Hey guys, today during my piano class while chatting with my teacher who now teaches me only theory until the theory exam is over (because I am changing teachers on her recommendation) we had a chat about music, then after I told her that I had to prepare a piece for my new teacher and she asked me to play it. When I played it half way through towards the end my body felt weird and woozy my palms sweating and when I finished my heart pumping hard and I couldn't even stand up properly! What on earth just happened?
Additional Information:
The piece I prepared exceeds by far what me any my teacher had did in the past.
I felt like she had doubt in her eyes when I told her what I was attempting.
The piece went smoothly, with the exception with some slips.

I hope you've ruled out 'heart attack' as a cause.

What piece did you play?

almost certainly an anxiety attack

Could be a bunch of things. Low blood-sugar, virus, low blood-pressure, anxiety attack, heart arrhythmia/palpitations. We'd need to know more about your age and general health to even guess. But really you should see a doctor if anything like that happens again.

Anxiety attack....

You might want to talk to your physician and let him/her know what happened. There are several ways you can work with things like that. You might be getting anxiety related to going to a new teacher. Seems like you had anxiety playing this more advanaced than usual piece for your current teacher, probably because of thinking how it might go in front of the new teacher for the first time.

There are many people that get anxiety episodes like you described from public speaking, public performance, etc, where the attention is all on you. If it is very seldom, or wears off once you feel more comfortable around a new instructor, just tell them that you are nervous at first, but after getting better accommodated with them, it will pass. If it is likely to be problematic for awhile, your doctor my give you a prescription to Inderal, 10-20mg as needed 30-60 minutes before an anxiety provoking "performance". Other than calming the instinctual adrenalin response from stress, that dose is so low it has little other physiological effects. Of course, if the anxiety is more profound, there are other options, which you physician can discuss with you.

Face the stress and work through it is probably the best approach, but consider that there are a few easy medical fixes for these sorts of episodes that you can take on an "as needed" basis.

I don't think you need to be taking beta blockers for this sort of thing... I would certainly not prescribe that to my patients no mater what the dose is for this situation.

I agree with the previous posters who said anxiety/panic attack; that's 100% what it sounds like. I wouldn't overreact to anything just yet though (meaning I wouldn't go hunting for medication just yet). One thing that tends to help in these types of situations is to acknowledge the fact that your nervous, a lot of panic attacks come whenever you are very nervous but try and hide the fact that you are nervous, putting additional pressure on yourself. Just mention it to the teacher before hand and it will probably ease some pressure.

That being said, you say that "The piece went smoothly, with the exception with some slips." If you managed to make it through the whole thing unscathed, that doesn't sound like a very severe anxiety attack, so if you just give it some time and become more comfortable with the idea, I think you'll be just fine. Good luck

Do not take any medicine for anxiety. You have to get through it yourself, performances will become easier, speaking infront of large crowds will become easy etc.

Having cold nerve is a very important trait in the world.

sounds like you were nervous premiering one of your own compositions?

I don't mean to imply that the OP should seek beta blockers as a long term solution to acute anxiety. Stress management is necessary in public performance. However, there is no harm in being informed of one's options.

Right. But allow me to object to your providing an Internet prescription for said drug!!!!!

Urm I am 14 and I was playing the first movement of Schubert's sonata (d.784) in a minor

Edit: To a minor, no less!

to the OP, try cognitive and behavioral modification for your anxiety problems before seeking out pharmacological solutions.