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Have you ever slipped off stage, messed up with most of the notes, or in another way screwed up your own performance..?
I have
It wasn't that long ago. Big concert, many people. It was raining as h*ll on my way to the hall. ( ah.. memories :rolleyes: )
Unfortunately i was late, and my shoes wasn't dry at the time i entered the stage.
And on the floor, right next to the pedals, someone had left a microphone( bet it was the band who just had played before me).
The shoes i was wearing had a rubber sole, and the piece i was playing (Debussy: "Golliwogs Cakewalk") needed alot of pedal shifting.
Squeeeek!! Squeeeek!! I missed notes, forgot where i was, got really distracted! Do you know what i mean?
I could hear people laugh... And i knew from that moment on, i would be known as "Rusty" for a looong time.
Luckily, someone took the microphone away in the middle of the piece(in the slow part), and i could finally play it as it should be played.

Well, that's my story....

Do you have one? Would love to hear it!

Nice story, rusty.

A while ago I had to play for class at our school to demonstate some Debussy, and I made sure that the pieces I wanted to play were the ones that the teacher told them I was going to - well as chance had it he decided that it was more 'useful' if I played Debussys Poissons instead of Jardin...very annoying. Especially as its much more difficult and I made quite a few little flubs.

I produced plenty of terrible performances during my performing career (which ended after I left school, thankfully).

By far the most embarrassing was when I played my very first composition. There was nothing wrong with the performance, but it remains a strong candidate for the worst piece of music ever written.

Quite what my teacher thought I would gain from this humiliation, I don't know, but it has haunted me for almost 20 years.


David

The worst for me was when some kid was playing the same piece as me and got jealous (I had played it a year ago and developed it relatively well compared to his performance, which was new) so he basically yelled at me while I was playing. Needless to say, I didn't play very well.

Anyone ever ripped one while playing?

I wanna hear it!

NAK:
No, but I'm afraid of getting something like a nosebleed while playing.

The score was [conveniently] lost in the annals of time, valarking.


David

I have several...

During a mini concert for my class when I was 12 I was playing a Mozart sonata and one of the keys stuck and a couple of the keys didn't come up. These keys were very common(the G and F below middle C). These few keys distracted me and really messed me up...

I was performing a Chopin nocturne using the notes (I had just started to memorize it so I didn't have it by memory yet)for a schoolwide concert. The book closed, right there on the stand. That was pretty bad, and I could hear people laughing at my dilema (high schoolers and be immature :<). Strange enough, because I just had a page left I played through the rest of it as if I didn't need the notes...

I guess that performance was good and bad..

My piano teacher told me a very funny story. He was playing Le Tombeau de Couperin in concert, and in most ways he played it on a nice grand piano. But there was one flaw with the piano - a low B didn't sound at all when you played on it. Most of the time it wasn't a problem, but then he started playing the toccata with lots of repeated notes... and on the third page (in my edition at least) you're supposed to play five measures or so just repeating a low B! So what happens? He plays and gets to the low B, and all you hear is how he's hammering without hearing the B. In five measures!

I don't understand why he didn't change octave, though...

I was playing turkish march by mozart a couple years ago and my teacher allowed all her students to bring music up to play with. So i brought my flimsy sheets I downloaded online and during the performance they kept curling over and falling down so I had to keep picking them up and putting them back on the piano. Soon, an audience member just came up and held the sheets for me to play with and I finished the piece. Not good.

Tennispro:
Hehe..! It's very fun to watch the stressy pianist when that happends!
But not very funny for the pianist of course...
(I know it's not)

I butchered the 3rd Movement of the Pathetique, but nobody else except my teacher could tell. I was a little hard on myself and didn't do as bad as i thought, but it still wasn't incredible.

fnork, low H?

Before Christmas I agree to accompany a makeshift "choir" for some Christmas carols at a high school concert that wasn't my own. I asked if it was a piano or keyboard...was told it was a wonderful piano.

Well... I showed up and it was this 5 octave flimsy plastic keyboard, with no pedals, probably from the Sears catalog... I thought well I'll make the best of it, I guess.. I didn't really have any other choice

So I start playing the introduction... The keyboard is hooked up to the cafeteria sound system, and someone is messing around with the levels while I'm playing! One note the keyboard is too loud (the keys weren't weighted, no dynamics,etc) the next was in audible.. The audience was cracking up.

Then this poor excuse for a choir doesn't practise ahead of time, thought they could wing it. The director informs me to play two verses of each carol, but she fails to inform the choir. She's not conducting, but singing with them, and the ill-informed choir decides to sins 3 verses of this carol, 1 verse of silent night, etc.. so each song I had to improvise a final cadence, or an additional verse to go along with what they were/weren't singing. It was heck.

I was so mortified, and ****ed off at the conditions. I drove like 60 minutes in a snow storm to get out there to do this favour for this teacher, and she never thanked me in the end.

Worst experience ever.


edit.. I forgot to add there was no bench or chair, the keyboard was set up in front of the stage, so I had to sit on the stage to play.

Chelsey, your story makes me angry. I would have just pounded the keyboard, literally, to death. That way, I could compensate for the lousy action and sound, and prevent anyone else from having to suffer with the worthless piece of junk.

I'm always so careful to ask what I'll be playing on. I was told it was a "piano in good condition, no one had any complaints".

Because of the weather and road conditions, when I arrived there were already people in the cafeteria, so I went to warm up in the music room downstairs, where they had a moderate quality digital... I assumed the piano they would use upstairs would be equivalent or better.

I'm still bitter about it, lol, I had like 6 concerts that week (being the Christmas season and all), an english essay and a calculus test the due the next morning. I have to learn to say no to people.

what the heck is low H?????

H is the German (European?) name for B natural.

oh sorry, forgot that you say B in english. In Swedish, I always say H.

Yeah, learning to say no is a good idea. I felt angry after hearing your story too, it sounds like an awful experience. Can't imagine how I would feel myself if I'd get there and see that there's just a keyboard to play on.

It reminds me of a recent concert I had at a school with my piano trio. People from the school told us all of the time that they weren't sure if there was a piano in the school. "We will check", they said, but they never did check until the day of the concert. So a couple of hours before we're supposed to be there and play, they call us and say that there is no piano. And they ask us if we can bring a digital piano or something from our school. Luckily, my piano teacher was kind and said he could take the piano in his car, but there was a lot of work to take the piano with us... and of course, they didn't pay extra for bringing a piano with us...

Oh, now I remember a funny memory from when I was 12 years old and was playing with my violinist friend at a kurdish party/concert (he's from Iraq). At that time, I always had to play on keyboards (it didn't bother me very much at the time), and sometimes, wierd things happen with keyboards... So, we started with playing Czardasz but somewhere in the fast part the synth pitches up 1/2 note! I keep playing in D minor, and my violinist friend too, but the keyboard plays in Ebminor! The thing is that I was so young and I didn't play very much, so I didn't even UNDERSTAND what happened So we continued playing to the end, and then we had to tell someone at the soundboard that there was something wrong with the keyboard. He fixed it, but then there was the SAME THING happened in the next song we played... hehe.

Once I messed up really badly on 3rd movement of the Pathetique at a recital about a year ago. Then I did much better playing it for a small competition a couple weeks later, but still had a memory break down. Not fun stuff. Also I have bad memories of being uncontrolably nervous for recitals (sweaty palms, unable to pedal properly cause my legs are shaking so violently). Luckily that nervousness is gradually getting less and less with each recital.....

But hey, I might have some great stories for this thread after wednesday! Becuase on Tuesday I have an audition for a concerto concert, and on Wednesday a competition...oh yeah, i have finals this whole week too...great stress-free week ahead of me!

When I was in college, I was a member of the local Talent Bank. They sent us out on a sort of "music to go" type engagements. Well, I sat down on stage at the piano and launched into the Kreisleriana. The piano kept moving. Someone had failed to "lock down" the casters. Finally, I left the bench, grabbed my purse and jammed it behind the farthest leg and continued the perf...

NEVER AGAIN!!!

When I was a junior on highschool, I did the Haydn D Major Concerto with my highschool orchestra. I had a major memory lapse during a solo passage. About 5 seconds or so of silence, maybe more, of course on stage with the audience AND the orchestra staring at you in silence it feels like an eternity.

But eventually I broke into the passage that cues the orch back in for a tutti. Fortunately, I played very well prior to and after the memory lapse, so it was still received very positively. In highschool, they're willing to cut you some slack.

Ugh... memory lapses. I'm lucky enough so far as to not have had one yet. However, at a recital I played in, there was a kid who struggled to remember his place for about 1 1/2 minutes before he finally just got up and walked off.

It wasn't during performances, but when I was playing keyboard with our musical, I would get embarassed when I came in early during the Recititive portions of the music. There's nothing like one guy in your group ruining that chord that supposed to be nice and together.

I really used to feel sorry when I was in recitals with my old private teacher that had adult students up on stage struggling to find their spot. One time the teacher had to show one poor guy where he could start again, and even after having it pointed out to him in front of everyone, he still couldn't start again, and had to leave the stage he was such a wreck! I felt so bad!

I felt even worse when I used to teach at an academy with a few very *sub-par* teachers (they were notorious amongst the rest of us), who, among other things, would put brand new students into recitals well before they were ready. I'm not talking about kids either, but putting older teens or adults into recitals when they're still in their first method book is a horrible idea, IMO. The poor girl in this story was trying to play a method book arrangement of the Lone Star Waltz, and watching her struggle and run off stage before she even made it to the B section just killed me, I really gave her teacher the evil eye as she "escourted" her student from backstage, what a horrible thing to do!

Personally I don't put my adult students into recitals, I just don't think it's a good idea. Unless they explicitly say they want to be in one, I figure it's not what they are taking lessons for in the first place.

Myself, I've been lucky to never have any major problems on stage, I always used to get really nervous beforehand (really sweaty palms and shaking hands, etc), and made some generous mistakes in the first few bars, but always managed to pull off at least a decent version of the piece in the end. Now that I'm moving on to heavier stuff things might change, I can see the potential for stuff falling apart if I decide to play anything I'm not necessarily ready for yet... there is really a big jump from early advanced to fully fledged advanced! ...still getting used to it.

What would really bug me is watching this one professor in particular in music school, she wasnt the artist-in-residence, but she was the next in line in the pecking order on the faculty, and thought quite highly of herself, and held the belief that her students were better than everyone else.

She used to chew her students out royally if they screwed up a performance. I mean you could hear the yelling down the hall from her studio. And of course, the student would emerge in tears.

I just dont get that. Someone once tried to justify it to me, that it motivates them to not want to screw up in the next performance. Well, duh!! I think that motivation is quite present on its own, isnt it? What, like they screwed up on purpose, to try to get away with something?

The egos and attitudes on some faculty. geez! get over yourselves!

I was playing Rhapsody in Blue with my high school, and I started on the wrong key.

Last year, I played Chopin's Revolutionary etude at a state-wide competition.

First of all, I had neglected to read the requirements for the competition well in advance, and had to memorize a three-part invention in 3 weeks.

Plus, I wasn't so good at the Revolutionary, but I didn't care, because I wanted to play it to show off.

I got to the warm-up room, and started showing off on the upright with all of my warhorses, and the people were just showering me with compliments: "That's so perfect!" "I wish my son could play like that..." "You're so good." etc.

So my big head and I went to the performance area afterwards, and I botched the Bach (mind-lapse), butchered the Chopin, barely made it through the sight-reading, and even messed up on scales (rushed, hit some wrong notes... "Slow down! You're playing them almost twice as fast as you need to..." -- the judge)

I got a 69/100. Nobody gets 69/100. There were two different medals awarded - a gold medal to participents who earned 85-100, and a bronze medal to participents who earned 70-100. I was ready to cry. But then I went back in there and played my cello solo (and scales and sightreading) and got 85. But I was still so upset about piano!

(The worst part was going back into the warm-up room after the performance to gather my belongings. Nobody at that point knew my score, but they probably guessed from the way I stormed into the room!)

......Rebecca Penneys????

German, but now it seems it's also used in Sweden .

As far as I know, it's not used in Belgium, here we uses do re mi fa sol la si.

And Norway...

I was playing for a choir once and had to play a long introduction before the choir started singing. I guess I was nervous ... the music was in E major, but I started playing the first few lines of the intro in E-flat major. It sounded OK, except for a few bad notes. Then I realized what I'd done and tried to change keys mid-intro. Not smart!! I looked up to see everyone in the choir looking at me like I was crazy. I stopped, shrugged my shoulders, then started the intro over again ... in E major this time!

Oops, I remembered another one. In high school I taught myself the first movement of Mozart's A-minor sonata (behind my teacher's back because he said I wasn't ready for it yet ... I wanted to prove him otherwise). I decided to make its "debut" at the school talent show. So I went out there and played it as loud and fast as I could. I was shocked that I didn't get first place, until I saw the film that had been made of the talent show. I looked like I was on speed, at the rate (and volume) at which I was banging. You couldn't even follow the music, it was so fast.

I wanted to crawl into a hole and just stay there for a few years. :-/

This has got to go down as one of the most embarrassing moments ever. At my high school senior recital I was accompanying the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with my violinist friend John. The audience was PUMPED and I was pumped. But, as we played we soon started to miss each other's beat, measure after measure, and it was sounding worse and worse - I would play the first beat of the next measure and then he would play that beat. We should have seen it coming, slipping gradually off each other's beat until we got to a point where we couldn't continue anymore. So I stopped. And then he stopped. There was silence for a moment.

I blurted out loud, "dude, where ARE you?"

He replied, "uhhh... shoot!!"

The audience burst into laughter. I suppose it was funny for us simply because the audience thought it was so embarassingly funny. The trouble is we had TWO more pieces to go!

The audience started urging us out of pity - the way you would encourage a retarded person at the Special Olympics. At the reception I was talking to my friends, and one of my them, Jon (not related to violinist John), made this comment to me, "dude man I don't remember much of the recital but your act had me laughing the hardest in years!"

=(

During one of my college auditions for my "shooting high" schools, I erred by attempting ambitious repertoire out of my range.

I played a Bach prelude and fugue very well, I played a Beethoven sonata very well. In fact, after the fact I remarked that that was one of the performances where you are truly making music and enjoying it (a rarity at the student level, IMO).

Anyway, next on my program was a Liszt Paganini etude. oops, shouldnt have done that! I really didnt even have it all in hand going in, and it just totally fell apart. I was stumbling, stuttering, restarting passages. disaster! I heard one of the judges audibly gasping in disgust (and I have recordings of her at home, how humiliating). I just really had no business programming that etude. very stupid. way too cocky.

But the absolute worst part (as if that werent bad enough) was the sight reading test. Now, I've never focused on sight reading, I dont apologize for that, it never concerned me, I dont care. And I never accompanied my high school choir, or soloists, which is where many develop sight reading ability.

Anyway, I hacked thru it horridly, as expected. When the woman came to collect the score I was reading from the piano, as partial explanation for the mess I offered "Its not my forte." (meaning sight reading is not my strength). She pauses for a moment, apparently not quite understanding, and then responds (in a tone like she's talking to a child who needs encouragement) "Well, you're right, its not forte." and she points to the mf in the music.

Why did the earth not open up and swallow me whole at that moment?

Ah,,man,,,when that happends, you just picture a black hole, right? Endless seconds. I usually see my life pass in rewiew...hehe

i remember last year when i was doing apiano compitiion i was there two hours early but they rushed me in anyway , had no wamr up time came in from the snow feet were sliperty was playing three chopin preludes no 12, 22, 23, lol foot kept slipping off the piano

When I was younger (maybe about 10 or so), I was playing at a competition. I was playing on a horrible upright, but it didn't bother me. Anyways, I'm playing through the piece and get to the middle and completely forget what I'm doing! I have no idea where I am, and I can't even remember what the tune is! Somehow, I managed to skip to the end of the piece with barely any break in the meter. The judges gave me a superior.