Go to Spots or My Performance Disaster

My High School Senior Recital was perhaps one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.  I had been playing piano for about 13 years at that point and had participated in MANY recitals.  But never before had the spotlight reflected off my sweating brow alone.

My piano teacher was very good at what she did.  She'd had me playing and performing my repertoire selection off and on for over 3 years in preparation for the big day.  (Mind you it was interspersed with ALOT of other material as well, so I didn't run screaming from boredom.)  And then when I had only a month left to go, she got me coaching lessons with one of the best college professors in the area.

I learned alot from those coaching lessons - such as how badly I needed them.  I wasn't playing easy repertoire (think 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata) and I had problems with choking or just plain blanking in the middle.

The professor listened to me play for a while and then told me the simplest and yet probably the best advice I have ever received.  She said "When you practice this at home, learn the ending the best. And then have a few places in the middle of the piece you can go to in case you get lost."

Thankfully, I took her advice.  The piece she was specifically referring to was my Bach Fugue.  I memorized and practiced the last two lines with determination and then located different section openings in the middle of the piece and practiced them faithfully.  One of the tricks I used to do this was to randomly start from memory at one of the places, instead of the beginning.

So my big day came and it was beautiful.  I was to perform at a lovely local church with stained glass windows and old fashioned pews.  Practically everyone I knew was there, some even flying in from other states.  I couldn't believe this day had finally arrived.

Everything around me blurred as I walked towards the piano and sat down.  My world seemed to shrink to the size of the keys and my bench.  I played a Bach Prelude.  Flawless.  The tension in my shoulders dropped and I placed my fingers in preparation for my Bach Fugue.  I ran over in my mind quickly my checklist of "go to places."  Before I knew what happened my fingers had taken off and I was playing the opening.  But then the honeymoon was over and I totally blanked.  

I skipped to my first go to place.  Played, and then blanked.  Jumped to my second.  Blanked.  Third.  Blanked.  Finally I jumped to my last place - the last two lines - and I remembered the whole thing.  I completed the piece with a flair, got off the bench and bowed.  The rest of the recital came off without any major hitches.

I like to tell this story to my students every year.  I call it my performance disaster.  But really it wasn't a disaster, I did make it through the whole piece and from what I've heard from the people in the audience, they couldn't really tell that anything was wrong.  And that it completely thanks to my coach's sage advice, "Have places you can go to.  Know the end the best."

 What is the best advice you have received to help your playing?  Please share it with us!