Performance anxiety, also known as stage fright, is a universal experience for all performers. I have met one single person in my entire life who claims not to suffer from it. When we’re in the grips of it we can feel very alone, as it triggers a deep sense of vulnerability and exposure. Stage fright has affected even the most notable and world-class performers and musicians.
Several years ago I decided to dive into how I could cope with performance anxiety and ENJOY a big, high stakes performance I had coming up. If you haven’t read the first part of this two-part series, check it out here. In this second part I will share with you some ideas for helping students cope effectively with stage fright.
Why can performance anxiety be so paralyzing and how does it interfere so much with such a key aspect of being a musician? It may be interesting to readers to know that public speaking is often rated as the number one fear for a majority of people all over the world. Performing is a vulnerable act. Musicians, actors and dancers share our creative selves with an audience, as well as show our “chops”, or technical prowess. We often become concerned with how we are “measuring up”. In addition, artists innately tend to be perfectionistic – playing our best requires such a keen awareness of accuracy, precision and unique self-expression. We hold an ideal performance in our mind as our yardstick of measurement, often one that cannot be matched in reality. All of these factors make us vulnerable to performance anxiety.
Here are some practice habits to help us cope:
It is important to remember that we perform the way we practice. One of the biggest factors that cause stage fright is what I call the “cognitive dissonance” of practicing versus performing. Practicing in our living room, or even in a practice room, is very different than performing on a stage or in a classroom. Therefore, we need to make our practice experience as much like our performances as possible. We need to create the performance pressures in our practice sessions and music lessons so that we eliminate some of this cognitive dissonance.
We want to experience our symptoms in the practice sessions and music lessons so we can learn how to “invite” and include them in our performance experience. This does two things: a) it makes the experience of them in a performance situation less jarring (and therefore less interruptive) and b) we learn how to stay more in our body (less in our head) and develop our playing skills to an even higher level so that they naturally are less affected by our nerve state.
In order to create this more performance-like experience on a regular basis:
Another of my teachers told me that when preparing for a big performance we should aim for ten practice runs before the main event. When we think about how many times world-class artists such as Yuja Wang, Hilary Hahn, or Yo-Yo Ma have performed, it’s no wonder they are able to consistently deliver such impeccable and moving performances. I believe that all performers, whether children, youth or amateur players, can grow into more comfortable performers through integrating some of these ideas.
I wish you the best in your musical journey!
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