I'm a keyboardist.Sometimes i feel I play very good,sometimes I feel like a newbie and make lots of mistakes?

Question

I'm playing the keyboard 5 years already, but I'm also at the early 20s now. I haven't really been trained formally with playing keyboard or piano, but I studied on my own..

I experience this often, even when I'm practicing.. There are times I feel really bad at playing the keys and make lots of terrible mistakes either in live performance or practice, though in my honest opinion, I don't think I'm that bad at all. I've been playing the keys almost everyday when I got the time.

Does it have to do anything psychological or mental? Or with my confidence and stress due to work? If so, how can I fight and overcome it? I think this reason is also one of those reason who blocks my musical growth and improvements.

Thanks all!

Answer 1

It's probably psychological although you could just be having an off day. everyone has 'em, lol. if you had a bad day, it could affect your performance and/or concentration. being a pianist myself, it happens to me too, and it used to happen with sports i played (football, baseball, shooting). i'd suggest finding a way to calm yourself down before practicing/performing....clear your mind, so to speak. what i do to calm down is just focus on one thing that makes me happy, something that relieves my stress or nervousness. i do the same thing before going onstage for plays. i think of my girlfriend, and that's usually good enough for me. = )  also, some decent ways to grow musically are to practice pieces that are a bit harder than what you're used to, and to just mess around and create your own music. it also improves your creativity.

hope this helps!

Answer 2

Every musican has this issue! I'm studying perfomance violin at uni, and i have moments where i think WOW! and then the other 99% i think omg i can't belive i sound that bad. How i overcome it is i stop and think what exactley i did wrong and then work out how i go about correcting the problem. Also like all things we have good days and bad days, this effects paractise. If you have a bad day try to find a release, or think about practise as not something you have to do, but think about it as fun. Try sight reading though some peices that you may want to play in the future (even if they are to hard!) I don't think it will block your musical growth and improvements. Try to maintain positive even during the days where you feel like a newbie and always, always look back at your practise and find at least 2 things positive about it. I hope this helps :) Good luck!