November 2023 - Preparing for the RPTG Gold Cup Festival
Here we are - ready for Gold Cup 2024! For some, this is the year you earn your first trophy…and there is no feeling that matches the satisfaction of a three-year project completed! For others, this may be your first year participating and you have no idea what to expect. Be open to the possibility that something fantastic will happen - you’ll play one of your pieces better than ever, or in the process of learning a difficult piece, you’ll realize that you can practice for longer stretches of time than you could before.
These are a few of the things that my students have done in the past to prepare them for a successful Gold Cup Festival experience:
Practice daily for a minimum of 30 minutes total. You can break this up into shorter segments to accommodate your schedule and your attention span. The more time you spend at the piano, the more comfortable you are playing in front of people. If this seems impossible, consider this: “Be stubborn with your goals but flexible with your methods.” If your goal is to practice for thirty minutes, and you think you can’t get to a piano, how else can you spend time with your Gold Cup music, or thinking about piano? Working on piano somehow? Listening to recordings of your pieces? Practicing the fingerings on a table/desk?
Practice playing in front of people! Does that sound awful? Do it more! Doing things outside of our comfort zone helps us grow and improve. I promise you, no one has ever fallen over and died from fright, playing a piano piece in front of an audience. Play for family, friends, line up your stuffed animals/dolls/Matchbox cars and play for a pretend audience. Better yet…
Record yourself! Audio or video, knowing that you’ll be able to hear what you really sound like is crucial! And yes. You can delete it afterwards.
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Easier said than done, spoken from experience. We get caught up in the performance aspect, thinking this is a “competition” or that we have to “be the best” when really, at the end of the day, the only person you are competing with is yourself. Be the best version of YOU that can show up on any given day. If you put in the time and the work, it will pay off. The Gold Cup FESTIVAL is a Celebration - nearly FOUR HUNDRED pianists from the Rochester area come to Nazareth University to show off the fruits of their labors and make beautiful music! What could possibly be better than that? (Especially with the Bills performing as poorly as they are right now…)
I’m always happy to hear from you - tell me strategies that help you prepare for performances!
