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More more thing OT, TinyHands. I love the quote by Randy Pausch that you have on your signature. What an inspiration he's been to so many, including myself.

Best Regards,
Alley

Here is some useful advice for overcoming performance anxiety
golden rules

For me eliminating the mistakes in performance is all about reducing risk, which I define as "uncertainty".

Eliminate the risk and you eliminate the problem.

Possible Risks:

- Memorization.

Fixes may include playing each part hands seperately with the opposing hand, not caring for fingering or tempo necessarily. Starting at random measures and playing through. Write out the fingering and practice the piece by only looking at the fingering/ memorize the fingering.

- Fear/ Adrenaline

Fixes may be to play more infront of more forgiving and non caring audiences (senior retirement homes) or play easier pieces than you are capable of.

Those are my big problems when I perform. And yes its easier said than done.

TinyHands,

I just did my second recital last month. I made mistakes, too. The thing is not to stop, and just keep going. You know what key the piece is in, you know the key from practicing your scales, and you know idea behind the piece. So just fake it for awhile!

I totally blew my piece. I just made sure I stopped on the tonic, got up and smiled and bowed and walked off. My teacher was very happy with the improvising. Later, people from the audience told me how great the piece sounded. One of the keys, I think, is to play something nobody knows, Turk, Kirnbeger, and such.

Thank you for support, advices and sharing your stories. I think I already got over it. (Because I don't really remember much what I did. :D) It's just 2 minutes in my life. I am not gonna let it bother me for too long. (But I exclaimed "Ugh!" out loud a few times today after my mind went back to yesterday.)

I totally agree with the golden rules especially the auto pilot one. I think I pulled my solo piece through because of this. But honestly I still wonder how those performers' mind work.

Anyway, the most important thing is I had fun and the recital was inspiring. It's also such a joy watching kids and adults playing music in the same room and we don't even know each others.

TinyHands

Actually, everyone who has ever played in front of people has had that experience.