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The mechanics of producing sound for each instrument are different, so we tend to hold tension in different muscle groups, depending on the instrument. If you were to a) videotape yourself playing in lessons vs. at home, b) ask your teacher to watch you for tension, or even c) pay attention even at home to tension in your playing, where do you find yourself getting tight?
Is it in your shoulders? Back? Wrists? Hands?
Although, the more we converse, the more I wonder if it’s less that tension makes your mind go blank, so much as tension is just a side effect of your nerves sidetracking your attention in the first place. Have you gone through the Focus module? It might be that if you have a clearer mental target to hang onto when you get nervous, the tension issues might take care of themselves to some degree.
The other thing that might help is time-consuming, but an intensive way of increasing “muscle memory” that works well for some folks. Are you familiar with percussionist Rob Knopper’s R.O.A.M. method? I believe he describes it in his free mini-course on audition preparation, and it can certainly be applied to piano as well as percussion or other instruments: http://www.robknopper.com/auditionhacker#academy
Noa
