Are you planning your first piano studio recital?

I remember how exciting and overwhelming my first recital as a piano teacher felt – so many details to coordinate, students to prepare, and decisions to make!

But with the right planning, your first recital can be a stress-free celebration of your students’ accomplishments rather than a source of anxiety and overwhelm.

Let’s talk about how to make your first piano recital a wonderful experience for everyone involved!

Start Planning Your First Piano Recital Early

One secret to a stress-free recital is giving yourself plenty of time to prepare.

Begin by choosing your date and reserving the venue, then work backward.

This gives you time to help your students learn their pieces and to handle all the logistics without feeling rushed.

Plus, early planning means your students and their families can block out the date on their calendars so you have great attendance at your recital.

I schedule my recitals before the teaching year begins, and I share the dates with my piano families when they enroll for the year in July.

Choose Repertoire that Your Students Love

Start selecting recital pieces about 3 months before the big day, depending on your students.

If they’re beginners, it won’t take this long for them to be ready. If they’re advanced, it may take longer.

Choose music that your students will feel confident performing. It’s better for them to play an easier piece beautifully than to struggle with something too challenging.

Does it really matter what pieces your students play? No, it really doesn’t. You are free to choose whatever pieces you and your students love!

One of my little boys actually played a Halloween piece in the Christmas recital because he was so obsessed with it. Imagine hearing Silent Night, Away In A Manger, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, and The Monster Stomp in the same recital!

Creating a positive first performance experience is so important for our students, and allowing them to play something they love will make a huge impact on how they feel about performing.

Help Your Students Feel Prepared for Their First Piano Recital

Research shows that performance anxiety affects young pianists significantly, and many students report fear of making mistakes in front of others as their primary concern (Ryan, 1998).

Understandably! I was always one of those kids whose hands trembled with anxiety over performing in front of people and making mistakes in my recitals.

But proper preparation can help our students manage this anxiety.

Include performance skills in your lessons, as well as concrete strategies for helping students with their nerves and for building confidence.

Practice walking to the piano, proper bowing, and how to handle mistakes gracefully. All of my students have memorized our performance mantra, “When you’re performing, keep going, no matter what!”.

Research with adolescent pianists has shown that regular practice and building self-esteem are key factors in reducing performance anxiety (Ryan et al., 2021).

What can we do to help our students with regular practice and self-esteem?

Consider holding practice performances in lessons. Studies show that while many teachers encourage students to perform, less than half actively address performance preparation strategies with their students (Ryan et al., 2021).

The more we can do to help our students practice the performance ahead of time, and the better prepared they feel, the less anxiety they will have and the more confidently they will play.

All of these details will help our students feel more prepared and less nervous.

Planning the Details of Your First Piano Recital

Beyond helping your students prepare their recital pieces, you’ll also want to think about:

• Creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere for families (this could be done with decorations such as flowers, balloons, or whatever you prefer, but it’s definitely not required)
• Planning simple refreshments, if you are so inclined
• Organizing a program order that keeps your audience engaged
• Preparing a brief welcome speech
• Deciding how you’ll recognize each student’s achievements after the recital

That sounds like a lot, doesn’t it?

But don’t worry, you don’t have to figure all this out on your own!

I’ve created a free recital planning guide that walks you through every step of planning your first piano recital.

It includes detailed checklists and timelines so you won’t forget a single thing.

You can print it out and write on it by hand with your favorite Flair Pens, or you can write on the PDF in an iPad app such as GoodNotes.

If you’d like a fully editable version of the piano recital planner, that’s available too!

The Stress-Free Way to Plan Your First Piano Recital

This recital planning guide has helped hundreds of piano teachers host successful, stress-free recitals.

It breaks down everything you need to do from three months before the big day all the way to post-recital follow-up.

Think of it as your experienced piano teacher friend (that’s me!) walking you through the whole process.

Ready to start planning your amazing first piano recital?

Click here to download the free recital planning guide.

If you follow the steps in the recital planning guide as you plan your first piano recital, you’ll feel calm and relaxed knowing that you’ve done all of the preparation ahead of time, and you can watch your students shine while they share their music with family and friends!

By planning your first piano recital in an organized way, you’re creating a step-by-step recital planning system that will give you many beautiful and stress-free recitals in the future.

Download the free recital planning guide and say goodbye to stress and hello to calm as you plan your first piano recital.

References

Ryan, C. (1998). Exploring musical performance anxiety in children. Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 13(3), 83-88.

Ryan, C., Boucher, H., & Ryan, G. (2021). Performance preparation, anxiety, and the teacher: Experiences of adolescent pianists. Revue musicale OICRM, 8(1), 38-62.