Pre-recital Thoughts and Feelings

Tomorrow, Sunday 18th May, we will be holding our annual Spring Recital at a nearby village hall. We give our students a choice whether to perform or not, and this year 24 of them signed up to perform, aged between 7 and 48. We asked them to sign up in January in order to ensure that everyone has a different piece to work towards and enough time to feel comfortable with it, but those working towards exams may have been working on their pieces for a lot longer. As well as our students, we also perform a piece so that firstly our students can hear us perform, and secondly so that we don't forget how nerve-wracking it can be performing in front of lots of people. Catherine is also accompanying her three flute students.

During the week leading up to the recital we asked all the performers a question:

How are you feeling about the recital?

 

Our Results

There were 7 recurring themes throughout the answers:

1) 22 of our students said they are nervous.
2) 15 of our students said they are nervous but not too nervous.
3) Although they feel nervous, 6 of our students said they feel less nervous than they had before previous recitals.
4) Only 5 of our students mentioned that they feel well-prepared and confident about the piece they are playing.
5) 8 of our students said they are excited about performing.
6) 15 of our students said they are looking forward to hearing everyone else perform.
7) 3 people said they are looking forward to seeing how everyone has progressed since the last time they heard them perform.

Our Thoughts

We're not surprised that so many people said they are feeling nervous but not too nervous, as we see nerves as an integral part of a performance. If you don't feel nervous there is a danger that you may become too complacent, not concentrate hard enough and therefore get it wrong. However, if you are feeling too nervous the nerves may take over you and render you unable to play. In this situation, techniques to control your nerves need to be administered.

One way we suggest to control nerves is by imagining a story or an image to accompany the piece as you are playing it. Sometimes the title of the piece lends itself to a story, or you may be reminded of something while you are playing it. If you focus on the story or the image when you are performing in front of people you are less likely to get distracted by worrying about your audience and your nerves will (hopefully) be settled.

We are glad that by providing our students with the opportunity to regularly participate in recitals they feel less nervous each time they perform. It also means that they look forward to hearing people they have heard before. The younger students enjoy watching the older students who they look up to and aspire to be like, while the older students enjoy watching the younger students whose progress they notice in each performance. Over the years it has been lovely to see the younger students transition into the older 'role model' students.

Fingers crossed for everyone tomorrow!