Passage stops working

[funnypianist]

I have a problem. I have to perform several (technically) difficult sonatas and other pieces. Recently I’ve been studying difficult passages using different methods (rhythmic variations slow, in groups, staccato, etc.). It used to work before, but not anymore: when I start playing the passages, my hand 'locks' and clamps, the notes are skipped and the passage is bad.  Probably there is also a psychological factor (I’m very nervous  ...because the competition is very important for me…I know all the pieces very well and I’ve played them a lot of times before…)...The problem is that I must perform the day after tomorrow and I feel completely blocked as if I’ve never seen and played these pieces before… how can I solve the problem during this time? 

[anacrusis]

I don't know any quick fixes for anything, but my advice for any performance situation would be to accept that you maybe won't play well and be okay with it. The harder you try to play well, the more everything is lost. It's the fighting against a specific outcome that causes us problems, and paradoxically the more okay we are with making a fool out of ourselves the more at ease we can be, and the more likely that we'll relax and play well. Give yourself to the situation and let whatever happens just happen. You'll be okay.

Can you, hypothetically, be okay with walking up on stage, turning to the judges and looking them dead in the eye, and then bang a couple of C major chords while making drooling mad-man faces instead of playing your repertoire, and then walk off stage like nothing out of the ordinary just happened? Can you see how, if you can be okay with that, performing anything will be a piece of cake?

[brogers70]

One of my previous teachers won a Haydn competition as a child - he said he won because he absolutely hated Haydn and couldn't care less how he did.

[mila5405]

I Feel sorry for you. Do you sleep well? Thats important. Also repetitions and staccato playing can make your fingers tense so less of that.
Sometimes Its good to talk to a friend och maybe a teacher.
Good Luck /Mikael

[derekchiupiano]

Unfortunately there is probably little you can do in one or two days.  This is the type of thing that takes months to prepare for. How does your teacher help you with developing technique? It would be interesting to see what your teacher is doing to support you with technical passages.

It's not just acquiring the technical fluency. It also is developing the mindset to play these passages musically and believing in one's practise. With my students we start building the performer's mind set from the moment we start a piece.  We have drills to over come technical difficulties but we also learn to do things in a musical way so that we don't preoccupy ourselves with the technical issues.  Our focus should always be on making the music speak and if we are caught up on the physical we are unable to play the notes. 

I also suspect that there could be fingering issues and that you need to develop more technically.