Surviving a Recital

My piano students are putting the finishing touches on their pieces for next week's recital. Being a little nervous when performing is perfectly normal. Here are some tips on overcoming the last-minute jitters:

1. Breathe. Take time to relax, breathe deeply.
2. Stretch hands and body.
3. Stay hydrated.
4. Channel nervousness into motivation. In other words, use it to encourage you to do you best.

Taken from: http://piano.about.com/od/recitalsperformances/tp/Stage-Fright-Symptoms.htm

And here are some of my own ideas:

1. Arrive early to avoid last-minute rush and, if possible, play your piece on the piano on which you will perform.
2. Take time to be well groomed and dress nicely.
2. Check the program to make sure you know when it's your turn.
3. Take time to adjust the piano bench to the right distance from the piano.
4. Take a deep breath.
5. Take a moment to mentally decide on your tempo. When you're nervous, you may tend to start out faster than you should.
6. If you make a mistake, just keep on playing. Don't correct yourself. Don't gasp or mutter or burst into tears. Just keep on going.
7. When you're done, smile and take a bow.
8. When people congratulate you on doing a good job, be gracious and thank them.
9. Be a good audience for others who are performing.

Video #20 Pedaling

Another Robert Estrin video, this one on pedaling techniques.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQZXsKWt9Xs

Here are some tips Estrin offers when pedaling:

1. Keep heels firmly on the floor.

2. The ball of the foot is how you control the pedal.

3. Always keep the ball of the foot in contact with the pedal. If you don't, and you come down on the pedal, it creates noise.

4. The pedals of each piano is different. They all release the dampers at different points. You have to experiment to see how you can pedal quietly and effectively.

5. One of the first things you want to do before playing a piano, especially for a concert, is how the pedals respond.

Expose Your Children to a Variety of Cultural and Musical Happenings

Summer is a fantastic time to expose your children to a variety of musical, art, and cultural events. Many communities have free concerts at the park, featuring a variety of genres. If you live near a university, find out about recitals that may be open to the public. The wider the variety, the better. Museums, art shows, dance festivals, celtic festivals...the list goes on and on.

I'll be forever grateful to my dad, who took his children to many cultural events even though money was very tight. I remember the thrill of sitting in a huge auditorium and being blown away by a full evening of Beethoven. He took us to the Ice Capades and to "The Nutcracker." We went to many community plays and concerts.

Largely because of this exposure, I have loved music, theatre and the arts all my life.

Memorization

Memorizing piano music takes skill. In this blog I will share memorization tips.

This website gives you several basic memorization techniques to get you started:

http://www.nazzaromusic.com/6-quick-tips-memorizing-performing-music/

There are three memorization techniques that aren't mentioned in this article.

One is to play slowly. Playing slowly and counting the rhythm are helpful not only in memorization but they're important when learning to play any new piece.

The second is to use the articulation and dynamics from the start. Don't wait until you've memorized a piece to start including them. It's more difficult to re-learn something than it is to just learn it a certain way to begin with.

The third is to decide upfront that you will memorize a certain piece. Then as you learn it, section by section, memorize that section.

Once again, don't just learn (and memorize) the notes, rhythm, and fingering; add the articulation and dynamics from the beginning of the learning process. Memorize each section in its complete form.