You can practice performing all by yourself, (follow the steps below), but you should also plan to play your pieces in some "pretend recitals" for a few friends, or for your brother, or for your mom and dad, or maybe even for your school music class. It's a good idea to schedule atlest 3 or 4 of these "mini recitals" the weeks before the final recital.
Here's how you can "practice performing" at home during your practice session. Do this a few times each week:
1. Close your music and put it away ..... across the room from the piano. Sit in chair away from piano (like your in a “pretend audience”) (If you’re playing from memory, close the music and put it away from the piano).
2. Walk to piano, stop, face audience, (feet together, arms at side), pause, smile, and BOW slowly.
3. Turn to left, toward piano, and sit down.
4. Adjust bench
5. After you have adjusted the bench and are comfortable, put your hands in your lap and wait a few seconds (at least as long as it takes to say “Hippopotamus” 3 times .... and enough time to allow Mrs. McLelland to get back to her seat!)
LOOK AT THE PIANO KEYS. DO NOT LOOK AT AUDIENCE. or
your mother/father, or your teacher. Use this time to gather
your concentration and focus on the music you are about
to play.
6. Find hand position, set tempo, hear 1st part of piece in your head
7. Play piece – no stopping, no matter what! – keep a poker face! This means, keep a straight face .... if you make a mistake, don't let it show on your face!
8. Put hands in lap. (If playing a 2nd piece, do steps 6-7 again)
9. Put hands in lap AFTER FINAL PIECE! Wait for “3 hippos”. Don't rush the ending! Allow the audience to savor the sounds you just made.
10. Stand, stop and face audience, smile,
and BOW slowly.
11. Walk back to seat with pride and confidence!
(Walk stately, like a KING or QUEEN, but not so
slowly that you lose the applause.)
After your "Practice
Performance, (not during!),
EVALUATE your performance:
(If you tape recorded or videotaped this “practice-performance”, open your music and follow along in the score as you listen to or watch the recording.)
Be honest. If the tempo was not perfectly steady, you may need to do some work with the metronome. If you missed some notes, you may need to drill these spots extra. If you had any memory slips, you may need to do more landmark drill, or “Visualization” practice, or study the music score.
Final step: VISUALIZE yourself performing the 2 pieces successfully. Picture how great the pieces can ultimately sound and WILL sound.
If it didn’t go as well as you’d like….go back and repeat some of the steps from #3. REPEAT this “PRACTICE PERFORMING” step #5 again and see if it goes better. CONTINUE THIS PROCESS until you have a GREAT performance experience. DO THIS EACH DAY between now and the recital!
Sunday, April 19, 2009, 4:00 p.m. (note time change!)
Independent Presbyterian Church
3100 Highland Avenue, Birmingham, AL 35205
Wear: Nice clothes (dressy but not formal attire). Girls should wear dresses or a dressy skirt/pants outfit. For boys, coat and tie is encouraged but not required. No jeans, t-shirts or tennis shoes. Please do not wear jewelry or shoes which make playing, walking, and pedaling difficult. Make sure fingernails are short with NO polish. No chewing gum, please.
TIP: Practice performing in your recital outfit at home one week prior to recital (especially try-out recital shoes).
Bring: Music books for ensemble pieces (duets with teacher). You might also consider bringing a tissue, sweater if room is too cold, or anything that might make you feel more comfortable.
Managing performance jitters:
Here are some things to think about before you perform. It is important to think about them well in advance of the performance, so that you feel great about the performance when it comes!
*Stay in the moment.
*Stay positive -- don’t judge yourself.
*Don’t think of what happened or what might happen.
*Think about the importance of a steady beat and an appropriate tempo.
*Concentrate on what you can control, and don’t worry about what you can’t.
*Assess your performance after you play, not during.
*Think positive scenarios about your playing; then imagine yourself playing your recital piece beautifully.
*Keep the performance in perspective and enjoy it! Every performance is a learning experience!
The greatest freedom in playing comes from the most disciplined preparation ….. So, here are some tips on how to practice this week!
Tips for Practicing Before a Performance
Follow these steps for each recital piece:
REMEMBER, PRACTICE is NOT simply "PLAYING THROUGH THE PIECE once"!! Practice is NOT Performing . . . .
a) First play through recital pieces USING the music AND METRO at a slower tempo. Sometimes it's a good idea to only practice SECTIONS of pieces, (if your piece is more than a page or 2 in length). Choose different metronome speeds ...... medium slow, medium etc.
b) Without playing, study the music score carefully … observe all dynamic markings, pedal changes, staccatos, phrase lifts, accent marks, etc.
c) Using the music, play hard spots of piece extra (these can include sections that have had mistakes in the past, or sections where you sometimes have memory
problems, or sections that are not quite polished enough yet)
d) Play these same tricky sections FROM MEMORY to make sure the drills "held".
e) POLISH (add more dynamics, work on voicing the melody, softening LH accompaniment patterns, clearer pedal changes, push the tempo by playing a few measures over and over - increasing the metro speed by a notch or 2 each time etc.)
f) MEMORIZATION DRILL #1 = "GHOST PRACTICE" (VISUALIZATION): Choose a
small section and VISUALIZE yourself playing this spot in your head without moving
fingers. Do this at a SLOW tempo. Picture EVERYTHING and hear the music as you
visualize. Each day you practice, choose a different section. Ideally, you should be
able to “visualize” and hear the ENTIRE piece in your head in one-sitting.
g) MEMORIZATION DRILL #2 = LANDMARK DRILL: Practice starting at your different “Memory
Landmarks” (at beginnings and ends of major sections – AND LAST CHORD of PIECE!) Use music, then try from
memory – go back and forth between music and memory. Be able to quickly start at any of these landmarks
FROM MEMORY. Have a family member or friend “CALL OUT” different sections and practice being able to start
quickly and easily at these sections from memory.
h) OTHER MEMORIZATION DRILLS:
*SNAIL GAME (play a section of piece at SUPER slow tempo ... goal = to upset muscle memory and find
weak spots in memory).
*JACK-IN-THE-BOX ("Brain Teasers" .... Surprise the brain "thinking outside the box". Find
creative ways to play a section)
*Can you hum the melody while playing the accompaniment part?
*Can you play 1 measure, then sing the next?
*Can you play just the ENDS of each phrase?
*Can you start from memory at each Cadence Point?
*Can you "reverse the hands" (play RH part with LH, LH part with RH?)
*Can you play a particular melody using ONLY your 2nd finger? (The 2 Test)
*If it's legato, can you play it staccato?
*If it uses pedal, can you play it WITHOUT pedal?
*If it's a loud section, can you play it pianissimo?
*Can you transpose a section of the piece to another key?
*SHRINK GAME (Shrink the piece into an outline form .... Provide a written analysis)
*SUPER SCORE (A Poem So You Won't Roam: "Study the score ... more and more .... every day ... so you can play"!)
*GENIUS LANDMARK (On a blank sheet of manuscript paper, see if you can WRITE-OUT different sections of the piece FROM MEMORY! Can you write-out the beginning and ends of each major section? the different landmarks? the last chord or note of the piece?) )
AFTER YOU HAVE COMPLETED STEPS A-E (plus a few memorization games) for EACH PIECE, then proceed with your "PRACTICE PERFORMANCE" (see below).
