Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Are You Nervous for Your Piano Recital?

By Georgia Reader

Learning to play the piano can be one of the most beneficial things that you can do as a child. As part of the learning process, many students are given the opportunity to perform in a piano recital. Parents of students especially look forward for their children to play in a piano recital as it is often seen as a great confidence booster and family occasion.

Beginning piano students often want to know what happens during a piano recital. Teachers often tell students that it is a chance for them to perform pieces in front of an audience that they have learned and perfected over the months. So a recital is a great chance for students to show improvement and progress over the school year by performing in front of their parents and peers.

If you're a student, there is a lot of preparation that goes into your performance at the recital. One of the best things that you can do for your recital is practice for a few hours every day if possible. Even if you feel somewhat comfortable with your piece, keep on practicing as the song should flow easily.

In addition to practicing on the piano, you should run through the performance several times in your mind because visualizing the entire concert is very beneficial. Your subconscious mind doesn't have the ability to determine what reality is and what is visualized. This means that if you run through the performance successfully a number of times, your subconscious starts to believe that it's easy.

Piano recitals offer many benefits to children that participate in them yet some parents try to keep their children from being involved in them. They fear that the child will mess up and get embarrassed, so instead of letting them perform the parents will shelter their children from potential pain. This does not happen too often, as many parents also push their children to perform.

As a parent of your child, talk to them and ask if they want to play in the upcoming recital. If they have reservations, ask why and ask them to play their pieces. Many children today get so many negative messages from their peers, and performing a piece of music in front of an audience is a great way to bolster self-esteem.

Many parents of music students make too much of a fuss over their child performing in a recital. Because they lack the self-confidence in themselves, they project that uncertainty and low self-esteem on their child's ability as a piano player. This negativity transfer itself to the child who then believes they are not good enough as the next student.

As a parent, just go with the flow. Talk about how it will be fun for them and encourage them as piano recitals offer the child a great opportunity to gauge their progress. They can see something happening from all of those hours in front of the piano because a good recital can be one of the best memories in a child's life. - 16463

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