Do you know what is the greatest fear every music student has? Yes, what you are thinking is right!

Recitals! When music students will hear this word, their hearts start to pound faster and louder. Their hands and knees will start to tremble or shake not because of so much excitement but because of fear.

Some students will not be able to sleep until the day of the recitals. The worst thing that usually happened was few students would not  attend the recitals anymore.

What do you think were the reasons why most students are afraid of recitals?

So, to name a few: it is because they are scared if they can’t perform well in front of the crowd or audience; they are afraid if they will make a mistake in playing the instrument or in performing; they are shy to the audience and to their fellow students; they think that they are not good enough compared to their fellow students;  they lack self confidence; they lack support from their family; they are afraid to be scolded by their parents if they did not perform well; and they are afraid to fail.

Those mentioned above slapped us with the reality. But, do you know that if there are reasons why students will not want to attend a recital, there should be reasons they need to attend it.

These reasons below should be the ones that we need to tell to ourselves, to parents and to their kids and to our fellow music students so that instead of becoming afraid about recitals, we’ll become excited when we hear about it.

1. Recitals provide a measure of your progress.

When we talk about recitals, it is to enable us to know where we are in our journey towards becoming a good musician. It tells us on what level we already are as musicians.

It is an event that measures how good we already are or how much more we need to become good or excellent in our music craft.

It tests all our learnings and it tests if we really are doing good in our music lessons by the result of our recital performance.

Simply said, it enables us to know our progress towards becoming a musician.

2. Recitals showcase your talents.

Of course, one may be seen as really good at being a musician. Just by performing in front of the crowd and playing the musical instrument, anyone can notice if you really have the passion and the talent in what you’re doing.

We cannot deny that some are born with a gift of being a musician but it can be true that one’s gift can be learned.

So by a recital, you can perhaps, notice to yourself that you really have the passion in becoming a musician by how good you are playing the musical instrument.

And because of that, you discovered that you have the talent to be a musician and by doing the recital you are showcasing your musical talents.

3. Recitals open new doors of opportunities.

As mentioned above, by doing recitals, you can showcase your musical talents.

And it cannot be denied that people can notice and observe how really good you are as a musician. This is the start that opportunities will start knocking at your door.

Because of this event, when there are parties, people might invite you to perform for them. People at the parties when they see that you are really a good musician, then another door opens for you because they might again invite you to perform for another event and then another event and another event and so on.

Another one, when there is a musical contest, for sure your parents or people who know you. will invite you to join the said contest. Who knows, you might win! By winning, another door opens, and then another and then another and so on.

Even in school, you can be famous by being a good musician and opportunities always follow.

4. Recitals develop and boost your self-confidence.

This is the number one benefit that you should want to gain when doing recitals.

Recitals, aside from giving the opportunity to know your progress in learning your craft as a  musician, to showcase your talents, to gain access from the door of opportunities, its main benefit is to improve and develop your self-confidence.

You are afraid of recitals, right? But recitals assure you that after attending it, you’ll never be the person anymore who came in the recital room. The person who will walk outside from the recital room will be now a person whose confidence is overflowing.

Yes! That is really true. Imagine, it’s not really easy to stand in front of the crowd. You have all the nervousness bombing your mind and body. You are worried whether you might not do it well and the audience will criticize you for that, and eventually you’ll become shy.

But hey! When you were able to perform in front of the audience and finished your recital, even though how nervous and shy you are, then you are not anymore the person you were before. 

Why? Obviously, you overcome your fear! You have gained much self-confidence already to be able to do your recital.

When your self-confidence starts to develop and boost, not only you’ll be able to attend a lot more recitals already and will not be afraid of it anymore, but also, as mentioned, plenty of opportunities will come to you.

A musician who has that self-confidence is very much proud to share and showcase his/her talent to the people.

It will not only benefit him/her, but everyone whom he/she shares his/her musical talent will benefit also.

Having self-confidence is the key towards progress, growth, opportunities, and success.

5. Recitals provide entertainment and happiness to the audience, to parents and family.

Knowing how excited your parents, family members and friends are to watch your recitals is a kind of pressure on yourself but at the same time it’s a challenge on your part to do your best because you want them to be proud of you, to enjoy your recital and to be happy seeing you perform.

Music students may not understand it at first but know that when you attend recitals, it’s not about anymore your fear. It is now about sharing your musical talent to the audience. 

Very few knew that by attending your recitals and performing, you are making a kind of entertainment towards the audience. May it make them feel happy, nervous, sad, etc., but the fact that you are entertaining them means a lot to them.

You are giving them pleasure and relaxation through watching your performance. And you might not know, it really makes them happy, most especially to your family.

So, don’t skip your recitals anymore and look forward to being excited to attend every recital you’ll have.

See you there!