Planning for the Performances of the Year Ahead

For students in school, everything is new in September. New classes, new schedules... For my students, this is the time we focus in on new repertoire choices. Of course, pieces we are performing in the upcoming weeks and months of the fall are well underway, but there is much ahead that we need to think about for February, March, April and May. These can be busy with opportunities to perform. Setting goals for performances at Solo and Ensemble Festivals or recitals is a great way to encourage growth. 

Performance of any type plays a significant role in helping us grow. There is a healthy pressure that challenges us when we perform and we grow differently and quicker than if we are simply playing for fun. As we choose repertoire, we try to find a balance between performing pieces that are required or on a festival list, performing pieces that are standard repertoire that every student should learn, and performing pieces that pique the student's interest. 

As adults, we need to find ways to challenge ourselves in this way as well or our growth tends to level out and we lose much of our opportunity for progress. Of course, we are not going to have many of the opportunities younger students do, but we can find and create opportunities that work for us. Set goals for the year ahead. Set deadlines. When will you plan to have a piece prepared and ready to perform? Why are you choosing this piece? Who will you perform this piece for. Something as simple as making and posting a YouTube video can be a way to perform. It challenges. It makes us vulnerable to feedback. Setting goals and performing helps us to reach these goals, grow in maturity--both musically, and personally--as we become vulnerable and share what we are learning on the piano.

---