How to Play Concerts With More Confidence

Practice performing 

There’s a difference between practicing a piece and performing a piece, right? One of the biggest pitfalls musicians fall into is not practicing performing. I don’t specifically mean practicing having the experience of playing in front of other people, although that is helpful. I mean practicing playing from start to finish of the piece without stopping no matter what. If you can’t get through a passage without starting and stopping in your practice, you definitely won’t be able to do so when you’re on stage and under pressure. 

In the 1-2 weeks before a performance, set aside time in your practice to practice performing the piece. It’s OK to hit some spots before you do your run-through, but you need to play more run-throughs at this point in your preparation. During those run-throughs, you’ll notice mistakes, and this is your opportunity to notice but keep playing despite those mistakes. You should absolutely fix any mistakes in your practice sessions later, but spend more of your time on run-throughs. 

Visualize success and calm

Just like great basketball players visualize themselves making the 3-point shot before they take the shot, great performers visualize themselves playing their solos before they play. In my own practice, I’ve found that visualizing myself playing through something before playing it makes me play noticeably better. This can work with your mindset as well - if you visualize yourself feeling calm and playing well, you’ll be able to play that way! 

Reed Preparation

Assuming you have 1-2 weeks before your next performance, start breaking in a new reed! It’s always nice to have more reeds to choose from on the day of the performance, so you can pick whichever reed is optimal. It’s OK to use an extra new reed before a performance, because you’ll eventually play all the reeds in your box to their natural end of life. This might mean that you have a reed in your box for more than the recommended 4 weeks because you have more options to choose from when you play.