Why You Sound Great in Practice but Struggle When Performing

Have you ever played a piece flawlessly in your practice, only to stumble through it when playing for people? It's such a common experience that many musicians face. You should know that you are not alone.

Today we're going to explore why this happens and how to bridge the gap between practice and performance.

In the comfort of practice space, you often play with ease, but performing introduces variables, nerves, audience presence, just people watching you, and unfamiliar environments.

You can feel this way even when playing for people in your own home.

Have you ever experienced that? Traditional practice methods may not prepare you for these conditions. We'll delve into how the brain processes practice versus performance and discuss strategies to simulate performance conditions during practice.

Repetitive error -free practice is the first step to prepare you for real -world performance challenges.

You'll want to be so well prepared that you have a degree of confidence before playing for people.

Introducing variability and simulating performance conditions can enhance your ability to adapt and have resilience when you perform.

You can incorporate methods like recording yourself, performing for friends, or practicing in different settings to mimic performance pressure.

I can't stress enough the importance of mental rehearsal and visualization techniques to build confidence and reduce anxiety.

When you have any performance opportunity coming up, imagine in great detail sitting and playing for people in that environment.

Then when you get there, you will feel at home.

So often people mistakenly try to ignore the audience and pretend they are playing for themselves, but this misses the whole point of performing.

You want the excitement that playing for people produces. You can utilize this energy to find new learning experience.

When things go wrong, you'll know what to practice so you will be even better prepared next time you play for people.

By incorporating these strategies into your practice routine, you can train your mind and body to perform under pressure, making your stage performances or any playing for people as confident as your practice sessions, yet with a higher level of expressiveness by utilizing the energy you feel playing for people into positive results.

Try this and let me know how it works for you. I'm Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/why-you-sound-great-in-practice-but-struggle-when-performing/

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