Robert Estrin - piano expert

Tips for Improving Stage Presence - Never Show Your Mistakes

In this video, Robert shows you how to hide mistakes that could occur during performance.

In this video, Robert shows you how to hide mistakes that could occur during performance.

Released on August 6, 2014

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DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this video are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Virtual Sheet Music and its employees.

Video Transcription

Hi and welcome to virtualsheetmusic.com and livingpianos.com. I am your host Robert Estrin with a third of a five part series: How to Improve Your Stage Presence. We have talked about taking your time so the audience has time to adjust to you, making eye contact so they feel the connection. Well today the very important subject is never show your mistakes. Oh yes, that's right. And I know a lot of you if you worked really hard at performance and you get out there and something doesn't go the way you want it to, you almost want the audience to know that you weren't happy with it in case there was somebody out there who realizes you made a mistake. You don't want them to think that you didn't know that you made a mistake.

That's kind of a convoluted logic there though because, surprises of surprises, the vast majority of the audience will never know you made a mistake because they are not intimately familiar with the music but the moment you make any grimace or any sign that you made a mistake, it is not just that they will think less of you. That's not even the reason. It is because it makes them very uncomfortable. There is nothing worse than going to a performance of any sort, whether it is music or dance or theater and you get the sense that the performer is unhappy with their performance. It makes you feel very uncomfortable inside. There is empathy that you naturally have.

Now if you just out there and do your best and smile and not feel badly about the mistakes, first of all you are going to play a better performance because if you start feeling really bad about the mistakes, you are going to have negative energy instead of the positive energy propelling you forward to the end of the performance.

So remember these tips, don't show your mistakes. In practice later, that is where you want to really go through mentally and work through all of that. Thanks so much for joining. I'm Robert Estrin here at virtualsheetmusic.com and livingpianos.com.
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Comments, Questions, Requests:

Doug Baker on October 1, 2014 @8:36 pm PST
Very helpful. Thank you Robert.
Tony Lockwood * VSM MEMBER * on August 8, 2014 @11:49 am PST
Simple as they are, these tips are very timely. Cannot wait for the last two - what will they be, I wonder??
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