Your hands will shake at the first recital. By the fifth, they mostly won’t. Nerves shrink with repetition.

Nerves are your body treating an unfamiliar situation as a threat, and familiarity is the only thing that convinces it otherwise. No amount of telling yourself to relax does what a fifth performance does. The shaking is not a verdict on your preparation but a first-time response, and first times run out.

Collect low-stakes performances on purpose instead of waiting for the big one. Play the piece for your family, for one friend, in an empty classroom, into a camera. Count them. By the time the real recital arrives you want it to be your sixth time standing in front of someone, not your first.