Worst mistakes you have done during a performance

[willcowskitz]

There are lots of posts about stage fright and related dilemmas. We all sometimes hit wrong keys and whatnot, so I thought a thread like this could be the best remedy for fear.

[JK]

I once had a spectaculer memory lapse in the middle of a Poulenc theme and variations, this was in a competition and it was early in the morning, I forgot several massive chunks of some variations and had to improvise!

A story that my teacher told me is quite good and it shows how mistakes are not always your fault. he was playing Rach3, it was the bit after the cadenza in the first movement, there is a flute slow and the piano has very fast arpegios, unfortunately the flautist came in double speed!

[squinchy]

I think a thread like this is an excellent idea. It would be like a pensieve for pianists!

____

Once I was extremely unnerved at a festival because another girl, much younger, much tinier, played the same required piece as I did, except she the dynamics exactly according to the music. I didn't like Martha Mier's dynamics (on her own piece), so I had practiced a passage mƒ and cantabile where she had marked piano. However, the little kid did it so perfectly and it sounded great, so I changed my mind at the last minute.

That was the mistake-I played one wrong chord in that passage, and that threw me off track. Subsequently, I kept missing the jumps in a Mozart Sonata.

But I still got the highest rating!  

[amanfang]

At one of my recitals in elementary school, I was playing canon in d (Alfred arrangement, level 6), and got to the LAST line and thought "Wow, this is great, I haven't made one mistake yet!"  And THAT of course is the worst thing to think during a performance, but hey, I was young.  Anyway, got to the last line, and could not for the life of my remember what note to start on.  I tried a B-flat, and that was obviously not the right note, so then I tried an A-flat, and that wasn't right either.  So I tried a G, and then played my D chord with the G, and that sounded bad.  Then I remembered that I was playing Canon in D, so I should try a D.  And then I finished the piece fine.  Of course, my dad was videotaping the whole thing, so they pull that out on occasiona to laugh at me.  

[rosie]

Two days ago I played in a winner's recital for a series of competitions. I was playing Bach p and f in c sharp (848). I have played this piece for numerous competitions, auditions, and recitals. On the last page of the fuge, I completely blanked out. I tried to go back a measure but could not get past where I origanally forgot. I have points in every line where I can jump in, but I forgot all of them and just played the last line to end the piece. I have never had a memory problem on this before. I felt so bad because I was last and the scholarship winner. But my Beethoven and Chopin went well, so I hope that made up for it.

I have played at the wrong time at recitals, played pieces that were not even on the program, ...

One time my 2 year old cousin ran around naked durring one of my performances, and one time a piece of ivory fell off the key of an old piano. I was playing Chopin ballade number 1, and it came off durring the middle, so I was trying to to cut my fingers on the jagged edge of the key the whole rest of the time. It came off pretty bad.

It's good to know other people make mistakes too.

[Motrax]

I just had a disaster with Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata, which I played as the final piece of my big solo graduation recital thingy. I had about 3 or 4 memory lapses, with the music in front of me, and I missed more notes than ever. And at the end of the piece, I missed every single chord there was.

Oddly, people told me that I played incredibly, and they didn't notice any mistakes.  

[janice]

I'll do a cut & paste that I made like 2 years ago on the Miscellaneous page.  The thread is "Most Embarrassing Moment at the Piano".  My dad STILL teases me about this (and it happened in 1987 or 1988, around then, give or take a year)

This is the SOOO AWFUL!!!  I accompanied the choir in college.  The auditorium was filled (or so it seemed!)  The last song was a capella.  The audience had finished clapping, and I was still sitting at the piano.  When there was COMPLETE SILENCE, I played a chord, then went to stand in my spot.  As I stood up (it's dead quiet in the auditorium remember), my robe caught on something and there was the loudest RIIIIIP!!!  I could've died!   Nobody said anything or laughed.  We were just in shock, I think!  Of course, I was to stand way over on the end, at the top.  That was the longest walk of my life!  One of my best friends was standing next to me.  She just held my hand during the whole song--as if that would somehow keep her from laughing!  After that number, we all filed out.  Of course, my row was last and I was on the end, so I had to try to keep a straight face for a long time.  Everybody else was already back in the choir room, and when I walked in, everybody just died laughing!  I can't remember if they clapped or not!  I went up to the director and said "I am SOOO sorry!"  He just stood there shaking his head.  

Part of the general education requirements is to take a certain number of fine arts credits.  Many of the jocks take Music 101 or whatever it's called.  Those who take this class must attend X number of concerts and report on them.  A bunch of football players were sitting in the back  The next day during lunch, I was up at the pop machine in the cafeteria and a football player came up.  He looked at me and said "Oh yeah, you're the one who ripped her robe last night, aren't you?"  I almost died!!!  

I guess that you just had to be there (but I'm glad that none of you were, or else I'd be embarrassed!)  

[edouard]

Have you ever been irritated by other peoples' mobiles going off? well listen to this...
I was playing grieg's concerto solo version (luckily just for one friend, but i was still giving it my best effort, as a rehearsal for performance). I played through the first and second movements and just finished the last note of the second movement (very calm, slow etc) when my own mobile phone  started vibrating. You can imagine the distration . so i played the last note, held the pedal, delved into my pocket to turn off the damn thing and then started on the third movement but the tension and interest was lost for me. And if its lost for me, its lost for the audience. so now i never perform with a mobile phone, not even off. !!
Nice to know i'm not the only one to whom these things happen
edouard

[cziffra]

you've played with a mobile phone IN YOUR POCKET?

how did that come about?  why on earth would you take one out?  that's really strange

[edouard]

well its not that strange, i just forgot to turn it off before starting. I don't really get your post !?
yours -e

[Tash]

my worst performance would have to've been last year in a recital that we were being assessed in and i'd had a really freaky dream earlier that week that i'd at the last minute changed my piece to something i'd played 2 years ago and of course i hadn't practiced it since then and coudln't remember how it went. so i then went to go attempt to practice it but then missed when i was meant to perform. anyway that really freaked me out so by the time it came to the performance it was fine until i was like 2 pages from the end and i played a wrong note and that completely screwed me up so i tried to find the right note again and did some really bad waffle before i gave up and stopped, moved my head a little too forward to i banged it on the piano and told the audience i'd forgotten the rest and they all laughed and clapped and i never forgave myself for that.

the most annoying thing was that i didn't get to finish and was seriously considering going up at the end and finishing it but nobody took me seriously at that so didn't get to...

oh some random story of a bad performance, back in yr3 when the school choir was performing at sydney town hall my friend vomited in the middle of a song all over the girls in front of her! how bad is that?!!

[jr11]

I've learned to never look out into the audience. I've been totally thrown off twice... once when I looked up and saw my teacher looking at me, and once when I saw my wife looking at me. Anyone else but one of those two watching me during a performance and I'm fine.

[janice]

, and once when I saw my wife looking at me. Anyone else but one of those two watching me during a performance and I'm fine.

this reminds me of a problem I have had.  When I play a solo at church, I don't care if a million people are in the congregation and I don't care if they look at me--this doesn't make me nervous--it's when the family who sits in the front pew (closest to the piano) stares at me.  They are too close for comfort.  I've actually told them, "Ok, I am playing a solo today.  Whatever you do, don't look at me."  The orchestra is on my right, and I have asked them if they will go sit in the pews before I play.  I don't mean to sound like a nut case--lol--but these people (orchestra and that family) sit just a few feet away!!  I can't deal with them LOOKING at me!! LOL

[Tash]

I've learned to never look out into the audience. I've been totally thrown off twice... once when I looked up and saw my teacher looking at me, and once when I saw my wife looking at me. Anyone else but one of those two watching me during a performance and I'm fine.

oh yeah that's bad. in the second recital where i was being assessed for the same piece i messed up in the previous story the bit that i last forgot i decided not to look at the keys at all (my teacher told me to do that if i was ever unsure of the notes so i could just let my fingers move where they knew where to go) so looked up into the wings and my music teacher was standing there with the most serious look on her face probably hoping i didn't screw up again (thankfully i didn't) i was like oh my god just let this passage be over please so i can look down again before i freak out

[rubleski]

A few months ago I played Rachmaninoff op. 23 no 5 in g minor for my highschool. I always miss a few minor notes, and my performance was going very well. On the last note though, i played an A in left left hand and a G in the right  

[ahmedito]

My worst were both in competitions.

The first one was at the Grieg competition. I played the G minor Ballade in the semifinal, with all the repititions, about 4 years ago. After having finished all the gruelingly dificult variations, I got to the theme at the end and I thought... whew!!! Im glad I made it. BIG MISTAKE. I completely forgot the theme, after muddling through it I completely lost it and couldnt remember anything at all. Sadly, I just played a cadence in G minor and left. Needless to say, I did not pass to the finals.

The second was at the first international competition I ever won. I was so happy at the result, that at the recital that I played at the national auditorum the same day I got the result, I played the obligatory piece in front of the composer twice as slow.... then I started a Debussy etude and completely played the wrong notes in the first measure. It was completely wrong, but I was so happy at having won, tha I actually laughed out loud at the mistake and finished the etude, playing it even better than in the competition. The judges told me later that they loved it.... I learned from there to laugh at my mistakes. Even so, there was a lot of local talk, because people who had not heard me during the competition couldnt believe the result after having heard the concert.

[donjuan]

My worst as yet was at my first music festival.  I was so nervous, I did so many stupid things...I walked up to the piano in the middle of the stage, sat down, and for some reason, started to do stupid neck exercises.  The adjudicator ten feet away started laughing his head off, and from the corner of my eye, I saw him writing something down.  More self concious now than before, I went to play my piece- Liszt- Un Sospiro-, which went dreadfully awful.  

ohh,
the Humiliation..
donjuan

[pies]

­

[Irock1ce]

I have two:
In March, I had to perform the Bach P and F in cmin ( book1). So, I was doing fine until the really really fast part in the end of the Prelude. I played it and my left hand and right hand were COMPLETELY OFF! They were not following each other so i had to stop. And completely start the part over again because i screwed it up so bad. Yeah.. i wanted to kill myself. Good to know that everyone makes mistakes.
Last august, I managed to make it into the final concerts at UC Berkeley for my music program, YMP. I was playing Debussy's Clair de Lune. It was sound GREAT until i got to the last page where i COMPLETELY forgot everything. so, i had to improvise and somehow.. just SOMEHOW i managed to make it to the end. Yeah, i was lookin REAL spiteful walking off the stage... in front of about 700 people.

[donjuan]

, i had to improvise ....about 700 people.

ouch!!!
My condolences.
donjuan

[Antnee]

man... Claire de lune is such a known piece too...

sorry man...

-Tony-

[Spatula]

Yeah most of my mistakes were just not knowing where my hands went and going OMG scrambling my fingers to whatever looked "good".

I remember my annual piano recital where I was doing a Beethoven Peasant Dance, pretty easy, but when I got up to perform, my mind felt like it was dozed on beer and drugs, and my hands were so bloody COLD!  It started off okay but wobbled quite a bit through.  
I didn't completely stop, but ALOT of the notes were noticibly wrong.

Another performance was the piano recital the following year.  I think I was doing Cutberth Harris' Intro and Fugato in D minor.
Everything was fine but until I did the diminished broken chord cadence, my fingers didn't know where to go next, so I improved and did the cadence 3 times!  Somehow it didn't sound too bad when the cadence was repeated because it was a highlight of the piece.
At the final chords, I played it almost like a concert piece and with the final chord, I swung my head back in resolution, like I did some power house Prokofiev Sonata.  

Yeah there it is...  

[janice]

LOL, spatula!  I'm sure that we can all see ourselves as having done something similar!

At the final chords, I played it almost like a concert piece and with the final chord, I swung my head back in resolution, like I did some power house Prokofiev Sonata.

TOOO funny!!!  My philosophy is....just make it look intentional!!  And keep a straight face!!

[Spatula]

I know and read that Horowitz did some poor recitals, and when he finished, he got up, closed the lid of the piano, did a humble bow, and walked off.

No amount of enthusiatic applause would bring him back onstage that night to do an encore.  He was probably rejuvinating for the next recital to do a powerful comeback performance.  

(paraphrased from "Classical Music 101 " for copyright reasons)

[littlechopin]

Bad subject...

My biggest problem is the lapse of memory...

During every concert-contest I've made at least a lapse of memory, inventing a lot of NEW finals...
When you invent Scarbo's final or Rachman etude op 39 n°5 's final, that are slow, it doesn't matter at all (speaking relatively!!!), but when you ruin and create a new final for the Beethoven's "appassionata" or Chopin's Sonata... it is very awful :-((

Why have we to play without scores? ;-))

p.s. the "only" time I hadn't a lapse of memory was at the final exam for graduation ;-)) what a lucky!!!

[Kaylia_D.]

It was April, earlier this year. i had a mini recital for a Tea Party and i had already memorized my pieces. But no...I had to carry my score to "look" professional. So i started my first piece..everything was going well until i sad to myself "look at the score instead of your fingers". So i did, but what I read was a line i already played and then the notes got mixed and it started to sound like krap! So i stoped start over, its was pretty embarassing cause i knew everyone was watching me. But after that everything went perfect...hopefully enough to make up for the mistake.

[Spatula]

Why have we to play without scores? ;-))

p.s. the "only" time I hadn't a lapse of memory was at the final exam for graduation ;-)) what a lucky!!!

Well yeah I wish (and the rest of us) that we can use them, but sometimes if I memorize a piece, I manage to do it better even if the book is closed but on the note shelf just above the keyboard.  Somehow this is like a security blanket even though I know I can't read the notes when the book is closed.

Actually, memorizing a piece by hard and no score is the better approach to releasing your own feelings into the piece, so that you don't just do a crescendo because it says so, but you actually feel it and understand the piece better. ; )

[nerd]

It was a bad piano in a room with very bad acoustics. There was teacher standing behind the piano staring directly at me. My piece was quite easy but not so well prepared. I started playing and got maybe halfway through it. Then I started to play wrong notes and suddenly I was lost. I smashed my hands on the keys, said some K18 words, waited for a second and started from the beginning. There was some 150-200 people in the audience but luckily most of them knew nothing about music. I bet I looked quite weird when I had stopped...

[Spatula]

I wonder what would happen if they screwed up during a concerto...now that'd piss off the whole orchaestra.  I wonder if that ever really happened well the aftermath..did they still "applause" with enthusiasm?

[bachmaninov]

Well... As a judge in national piano competitions and those worldwide, I have witnessed my fair share of "miscues" during a performance. One that comes to mind at the moment...

One contestant walks up on stage and I clarify that he would be playing Chopin's Nocturne No.8 "Lento sostenuto". He sits behind the piano and starts playing. I notice quickly that he is in fact playing Nocturne No. 1 "Larghetto". I was thinking about letting him continue with the piece and just judge him on No. 1 instead, but I had to stop him. I once again requested No. 8 again. And he begins playing. This time instead of No. 8, he is playing No. 12 "Andantino". I was completly baffled and wondered what to do in this case... So I stood up and walked up to the piano and showed him the first line on No. 8. He just stares at the score for a few moments and says "Oh yeah! I remember that one!" And plays it flawlessly...

-- By the way in response to "Spatula"...

It is very very rare to witness any major flaws in concerto's WITH the orchestra. First of all, you have to have already had enough experience with the piece before you can even get it to a level to play it with the orchestra. Secondy, during a rehearsal, the orchestra and pianist already set up special shortcuts incase something is thrown way off track... "Some improvising possibly". This is the reason why u rarely see "Concertos" in competitions. When you play something like a DUO or DUET or Concerto even, it is not ment to be a competetive type of thing, which is why most people performing an ensemble get to use the music score in front of them. In a competition you worry about "hitting all the right notes". In a concerto you are simply trying to connect with the audience... Which is why "ensemble mistakes" are rarely seen.

[Spatula]

Well... As a judge in national piano competitions and those worldwide, I have witnessed my fair share of "miscues" during a performance. One that comes to mind at the moment...

One contestant walks up on stage and I clarify that he would be playing Chopin's Nocturne No.8 "Lento sostenuto". He sits behind the piano and starts playing. I notice quickly that he is in fact playing Nocturne No. 1 "Larghetto". I was thinking about letting him continue with the piece and just judge him on No. 1 instead, but I had to stop him. I once again requested No. 8 again. And he begins playing. This time instead of No. 8, he is playing No. 12 "Andantino". I was completly baffled and wondered what to do in this case... So I stood up and walked up to the piano and showed him the first line on No. 8. He just stares at the score for a few moments and says "Oh yeah! I remember that one!" And plays it flawlessly...

-- By the way in response to "Spatula"...

It is very very rare to witness any major flaws in concerto's WITH the orchestra. First of all, you have to have already had enough experience with the piece before you can even get it to a level to play it with the orchestra. Secondy, during a rehearsal, the orchestra and pianist already set up special shortcuts incase something is thrown way off track... "Some improvising possibly". This is the reason why u rarely see "Concertos" in competitions. When you play something like a DUO or DUET or Concerto even, it is not ment to be a competetive type of thing, which is why most people performing an ensemble get to use the music score in front of them. In a competition you worry about "hitting all the right notes". In a concerto you are simply trying to connect with the audience... Which is why "ensemble mistakes" are rarely seen.

Yeah I'd expect them to have some points with escape or Plan B sort of routes.  Even if the pianist lost track, they could play the chords to fill in until they get their cue back, unless its the solo part  

[TonyG]

Quite amused to hear of the vibrating mobile phone going off!

Many, many years ago I was playing for ballet championships at a theatre in Liverpool. Each school had to use the piece called "Dream of Olwen". I sat and listened to these other pianists and thought to myself 'what an awful noise just wait till they hear ME play' (even though the attention was obviously on the girls competing in the championship!). Anyway disaster tried to strike twice. (a) a Sekonda alarm watch I was wearing went off, this triggered (b) the ballet teacher I was playing for to lean rather heavily on the small upright piano and for it to slide away from me. Thankfully, I got up and followed it and carried on with 'Olwen'.  Did our girl win the prize? alas, no.

I also remember many years later cabaret backing a quite excellent female singer in a large Northern English club on an electronic organ I was not familiar with. All was going well when - MY PLAYING CHANGED KEY!!  I looked at her, she looked at me, God what was happening? this was awful!

On close study of the instrument later it had a pitch changer on the 'swell' pedal and I'd gone and clicked it!

Late 1970s and I had a great scene going in a large Pontins Holidays lounge bar. Grand piano on a platform facing a lovely Gulbransen electronic organ. I played everything in this job. The Stage Newspaper did an article on me "Playing everything from Chopin to Status Quo". I was thrashing away one night - think I was doing some Fats Waller numbers - when the left front leg of the piano collapsed! Believe me, baby grand pianos do make a terrific noise when they collapse! Thankfully I just managed to whip my knees out of the way in time!

These are just three funny (ish) memories I can give you on a long professional career!

[donjuan]

One contestant walks up on stage and I clarify that he would be playing Chopin's Nocturne No.8 "Lento sostenuto". He sits behind the piano and starts playing. I notice quickly that he is in fact playing Nocturne No. 1 "Larghetto". I was thinking about letting him continue with the piece and just judge him on No. 1 instead, but I had to stop him. I once again requested No. 8 again. And he begins playing. This time instead of No. 8, he is playing No. 12 "Andantino". I was completly baffled and wondered what to do in this case... So I stood up and walked up to the piano and showed him the first line on No. 8. He just stares at the score for a few moments and says "Oh yeah! I remember that one!" And plays it flawlessly...  

hmmm, strangly enough, he sounds like a genius!!

[pianojems]

Yeah, I've had a couple of embarrasing moments myself during a performance. I was recently performing for a wedding outdoors.  I had a trumpet playing with me. It was raining and windy suddenly, even though it has been a beautiful day so far. Towards the middle of the piece my music blew away even though I had taped it to the stand. So I would up cadencing right there on the spot without finishing my phrase,to the surprised look of the guests and the trumpeter. My face must have been bright red, but I had never anticipated for this to happen.  

[Irock1ce]

all this talk of mistakes is getting me super nervous for my performance of the Waldstein 1st movt tomorrow... >.<. Lets just hope i make it through alive.

[BajoranD]

When I was in college, I got a call at the last minute to accompany the local high school's choir Christmas concert. I was a trombone major and was still having trouble feeling like a real pianist (and not just a wanna-be), even though I was studying and performing in convos and accompanying (a couple of times) for juries. But the regular accompanist had gotten sick, and gave the HS director my name, and she called me and told me I could do it, and he seemed to think I could do it, and he had NO other options besides me . . . so I tried to do it. I was called at 5:30, I got down there at 6:30, and the concert started at 7:30. And part of that time I was helping him warm the kids up. Three problems:
1. I'd had almost no experience sight-reading on piano in front of other people
2. I'd never before accompanied a choir, and I'd never played a whole concert (three different choirs).
3. This was a small-ish town, with a very intense (and ever so slightly self-important) musical community, so anonymity was impossible.

The very first selection was "Angels We Have Heard On High," with a pretty standard church-hymnalish piano part. But it was in E-flat, and, despite my best efforts, I could NOT get my hands to play a D-natural! They kept trying to play D-flat! I was lowering the leading-tone of the entire song! I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't seem to correct it. We got to the end of the song, and all I had to do was play a D chord to finish it out, and I think I maybe went through four or five chords trying to find D. At that point, my brain decided it had had enough of the whole experience, and it took off to unknown reaches of the world (Hawaii, perhaps?) and left my body to fend for itself. And it got worse.

I had no page turner, and music started falling off the piano. A parent took pity on me, and came up to the piano mid-song to try to help, but by then the damage had been done. And, even though she had great intentions, she wasn't terribly responsive to turning as per my head-nod, she was the "I'll turn it when I think it needs to be turned" type. The choir was singing the prayer from Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel," and I was nodding vigorously, and she wasn't turning, and she finally turned it, but by then I was lost, and about 4 measures after the page turn it was this lovely little piano interlude, except that when the choir stopped singing, there was complete silence, because I didn't know where the ^&#$ I was! And the director is giving me huge panicked looks, but that did NOTHING whatsoever to help me find my place and instead panicked me more, and I was kind of half-singing half-grunting something that sounded like the melody while my hands were hovering helplessly above the keyboard. After that song was over, he turned to the audience, and thanked me for coming to their aid at the last minute, and then waxed philosophically about how this was a great learning moment for his kids, because they need to realize they can't just depend on the piano, they have to be secure in their parts, etc., which sounded a lot to me like, "I'm sorry our pianist sucks so completely, we got her at the last minute, and, you know, you take what you can get . . . "

The whole concert was about 1.5 hours long. I think my level of Hell would be an eternity spent in that hour and a half. My husband immediately took me from the concert to a bar, and between his protestations of, "it really didn't sound as bad as you think it did," he bought me copious quantities of alcohol. Unfortunately, after those kinds of experiences, there isn't enough alcohol in the world to make you forget!

[allchopin]

Haha, well I guess you didn't get an encore then.

[m1469]

What the @#%^&! kind of a comment is that allchopin?  If you have never had a horrifying piano experience then you must be gutless in your piano endeavors!

Anyway, I would like to share one (yes, one of many) of my most interesting performance experiences.  This was about 4 or so years ago, and I had been working on Liszt's "Orage".  Which was a large endeavor for my best efforts at the time.

For those of you who may not be familiar with this piece, it is very loud and fast pretty much the entire time.  For me, this meant that I had to be totally and helplessly surrendered in all ways to the piece at all times, or else trouble brewed quickly.

Well, I had been starting to have difficulty getting through without memory lapses, and in this particular piece, those lapses would tend to leave me with absolutely no memory of what I was supposed to be doing next and would have to stop, and experience the most disturbing silence I know.  

I had a performance coming up, and still was not sure I could make it through without stopping (a most dreadful awareness).  So, I kind of made a pact with myself about an hour and a half before hand, that I was not going to stop no matter what happened, and so it was.

I would like to say this was all there was to it, but no, the storm did indeed come in full glory!  So, I played my first piece, that was fine, but then Orage.  I started and was very focused.  Things were going well until I came to the end of an octavey section and found that I wasn't sure of what came next... other than fast and loud... now, normally here is where I would have had to stop, but not this time.  I was suddenly experiencing some sort of complete possession of the musical present and found my hands were still playing despite my brain having lost it's way.  Now, I have had to improvise before, but this was different.  My hands were flying all over, playing chords I had never even imagined before, as though I were playing exactly what I was supposed to be playing, and then suddenly, through the dark shadows of a long tunnel, I discovered my way back to my path.  So, on the path I walked for  a while until once again, I had strayed so very far, far away.  Again, I was possessed, and music continued and the room became very tiny to me.  I was conscious now, and aware that I was either removing all doubt that I was a fake, or somehow convincing them that I was not.  Again, I found my way back, I was able to end in a fury.  The room was actually silent as I stood up with the very last chord.  It was silent for  what seemed like eternity, but then, to my great surprise, people began to clap wildly.  They liked it!  They took it in!

After that performance, I had several people come up to talk excitedly to me about what I had done.  On my way into the reception room, everybody stopped what they were doing to clap again for me (I was one of a number of performers, but the only one who recieved this treatment).   It was rather perplexing, quite honestly.

From this I learned some very important things.  Some of which I have no words for, but some of which I do.  Like, people want to experience something profound, and surprising, and they did.  People respond to this, beyond what we can control.  

Just thought I would share.

m1469

[BajoranD]

Wow, m1469, that sounds like quite the experience. I wish I could have been there to see it!  

To fix something from my above posting:

We got to the end of the song, and all I had to do was play a D chord to finish it out, and I think I maybe went through four or five chords trying to find D.

By which I meant, of course, E-flat. Because the piece was in E-flat. So how could the last chord be D? See how traumatic the experience was?

[johnsauce]

My worse mistake was probably at Bach Festival this year in the Orange Branch.  

I was playing Fantasia and Gigue from Partita #3 by Bach, and the Fantasia went great.  The first half of the gigue went well too, until I hit the left-hand melody portion.  I completely blanked out in the beginning, and I had to start from the start of the left-hand melody twice.  I probably would have made it to regionals if I didn't make that mistake