Performing is a SEPARATE Skill - Tips and Strategies To Play Better on Stage 🎹 

Yes, agree. Best thing is many can't hear or go anyway. Kidding aside.... it is a great venue. They always seem to appreciate it.

One of the reasons i am studying piano is to play for elderly retired people some day, give then some joy and fun. This what you said is one great idea, to practice performing at the same time i am making others have some fun.

Vivian Mo Well, you can make the argument that you’re actually “performing” when recording. That’s why I tend to record myself in order to practice for performing. It lets you identify where you’re not mentally “strong” in some places of the piece, so that you build more confidence and get rid of a lot of the nervousness that comes with actual performance :)

The fear with recording is that it has no mercy. You'll know absolutely everything that is off in even the slightest way. Every take is a reminder of how imperfect we are.

Vivian Mo exactly, happens to me ☺️☺️ !!

Ditto that!

I think practicing recording yourself would therefore help then

Thank you very much! 👍🏾

Goku Black anytime :) I hope it helps in your studies

@a writer I'll be filming that tutorial next week :) Finally have it learned and in tempo!

Thanks :)

Roland Huettmann same haha but my hands get cold after that pretty quickly

Thanks so much for your kindness! I'm glad the tips helped

Good advice - totally agree. I always screw up when I record myself. It's really annoying!

Thank you ! I want to cry reading this. Sometimes I go blank and can't remember how to read notes. I thought I was crazy. Now I know it's normal sometimes.

Thanks! We'll see how it goes at this concert haha

@@joshwrightpiano You got this, Josh. Will you be uploading a video of your performance?

We all would prefer to accompany unless you're the chauvinistic type a personality that loves to be seen. I've always wanted to be rich but not famous. I've been playing for over thirty years and still get nervous when I know people are listening. Always take your mind to you alone in a private room. Hypnotize your self to ignore the presence of other people or have a couple of shots first. Preferably jack Daniels or southern comfort to comfort you in your time of anxiety 😁

Keep up the great work! It gets better the more you do it :)

@@chrisbranch231 I totally agree with the hypnosis element...completely blocking out the audience. Great advice Chris!

@@chrisbranch231 - Thanks for the advice, its funny how being observed seems to totally alter normal brain function!

@@joshwrightpiano - Thanks Josh

Thank you! Happy New Year.

jazzyman 251 So True! They eat it up, and it’s the best possible audience you could ask for! They’re so sincerely grateful. People’s need for the beauty of music is greater when they’re older.

i really can't work out of this is a corona joke or just an unlucky comment

starithm we were all beginners once, good luck!

@@AnnaKhomichkoPianist Thank you! Wow, you are a fantastic pianist! :) My mom is not a piano teacher, but her sister is who taught both my brother and I how to play the piano, but I quit in 2 years. :( But now I 'm coming back after 2 decades. :O I can't wait until my fingers can move like water. I can play all 12 major scales slowly, and now I'm slowly learning how to play all 12 natural minor scales on my own. I do have a weekly piano lesson from a local piano teacher.

@@starithm It's all about motivation and focused practice. It sounds like you've got that so keep it up, and more and more progress will come.

@@dylandecker_music Thanks! :)

I would also recommend using public pianos, because (sometimes not ofc) most times they are literally set up in an area where people can gather round whilst you play, quite a fun experience.

Agreed with you. Streaming or just playing in ChatRoulette with random person are quite good method to feel nervous vibes of perfomance.

I totally agree :) Happy New Year Colin

Jarek Kaspar interesting tip about gloves, I’ll definitely try it!!

@@AnnaKhomichkoPianist it also helps with coordination, if you have fluffy gloves. With these you can slip to wrong note (except wrong note etude xxd) very easily and after put them of its like nothing.

What I would do when I was younger is to go to a large shopping mall that has a music store and play one of the pianos or keyboards in the store. On a different note, many years ago when the Mall of America first opened there was a piano actually just in one of the corners of the main mall hallways. I sat down at 16 years old and played Nostalgia by Yanni. I didn't think much of it because there were only 5 or 6 people around at the time I started playing. 3 mins later, when I finished the piece I heard all this applause. Shocked... I looked around and there were about 60 people on 2 open floor levels above me that gathered around, peering over the balconies, that had stopped to listen to me play as they walked by. I was floored! I couldn't believe it and I would've choked if I knew that many people were listening to me, haha! It was an amazing experience though.

@@Final-Ts yeah "street" pianos are great to overcome this fear

Your acting experience will help a lot, the same way you need to be more conscious and aware of what you’re saying and portraying at the same time as trying to immerse yourself in the moment of what your acting, same applies for deliberateness of notes and how you’re playing them whilst trying to be in the moment and not overthink. Recording yourself helps a lot, and try to find music societies in your area where people get together and perform for each other. Also perform for your friends and family; doesn’t need to be many people, and know that it’s a process to become better at performing.

Put your hands under a hot tap for ~20 seconds. This works for me

Just play. Your hands are not cold, because of weather, but because you are nervous. Or if not, just put on gloves before concert or any performance

Play for your friends, invite your family over, advertise yourself to restaurants and other like places to get more performances, and record yourself. You might think recording yourself playing in your home won't do justice, but it can because you know it's being committed to digital memory. If you have to, you can post it on RU-vid, but I don't have to do that usually. It's something that gives the nervous sensation of performing.

@@OganySupreme interesting ideas, thanks for the reply

Local piano Meetup groups are great for Performance opportunities

yeah, sports people visualise winning/running fast. Practice in your head is very important. You should be able to almost physically feel the keyboard. Hoffmann used to practice mentally a lot.

Yep, not only do you need to know the piece better to visualise every note but you build the trust in your mind that every will go well

this question is highly important

The organ?

No idea. No one has ever asked me this before haha. Generally, a composer or arranger will indicate how to play a section if it is meant to be played in an out-of-the-ordinary way

@@joshwrightpiano Such as with your feet? I'd stay far away from a composer like that!

RINZ / TV tbh bach is harder to read than liszt and chopin, liszt is usually like very rigid in terms of what patterns are used, for me i would suggest to just sight read bach and polyphonic works, that helped a lot for me. If you're learning pieces i would suggest to analyse it, that helps a lot with memorising especially composers like rachmaninoff

Thank you so much

Take "easier" pieces like nocturnes. One page a day. One hand per day. 5-10 minutes a day and you develop it

haha I've heard that one before

Krzysztof Łoś better looking! By the grace of God and wholesome!!

Wow, that's amazing! I'm very envious!

@@jamesholland2109 I love being on stage. I've never had stage fright; it just feels natural to me. The bigger the audience, the better. I get up there and I just stop giving a fuck. Good audience, bad audience, it doesn't matter. They're going to be entertained in some way regardless, so the stress just vanishes and is replaced by the excitement of the crowd. As a child, I did skits at campgrounds: stupid stuff where I might have to say one word or a short line. That was a fun introduction, because nobody at a campground is there to judge. It's all warm, fuzzy feelings. In second or third grade, I did a magic show at my school. In 4th grade, I wrote, directed and starred in a short play. Everyone kept screwing up their lines and their positions and interactions on stage, but aside from the frustration with them, none of that phased me. Putting on a show for an audience has always been play for me. Just fun and games with other people doing the same thing. When you're on stage, you're in control of an entire group of people's attentions and emotional reactions. Whether for good or bad, that's a powerful position to be in. You have to own that. I also went to church as a kid, and everybody sang hymns. When everyone is a part of it, you lose that inhibition because nobody is there to judge your singing; it's a group participation. That's true even when it's just you on stage in front of an audience, because it's an emotional exchange. Watching a live performance in itself is a form of participation because it's a feedback loop. That's what they're there for; it's not about you. You're just assuming a directorial role and their focus is on that role. What can help get rid of stage fright is to go out to a karaoke bar with some friends, or do karaoke at a party. Everybody is gonna suck, you're gonna suck, you're just doing it for laughs. Actual music performance is the same thing: you're up there to share your emotional expression with a whole room full of people and feel their emotional response. As long as you dwell in that, you'll do well. Ever watch a live Metallica show? They're masters at that. Their music is very dark. But when they get up on stage, everybody is manic; they've built up this expectation with opening performances. When they get out there and play, the music takes on this epic pep rally feeling, because they're working with the mood of the crowd which is at its peak of anticipation and excitement. Everybody is excited and elated, so the music sounds exciting and elated, even though it's dark stuff. That's what you have to work with. Feel your reaction to the crowd; it's what they're feeling. Put that into the music, whatever it is, and mirror it back on them. I saw Danzig live once; same thing. He got everybody worked up, played the first movement of Black Aria as an introduction, then they all came out on stage and broke straight into Godless. It was absolutely stunning. It was like a demonic horror pep rally. A lot darker than Metallica, but it was still this manic zenith. The emotional energy of a group takes possession of the group, and it possesses the musician/s as director/s of the group experience. The best performers are the most empathic. Work on that, and you can put yourself in that space: that exchange of bioelectric energy that takes over and moves your performance. Walk on stage like you're someone important; stand tall, walk boldly and with purpose. Give them that cue that you are there to direct their emotional symphony and to accept that offering as their lord and master. Enthral them. Be the hero or the demigod or the vampire. When you come on stage, you become a priest directing a congregation of celebrants in a grand magic ceremony of spiritual unification. Everybody is wearing a costume and a mask; everybody is dressed up to play a role in that ceremony, including you. That's all anybody sees: the role.