Take a Bow: Preparing Young Musicians for the Spotlight

Recitals are an important part of learning music, but not just because students get to perform in front of people. A recital gives students something specific to work toward. It changes the way they practice, gives them a deadline, and asks them to do something that can feel a little scary: get up in front of a room full of people and play or sing.

That matters. At the beginning of every Descant recital, I usually remind the audience to applaud every performer. Not just because they played well, but because they got up there and did it. For some students, that alone is a pretty big accomplishment.

Preparing for Performance Day

The obvious advice is to practice, but recital preparation is a little different from regular practice. You want to know your piece well enough that you can keep going even if something unexpected happens. Maybe you get nervous. Maybe the piano feels different. Maybe the room sounds different. Maybe there are more people staring at you than you expected. All of those things can affect a performance.

That is also why, whenever possible, we give students a chance to play on the recital stage beforehand. Even a few minutes in the actual room can help. Suddenly the bench, the piano, the acoustics, and the view from the stage are not completely new on recital day.

And yes, mistakes can still happen. They happen to beginners. They happen to advanced musicians. They happen to professional musicians. The goal is not to guarantee a mistake-free performance. The goal is to be prepared enough that a mistake does not completely derail you.

When You Walk On Stage

When your name is called, walk up, take your place, and give the audience a quick bow before you begin. It does not need to be dramatic. It is simply a way of acknowledging the people who are there to listen to you.

Then take your time. If you are playing an instrument, get comfortable before you start. Check your hand position. Adjust the bench if you need to. Take a breath. Relax your shoulders. You do not have to begin the second you sit down. Those few seconds can make a big difference.

Watch Your Tempo

This is one of the most common recital problems I see. Nerves make people play faster. Sometimes a lot faster. You may feel like you are playing at your normal tempo, even though you are suddenly flying through the piece.

Before you start, hear the beginning of the music in your head. Give yourself a second to find the tempo you practiced. And if you are unsure, start slightly slower. A recital is not a race. Playing a piece a little slower and staying in control is usually much better than starting too fast and spending the rest of the performance trying to catch up with yourself. Trust the tempo you practiced.

If You Make a Mistake

Keep going. Seriously. A lot of mistakes that feel enormous to the performer barely register with the audience. If you hit one wrong note and immediately make a face, stop playing, or announce that you messed up, now everybody knows. If you keep going, there is a very good chance most people will never notice.

If you lose your place completely, that is different. Pause. Take a second. Go back to a spot you know and continue. There is nothing wrong with restarting part of a piece if you need to. What matters is learning how to recover. That is actually a useful musical skill in itself.

When you finish, stand up and bow. Even if you made mistakes. Even if you are frustrated. Even if it did not go exactly the way you hoped. You still performed, and the audience is applauding you for it.

When People Compliment You

After the recital, people are probably going to tell you that you did a great job. Say thank you. That sounds obvious, but young musicians sometimes have a hard time with this, especially when they know they made a mistake.

Someone says, “You sounded great!” and the student immediately says, “No I didn't. I messed up the second page.” Don't do that. They are giving you a compliment. Accept it.

You can absolutely talk to your teacher afterward about what went wrong, what felt uncomfortable, or what you want to improve next time. But that is a different conversation. You do not need to convince everyone who enjoyed your performance that they were wrong.

What Recitals Are Really For

At Descant Music, recitals are not auditions and they are not competitions. They are part of the learning process. Students get a chance to set a goal, prepare something carefully, deal with nerves, perform in front of an audience, recover from mistakes, and hopefully walk away a little more comfortable doing it than they were before.

That is progress.

Parents can help enormously with this too. Before the recital, help your student prepare without turning the performance into a source of pressure. Afterward, celebrate the fact that they performed. If something went wrong, their teacher can help them work through it at the next lesson.

We hold two student recitals each year at Descant Music: our Spring Recital and Fall Recital. Every one is a little different, but the goal is always the same: get up there, play or sing, learn something from it, and when you're finished, take the bow. You earned it.

For more articles about practicing, performance, music theory, singing, songwriting, and learning music, visit the Descant Music Resources page.

For information about piano, voice, guitar, and bass lessons in Holyoke, Massachusetts, visit Descant Music and Art Studio.