Why perform on recital?

My daughter just performed on her first piano recital. She has been taking piano (from someone else) for less than a year. She is young, but is learning to read music and memorize pieces. I am impressed with how well she can translate what she sees on the written page to her hands. She can also sing quite well.

She performed on her first major recital yesterday. It was a very short piece and she had practiced it diligently for such a young child. She is a little younger than I recommend a child start piano lessons, but she is doing well. Sometimes students will tell me that they just don't want to play the recitals. They like piano, but the recital process makes them too nervous. Being nervous can be a learned behavior. The younger they are when they become accustomed to singing and playing before others, the better chance that they will not become so nervous. The only way to overcome being nervous, is by performance.

I never force a student (or my child for that matter) to perform on recital. But I strongly encourage it. Performing on recitals tests you to see how well do you really know your piece? How well have you really practiced your technique? Recitals reveal to the student areas where they need to improve. A recital is the best teacher.

Recitals also build confidence. With experience, the child becomes more and more comfortable playing for an audience. This translates to into other fields like presentations at school, performance in sports, and later on job interviews. From recital experience, they learn to simply try to do their best and have a good time during performance and not to worry about impressing others.