Piano Forum

OMG, that's awful.  Yeah, that makes me cringe a bit in sympathy, but it seems it turned out OK.

Yes, very cringey moment. I've seen it a handful of times in competitions, they just run off stage embarassed at their errors. It is a little sad because we should really embrace those who stuff up on stage, every serious performer has done it at some point in time and no one is immune to it. That is why I think we all cheered so loud when she went up to collect her prize, she really was a great pianist and deserved the accolades, she just had a bad day which anyone can have.

I remember a friend of a friend who was playing in Year 12 for a talent competition. His piece was the Militaire March by Chopin, however he had the entire piece (all 8 pages) photocopied and stuck together with tape hovering on the music ledge.

He got HALF WAY through the first page when a slight burst of air knocked the music off the ledge and onto his hands as he was playing, which he attempted to continue playing through despite the music covering his hands. This lasted for about 3 seconds before he used his right hand to throw the music over his shoulder and attempt to play from memory.

It did not go well - felt sorry for the guy. I guess playing from memory is easier for some than others.

Awww poor guy, it would have been fun if it was something planned and put into the act

In the days when my father ran the classified advertisements in the Herald the promoters used to dish out complimentary tickets. In this case Dad and I had plum seats for Julius Katchen, right up close. During the Waldstein slow movement somebody in the front row let out a long, resounding fart. He must have heard it but he didn't let on. I nearly broke up laughing but Dad's gaze sobered me.

Oh no lol. Perhaps some disgruntled husband who was forced to attend with his wife. I remember when we were preparing a show at school, our teacher told us to keep going no matter what interruptions occur (because it's a school production with student families invited there is usually little babies crying or all sorts of distractions). One of the nights the fire alarm malfunctioned and went off for about 2 minutes, no one could hear a thing but we just kept going on. I remember playing piano solo in primary school and a few kids were talking in the front row and shoving each other around while I was playing so I stopped and told them to be quiet.

When I was around 12 or so I was going to perform together with the other kids in my teachers' class. During the performancce before me I suddenly started bleeding copiously from my nose. This situtation was saved by a large piece of toilet paper from the bathroom stuffed into my nose, but right after that I had to walk up on the stage and play. I don't think this is embarassing anymore but at that age I was mortified. To add insult to injury the teacher announced that I had a little accident and I was thinking like "gaaah don't draw any more attention to this I already got a big paper thingy sticking out from my nose" 

LOL! Some people get very queasy when it comes to blood. I used to get blood noses a lot as a kid too, I can remember at a friends house I had thrown some bloody tissues into their toilet but forgot to flush it. The mum saw it and fainted.

I was playing for judges from memory during a recital a few years ago and one of the pieces on my program was Mozart Sonata in B-flat Major K. 333. At the LAST LINE of the first movement, my memory completely failed and I couldn't remember the last four measures. Instead of just playing a V-I and calling it a day, I started from the top of the last page and made my way back down to the same spot, only to completely blank AGAIN. Funny looking back at it, pretty awful in the moment.

It is an awful feeling and it can even happen with something you have practiced for a long time and know very well! Everyone has experienced it at some point usually during their practice sessions, it is so annoying when it occurs during a performance. Anyone who has performed a lot by memory would have experienced it in performance at least more than one time, we just have to train to play through them to cause as little disruption as possible which can be challenging on stage when it feels like you have been thrown into freezing water all of a sudden and need to fight for survival.

A more lighthearted story - I was playing two short pieces for a community music night event, and I had to use a Roland electric piano. For some reason I was moving my hands a lot and hit some of the buttons; during the first piece I accidentally turned on the super loud built-in metronome and during the second I managed to turn the sound from piano to organ. 

OMG that it one of my fears when I play on a digital piano. I remember in one competition for a major charity organization in my state (I got beaten by a robot dancer in the finals so I didnt get to go on TV ) I was playing my digital piano and during a difficult part I accidently pressed a different instrument sound. My piano sounded like marimbas for a few seconds. The same occured during a highschool presentation night, I had to play while people went up to collect their certificates, my finger clipped a instrument change button so the piano sounded like some artifical flute. There should really be like a lock button so even if you press something while playing it doesn't do anything!