Went to the local piano party group's
gathering tonight.
It was in one of the $$$$ homes across the highway.
I was the fifth of twelve to play.
Played the Scarlatti Aria longo 423 on the superb Steinway B.
Did ok. Got compliments.
Before I started I said, "I would rather address a joint session of congress.".
They roared.
I played to get over my severe case of stage fright. It helped that a lot.
There were some accomplished pianists in the lineup.

The organizer asked me to bring my banjo next time. Huh?
Might do that.

That was the first time I played anything in front of people since jon nyc's party years ago. I picked a time when people were away from the piano that day. Only Bernard heard me.

Congrats on your performance!!!

Did you invite the attendees to join WTF?

Congrats on mustering up the courage to do this. I'll follow in your footsteps.

Maybe later, though....

quote:

Originally posted by BeeLady:
Congrats on your performance!!!

Did you invite the attendees to join WTF?

Will try next time.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:

Maybe later, though....

Aw c'mon! If I can do it, you certainly can.

CHAS, good for you!! It’s nerve wrecking enough to play for others, let alone when there are some good pianists in the audience!

I have been chipping away at my performance anxiety, little by little over the years. I wouldn’t say I’ve conquered it, but I’ve learned to live with it. And it doesn’t take away the joy of playing for others.

I’ll hope you will have more chances to play in the future!

Thank you, SK.

Congratulations, CHAS!

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
That was the first time I played anything in front of people since jon nyc's party years ago. I picked a time when people were away from the piano that day. Only Bernard heard me.

I thought you didn’t play that day!

quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
That was the first time I played anything in front of people since jon nyc's party years ago. I picked a time when people were away from the piano that day. Only Bernard heard me.

I thought you didn’t play that day!

I can play stealth piano. It was a Bach bouree.

We west coasters need to get our act together and have a piano party here!

Chas, congrats on the performance. It's tough, and you should feel very accomplished. I am at the point where if I accompany I just have "butterflies," but if I perform solo I am still super anxious. Yuck. So my hat's off to you, and also SK who is so diligent about tackling performance anxiety head on.

That is very cool.

Scarlatti's Aria in Dm K32/L423 was the very first Scarlatti piece I played. It's still one of my favorites -- simple and complex at the same time, light but deep, short but satisfying. It's beautiful exactly as written, but has plenty of opportunity for embellishment.

There was one flat I kept missing about 3/4 of the way through it. Correcting that was an exercise in the maxim "it takes ten times as much work to unlearn something you learned wrong than to learn it wrong in the first place". Maybe I should have gotten a can of Fix-A-Flat.

When I retire, I'm going to go back to re-learning K517. I may spend some time with K32 as a warm-up to that.

Hugs.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
We west coasters need to get our act together and have a piano party here!

I'm in. I haven't touched the keyboard in a couple of years, but that would motivate me to do so.

Maybe Steve can make a trip north before he heads to the Midwest.

quote:

Originally posted by pianojuggler:

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
We west coasters need to get our act together and have a piano party here!

I'm in. I haven't touched the keyboard in a couple of years, but that would motivate me to do so.

Maybe Steve can make a trip north before he heads to the Midwest.

So, it’s agreed that Nina is going to host a party? ( Warning, the Northwest is surprisingly please easy for me to get to these days.)

quote:

So my hat's off to you, and also SK who is so diligent about tackling performance anxiety head on

Thank you Nina!

I don't know what my problem is. I love playing for people, but I always get the shakes. Sometimes it's better than others, but almost never are there no shakes.

Oh, that's not exactly true though. When I was piano shopping, and playing pianos in dealerships, I almost never had shaky hands while testing out pianos. And with most pianos, I would spend 30-40 minutes playing. I guess I knew I was there as a (potentially paying) customer, not as a performer, so there was no pressure. Which is odd, because I know those dealers hear professional pianists all the time, but I wasn't worried about being compared etc.

And then, yesterday after a practice session with my violin friend, I played two solo pieces for her. No shakes, and I played those two pieces probably as well as I ever could. But we play together all the time, so she knows what kind of a pianist I am (mediocre to fair! ) but again, no pressure.

The only thing that has really helped for me is that I have (almost) let go of any desire to play well. I basically expect to get the shakes, I know it's going to happen. So my goal is just to 1) get through the piece without stopping or re-starting, and 2) smile when it's over.

Well, having said that, I do take steps to ensure that things go as well as they can. For example, if at all possible, I try to play more than one piece, and I pick an easy one to start with. I do ok with the first piece because it's easy, and then I'm sort of calmed down and the second one goes ok because it's the second one.

Also, I try to introduce the piece, say something about it or the composer, that seems to help.

And the last time I played (another mini-party at home with my new piano), I was pretty shaky so when it came time to play piece #3 (I'm a glutton for punishment), I intro'ed the piece and then said "my hands are pretty shaky, so it's going to be a bumpy ride." Kind of like how the pilot introduces turbulence.

Actually, I think I'll do that from now on. Maybe I can get a walkie-talkie and have Mr. SK come in halfway through the piece and say "*scrhgjht* [static noise] Ladies and gentlemen, I've turned on the fasten seat belts sign and asked the flight attendants to be seated, we are entering an area of turbulence and I would like everyone to stay seated for safety."