Music Video Lesson: The Psychology of Performing - Part 2: Forgive Yourself

Hi, and welcome to virtualsheetmusic.com and livingpianos.com. I'm Robert Estrin with the second part of "The Psychology of Performance." Today's subject is "forgive yourself." That's right, a very important element of performing.

Now, if you've ever performed, you know that there is the element of chance. That's right; you practice so that you have consistency. But you come out there, and you have a different audience. The piano may be different. Just having the room filled with people changes the acoustics, and you might get thrown for a moment.

So, how do you deal with that? Well, that's what we're going to talk about today. The worst thing you can ever do is to get into a cyclical thought pattern - which I've talked about in a previous video - if you miss something, let's say. And what's the natural reaction? Your heart may start pounding. Your palms could become sweaty. And the worst thing you can ever do is start thinking, "Oh, my gosh. Suppose I miss something else!"

And it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why? Because once you take your mind off of the performance and into this fear, you're no longer concentrating on your performance, and your mind can play all kinds of tricks on you. So you have to remember, first of all, a musical performance is important, but it's never a life-or-death proposition for you. You have to forgive yourself, and move on, and stay in the moment.

Worse yet, if you start thinking about your musical performance and start thinking of the "What's coming ahead?" and going, "Do I remember that part?" Once you take yourself out of that moment, you can really screw yourself up playing mind games. It's much like when you lie down to sleep at night. If you've ever done this, and you think, "Oh, if I get to sleep right now, I'll get eight hours sleep." And then you're lying there for a few minutes, and you just happen to doze off, and you think, "Oh, I think I'm going to sleep," and then, oh, my gosh, you're awake again. And if that happens once or twice, you could start getting into that cycle of "Oh!," you know, instead of just relaxing into sleep.

Well, performance is much the same way. You want to stay in the moment, and forgive yourself if anything goes wrong, and keep in the moment, not worried about what is past, or what's coming. But just enjoy the moment, staying involved, reaching the audience with the beautiful music.

So that's the lesson for today. In a performance, remember, no one's going to die, so forgive yourself if something goes wrong. You're only human. Nobody plays perfectly. Stay in the moment, enjoy your performance, and you and your audience will be richly rewarded.

Thanks so much for joining me. Robert Estrin here at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com, and look forward to more in this series on the psychology of performing.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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