How to Recover from a Major Error

[scott13]

This post is more aimed at high level pianists who have played major recitals.

How are you meant to recover from a major error whilst on stage? Not talking about one-two bars played badly, but more a substantial memory slip or another major error on the same level?

How do the players out there deal with these situations? I'm sure they must at some stage, happen to everybody on some level?

How do others deal with these types of problems and is there anyway to prevent them happening? (Aside from knowing the music backwards)

[nanabush]

Since there aren't any replies, I'm going to say what I did (and what I suggest not doing).  This was for an exam about 4 years ago; I had a huge memory lapse in the Brahms G minor Rhapsody.  I literally forgot what to play, so I looked at the examiners, half awkward-grinned, and then restarted the piece lol!  They obviously had something to say about that in the comments, but I didn't end up doing that bad.

As for in a recital, I've only had a few solo recitals, and they weren't for a huge audience, but luckily nothing happened during those

[pianoman53]

I played at a half major concert. Not a concert hall, but quite a big hall in a school. I was just a small small part of it all, so no one really cared about me. Anyway, I felt quite sick already (and next day I found out that I had the flu *yay*). So, I was playing, and suddenly I got all dizzy and everything turned black for a few seconds (probably not that much, but you know how it is) and I skipped like an entire page. And then it happened again, that everything turned black and all, so I decided to play a cadenza, and then be done with it. It really wasn't my proudest moment, and I cried so badly the whole day after the concert.

But, piano is like basically everything else. Either you chose to just leave it, and never play it again. Or you suck it up, cry a river (build a bridge) and get over it.
I think a part of the difference between a good pianist and a profesional one is the way they get over things like that. Ofc, a real concert pianist doesn't screw up that badly, but you know what I mean...

[liszt1022]

Only once did I seriously blank out, it was during the 1st movement of Beethoven's op. 2 no. 3, about seven years ago.

Wouldn't have happened if I had had a stronger understanding of the chord progressions. But since then I've done better about understanding the theory of what I'm playing and it hasn't happened again.

[mc9320]

This happened to me years ago when I was giving a solo piano recital at a school concert.
The way I got over the problem was to build my confidence by 'practicing as you perform'. This has been an invaluable piece of advice I received from one of my piano teachers. Try these tips..

1) When you practice, record yourself from time to time. This will help you to understand how you sound and add a sense of performance to your playing rather than just practice. Don't worry if you don't like how you sound, everyone is overly critical of their own playing 

2) Also, try performing your pieces to smaller audiences. This could be one or two people, and slowly increase the number as you gain in confidence. When I used to practice at university, I would sometimes keep the practice door open (if there weren't too many people around) or just invite a couple of people to hear me play a piece.

Hope this helps!

[ionian_tinnear]

We've talked about major errors, how about the minor errors?  Not to mention the diminished errors, full and half!

Blanked out? Yes, sort of.  I'll occasionally zone out and start listening to the music and stop 'playing' it, then come back and try to remember where I'm at in the piece.  Very odd sensation that can be.

[brogers70]

Since there aren't any replies, I'm going to say what I did (and what I suggest not doing).  This was for an exam about 4 years ago; I had a huge memory lapse in the Brahms G minor Rhapsody.  I literally forgot what to play, so I looked at the examiners, half awkward-grinned, and then restarted the piece lol!  They obviously had something to say about that in the comments, but I didn't end up doing that bad.

I think you did the right thing, apart from the awkward grin. I once saw Andres Segovia get his fingers tangled up at the beginning of the fugue from the Bach G minor violin sonata. He just stopped and restarted the piece. There's nothing else to do.

[scott13]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.

What would you for major error in the middle of a substantial piece? Say Chopin's 1st Ballade ? or something of similar length that you 'can't really re-start" ?

[petzzo]

from my experience, it is not very good to re-start a piece, or even the part where the error happened, because you will be focused on the error you made and screw it up again. I think its better to have a piece divided into several parts and then when an error occurs, simply start from the following part.

[vivian2nana]

Advises from our professional pianist friend, it might help:

1. Practicing being able to start at any phrases, or any logical places.  In case something goes wrong, you'll always know where the next section is to jump to.

2. For pieces such as Bach Prelude and Fugue (WTC), practicing left hand alone and know it inside out. When something goes wrong, the left hand may still be able to continue and giving an opportunity for the right hand to catch up.

3. When all things falls apart, improvise for a few seconds in the same key until you are able to start the next section.

It could happen to anyone, we are human, after all. Arthur Rubinstein once had a serious error during a live performance when he went into a loop and repeated for the 3rd time, he finally improvised something and got out of the loop to continue onto the next section.

[lostinidlewonder]

I've only once stopped in a public concert, and on the last piece of the night! I merely stopped, took my jacket off and started again. People asked me at the end of the concert if it where  part of the act funnily enough. The 2nd time through I had no excuses I had to do it, I am so glad I didn't stop the 2nd time and cracked it with a standing ovation! Countless times in performance you may miss a note or feel uncomfortable but you learn to play over those, it is a human thing to do! We at least try not to stop... I can remember once in performance when I was younger I got stuck in a repeat cycle!! I couldn't do the 2nd ending and kept doing the first to my horror. I remember reading about some other pianist doing that but I forgot whom, and people where wondering why they kept hearing the same part repeated so often


I remember when I was younger in one competition I stopped and swore pretty loudly lol. That wasn't a good idea.

The best thing to do is just move on. If it is a large scale work you cannot afford to start again, you need to start at the next phrase or somewhere close, try not to repeat yourself because that sounds funny.If it is a small work or you muck up near the start, merely start again. We hope not to make mistakes in concert, we train ourselves privately to do so, but the stage is unexpected, no performer has ever gone through their career without making mistakes and I would challenge any performer who claims that they have ever done a concert without one mistake! We just don't want those terrible mistakes, but they happen, just learn to move on and don't get too upset, surely you as a performer are effected much worse than anyone else in the audience, just remember that.

[nearenough]

On a cruise ship talent show I played Chopin's Revolutionary Etude and forgot the middle development section so immediately switched to starting the whole piece over without missing a beat. Ending it with flair, no one knew what happened.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I heard that a famous pianist, I think Zimmerman or Ashkenazy, was playing Chopin Sonata 2 but had a complete memory slip, so he just played some possible chord progressions until he got his memory back lol

[robson]

How to Recover from a Major Error

play turn around...

[49410enrique]

I heard that a famous pianist, I think Zimmerman or Ashkenazy, was playing Chopin Sonata 2 but had a complete memory slip, so he just played some possible chord progressions until he got his memory back lol

pretty much what i was taught to do. 'memory stations' my previous professory called them. in a work you put up mental 'guide posts' alternate start places so that in rehearsal you practice playing thorugh a work, the just stop and skip to the next memeroy station and continue on like nothing happened, that way in a performance when it occurs you've already practiced the recovery. it has saved my rear from having to 'go back' to the begininning or other major place in the form.  i try to always skip forward as it seems to help the music flow better, i.e. the bauble doesn't come across as abrupt as a rewind.  also it's the approach you sort of have to used when playing ensemble, chamber, orchestral works, it's a moving train if you fall off you need to just pick up and run after it and get back on. it doesn't slow down and wait for you. for solo works the trick is to have these stations at decent frequencies so you dont' skip a huge chunk of music when it happends. but there's probably other really good ways to do too that are different i just haven't personally experimented with them yet.

[newkidintown]

Once while playing at a mall I forgot where I was on top of messing up horrendously. I just took a breath and started over. Most people understood, and luckily I was near a repeat to go back to the beginning anyway.

Also, improv is your friend. I can't even count how many times it's saved my whole performance or someone else's.

[jesc]

I've been b*tching around this forum about my memory. But what I didn't mention was that my memory lapses were always confined to either the left or right hand but rarely (if ever) both. Right now I don't recall a mental block where both my hands are paralyzed.

Thus for the case I stated above, what I did was to keep the hand "that remembers" playing and let the other hand catch up later on. I managed to pull this off many times to the point that I was no longer worried that I'll stop dead in my tracks in my recital.

[thing2emma]

I completely lost it in my Grade 10 exam today, playing Rialto Ripples by Gershwin. Without skipping a beat, I skipped ahead a line to where my next number was (I have all songs divided into sections with numbers for this very reason) and finished confidently. I have yet to see how I was marked on it, but really part of being a performer is being able recover quickly. I've played in festivals where the adjudicator has congratulated someone and given them a high mark despite the memory mess up, because they showed they are a true performer, by continuing on without looking back.

[omar_roy]

I had a horrible memory slip in the first movement of a Beethoven Sonata during my Junior Recital last year.  I made it through the first theme, and the 2nd theme, but at the transition to the closing theme of the exposition, I completely blanked.  I searched my memory frantically for what I was supposed to play but I simply couldn't find it.  I fiddled around playing things on stage for what seemed like forever before I decided to just start the development.  I was so rattled by this that I could barely keep from shaking, and yet I made it through the development and recap without issue.

The only thing left to do after that was accept that it happened and move on, so I played the 2nd and 3rd movements better than I had ever played them before.  Upon review of the recording, I was still horrified, but relieved that I didn't fiddle around for as long as I felt I did.

Really there's not much you can do when you have a major error except try and cover the best you can and move on.  This is why its so important to have checkpoints and know your music harmonically, so that you can just skip ahead to the nearest section and keep going.

The best advice I can give you is to just do your best to move on when bad stuff happens.  It happens to everyone.  Very few performances are perfect, and that's just a risk we have to accept when we step on stage.