Being warmed up for a recital HELP

[cwjalex]

I have never played in a recital or performance and I have one coming up in the next week.  I know I am playing last and I am worried about being warmed up properly.  Is there any advice anyone has for me?  Are there any exercises people do while others are playing to keep themselves warm?  Maybe like move their fingers around or air piano and pretend you are playing the piece?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[stevensk]

1) pushups
2) mittens
3) situps
4) fireplace
5) stove

[cwjalex]

good ideas, i was thinking about doing some sweet bung sa karate moves if i have the space to keep myself warm.    in all seriousness i should have just picked an easier piece that i wasn't so worried about.  im playing temptation rag by henry lodge which isn't too difficult to play at 170-180 BPM but i want to play it at 200-210BPM cause i think it sounds better at that speed.  The only problem is it's way more difficult at that tempo

[alextone]

How about playing on a table? 

[worov]

Wash your hands in hot water. Your fingers will fly !

[visitor]

you don't need to be 'warmed up'. It's not a track and field event.  Part of your preparation to present the work on stage is learning to play and perform without a 'warm up'.  If you know the piece well enough and have a short rehearsal earlier in the day before the event, it will be sufficient.  You won't always have the nice but unceccessary luxury of warming up and performing right after whatever routine you think is neccessary to crank the piece out.

Know the piece, be confident in what you want to bring across, connect with your audience or jury, take some risk and don't be afraid to express something new (i.e. you can create new things at the keyboard in the heat of the moment, perhaps bring out parts of the music you didn't neccessarily plan on doing, etc.).

Good luck

[iansinclair]

I'm not at all convinced by the value of warming up beyond simply getting your hands good and flexible.  Obviously if they are physically cold, get them physically warm!  And beyond that simply flexing them (not clenching them!).  Or if you have a keyboard you can use, play something dead simple but which you really enjoy playing to accomplish the same thing.

Some musical artists do have to warm up, I'll grant you -- brass players, for instance, have to get their horns uniformly warm, literally.  Reed players have to get the reed to behave.  Dancers do a fairly complete warm up -- but not to rehearse anything, but to make sure that all the joints and muscles are, in fact, warm, so as to avoid injury.