How to prepare for a piano competition

[nitroglycerin]

Hey all! I am going to play on a piano competition in a few days, so I thought of doing a research on how to deal with the stress before a performance (also known as 'stage fright'). I have found a lot of useful things and now I want to share them with you. Here is the link:

https://pianoeducation.org/pnotperf.html#

Wish you all the best!

[pianisten1989]

Which competition is it?
Uhm... Positive thoughts, I guess... It works for me, but you have to find your own way.

[nitroglycerin]

Well, it's 'Carl Filtsch' International Competition - Festival for Pianists and Composers, Sibiu (Romania) 5th - 11th of July, 2010. What do you mean by finding my own way?

[pianisten1989]

Ok, good luck

Well (like everything else), all of us doesn't work the same way. For me, it works to, some days before, think a lot of positive thoughts. About how the concerts will go, about how I'll play, how the audience react. Some other might lock themselves in a practising room, and practise 24/7 a week before.

So the more experience you get, the more you know about yourself.

[nearenough]

Think only one person will be hearing you. How bad could that be? (In reality it is only a single person that can laugh at your errors. Are they all connected into a giant critical response mass? No. They are only isolated hearers, half of which don't know much about the pieces you are going to play anyway.)

[nitroglycerin]

It looks like it worked for me too... I played everything as good as I could. And there were only 2 persons in the hall (except the jury) Because it was 9 AM and no one wanted to wake up so early (I was the first who played in the competition). However, I took first place (I was shocked). Thank you both for the tips and wish you all the best!

[joao975ca]

I don't like the word "competition"... you should not think like "i'm going to miss a note" or something else, while playing. Just think that people are there to hear music, and that is the most important...forget the part that you are being watched by a jugde and play like you were at home.

[lostinidlewonder]

I don't like competitions now but when I entered competitions when I was younger I won almost all of them. Most important is mindset. My mind was set to win and to be better than everyone else. This confidence encouraged me to work harder than any of the other competitors (not that I knew that for certain but I worked very hard so I was satisfied I put maximum work effort into the competition project). Because I felt I was better prepared and presented music which was much more advanced than most of them (or an better interpretation of a required piece) this showed confidence in my stage presence and mindset while I was playing.

If you just think "I'll give it a go it will be a good experience to be in a competition" then do not expect to win or even come a place. It will in fact reduce your chances of doing well in a competition if you take that passive mental attitude of "not caring" about the result and just wanting to have fun. Competitions are not a place to have fun with your music, there are better places for that, competitions are brutal and unfriendly in reality, every man/woman for themselves!

Record yourself all the time, the entire program you will present without stopping then listen to the results. There will always be imperfections and your aim is to produce a recording which is as close to perfect as you can get. The more times you produce these type of recordings in a row the more chance you will produce the same in competition or exam even.

Non musical presentation is also a detail that you should think about. Do not over dress, try not to wear the cliche black pants and white shirt with bow tie. Smile and show your teeth when you smile as you walk onto stage and off. You might not feel that it is very important but it will effect the jury members. They will sense that you are at ease, present a friendly aura, makes you more likable somewhat. It is better than a stone faced sad sac. Do not strut onto stage with a puffed chest and full of arrogant confidence, but at the same time do not slouch and hunch over as you walk onto stage try to be normal! A smile is very important however please provide your audience and jury members with a couple! You should practice this before hand if it doesn't come naturally    

[pianorama_competition]

I think that there are several different mindsets that you can choose and that might be successful when going into a competition. Many different kind of personalities win competitions with very different attitudes.