Performance Mentality

[perfect_playing]

This is something I've been thinking a lot about recently, and it really helped me get through a recent performance which I'd say was one of my best ever.

When performing, we should aim to feel at ease and really listen to the sound of our instrument and listen out for all the nuances of our playing, rather than letting doubts enter our mind e.g. what if I miss that note? When we get into this mentality, the chances of us getting nervous and stuffing everything reduce significantly, and we feel better about ourselves and we convey our art in a better way to the audience.

Thoughts?

[diomedes]

All of those aims hopefully are the main objective for any performer making a presentation, that and more are certainly my ideals.  But i can't strive for those objectives unless i'm prepared adequately, and it still stuns me how sometimes i approach something and i'm completely unprepared. I'm going to be more involved with the process in the future and hopefully design a regime that's dependable. When you perform infrequently it's difficult to achieve what you mentioned.

But i completely agree, conveying the art and communicating sound is i think the greatest objective. I was designing recital programs for the future yesterday, it was extremely pleasant and i hope to achieve the above soon enough.

What did you perform?

[michael_sayers]

Confidence is essential to a performer.  If there is a mistake then already be prepared to somehow take the audience's mind off of it with how the next notes are played.  Wrong notes aren't noticed as much as one would think, and sometimes not even by pianists who might have the music in their repertoire.


Mvh,
Michael