Music Video Lesson: Do You Have Trouble Playing for People?

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin and this is LivingPianos.com. Today is How to Practice Performing. It's so imperative that you practice performing, but how can you do such a thing? You probably know if you've ever tried to play for someone that things can go haywire, and you wonder how can this be? You practice a piece, you can play it over and over again perfectly, and you try to play it for someone, for a friend or maybe for your teacher, and everything goes wrong, and you wonder what can you do about such a thing? Quite a bit, really. Now naturally preparation is key. You can't expect to do something in front of people that you can't even do consistently on your own. So preparing like crazy, practicing slowly is a great way to reinforce your memory and your security and performance because there is a certain way that you look at yourself and are analyzing everything that's happening when you go a little bit more slowly, which is a little bit akin to what happens when you're playing for somebody. Suddenly all the things that kind of automatically come out, you're hyper-focused and you notice every little thing that maybe you didn't really notice before. Have you ever felt that? So it's the same thing when you go more slowly. It's more deliberate. So that is a terrific way to solidify so that you feel more in touch and control when you're performing.

Now to practice this, first of all, and I've talked about this a number of times, just recording yourself, setting up a device, set up your phone or a computer or anything, it could be audio or video, and make it a performance. Get yourself psyched up like it's a pretend it's a person there. And most importantly, once that gets rolling, for better or for worse, go through it. I know you can always restart it, but don't. Make it a real performance. And you know what? You could always do another performance later if you're not happy with the way it came out. But don't stop halfway through and start again because you know what? That is not an option when you're playing for people. Nobody wants to hear you start over. That's the worst thing for them because you know, it's kind of like if you're hearing a story from somebody and they stumble over a few words after they've given you several paragraphs, they go, oh, wait a minute, and they start all over this story. You're going to be really bored with them. You know, I get to the point already. I heard this already. So it's really important to learn to keep going. One of the most important aspects. So after you've gotten comfortable playing for a machine that records you, you do this again and again until you can just turn on that machine, boom, and you can do a really comfortable performance that you're happy with. Then it's time to bring in the troops. Hopefully you have a loved one or a good friend who likes music enough that they'll sit and listen to you play something.

You can play for them. And once again, even though they're good friends and they'll forgive you if you stopped and started again, don't do that. Take advantage of the fact that you have this performance opportunity and play through for them. Plus they'll enjoy it more if you don't stop. Even if you're not happy with the performance, they will enjoy it more if there's continuity. Even if you're really upset that you missed something and you really want to get it right, be in the service of your listener. This isn't about you anymore. It's about your audience when you're performing. Practice is the time you can stop anytime you want and make those repairs that are necessary. When you're playing for people, it's all about them. Make the experience enriching for them, which means don't start over. They don't want to hear that. They'd much rather have a little stumble and at least get the sense of the continuity of the piece you're playing for them.

Then challenge yourself with more people. Perhaps you have company over and you say, hey, anybody like music? Be bold. Or maybe you have a spouse or someone who could say, hey, you know, you want to hear some music? I've been hearing some great things. Give yourself an opportunity to play for more than just one person.

In other words, you want to build up. At first you start just with the lowest pressure possible, just playing by yourself. Then you start with recording yourself. Then play for maybe a single person who you don't feel nervous for.

Then several people, larger and larger numbers of people. Then finally, if you're ever in a place with a piano, particularly if it's a better piano than what you get to play on, what a great opportunity to play through your music and have to adjust to another instrument.

This is a tremendous challenge. You may discover things about the piece that you never even thought of before. Just hearing it on a different piano. Plus when all the eyes are on you, you're hyper -focused and that attention you're giving can really aid in coming up with new things in the music. Of course, the downside of that is you might become distracted by the eyeballs on you and things might fall apart. But guess what? This can help you to strengthen your performance because you'll know what to practice. You'll know what the weak points are.

So building up from smaller to larger audiences is a great way to grow your performance.

Do it as many times as it takes to become comfortable. And you'll find that whenever there's a new piece, you may need to repeat this process. Just because you can play several other pieces well, if you've never performed a piece, you want to break it in. My father who performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and Europe and all around the country, he would always have tryout recitals before he played in public in a hall. He would invite people over and play through his program. He would try to do this a number of times before the actual event. He would oftentimes record himself. And that way he'd know what state the performance was in and it would help him to focus his practice. So this is a great idea for anybody on any level. So once again, remember to practice performing. You will be richly rewarded. It will take your piano playing to the next level. If you never perform your music for anyone, you'll never have that opportunity to really understand what it's all about. So go for it. You have nothing to lose. And you know what? If you start with a loved one, they will appreciate it. You can't imagine how much people really do appreciate live music. So give it a try. Again, I'm Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos.com. Your online piano resource. Thank you subscribers.

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