I chose to play piano, and practised furiously for 5 yrs, about 3 hours a day and WOW, I discovered Billy Joel. I played every BJ record I could get 1,000 times, knew all his lyrics, could practically see him walking around Manhattan or Long Island.

I could visualize the kind of place he would have played in when he started out. An end of year concert came up at my piano teacher’s music school. I convinced my teacher I could play and sing Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman”.

My first public performance and doing that!!! I must have been crazy . I got about a third of the way through and looked out at the audience that were staring back at me and FROZE.

I was used to being on stage as a lead singer, surrounded by lights, smoke machines, sound crew and other band members. But now, there was just me! After trying to kick start the piece 3 times,

I stood up and lifted the lid on the piano and said laughing. “Jim get outta there” (trying to pass it off as a joke). After that, I walked off the stage with half the audience After this experience, I went into a shell type of existence, lost a lot of confidence and after 2 years of semi enthusiastic practise, gave up piano all together.

Since that performance, that one REAL performance, I have re-lived it 1,000 times at least. I could remember the line where I blew it, I could still see my teacher’s face feeling so bad for me when at last I walked off. I could still see my fingers on the keyboard not responding.

That was 15 years ago. Recently, I read Richard’s book and realized how much that one performance affected my life and music career. I found it impossible to stay away from music (what is life without music, I can’t imagine) and now I play and teach Classical Guitar.

It’s the hardest thing I have ever done, man it’s sooo hard, but so beautiful I can’t resist. Believe it or not, I have performed at my student’s concerts, which I held in the same hall and on the same stage I demolished my piano career.

I felt very very nervous on those same floor boards, with this little voice inside my head saying “remember this stage”? “Do you really want to do this, do you?” “Are you nuts”? “What are your students going to think when you stuff up”?.

Now comes the amazing part of my story! I read Richard Brooke’s “Mach 11 with Your Hair on Fire”. I read it again and then again, and slowly it started to sink in.

This one bad performance, affected me, my personality, confidence, self-esteem, and even my attitude towards other performers for all these years. Richard Brooke talks about focusing on those good movies inside your head, and eliminating the bad ones.

Since reading his book, I now focus on the people who say my playing is great, not that one poor performance. I just find some positive movie to put inside my head and forget the others.

It’s a great feeling, and it’s allowing me to do the things I have always wanted to do. We come to the link for Richard Brooke’s book. You can read it online or print it out. But, please read it more than  once , keep reading it until it sinks in!!

Just click below to read the book:

• Mach II Starring You