Having the Right Mindset - Preparing Students for Competitions

Published in California Music Teacher, Volume 48, No. 2, Fall 2024

Competitions play a very interesting role in the music world and in a student's development. On one hand, the very nature of music competitions is inartistic, as they turn a subjective form of expression into a horse race. On the other hand, the end goal for talented students is to eventually make great art, and competitions can serve as a good way to push them to continually improve.

Because it can be easy for both teachers and students to fall into a mindset that they’re only working towards competing, it’s important to break up the year into different seasons. Part of the year can be geared towards competing and working to refine one’s playing and comparing oneself to others, but when competition season is over, I always tell my students to completely forget that competitions even exist. I call it the “artist development” season.

During this part of the year, I want them to be thinking only about the music and what it means purely in an expressive and personal way. This is the time where a student can really go within themselves and find personal meaning with their connection to music.

During competition season, teachers must address students’ emotions, as many students can view the process in a negative way. I was very guilty of this when I was younger. Every time I got second place or lower, I would feel defeated and depressed. My self-worth was tied to the outcome of the subjective decision from a group of jurors. Because of this, I’m very careful to manage a student’s mental frame of mind going into competition season. I’ll often start by sharing stories of how competitions work for other winning competitors, such as entering quite a few competitions to win just a few, which means many losses along the way. That’s just part of the game, so ultimately having the mindset of doing one’s best and gaining the experience of performing in a pressurized environment is what’s most valuable.

I also encourage students to attend the competition (after they play) so they can get a feel for how close to each other the top competitors really are. There is rarely a clear winner. Instead, students are often competing against a group of excellent musicians who are neck and neck with each other, and the order of placement has everything to do with who the judges are that day and what speaks to them personally. The goal should just be to be in that group, and then let things fall where they may. By seeing how this plays out with other contestants, it becomes much easier for students to realize that much of the result is out of their control. If a student wins, this also helps them maintain a humble mindset.

Preparation is everything, as I never want a student to have a bad experience from having memory slips. There is naturally a feeling of pressure and nerves when performing, but when adding the element of being judged in a competition, it can be potentially crippling. While a student is practicing, it can be easy for them to rely solely on muscle memory while they play, leading to a false sense of security. To combat this, I make sure to discuss the importance of also working on the mental memory of the

music. I remember my teacher in my teen years, Hans Boepple, asking me if I thought I could write down the entire score of the piece I was playing from memory, away from the piano. Just thinking this way can help show a student where this other kind of memory has its weaknesses, which will quite possibly be exposed when they perform on stage.

To prepare students for mental memory, I make sure they have their music memorized hands separately and at very tiny checkpoints of 2-8 measures throughout the piece. They must be able to play these checkpoints starting at the end of the piece and then gradually working backwards. This causes them to use their brain more while they play instead of mentally checking out and relying solely on their muscle memory to get them through.

I think of performing a piece like driving down a dark tunnel. Quite likely, if the muscle memory is locked in, one might make it through the tunnel to the other side just fine. But there’s also a risk that one will bump against the sides of the tunnel along the way, causing a memory slip because they can’t see clearly. Having these small, memorized checkpoints in place is like putting up light posts along the tunnel, helping to guide the way. If a memory slip starts to occur, there’s always a light post or checkpoint nearby to help bring the performer back on track. If a student prepares this way, a traumatic experience will occur rarely, if ever.

The length of time a student has been playing the piece they plan to compete with also matters. I’ve found that it takes about three drafts of a performance for a student to be fully ready to play their best. The first draft of the piece is when a student has initially brought it up to a performance level and either plays it in a studio class or records it in a formal way. It is then time to take a break for about 2-6 months on the piece. It’s during this break that the magic happens, as the technique and musicality sink in on a deeper, subconscious level. It also serves to give the student a mental break on a conscious level. When a student works hard on a piece, especially during the first draft, it’s easy for them to get too close to the music, which can end up distorting their perception of how things sound.

Once this break is over, the student is ready to work towards their second draft of the piece. It will feel different this time, more familiar. Re-learning the notes and overcoming technical hurdles happens much more quickly, and there’s already a solid interpretation in place for them to experiment with. And, with the fresh mental perspective the break provided, a student can listen with more clarity to how their musical ideas are coming across. A very good performance can come out of this second draft, and in many cases, the student is ready for a competition at this time.

However, for a student to take a piece to a truly professional level, a third draft is needed. This means taking another break from the piece for about 3-12 months. When re-learning the piece this third time, it now feels like an old friend, the type of friend that you can talk to for hours as if no time has passed. It is at this point that the piece is so

deeply ingrained within the student that they have full control and stability when playing.

I fully recognize that this approach isn’t always possible, especially in a student’s teen years. At that formative stage, a student needs to be learning as much repertoire as they can and growing into more difficult repertoire, both musically and technically, so continually re-learning music doesn’t always make sense. But for the really important performances like bigger competitions or college auditions, I do my best to manage this progression through these three drafts.

I also suggest to my students that for any type of performance, whether it be a competition, studio class, or recording session, they do a few dress rehearsals. This means mimicking all aspects of the performance as much as possible, such as wearing the clothes they plan to perform in, walking to the piano, performing the piece without stopping, bowing, and walking away. Capturing the dress rehearsal on video also helps the student feel like there is an audience in the room.

While the dress rehearsal can’t fully replicate the performance experience of being on stage with a live audience, it can get close. Nerves will arise and affect the student’s focus, which in turn might expose some important weaknesses in the student’s mental memory and execution and indicate where more work may be needed. This process can be repeated as many times as needed to help the student gain more comfort in a performance setting.

By thinking and preparing this way towards competitions, the student will be set up to play their best, limit potentially negative experiences, and gain the most benefit from these useful events.

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Chetan Tierra, a Yamaha Artist, pianist, composer and teacher, has delighted audiences across the globe in recital, as a soloist with orchestra, and on radio and TV. He is the co-founder and artist-in-residence at the San Diego Piano Academy, where he maintains a small studio of highly advanced students. He has performed on some of the world's most renowned concert stages after making strong and winning appearances in the most prestigious international piano competitions such as Queen Elisabeth, Van Cliburn, Jose Iturbi, Hilton Head, New Orleans, Unisa, and Seoul. The NY Concert Review praised his 2006 Carnegie Hall debut as "magnificent," and his charismatic persona and emotional style have led to much praise from audiences and critics alike. "Tierra held piano lovers on the edge of their seats," said Chris Waddington from the Times-Picaynne in New Orleans. “Pianist Chetan Tierra, Magic and Mastery!" said Lyn Bronson from the Peninsula Reviews.