Yes, play to others. I know that you might think: “oh, how am I going to do this”, but playing to others is essentially what music is all about. Of course, you can perform in the privacy of your own room to an audience of one (yourself) and feel complete and fulfilled. That’s absolutely great. However, we should always consider offering our music to others to enjoy as well.

Don’t be frightened. Go for it. Try your new pieces to your small audience every now and then. Start by playing to your friends and let them tell you that you are great. Let them boost up your confidence. This way you will get used to the idea of playing in public and when your concert date comes you will not feel as intimidated by the presence of a larger audience.

One more reason for performing in front of an audience is that we often get some useful feedback by doing so. It is crucial to listen to what other people have to say about our playing. For instance:  Did they like our performance? Which parts did they enjoy the most and which parts they felt needed improvement. Take criticism lightheartedly and not as a thing to put your aspirations on hold.

Allow me to tell you a little story. I remember when I was at college, one of my fellow classmates used to ask me about his performance in his various concerts. After the end of a performance, he would come to me and be particularly firm in asking my absolute honest opinion about his playing. As you would, I always started by pointing out the positive elements of his playing. At the end, following his insistence, I would tactfully mention what I thought could have been delivered better, followed by an: ”if you had more time to prepare of course, this passage would have been perfected”. However, what I had been noticing was that even though at first he insisted on me criticizing his performance, he subconsciously didn’t really like me doing so and he was trying to deny the “allegations”. As a result, he was hostile to me for the following couple of weeks. This scenario continued for a while, until someday I decided to change my approach. So, one evening I went to his concert and even though it was not as near as good as his previous ones, at the end I refused to let myself go through his inner condemnation again. When he came after and asked about my criticism I said that everything was fantastically and greatly played. No matter how strongly he insisted on me finding any mishaps, I didn’t fall for that and continued the exaltation. It was a success. I managed to avoid his not talking to me for the subsequent weeks and everything turned out normal. Following that concert I continued to praise his amazing future performances.

However you don’t have to be like my friend. Be brave when it comes to criticism and use it to benefit from it. Criticism is great. It is what makes successful musicians. Receiving other people’s positive or negative comments is a blessing and needs to be treasured rather than thrown away.

If you are a student at a music college, other ways to get feedback is to play to performance classes. Play to as many as possible; this way you may have the chance to play to different teachers and listen and weigh their different views on your pieces.   Maybe you will realize that their different approaches are also correct. Grasp the opportunity to acquire some fresh analysis of your performance and be thankful that some people took the time to evaluate your musical interpretations. Two opinions (yours and your teacher’s) about your development as a pianist are never enough.

In our quest for being considered serious pianists we need to explore other fields in music that are related to each other.

Studying theory of music for example will help us to better understand what is really happening in the core of the music that we play and listen. Among other things, we learn how the notes interact together and why everything that is written on the paper is written like that.

Thus, besides the musical we may want to establish a theoretical background of what we perform. Theory of music is perhaps the elementary sister of performance, so after we have studied some basic theory of music, perhaps it would be also good to start possessing knowledge of tonal harmony.

Tonal harmony makes us feel and explain how the various harmonic sequences tell the story of our piece step by step. Identifying the harmonic progression of our pieces can also assist us in memorizing them quicker and more solidly. As a practice we should try to identify and play the various harmonic chords hidden in our pieces.

Thus, music is not only performance. Academic understanding of it will help us develop faster as musicians.

Every one of us at some point in our lives have felt timid about going public and perform. We dreaded the time we would walk up onto the stage and face our “detractors”. We hoped the audience would keep the yogurts and the eggs in their pockets if we played acceptably.

However, it is of extreme importance to understand that an audience’s job is not to judge and subsequently pass a sentence to the performer; People are not there to rub their hands with gleeful anticipation waiting for the pianist to mess up. Except, if they are a conservatoire student audience. I’m only kidding of course. No matter how important a venue is, we should be enthusiastic about offering our music to others.  What has helped me through the years was that quite often I was pretending I was playing to a big audience while I was practising.

While on the piano attempt to imagine that there are thousands of people looking at you, but with love and admiration, and that they enjoy every bit of your performance. Miraculously, this would cure a lot of your stage fright while actually playing live later on.  Believe me, if you concentrate enough when you practice, you will actually feel at first a little nervous, like if it was in a live performance, but this anxiety will soon fade away and you will get used to that sensation; The sensation of playing in public.

Always regard an audience as a single object, and think of it as a sole organism; A single unit. Do not attempt to think an audience being many people with different views and contradictory feelings about your playing. Think of an audience like a peaceful giant that you are about to impress. Thus, is always crucial to think what you are in relation to the venue and to the audience.

Feel the winner inside you and feel the performer inside you. You play to impress yourself, to express yourself and to show your musical ideas to others. You must be “selfish” about it, because you believe that your musicality must be shown and must be appreciated by the others. Be strong. Stand your ground and don’t be afraid. This is how you are going to win the crowds. So stop having any reservations about your playing when you go on stage.

You may also appreciate that there is no perfect performance. It’s imperative to understand that. Quite often, even great performers give a wrong account of a piece while on stage. However, what they possess that most pianists don’t is a huge ego, and that transfers to the audience’s minds as well.

A performer has to have a massive ego I’m afraid. This is not always advisable in some other fields in life, however, in the arts and music, ego is what differentiates the good from the great. Naturally, you need to have ego through your sound and image on stage. Not with your capricious demands from the organizers of a concert such as the choice of drinks while you are waiting to get on stage. So be strong and act the virtuoso.