An upcoming recital can bring out a lot of emotions in a person, especially if it’s your first recital. You may be anxious or nervous, excited or maybe even a bit hesitant; all of which are completely normal feelings. Recitals are a showcase of your skills and a demonstration of how hard you have worked. If your first ever recital is coming up here are some tips on how you can prepare yourself for the big day.
Practice in Front of a Small Audience
Gather your family together and have them be your practice audience. Perform your piece for them a few times and gather your confidence for playing in front of people. If you can play for your family, then you can play for a room full of people! If that still feels like too much pressure, try recording yourself playing on your phone or tablet. You won’t have eyes on you, but it will force you to play live without stopping, and then you can listen back to see how you did and spot areas of improvement.
Make the Most of Your Final Lesson Before the Recital
If there are any parts of the song that you are having difficulty with or that you need last minute clarification on, the final music lesson before the recital is the time to do it. Ask your music teacher as many questions as you need to in order to have a full understanding of all parts and ensure you are confident in your knowledge of the piece. There are no silly questions and your teacher will want to support you no matter what.
Remind Yourself Why You Love Playing
Right before it’s your time to shine on centre stage, give yourself a little pep talk. Remind yourself why you love music and what you enjoy most about it. Remember that you are in it to have fun and show others how much you enjoy what you do. If you play with your heart, your performance will be beautiful every time.
People Don’t Hear Your Mistakes
If you are playing a piece and make a mistake, keep on going. The audience doesn’t know that you made a mistake and are likely enjoying your performance so much that they would think it’s all part of the song. Keep yourself together if you miss a beat or play the wrong note and continue on to the next part. You would be surprised at how many mistakes go undetected in live music, whether it’s a school talent show or a Taylor Swift concert.
Music is beautiful. There is nothing in the world that quite compares to how beautiful and magical music is. When it comes time for your first recital, remember that you are providing joy and entertainment by way of your music and that there are few things more beautiful than that.
