Piano Performance Anxiety

Oh darn. I have Piano Performance Anxiety, and no, I'm not going to see a shrink. I'm investing in piano lessons instead. My Christmas present to myself was a 6'2" grand built by the Charles Stieff Company of Baltimore in 1911.

Since Christmas, which technically ocurred just before Halloween, I've discovered a great deal about myself and my keyboard skills.

• After several months of dedicated practice, I find that I'm just as good as I was 20 years ago
• Actually, better!
• I'm really lousy when anyone is listening!

This performance anxiety is, in a way, perplexing. I really didn't anticipate it, since I've been performing publicly with my quartet(s) for more that 20 years now! Anxiety at those performances is nil.

So that gives me something to work on, besides notes! Today I did some interesting reading on the subject, and found two very different, and very interesting articles: This article presents some thoughts from the perspective of an accomplished performer, with good advice to the amateur. Included in the thoughts is an interesting practice perspective on the MOTION TO THE OCEAN. The second article, a very personal view on performance anxiety, discloses an obvious truth: Playing the piano is so much fun, why worry about it?