Live Your Song
Piano and Life
Years ago as a piano teacher, when it came time to prepare students for upcoming recitals, I’d remember my old teacher’s advice. Interestingly, he claimed he had studied with a pupil of Chopin, so I suppose that counts for something. Anyway, he said to simply focus on playing as beautifully as possible and not worry about errors. He claimed that people quickly forget slip-ups if you keep on making beautiful music. I liked that!
And it’s true. Pianists who constantly worry about blunders tense up and fail to be present with the music, thus increasing the likelihood of more stumbles. For this reason, the best chance of a good performance is to master the ability to immediately forget your mistakes and continue wholeheartedly playing your best.
This is good advice in general. Our lives play out in real time and continue on despite slip-ups. If we get preoccupied with failure, the self-blaming voice can be like kettle drums drowning out everything else, impairing our ability to concentrate on the next thing. This robs us of the opportunity to be our best selves.
So, don’t allow a mistake to derail the next moment and the next. Don’t worry about upcoming difficult passages. Block out fear of what others think. Put your whole heart and soul into living well.
Remember, you have a beautiful God-given song to share with the world!
So true! We sometimes get lost and think of ourselves as performers on a stage, being evaluated for every word, nuance, expression, reaction. How exhausting! My breakthrough came when I realized how deeply I was loved by God, and not for what I’ve done. And that I couldn’t change my value in His eyes by “doing better” or by “blowing it”! I felt relief like I’d never experienced and it’s there for me when I walk dangerously close to that performance line.