The Confidence Minute: Leading Up to Performance

Creating a Performance-Day Routine That Works

You've practised.

You've prepared.

Exam day has arrived.

Now what?

For many students, performance day is when all the preparation suddenly feels different. The exam is no longer weeks away. It's happening today—and thoughts, physical nerves and last-minute doubts can become much louder.

This is exactly why a performance-day routine can be so valuable.

A useful routine isn't about guaranteeing that you'll feel calm or making every nervous symptom disappear. It's about having familiar, practical strategies that help you feel more in control, think clearly under pressure and bring your attention back to the performance.

And importantly, your routine should be practised before performance day.

1. Start before you arrive

Your performance-day routine doesn't begin outside the exam room.

Think about the hours leading up to your performance.

Have you allowed enough time?

Do you have eve...

The Confidence Minute: Leading Up to Performance

What Makes Some Performers Look So Confident?

We all know the performer.

They walk onto the stage looking composed. They settle themselves, begin confidently and seem completely comfortable in front of an audience.

It's easy for a student watching them to think:

"They're naturally confident."

Or perhaps:

"I could never do that."

But what if the confident performer is nervous too?

One of the biggest misconceptions about performance confidence is that confident performers simply don't experience nerves. After more than 35 years of teaching and examining performances, I've seen something quite different.

Confident performers aren't necessarily the performers who feel the least nervous.

Often, they're the ones who have learned how to respond when nerves appear.

1. They expect some nerves

A confident performer isn't necessarily surprised by a racing heart, butterflies or nervous thoughts.

They understand that their body may resp...

The Confidence Minute: Leading Up to Performance

The Night Before: What Should Students Do Before a Performance Exam?

The performance exam is tomorrow.

You've practised your repertoire, worked through the difficult sections, had your final lesson and hopefully completed some Performance Experiments.

So, what should you do now?

For students, the night before a music performance exam can bring a mixture of excitement, nerves and last-minute doubts. For teachers, it's often the point when a well-prepared student suddenly starts questioning whether they've done enough.

"Maybe I should practise it one more time."

"What if I forget something?"

"That section wasn't perfect today."

But the night before an exam is probably not the time to try to fix everything.

At this point, preparation becomes less about doing more and more about getting yourself mind-ready to perform.

1. Trust the work that has already been done

The night before an exam, students can become very good at finding t...

Have you ever stepped onto a stage, walked into a music exam or started a performance only to notice that your hands are suddenly shaking?

Shaky hands are a common physical response to performance nerves and performance anxiety, and they can be especially unsettling for musicians who rely on precise, controlled movements. A racing heart, trembling hands, tense jaw or shoulders, sweaty palms and changes in breathing are all ways the body can respond when a performance feels important.

And once you notice those reactions, it's very easy to start worrying about them.

"Why are my hands shaking?"

"What if I can't control them?"

"What if everyone notices?"

Understanding why these physical reactions happen when you're nervous is an important first step towards changing the way you respond to them. The goal isn't necessarily to make every sign of nerves disappear. It's to develop practical strategies that help you feel more in control, think clearly under pressure and perform with greate...

Every music teacher has seen it.

A student who plays beautifully in the practice room suddenly falls apart in an exam.

Another performs brilliantly at home but freezes on stage.

Some become overwhelmed after one mistake and never recover for the rest of the performance.

It isn't usually a lack of preparation.

It's that performing requires an entirely different set of skills from practising.

Confidence is a Skill

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding performance is that confidence is simply a personality trait.

Some students appear naturally confident.

Others don't.

But after more than 35 years of teaching and examining thousands of performances, I've found something quite different.

Confident performers are rarely born that way.

They have simply learned ways of thinking and responding that allow them to keep performing, even when they feel nervous.

The encouraging news is that these skills can be taught.

Students Need More Than Technical Feedback

Music teacher...

Want to build confidence in your students? Let them cheer each other on.

Give kids the time and space to talk to each other about how wonderful they are. 💬💛

If you have back-to-back lessons, try this:
🎶 Ask the first student to stay for an extra 10 minutes and watch the beginning of the next student’s lesson.
🎶 Then, ask them to give a bit of feedback.
But here’s the key — tell them to highlight what was wonderful about what they saw or heard.

Kids come up with the most insightful, encouraging feedback when you let them. And that kind of positive reinforcement, coming from a peer, can make all the difference in how a child sees themselves.

Confidence is contagious. Let them pass it on. ✨

#MusicEducation #ConfidenceBuilding #PeerFeedback #PositiveLearning #GrowthMindset #TheConfidenceFactory #PerformanceConfidence

A short 'how to' video outlining a simple exercise to learn how manage nerves and enjoy performance.

Note: Listen to Blues Brothers 'Green Onions' while reading this.

You are nearing that time of the year when there is a performance assessment coming up and you hope you are prepared. To make sure you go through your checklist.

• Do you know the 10 assessment criteria?   Yep
• Have you included evidence that each of the 10 assessment criteria is covered?   Yes 
• Have you been practising regularly?   Sure
• Do you know your performance pieces?   Almost...will do by exam day
• Have you been performance practising?   Yeah...I have been going through my repertoire from top to bottom
• Do you know where the tricky areas are?    Of course, I practise those over and over again

You feel good about your answers, and think, 'that must be a good sign that you're prepared'. 

As the days go by you start to feel a little nervous, and excited over the prospect of completing this assessment. Some days you feel on top of everything, other times you feel a little overwhelmed. You have done so much wor...

April is an odd time of the year to be reflecting. We usually look back during New Year celebrations. April in 2023, however, was a very exciting time for me and so I thought I would share what happened to me within a year, (less actually).

I had made arrangements to reduce my classroom music teaching to part time. I loved teaching but was exhausted and I was looking forward to enjoying the reduced workload at school. During the Christmas/New Year break I was offered a part-time position that I had my eye on for quite some time. As I was teaching 3 days a week, I was able to begin training for my new position from the start of 2023, then I resigned and moved on the week after Easter.

It felt like it all happened very suddenly at the time. I was set to teach part-time for the year, then by April had resigned and moved on! Some might say I was lucky, but really luck had nothing to do with it.

For quite some time prior, I had been developing my network based on my interests. I had also...