The Performance Mindset

There will be some review of the last post in this one. How do we learn things though? 

...repetition, repetition, repetition! :) 

There are steps you can take to prepare yourself for performance. Three things you can prepare are:

1. Heart: Examine your heart to find out what your motive is for playing. Are you trying to please people or God?  Your main goal shouldn’t be to show people how good you are and how perfect you know your piece. That doesn’t mean you can’t practice hard and do your best. It doesn’t mean you should go into the performance with an attitude that says “I’m not here to please people so I just won’t try!” Your goal should be to bless the people but not to show off! Pleasing God should be our highest motive. There are three things God cares about:

• Effort: Did you practice your hardest?
• Attitude: Are you going into the performance attempting to do your best or already set up for failure?
• Stewardship: You should have a gracious heart when you mess up or when others do better than you.

2. Mind: This preparation is thinking over the performance mindset ahead of time.

• Dynamics: When you perform it’s important to play the dynamics in your piece so that you don’t bore people to death!
• Tempo: Another important thing is tempo. That is more for yourself than the people because if you go too fast it’s easier to make mistakes which then makes you nervous which makes you play faster which makes you make more mistakes and it just keeps going until you finally give up crying. J
• Don’t Try Too Hard: The last thing to remember when performing is not to try too hard! Trying too hard can make you expect too much of yourself. That can make you disappointed when you mess up causing you to loose your concentration and mess up some more and on, and on, and on!!

3. Body: These are the physical steps. In order to be physically ready for a performance you should rest well the days before the performance. Eating a healthy diet helps too. You should think through all the things that hinder playing (stress, cold hands, fatigue), and be prepared to prevent them as much as possible.

If you have done your duty and fulfilled your role then the results are totally up to God. You must be prepared to deal joyfully with whatever he brings you!