Performing Piano: How To Deal With Nervousness, Part 1`

Recently, I had an email from someone looking for advice in trying to deal with nerves while performing.

Let's try to expel one big myth - people that have been playing and performing for years do not get nervous.

Most people I know, including myself, still get nervous when performing. In some situations, these nerves can be tremendous.

Over time, you just learn different ways to cope with nerves.

You do not have to be performing in front of large groups to experience this sense of nervousness.

For many, just playing in front a one or more people can trigger these feelings.

So, what is a good way to learn to deal with these nerves?

First, focus on yourself, and not on the people that are listening to you.

In the beginning, this is a lot easier said than done.

When I perform, I look at, speak to, and smile at my audience. But, when I sit down to play, I focus on my playing.

When you start playing, totally immerse yourself, and forget about the people watching you. If you have to, hit the notes a little harder.

The key is to express yourself. Have Fun! When you do this, you are focusing on you, and not your audience.

Forget about making mistakes. Again, have fun when you are performing!

There is a second myth floating around - Professional Musicians do not make mistakes when they perform.

To be honest with you, pros make quite a few mistakes when they perform. You cannot avoid this because you are human.

The difference between pros and amateurs is when mistakes are made, they are seen as opportunities. But, we will address the idea of capitalizing on mistakes in a future article.

Now, getting back to the matter at hand - dealing with nervousness. When you totally immerse yourself in your playing, many times, you will forget that your audience is even there.

At this point, your music has become the dominant theme, and not the audience.

In the next article, Performing Piano: How To Deal With Nervousness, Part 2, we will take a look at a second technique you can use that is a lot of fun.

Until then, have fun on your journey to becoming a better piano player.

If you would like to check out all of my podcasts (audio lessons online), click on one of the links below:

To access with iTunes
To access with Odeo (odeo/a899ff8db4f63f39)
to access with Podcast Alley

direct access to the RSS Feed
http://easypiano.com/eppodcast/pianolessons.rss

Have Fun!

Charley Wyser
easypiano.com