definition of 'recursion':
In order to understand 'recursion' you must first understand 'recursion'.  

I think the point is more precise if the parentheses and 'if necessary' are taken out.

Of course Bernhard is right as usual.

dennis lee

[johnreef]

Nobody else shares my take on this so I'll go on....

observation 1: When I play some of the simpler Chopin mazurkas I do not get nervous.

observation 2: When I play his G-minor ballade , I get nervous.

So what's the difference?    The ballade is much much harder.

So in order to elimanate getting nervous, you have to get so good that its all easy for you.    I haven't done this yet.

But if you look at the size and difficulty of repertory that the great virtuosi play, and the frequency with which they play it, It cannot all be terribly difficult for them; otherwise there just wouldn't be enough time for them to practice it all.

[bernhard]

Hmmm..., sounds like the computer science definition of 'recursion':
In order to understand 'recursion' you must first understand 'recursion'.  

I think the point is more precise if the parentheses and 'if necessary' are taken out.

Of course Bernhard is right as usual.

dennis lee

Er... Sorry, I should have explained better.

Performance: The actual performance you have been preparing for; the real thing. It can be an exam, and audition, the end of the year student's recital, a competition or a professional performance.

Informal performance: An actual performance with a public, which is not the actual performance. For instance, if I have a student who will do an exam, I try to arrange with his/her school headmaster that s/he plays his/her pieces in Assembly.

Finally, there is the simple performance that consists of playing for someone else, like your teacher, a friend, parents, etc. In other words people you feel comfortable with.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bernhard]

Nobody else shares my take on this so I'll go on....

observation 1: When I play some of the simpler Chopin mazurkas I do not get nervous.

observation 2: When I play his G-minor ballade , I get nervous.

So what's the difference?    The ballade is much much harder.

So in order to elimanate getting nervous, you have to get so good that its all easy for you.    I haven't done this yet.

But if you look at the size and difficulty of repertory that the great virtuosi play, and the frequency with which they play it, It cannot all be terribly difficult for them; otherwise there just wouldn't be enough time for them to practice it all.

Actually I do share your viewpoint. It is an excellent viewpoint and I couldn't agree more.

Best wishes,
Bernhard

[anda]

50%? do you mean you get nervous? feel you heart beating at about 200 beats a second, hands shaking, cold sweat? i know i do. i always do. and i get on stage about 50% MORE than in the practice room.

how come? it's easy. it's actually good to feel nervous - it gets all your senses working at 200% - you can feel better the audience, and, most important, you can transmit them better what you feel. don't even try to control your heart rhytm or your hands' shaking - it's not gonna work (i tried pills, and it's no good). all you have to do is try to control your head by not allowing any thoughts not regarding what you're playing - keep playing the work in your mind and think of nothing else. and get on stage as often as possible (for about a year, i i got on stage at least weeky, even if it meant repeating works i had played before on the same stage), and everytime you'll see it gets better: you feel nervous before going on stage (worst is the last hour before a recital - at least for me it is), but once you start playing, your heart rhytm is ajusted in a matter of seconds to the rhytm of what you're playing, cold sweats go away, hands stop shaking, and so on.

One more thing - at least for a while, it would be best if you would put the first work in your recital to be something slow.

and never, ever, not under any circumstances, when you're playing something, do not think ahead - "oh, that nasty passage is coming...", you rush, and won't sound to good. on stage play in your head exactly what the hands are playing at that moment, and always play in your head everything - dynamics, staccato, legato, as much as possible - helps the hand.

try this, you'll see, it works like a charm - worked for me and works for my students.

[rohansahai]

I think that you'll play best only when you play for yourself! Even in front of people, just think that the people are there to listen to you playing for yourself and not them! Then, there will be much lesser tension and jitters (But that doesen't mean there'll be none!).

[bernhard]

You may also try to record or video yourself. Even though you are alone and you know no one is going to watch the video/listen to the tape (unless you want to) the unreasonable nervousness that sets in is such that it may count as performance practice!

[MzrtMusic]

One thing that has been mentioned, but not really talked about is how you practice. If you are practicing, and you only get the piece right 50% of the time in the practice room, than that is how it is going to come out on the stage. It's better to practice much much slower than the actual tempo of the piece, but to always play it perfectly, and gradually speed it up. Practicing in this method will give you more confidence, because you haven't practiced the wrong notes and counts. If you practice something wrong 10 times before you realize it, it could take up to 100 times playing it the correct way before you have reprogramed your mind and fingers. I don't know what everyone else thinks about this, but I know I get much more nervous when I'm not fully prepared. And I'm not fully prepared if I only get the piece right sometimes. So maybe you need to look more at how and what you are practicing. That said, Bernhard is right. The more you can perform you pieces before you concert or competition, or whatever, the better off they will be. You will have poise and confidence!

Sarah

[nad]

I agree on that. And i would like to add that too many people practise faster than they can actually handle. Practise as fast as you can whilst playing everything right. Playing right is a thing many ppl seem to forget.  

[Askenaz7]

Good point MzrtMusic free your mind .Sometimes is very good to study with slower tempo