Perfecting a piece

[kghayesh]

I want to know when is it that i can say that i am finished for a piece and i am ready to perform it.
My teacher just doesn't accept any performance of most my pieces, although when anyone hears them they say oh brilliant, wonderful and those words ( I know that the teacher's opinion is the most important ).
Every time i play them, they come nearly perfect but sometimes one or two unforced key misses or slight wrong notes occur, and those are what gets the teacher mad at me !!

Advice please
Khaled

[thierry13]

When you can listen to your records and can't see mistakes, and really like the sound of it.

[steinwayguy]

You'll never be "ready" for a performance. Neuhaus writes in his book about how it takes several performances of a work before one gives a truly amazing performance of it.

[rhapsody in orange]

Even when a piece has reached your desired 'perfect level' during lessons/practice, it may not be the same during performances. You can never be too sure. A change in environment/different piano/nerves can have an effect on your playing. But it's precisely these unpredictabiities that makes a performance exciting.. and every performance different and memorable.

[nanabush]

It sucks for me, I had to switch practice from baby grand to a trashy lower grade YC Upright... I practice at my house, and it sounds very good, then I play and I say it's the piano, but my teacher keeps sayin, it's not the piano it's you, I guess It could be true but I honestly think it's the piano...

At performance, imagine if you had to play on a heavy keyed upright, it would be soo bad... no point to this I'm just writing w/e I'm thinking ill stop now..

[Bouter Boogie]

You'll never be "ready" for a performance. Neuhaus writes in his book about how it takes several performances of a work before one gives a truly amazing performance of it.

I agree  You'll never play a piece perfectly  If you think you're ready to perform, then you might be 

[paris]

but my teacher keeps sayin, it's not the piano it's you, I guess It could be true but I honestly think it's the piano...

there are no bad pianoes, only bad pianists... 

[Ruro]

there are no bad pianoes, only bad pianists...

LOL, you havn't seen that one sitting in the local tip, in a million pieces, with enough keys to take home as a souvenir for 50 people then ^_^

Although, being a beginner, I have only used my keyboard! My lessons at my teachers house went badly! I'm supposed to show her my skill on the first day, when as soon as I start playing, her keys are like freaky... "push hard until the key becomes un-jammed and you make a giant noise because of the force"

Hope all pianos aren't like that :/ If so, I best get some practise somewhere...

And I was also curious how you define a "finished a piece", so this thread was helpful ^_^ Thankyou. Although for the sake of arguement, I realise there's a difference between a "finished a piece" and a "ready to perform yet piece", I can imagine there are several tasks before sitting in front of the audience and stuff, mental preparation or something!

[g_flat]

For me, this is by far the most difficult part of piano playing, preparation for performance. I'm a poor performer in general, often shaking and becoming extraordinarily nervous when I go up to play, especially something solo. I've never experienced a true nightmare, but I really don't think I, in my entire life, have ever truly prepared a piece to the standard of excellency required for an even remotely perfect performance. It's never been a big deal before. Usually there are mistakes abound at all my recitals, which don't happen that often anymore. Naturally, if I hear fellow students crash once or twice, something in me just doesn't care if I do likewise.

Really though, this is a major problem for me, because even once one (or maybe it's just me) seems to have a peice "finished", the piece must sort of sit and "simmer". Also, I've found that practicing or maybe, playing it, a lot doesn't help because, in my case, it just reinstates some bad habits that I instilled into the piece when I was learning it. It seems that I, at this point anyway, have yet to acquire the musical maturity necessary for 1. overcoming nerves and 2. more importantly, completely preparing a piece for performance.

For me, piano playing has brought forth no greater obstacle. God knows when and if I'll ever overcome it.

And I plan on majoring in piano performance! Lately I've been giving more and more thought to a double-major...

Edit: I love it when I get lucky on stage though. In fact, I entirely rely on luck that a piece goes well in performance, but I know that the very fact that I do this is probably good indication that my work in unfinished.

Also, in response to the things about different pianos. It does take a certain degree of adjustment for all pianists to play on a different piano. Add a hundred foreign faces to a your already foreign piano on a foreign stage and YIKES!!! My stage fright is so bad, yet somehow I realize how utterly pointless it is.

But yeah, the ability to adjust to different pianos is an acquisition that will come in time. You're gonna have to be playing on a lot of different pianos in your future: impressing friends at parties, performing on stage, going to your piano lesson, playing your Aunt Sally's piano, etc. You'll get the hang of it. It does make it exceptionally difficult though if your practice piano is digital...