Despite practice, I still commit mistakes

[faa2010]

I have been practicing and practicing several pieces. However, I was with someone who asked me to play in an electrical clavichord, and when I played, I made some mistakes.

I was not totally concentrated and I forgot some passages.

I felt a little embarrassed, and I told him about my dream of entering to a music school before and that I have been studying. Even though he said that he liked it, I feel that I didn't perform well like when I did in my last recital.

This wasn't the first time, one day I played in a music shop with my bro seeing and I did several mistakes as well.

When I am practicing, I make less mistakes.

Why is it happening?

[outin]

Everyone makes mistakes. There are a lot of threads already about how to minimize those by efficient practice and how to learn to get over them in performance. It's also normal for the pieces to deteriorate after you think they are finished and stop working on them in variable way and just play through.

I think I have told you this before and I will say it once more: Instead of constantly looking for outside reassurance and technical solutions to all these problems you feel you have, you really need to work on your emotional issues if you ever want to survive music school. With so many insecurities you'll be eaten alive...

[alpacinator1]

I don't like how people today focus so much on technical accuracy. Sure, it's impressive to hear Hamelin blazing through some super complex Alkan piece without making any mistakes, but I don't think that should be the emphasis of art. Cortot was known to make plenty of mistakes but I still enjoy listening to his wonderful interpretations. It seems like piano competitions and conservatories focus so much on accuracy that nobody is playing music with a memorable interpretation. Style has become so homogenized.

[bronnestam]

Everyone makes mistakes. The greatest pianists make mistakes during live performances. Of course you have to know the piece very well, but you also have to know the art of masking your mistakes. Just keep on playing and make no faces. Most listeners will never notice what happened. Besides, you are not obliged to follow every score in insane detail. In the old days, performers were expected to make their own adjustments, just as modern musicians are expected to make their own covers when they perform someone elese's song. Today classical musicians seem to be awfully afraid of making their own "versions" of some dead old master's music.   

We are all used to recordings these days, very polished and perfect recordings. You should be aware that they are like any model photos - post-edited! When a longer piece is recorded, it is usually split up in sections which makes re-recordings easier. You can even edit the pitch and volume and other parameters afterwards. The result is perfect, but it is not authentic.

The best live performances I have ever heard were not without mistakes, but they were vivid and inspired and great in other aspects. Like Beethoven said - playing the wrong note is insignificant, playing without passion is unexcusable.   


Why do you make more mistakes when you perform than when you practice at home? Because you don't know the piece as good as you think. Can you play a part of it with your left hand, then shift to your right hand in the middle of a phrase, for instance? Can you stop and start just about EVERYWHERE in the piece? What happens if you play on another piano than your usual one, or get another chair, or get disturbed by movements behind your back, etcetera? (I always get busted on such details.    )
I recommend that you try to practice in many different environments, on different kinds of pianos - even those who are plastic, out of tune, wrecked. That will make you less sensitive for changes. It is like learning how to drive a car. At first you can only drive ONE car and you need your sunglasses and your special gloves and this and that. When you are an experienced driver who has tried many brands and many circumstances, you just take your place in the driver's seat and drive, because you have learned to "generalize" your driving.

[adodd81802]

I like Bronnestams answer to be honest he's covered a lot of things - A few bits to think about.

Do you have a videophone or camera? Try recording some of your pieces to post up here (even if you don't post them set to record with the aim to get a perfect performance) do you mess up a lot?

I definitely think there are 2 levels to practicing a piece. Practicing a piece for yourself and then practicing your piece for others. Recording is a good way to practice with that similar pressure without having someone needing to sit around all the time to listen. Identify the areas where you mess up then practice that area on your own, then try to record again. Repeat until the areas are better.

Now when I say identify areas I don't suggest right at bar 30 you mess up, so quit recording, start the whole song again on your own and play right to bar 29 and slow down to check out the problem.

I mean strip away the rest of the song and just focus on bar 30. when you know the bar backwards, forwards and upside down, then play bars 29 / 30 / 31 and see if it's smooth if there are problems.

Efficient practice is key treat every bar as a little song that you need to master so as Bronnestam said you need to be at a level where someone can say stop in the middle of the song and you stop. then they say start and you can carry off like nothing has happened.

Without knowing how you practice it may be difficult to identify where you could potentially going wrong.

One thing you may find is you're learning only in your fingers rather than your brain. If you forget notes you can tend to find what happens is your fingers remember the keys but your brain doesn't, you focus too much on hearing the right notes that your fingers play. Then if you miss a note or even a dynamique that doesn't sound quite right to the ear your brain gets distorted and all of a sudden the passage is gone. your fingers don't have a brain your need to learn with your brain and tell it to your fingers.

Lastly do you mess up if you perform on your piano at your home for other people? for some, practicing at different places or different piano's definitely help because it stops your brain from associating specific things with your practice, IE that nice wallpaper in the room, the feel of the carpet, that sound of the dog barking that brings your brain at ease to know you're in a place where you can't be judged for going wrong. If you can practice elsewhere, do so.