What to Expect if This is Your First Recital

In just 2 days many of the Winterhalter Music students will perform in our Winter Recital. Hooray! Recitals are wonderful opportunities for our students to showcase their musical talent for their family members and friends. I love watching and hearing each student perform. It’s so rewarding to see all the hard work and practicing pay off and to see our students share their love of music with each other.

I’ve been hosting recitals since 2007, so many of our students are not strangers to recitals or performance. But… what if this is your first recital and you don’t know what to expect? Today I’m going to unveil some of the key things you should expect from your first recital or performance. They are as follows:

#1: You will be nervous

I have met very few people who do not get nervous before a performance. Unless you are part of a very small minority, you will feel nervous before and/or during your performance. The nervous energy presents itself differently for each person. Maybe you’ll have butterflies in your stomach; maybe you’ll feel shaky all over; maybe you’ll feel excessively thirsty; who knows.

When these nervous feelings show up, try to think of them as excitement rather than nerves. The truth is, if you didn’t care about the performance you wouldn’t feel nervous at all. To read more about how to use your nerves to fuel your performance, click here.

#2: Mistakes happen

Quite frankly you’ll probably not play every single note of your piece perfectly. Accept that. We practice so we are prepared to perform well. The more often you play your recital piece with few or no mistakes, the better you can expect the real performance to go. That’s why practicing and repetition of stellar playing is so important.

If you are performing and you make a mistake or hit a wrong note, just keep going. Don’t let it phase you. If you pretend like nothing happened and stay focused on what you’re playing at that moment, most people won’t even notice. However, if you beat yourself up and dwell on the mistake, in a moment’s time your piece can derail and a lot more mistakes can pop up.

#3: Performing gives a thrill and sense of accomplishment like nothing else

The time leading up to a performance can be nerve wracking. You work extremely hard with no guarantee of how the actual performance will go. I can honestly say that performing gives me (and most people I know) an amazing rush of positive energy.

Working hard and tackling your fears to play for an audience is not easy. When it’s over you’ll feel an incredible sense of accomplishment. In fact, you may even be sad that the recital is over. After spending so much time learning and working on your recital piece you likely grew attached to it. Moving on, not needing to practice the piece anymore, and no longer having the goal of a recital before you feels strange at first. Anything that you invest your heart and soul into can have this effect when it ends.

For me after spending close to a year planning my wedding (which was last July), I was sad when it was over. After the wedding day, I really felt like I wanted to have another wedding since it was so fun. While I’m not going to do that, luckily our students have additional opportunities to perform. Our spring recital will be here in about 5 months! The good news is if this was your first recital, once the spring recital rolls around you’ll feel much more comfortable and at ease. Also, I recommend that our students who decide not to perform attend a recital to see what it’s about. Usually after “checking it out”, most students are eager to perform next time.

Now I want to hear from you. Is this your first recital? What questions or fears do you have? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts with our readers. “Like us” on Facebook and subscribe to the email newsletter. Have a great Thursday and I’ll see many of you in just a couple of days!

Sincerely,

Cassie