Nervous

[mmro]

I have a serious problem, I get nervous and screw it up in front of people... What I play perfectly alone I play horribly in public. It's frustrating. I need help with this.

[counterpoint]

If you can play well at home, you could make a video of your playing and upload it to (for example) youtube. Even if you don't want to upload the recording, you will learn a lot from watching and listening to your own recording. That's my experience. 

[shortyshort]

I have a serious problem, I get nervous and screw it up in front of people... What I play perfectly alone I play horribly in public. It's frustrating. I need help with this.

It's a nightmare, I know.
Even playing infront of a video camera with no-one behind it is nerve racking.

Once I get started, and into what I'm playing, I forget there's anybody there, because the music takes over.

Not much help, sorry.

[shingo]

I get this sometimes even in my lessons. Its annoying because even a peice I have down, I can play badly and end up with a performance that does not reflect the effort I have put in at home or how well I really know the peice.
Same; not much help.

[landru]

I get this sometimes even in my lessons. Its annoying because even a piece I have down, I can play badly and end up with a performance that does not reflect the effort I have put in at home or how well I really know the piece.

I know! At my last lesson I made mistakes in places that I had never, ever made mistakes before. So the teacher thinks I have problems with things I really don't and we waste time on that. Argghhh...though she says teachers know about the performance thing at lessons and take that into account, that they were students once as well!

Mmro, as far as help for this problem (nerves in performance), this is a request that has been discussed a lot in these forums. Have you searched on this topic and read other posts?

[Bob]

My post from yesterday got lost....

Something like...  prepare well, practice performing, perform often... It will go away or dimish.  


It's a different mental set when you practice compared to when you perform.  And a different skill set -- different goals for each.  You just have to get used to performing.

[ihatepop]

Imagine that the audience is not there. Imagine that you are alone, and you are a professional pianist playing one of those 150 concerts you do in a year.

Friends and Family could help a lot. Ask they for a bit of their time whenever you play something, and get used to the feeling of performing.

ihatepop

[electrodoc]

The problem of nerves is always a difficult one. Here are my suggestions:

Make sure that you really do know each work, preferably from memory even if you do not intend to perform from memory.

1. Read (and absorb) The Inner Game of Music.

2. Record your piece or pieces. Pretend that this is a live performance and that you have one take only. Keep at it until you can play each piece well with only one take.

3. Play in front of one or two non-musical friends. Keep it informal - perhaps only bits from each piece to starty with. They will not be too critical. Family are good too).

4. Next, play for one or two musically literate friends and seek their advice and constructive criticism.

5. Finally, try a short recital for friends and neighbours.

If you work through all of this, roughly in the order suggested, you should develop your confidence. The nerves might never completely go away but you will br confident that you can play each piece in front of an audience.

Electrodoc

[amelialw]

I have that problem, but i'm overcomming it. I always perform frequently in front of my relatives and church and it has really seemed to help. One thing my teacher told me to do is to pretend that she is'nt even there when she asks me to play through a memorized piece as I tend to just not perform as well as I could. The other thing that would really help would just be as others said to record your own music.