A recital is a great time for family and friends to enjoy performances, and of course, it’s a great photo opportunity to show off your child’s hard work on your social media. Beyond the music and the photos, however, performing in a recital or showcase has real benefits to your child’s development. Learn more about the four major ways a recital helps music students. 

1. Setting Goals
It can be hard to practice the same song and scales over and over for months. Practice often takes place alone, at home, and may not feel exciting or rewarding. When students know there is a performance associated with their practice, they have a deadline to work toward. Many students look forward to showing off all that hard work and are more motivated to put time into focused practice. Adults who haven’t had lessons in years can often remember a song they played at a recital, as the muscle memory from those motivated practice sessions remains. A bonus benefit is that often this new practice routine persists even after the performance! 

2. Overcome anxiety
Over 70% of Americans report feeling stage fright at some point in their lives. Students who get experience performing in recitals at a young age build confidence in their ability to be the center of attention on stage. It’s not obvious to the audience, but performance actually engages a whole different set of skills from musical skills needed to complete a song. Controlling your breath and posture under stress, being comfortable with your body on stage, and having resilience when you make a mistake are skills that will serve you well in both future performances and beyond. 

3. See the Future
Especially for students who spend most of their time practicing alone, the recital is a great opportunity to engage with the social aspect of music. Younger children naturally look up to older kids, and when beginning musicians perform with others who are more advanced, they see what can happen with dedication and practice. Over the years, they will gain a sense of what is coming next for them in their lessons and skills, and the progress they want to achieve becomes a concrete goal to work for in between performances. 

4. Sense of Accomplishment
Of all the benefits to playing music, this is the most rewarding. Preparing a song for performance takes a lot of time and focus. The performance requires bravery, stamina, and professionalism. All that hard work pays off when they’re taking their final bow to a round of applause. That magic moment sticks with children as they internalize the pride in their hard work and build their self-esteem. 

No matter what their skill level is, a recital gives every child a chance to be a musical star for one afternoon. Not only does preparing for performance build musical skills, but the lessons and rewards of the recital build character and self-esteem that will enrich your child’s life on and off the stage.

Around the entire world and within thousands of different cultures, music is an integral part of many lives. The intense emotional connection that human beings experience with music is a force difficult to explain even with science. However, at its core, music is essentially art combined with science and mathematics. Human emotion and intellect are able to express creativity through music, and that music takes the form of sound waves with varying frequencies registering as different notes to our ears. This combination of art, mathematics, and science creates a universal language that transcends all cultures and languages and allows us to connect with every human being on a fundamental level.
 
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“Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex. “ – Norman Vincent Peale


It’s essential for students to develop effective practice methods.  Here are some tips we’ve gathered from some of our teachers:

1.     The metronome is your best friend.  Make the metronome your practice buddy and pretend it’s a simple percussionist that you’re making music with.  Also, try having the clicks only sound on beats 2 and 4 in common time, or on beats 1 and 3 in triple meter.  Playing with a metronome can be challenging in the beginning but it will actually decrease the time it takes you to learn a song or passage, it will help you develop an even sense in time, and it will prepare you to play with others.

2.     Practice makes permanent.  Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.  That means to make sure you’re not only playing the correct notes, but that you’re using the correct fingerings, correct techniques, and that you’re not making unnecessary movements.  For example, using your 2nd finger for a note when it would make more sense to use your 3rd finger, or vice versa. 

3.     Minimum Motion.  Making huge gestures and motions can be fun and have some benefits in playing expressively, but be mindful of having your fingers, hands, and/or arms, take the shortest path from one note to another.  Are your hands making any unnecessary shifts?  Could your fingers move more accurately or closer to the instrument?  Minimum motion is about playing with accuracy, speed, and precision. 

4.     The tortoise wins the race.  We all want results immediately and seek instant gratification.   Everyone wants to shred to the greatest guitar solos.  However, learning at a steady pace and mastering each concept before trying to move on will benefit you in the long race and before you know it, you’ll be rocking out to your favorite songs.

5.     Play with your ears not your eyes.  Music is sound.  More often than not, we worry about doing things the ‘right’ way with the ‘right’ technique.  Although, good technique is vital in playing music, at the end of the day we learn to play music because we want to make sound.  Listen to yourself.  Enjoy each sound you make.  Be mindful of every note and note duration.