Performance Guru

Performance Guru Dr Berenice Beverley Zammit is a Performance Expert, Consultant and Coach. She is also a Chartered Psychologist, researcher, violinist and lecturer.

Performance Expert & Consultant
Chartered Psychologist | Violinist | PhD

Helping musicians, performers, athletes, and organisations understand and optimise performance under pressure through evidence-based consultancy, education, and coaching. Her work involves consulting with performing arts and sports institutions by providing expert advice and solutions, and coaching performing artists and athletes in optimising performance through strategies based on scientific research. Berenice offers tailored one-to-one coaching sessions, workshops and talks, to musicians, dancers, actors and athletes. Berenice lectures in Performance Psychology, Health and Wellbeing in the Performing Arts, Healthy Musicianship, Performance Education, and Research Methods. Her area of expertise is in performance optimisation, encompassing pre-performance routines, mental and physical strategies for performance, and health and wellbeing in the performing arts.

One mistake can become much bigger in your mind than it actually was.You make the mistake.Then you think about it.Did th...
24/09/2026

One mistake can become much bigger in your mind than it actually was.

You make the mistake.

Then you think about it.

Did they notice?

Why did I do that?

Don't do it again.

And while you're thinking about what just happened, you're also thinking about the next passage, your hands, your sound, and whether you'll make another mistake.

The performance hasn't stopped.

But your attention has moved backwards.

This is one reason why recovering from mistakes is something worth training, not simply trying to eliminate mistakes altogether.

The next moment of the performance is still there.

One of the first things performers sometimes notice when a performance situation becomes more demanding is not a technic...
21/09/2026

One of the first things performers sometimes notice when a performance situation becomes more demanding is not a technical mistake.

It is a change in attention.

You become aware of your hands.

Your breathing.

Your timing.

The movement you normally don't think about.

The passage coming up.

The person listening.

The things that usually happen as part of the performance can suddenly become objects of attention.

And that distinction matters.

A change in attention does not necessarily mean that the technique has disappeared. The skill may still be there, but you are accessing it under different conditions.

This is why preparing for performance needs to involve more than simply making the technique more secure.

We also need to consider what happens when attention changes.

Can you continue to access a well-learned skill without needing to consciously manage every part of it?

That is a different training question — and an important one.

One question performers often ask is: “Why can I do this in practice, but not when it matters?”It is easy to assume that...
17/09/2026

One question performers often ask is: “Why can I do this in practice, but not when it matters?”

It is easy to assume that the answer must be technical, that something simply isn't secure enough yet.

Sometimes that is the case.

But sometimes the skill itself hasn't changed. It's the conditions in which the skill is being used which have.

The presence of an audience, evaluation, consequences or simply the awareness of being watched can change the experience of performing.

That is why understanding inconsistent performance sometimes requires looking beyond the moment where something goes wrong, and asking what has changed in the situation around it.

Practice gives us something that performance doesn't: the opportunity to stop.You can repeat a passage, correct somethin...
14/09/2026

Practice gives us something that performance doesn't: the opportunity to stop.

You can repeat a passage, correct something, start again and gradually make the performance more secure.

In performance, the music keeps moving.

This means that being able to do something successfully in practice isn't necessarily the same as being able to do it when there is no opportunity to stop and reset.

The skills overlap, but the demands are not identical.

Preparing for performance isn't therefore only about making something better. It is also about being able to continue when things don't go exactly as planned.

One thing I've noticed working with performers is how quickly a difficult moment becomes the focus of attention.A memory...
12/09/2026

One thing I've noticed working with performers is how quickly a difficult moment becomes the focus of attention.

A memory lapse, a loss of focus, a technical mistake or a performance that suddenly feels less secure can become the obvious thing to solve.

But the moment we notice isn't necessarily where the problem began.

Sometimes there is more to understand about what was happening before that moment, and how the performance got there in the first place.

What we notice during a performance isn't always the whole story.

08/09/2026

One difficult performance can sometimes have an influence that extends well beyond the performance itself.

After something goes wrong, the next performance can carry some of the memory of that experience with it.

A missed note, a memory lapse, a moment where the performance suddenly felt less secure — these moments can become more noticeable the next time you perform.

You may find yourself listening for the same problem, watching for the same moment, or becoming more aware of something that previously would have passed without much attention.

Nothing has necessarily gone wrong this time.

But the previous experience has changed the context in which the new performance is being experienced.

This is one reason a difficult performance can sometimes feel as though it has followed you into the next one.

The next performance isn't simply a new performance. You also bring with you what you remember about the last one.

One thing I've noticed working with performers is how quickly a change in performance can become something they feel the...
03/09/2026

One thing I've noticed working with performers is how quickly a change in performance can become something they feel they need to fix.

A performance suddenly feels different, less secure or more effortful, and the instinct is immediately to find the solution.

But the experience itself doesn't necessarily explain what has changed.

Sometimes the more useful starting point is simply to notice the change and become curious about it.

Not every change in performance is a problem that needs to be solved immediately.

Pressure doesn't only change how a performer performs. It can change how the performance is experienced.Under pressure, ...
01/09/2026

Pressure doesn't only change how a performer performs. It can change how the performance is experienced.

Under pressure, small moments that might normally pass unnoticed can become much more prominent: a hesitation, a missed note, a change in sound.

The moment itself may be relatively small, but the attention given to it can make it feel much more significant.

This is one reason a performer can come away from a performance with a very different impression of what happened from the person listening.

The performance and the experience of the performance are not always the same thing.

A common misunderstanding about performance is that the best performances are the ones that feel the best to the perform...
27/08/2026

A common misunderstanding about performance is that the best performances are the ones that feel the best to the performer.

This isn't always true.

Some performances feel effortless. Others feel surprisingly difficult.

Yet the experience of the performer isn't necessarily a reliable reflection of what the audience is hearing.

A performer can leave the stage feeling that something was difficult, while the audience has experienced a strong and convincing performance.

The reverse can happen too.

Perhaps one of the more useful distinctions in performance is between how a performance feels from the inside and what is actually communicated from the outside.

One of the interesting things about performance is that the person performing and the person listening are not experienc...
24/08/2026

One of the interesting things about performance is that the person performing and the person listening are not experiencing exactly the same thing.

The performer hears every hesitation, every unexpected moment and every detail that didn't happen quite as intended.

The listener may experience the same performance very differently.

This is one reason performers can sometimes leave the stage with a much more negative impression of a performance than the audience has had.

The experience of performing from the inside is not necessarily the same as the experience of listening from the outside.

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