Monday, January 5, 2009

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.

Some students often wonder what a piano recital is and what happens during a recital. Well, a piano recital is a concert where students play pieces which they selected and practiced to play in front of an audience. This recital program gives students an opportunity to show how much they have improved during the previous month.

A recital is a time where a student needs to prepare and feel comfortable with performing. The most positive thing is to practice on a daily basis so that the student feels completely comfortable with the performance. A good idea would be to practice performing for the family and others a few times before the actual event.

Besides practicing the piano pieces, the student should rehearse the upcoming recital pieces in his or her minds. Once you as a visualizer imagine that you know your pieces well and get a good response from the audience, your subconscious will begin to believe it as a part of reality. After repeated visualizations, this will appear to seem to be the truth to the subconscious and you as a student will be more relaxed and prepared for the recital.

Piano recitals are a good way to build self-confidence but some well-intentioned parents want to stop their child from experiencing them because of potential mistakes or lack of self-confidence. The parent might worry that performing in a recital might precipitate a setback in their child's personality development, but this says something more about the parent's personality and negative viewpoint about life. Most parents truly want to see their child perform as they often ask the piano recital when the next recital will happen.

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.

Some parents project an attitude that the recital is a big deal and that they should be nervous. They tell the child how many people will be watching and the child starts to become anxious. They think about what it would be like to make a mistake in front of so many people, so don't fall into that trap.

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. - 15359

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