The 6 Keys to Preparing for a Fantastic Recital Performance

I can’t wait for Winterhalter Music’s Winter Recital coming up in December! While our recitals are fun, no pressure celebrations of many different styles of music, certain practices will help ensure an even more positive recital experience.

Here are the 6 keys to preparing for a fantastic recital performance:

1. Know Your Piece: Practice, Practice, Practice!

It’s very important to know your piece inside and out no questions asked! This is where practicing comes in. Your piece is not going to learn itself. You must take the time to practice so you will feel confident performing when the recital rolls around. This means consistent practice each and every week.

If you need ideas to help with practicing, read this.

2. Be Extra-Prepared for Each Pre-Recital Lesson

While it’s important to be prepared for every lesson, lessons leading up to recitals are most important. Students usually learn more challenging pieces for recitals, and each lesson leading up to the recital is key. If a student hasn’t practiced enough to master the material covered last week, then we have to return to that same material and, in some cases, it has to be re-taught. This leaves little if any time to move onto new sections in the music, which puts a big slow down on the piece’s timeline.

Just because you’ve learned a piece, you’re not necessarily ready to perform it. In my experience most students need at least one week after all the notes have been learned for the piece to really settle in and be performance ready.

3. Practice Recitals, Baby!

Do mock recitals at home for your teacher, family and friends. Include everything you’ll do at the real recital: walk up with confidence, bow and smile, play your entire piece through no matter what happens, bow and smile again, return to your seat in the audience. The more mock recitals you do, the more comfortable and natural you will feel for the actual recital.

4. Have Confidence and Trust Yourself

You must have faith in yourself and confidence in your knowledge of your piece. Any loss of focus or mind wandering while playing could drastically throw you off course. Even though you’ve spent hours practicing, at some point you just need to let go, trust that you know what you’re doing, and just go for it with an open mind and open heart.

5. Be Ready for the Unexpected

Let’s face it! Anything can happen during a performance. Unfortunately, nerves have the capacity to completely take away your concentration…or they can give you an extra energy boost that fuels you into playing with more zest, pizzazz, and confidence.

No matter what happens, you must keep going. Everyone has performances that they aren’t completely proud of- including me! If you hit a bump along the road or something happens that doesn’t typically happen, keep going and don’t worry about it. Chances are that the audience hasn’t even noticed!

6. Celebrate Your Success

Playing in a recital is no easy task. It takes tremendous courage to go in front of an audience and share your gift of music with them. Once you’ve performed in a recital, even if you’ve played in countless recitals before, celebrate! Mingle with friends and enjoy the refreshments at our reception. Celebrate even more with your family after the recital.

Thank you for reading, and I can’t wait to see you all at our Winter Recital coming up in a little over a month! Have a lovely day. If you enjoyed this article, leave a comment, share it with your friends, and subscribe to the newsletter.

Sincerely,

Cassie