Hi there everyone. Just a brief summary of me. I learned piano from the age of 7 to 17 doing grade 1 to 7. Then quit. Found the courage at age 29 (last year) to do my grade eight and passed with 128 marks. I was very pleased as i greatly lack in confidence. My teacher is fantastic and he is always boosting my confidence telling me how good I am, so I acually started to believe I am quite good at it.

Until tonight. I got the highest score in the area so I was beaming with pride and was therefore invited to perform at the high scorers concert. Never before have I done anything like this. My gut reaction was to say no. However, I envy people who can perform and always wished I could be like that. So I pushed myself forward and said yes. I got there and there were 200 people there! I have neve been so scared in my entire life! By the time it got round to me, I thought my heart was goingto burst it was beating that fast and my hands were shaking ridiculously. My grade eight exam was nothing ompared to this. My piece was six pages long, Mozart Sonata Allegro in F. I did it I made mistakes and I almost lost it at one point but I found my thread and carried on. Everyone clapped but i was so disappointed, I played it near perfect in my exam.

Just as I was beginning to believe in myself too. I thought doing it might have boosted my confidence but it did quite the opposite. My family thought I was briill and a woman walked past and said I have no idea why you were nervous you have no need to be, which was nice to hear. I just wondered if anyone had had any similar experiences to share and any tips on how to keep calm as I would like to be able to do it good next time and blow them away!

Hi Jewsters,

I believe I was in the 200+ audience to which you played tonight!! I had a pupil play the last piece of the night (if my suspicion is correct) I have just read your post and recognised the name of your piece, checked my programme, etc.......!

You were great and I admire anyone who can perform - despite the dreadful feelings of tension that we ALL feel!!

It'll feel better the more you are able to perform.

hillyb

Well done, Jewster! It's no joke for anyone to perform in front of 200 musical people, and you did it! The main thing is that you kept going, and you must have played musically to get such a lovely comment from a stranger. Remember that although the wrong notes were obvious to you, the audience were far more aware of all the right ones you played .

Anyone would feel nervous under these conditions. There have been lots of threads on how to combat nerves recently, so do try the search facility if you want advice on that. The best way to improve at performing is to perform, so you have made a great start. Be proud of yourself - you did great!

Hello, yes I remember your pupil. In fact I admired him for being a mature student, as I am I suppose, but I also really enjoyed his performance. I was even swaying along to it! Thanks for your comments, I hope to keep trying to be more confident. x





Im new to his forum malarky so i dont quite know what i have done to this page! I seem to have duplicated everything! Bare with me!

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Hello, yes I remember your pupil. In fact I admired him for being a mature student, as I am I suppose, but I also really enjoyed his performance. I was even swaying along to it! Thanks for your comments, I hope to keep trying to be more confident. x
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Thank you. Glad you enjoyed his performance - it's a really catchy tune that he played. I really enjoyed the Concert tonight as there was such a great mix from tiny children with large instruments to contend with to more 'mature' students and everyone gave such great performances. Don't spend too much time worrying about tonight. Your confidnce will grow! I can vouch for that!!

hillyb x

Well done, you, for going back to it all and for going for it in front of an audience! I agree with what the others have said - that you'll have been the one to notice the mistakes while everybody else will have noticed what was really good. I did something similar myself when I did my Grade 8 as an adult who had left things for quite a while, and I can remember the whole place swimming round me as I sat down at the piano. It ain't easy! And you DO feel really annoyed with yourself for the mistakes, but the audience is behind you and rooting for you - and it does get easier. Take every chance you can get to play from now on - it starts to get very addictive!

Not a high scorers concert as such, but having been invited to play an itty bitsy little piece as part of the highlights concert after a competition festival this year - I'd also say the nerves are normal, and you will be able to enjoy the "high" of performing much more, and worry less about any gremlins, the more you do. I only had two pages of incomprehensible nonsense to get through, but also with about 200 people listening, my biggest audience ever, and I'd have chewed my recorder out of nerves beforehand if I hadn't needed to be able to play it...but the "buzz" of having such a captive audience (and a sympathetic one at that - after all, it was made up of the friends and relatives of all the performers, in the main...) and getting a round of applause made up for the pre-performance jitters.
Congratulations on your achievement, and in adulthood too .

To Jewster - you must feel nothing but pride that you actually got up there and did it. I had the chance to perform in a concert like that twice and I'm afraid to admit that I turned down the opportunity to perform. So your nerves are a whole lot better than mine !!! Well done to you for having the guts to do it.

Where was the concert, Jewster?

I went to that concert! My brother played in it. You were really good, I don't know how you did it and I didn't notice any mistakes. My brother played Grade 5 piano Andante in B Flat. He is called Tom Mottershead.

Yes I remember. I looked him up on the programme. Was he nervous? He was very good. No one seemed half as nervous as I did! I dont know how I did it either! I thought I'd lost it at one point but somehow I managed to carry on. I need more practice at performing in public. Apparently it does help you overcome your nerves! I hope so.

I have a friend who is a professional musician playing 4-5 gigs a week for the last 30 years as a sax player in a variety of bands. He tells me that one magical night he only made 4 mistakes all evening. Most of the time he makes so many he can't count them, he's just got good at covering them up. Reading all the posts it strikes me that you noticed your mistakes far more than your audience. Don't worry - mistakes are inevitable. Just don't let them ruin your life.

Remember what Boris Becker said when he lost at Wimbledon once, whilst the defending champion: "What's the fuss? Nobody died."

Thankyou Robodoc, Your right , I am over reacting. Your worst critic is always yourself isn't it. Now that I am much more calm, I do feel chuffed that I actually did it. I wished I could play it all back and watch it, it probably wasn't all that bad! Its not the end of the world that I made loads of mistakes, at least I didnt in my exam!

Thanks for your comments x