After performance...

[tompilk]

Do any of you feel really depressed after a performance? I played at my school for an event after school for parents - played Chaminade Op. 89 Theme Varie, Pathetique Sonata Movt. 2, People united theme and 2 chopin preludes.
Now I feel really depressed because I can't play for them again to prove i can play better. I also didnt play my best and my nerves got the best of me in teh Chaminade, making some awkward jumps just collapse...
Bah...
Tom
PS this is also posted on gff - no need to reply twice if you have replied on gff

[el nino]

when you are unhappy with performance just drink something. or something more

[counterpoint]

Playing in concert is an uncommon situation. There is a piano, you don't know well, there are these people watching you, the room, the reverb, stage fright etc. - and you want to play your pieces in the best possible way. It's very unlikely, that in such a situation you will play as good as when sitting at home at your own piano, without any audience.

You will get accustomed to this sort of events, the more you play in front of different audiences. Don't be that over critical, if something went wrong. That's completely normal. Take it as an important experience - learn from it.

[henrah]

when you are unhappy with performance just drink something. or something more

That's a very dangerous path to follow. Learning to cope with depression and happiness unaided is very valuable. When you seek one thing to pass by the depression and basically ignore it, that can lead you to supplementing your life with other things.

Like counterpoint said, learn from your mistakes. Think logically about why you made those mistakes, and seek out resolutions to avoid or lessen the extent of future mistakes. It might go so far as to what you ate for breakfast that day, or how you woke up. Stage fright encompasses a whole range of things that start or increase it. I found that when I played a solo piece for my school mescellany, thinking of how much better I was than anyone who was watching me made me feel a lot better. You should entitle yourself to some ego before playing a concert as it will make you feel happier about doing it. Also, not caring what people might think of it helps too; and as hard as it is to try and put yourself into your own world whilst you play, take as long as you like before you start playing to set yourself up. Don't rush into it: that's usually the cause of many mistakes.
Henrah

[pianistimo]

also, you can take comfort that there are relatively few pianists who don't suffer the same malady after a bad performance.  i've never heard anyone committing suicide afterwards - but they don't exactly go around proud - because they WANTED to play as well as they could and didn't.  it was a reflection, thought to be, on themselves.

what you learn later on is that everyone has good and bad days (and as henrah says- if you figure out what can cause bad days - you try to repeat the good ones even as far as what you ate and how much you slept). 

i think if you controlled as much of your environment as was possible for you (ie practicng on the piano that you are performing on, warming- up, knowing how to relate to the audience without getting terribly nervous)...then you did your absolute best to make it a success.  if not, there's something to learn.  it's kind of like leaving on a trip - you make a checklist in your mind of everything that made you successful at your last performance.  perhaps you don't want to perform on that particular piano ever again?  some pianos can cause one deep depression.  i mean, unfunctioning pedals or having to accomodate too much to a rotten piano.

also, pianos that are out of tune - do terrible things to a performance.  they make you lose your spot and play unlike you do on a well-tuned piano.  unfortunately, this is a matter of time and chance occasionally (what piano you get) and how many people have gone before you and how much they wiped the tuning.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Do any of you feel really depressed after a performance? I played at my school for an event after school for parents - played Chaminade Op. 89 Theme Varie, Pathetique Sonata Movt. 2, People united theme and 2 chopin preludes.
Now I feel really depressed because I can't play for them again to prove i can play better. I also didnt play my best and my nerves got the best of me in teh Chaminade, making some awkward jumps just collapse...
Bah...
Tom
PS this is also posted on gff - no need to reply twice if you have replied on gff

I have no problem understanding this at all - I have played publicly and, to my mind, played so badly that I couldn't face a piano for several days afterwards.  Put it down to experience and try to learn from it: think what factors caused you to play badly. Nerves are not something you can ever fully control, I think, but the more you play in public, the more natural the process will become and you should learn to deal with them better. I find that adrenalin can be a serious performance issue too. I think you would have the sympathy of any pianist who has experienced the utterly sickening feeling of "omg, that was awful, how could I do what I just did - and I can't play again and show I can do it properly".  I don't, of course, know how you prepared for the performance, but one thing that I would seriously suggest is: if you get to rehearse, say a couple of hours beforehand, don't put too much effort into it, just do a fairly tepid run through, and don't focus too much on the bits you might be having trouble with as you risk reinforcing negative thoughts.