On Sunday I'm playing in my first concert for nearly 18 years and I am feeling a bit scared silly!!!

I'm playing a duet with my teacher in front of about 100 people, mostly OAPs, but my husband and parents are not interested ( ) so there will be nobody in the audience to make me nervous - I hope. Oh apart from one music critic I used to know who writes for the local press!!!!

I'm playing a Mazos duet which has a shift to third position, a shift to second position and some double stopping and it sounds fantastic if I get it all together (which I can do!).

Claudia, my violin, is not in the slightest bit nervous - she just wants to show off her new rosewood chinrest!!!

Any tips or hints for playing in public? If I think about it I feel really sick! What should I wear? I don't wear dresses and it's a Sunday afternoon so will a smart blouse and dress trousers do? I don't even know if I'll be able to warm up anywhere. At least I'll have the music because I can't memorise very well.

Just about to dash off, but all the best, it takes a lot of courage to perform, especially since you've not done it for a while. The piece you're playing sounds fab, you CAN do it. I'll edit this post later. (

If playing at a forum concert is anything to go by, the run-up is worse (a lot worse!) than the actual event. A number of people on these forums swear by having a banana half-an-hour beforehand. The outfit sounds perfect

Incidentally your teacher could be just as nervous as you, possibly even more so because they've got their reputation to think of


PS The organiser may not have thought of you wanting somewhere to warm up - can you contact them before the concert so that they can arrange somewhere

Yup, outfit sounds great and I agree with the banana idea! They contain something calming as they're also recommended for those who have sleep problems!!

Oh, poor thing! I'd be devastated if my hubby wasn't interested in my performing in public! I'm so sorry, how awful.

I find having a good warm up before leaving home helps. I always find it's easier for the fingers to move when I'm playing for the second time in the day even if there are a couple of hours in between.

Don't use it as a big practise session for your performance piece but do other pieces, scales, studies etc. for about 1/2 the lenth of time you normally practise in a single session and do it just before you set out. I find that helps anyway.

Good Luck

Mine isn't allowed anywhere near - he brings me bad luck!

W

You'll be fine. I am sorry your husband and parents aren't interested though.

Liz

Which of the Mazas duets are you doing?? There's quite a few of them.

It is often a lot easier to play to people to people you don't know and are never likely to see again, but in this instance it's a shame you haven't got any support from family or friends. It would have been nice to know there was a friendly face amongst the audience rooting for you to do well.

You'll be fine Lottie and Claudia will have a ball! Your outfit idea sounds just right - as long as you're comfortable you'll play well.

We'll be thinking of you in cyberspace!

Allan

Claudia and I are just back from the concert but I feel really sad.

I shook so much in the first piece that it was awful. The second was a bit better. The audience were really kind and supportive but considering I was a semi-professional (albeit 18 years ago) I feel really low that I couldn't play better. I didn't even feel nervous; my body just started shaking when I stood up to play and there was sod-all I could do to stop it.

It's occasionally the same when I show my dogs - the shakes just take over but when you're trying to play the violin it's horribly noticeable. I was hoping to feel like I'd achieved something good by 'performing' after all these years but it just stinks that I played so badly compared to how I normally play. Bummer.

When I sat down again I felt like giving up the violin for ever.. but I don't think I will just yet. Some kind people in the audience were very enthusiastic for me and one fiddler even asked the organiser who I was... but none of that changes the missed out notes, notes out of tune, squeak! and thin sound and bad bowing.

And I completely missed the note in second position and hit the wrong one instead!!! And when I tried to place the bow on the string to start an up-bow it bounced off over the bridge - yes, it really was that bad at one point!! (But the Rondo was better and it finished strongly so that must be good?)

Oh I don't know. Maybe I should take up knitting. There's no way I can take an exam playing this nervously - I'd fail, and I know that's true

I know exactly how you feel - these days I always feel like that when I perform! If you haven't done it for a long time, you may feel that it improves the more you make yourself do it - and exams are quite different to concerts...

Best of luck and keep at it!

W

Hi Lottie,

I'm sorry you feel it went so poorly - nerves can really spoil things for us sometimes.

The good thing is that the worst is over - you've come through your first public violin performance in one piece and the audience found positive things to say about it. The fact is definitely that the audience won't have been so critical as you were - I bet they didn't notice half of the mistakes you felt were really obvious.

It's also a great sign that a fiddler was asking who you were.

I remember the first time I had to play solo in a session - I had been going for months and playing really well, but on this one occasion I turned up and there were three guitarists, a couple of bodhran players and a bouzouki. My heart sank as they all looked to me as the only melodic instrument to lead them all. I played a couple of reels, but was shaking so much that I made loads of mistakes, repeated the A part three times and at one point that my bow shot out of my hand onto the floor and all the other players kind of 'train crashed' on top of my mistake... silence in the pub (even the ever dreaded single cough from the back)... my cheeks were burning as I picked up my bow, packed my fiddle away, left and vowed never to return.

I'm still playing there now and love it!

As my old gran would have said - what disnae mak ya bad'll mak ya better.

Take heart and don't give up - the worst is over, only gets better from here!

Allan

The first one is always the hardest! I remember I could barely hang on to my clarinet, let alone play it! If you manage to get up there a few more times you'll get hooked, its the most amazing feeling once you've got over nerves/shakes!

lottie, it is almost always not as bad as we think...when I was at a conference I had to speak on stage to hundreds of people...when I started talking I heard and FELT my voice shaking, I felt horrible! afterwards I had many people coming up to me congratulating me on my speech etc, I apologised to them about my 'shaking voice syndrome' and all of them were 'surprised' by my remark as they said they didn't notice ANY shaking/trembling at all
Anyway, have you considered (if you can afford it) hypnotherapy? I have heard many good things about it and apparently it can get rid of it all!
chin up, you can get there just don't beat yourself up about it anymore.

Hey I'm sure you did fine. The next one will be easier.

Liz

I've chickened out of my first one ..... I cant do it and I'm not!

Thanks everybody for your kind comments on my terrible debut!!

Well, it's the next day and things don't seem so bad. I've definitely decided NOT to sell Claudia and take up basket weaving instead (No offence to basket-weavers intended!) Claudia stays because it certainly wasn't her fault (she still sounded gorgeous this morning despite me strangling her onstage yesterday!)

So what if I'm not the next Hilary Hahn - I can live with just enjoying my violin playing by the chimney in the sitting room with NOBODY listening , ...although hopefully I'll get another chance to play in public and I'll play a bit better than this time and maybe even learn to enjoy performing ??? (seems a bit impossible just now though )

I've just been listening to Tchaikovsky's Valse-scherzo in the car so obviously that's my next piece to learn and I'll be looking for a public platform for that performance....

What you need to do to help with performance nerves is as much playing as possible to an audience, no matter how small. One friend will do. Just play in public as much as you can and it will get much easier. How about coming along to some of the forum concerts or play days? The audiences there are very friendly indeed.

Hi Amanda
I was trying(!) to play the duet in Cmajor from 'Twelve Little Duets' by Mazas Op 38 Book 1

Yesterday it felt like I was performing brain surgery!!!! (with a teaspoon)

Bu you were a semi-pro on the piano, yesno? So don't beat yourself up about not being one on a new instrument!

My mum took grade 2 as an adult and invented a whole new form of vibrato - with the bow.

You don't have to ever take an exam if you decide not to, but being nervous debuting with an instrument that you haven't been playing long shouldn't stop you from playing if you're enjoying playing


And we're not at all strange or mad...

Sorry it went badly but please don't harangue yourself about it, and you can always try again in the future. I'm sure that 1) it wasn't as bad as you thought and 2) with practice you won't shake so much