Performance Anxiety

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Permalink Reply by Ken Rhodes on July 16, 2009 at 6:41am

I've been in so many discussions about this topic over the years that it is readily apparent that this is an issue for almost all of us at some point. Before I read the other comments here, I'd just like to offer the perspective of my own experience.

The first two times I was on a stage with a guitar, I was so nervous I could hardly stand it. I looked down at my guitar and my hands and was barely able to move. The few, extremely simple stage movements that had been worked out ahead of time, I was barely able to do them at all, often not at the right times. I was so mentally lost.

The irony of this is that those first two times were lip-sync contests! I wasn't even playing my guitar.

I have since found that this is the key for me. When I'm anticipating a performance, I get very nervous inside. I'm very good at masking it, though. But, as soon as I start to play, my nerves immediately settle down. I think this is because the music takes "center stage" in my mind, and I don't need to be nervous about the music.

I've had this conversation enough times with Donna to know that she's probably saying the same thing I am, and doing a better job of it, but I feel that performance is about the music, nervousness is about the person. When you're thinking about yourself, you get nervous. If you can shift your focus to the music - almost to the level of being a passive listener, in a sense - then the nervousness kind of just disappears. I think the key in that last sentence is the word focus. Not the kind of intense focus you have in practice, necessarily, but still focus.

I think when a person is on stage in front of people who are paying attention to him/her, his/her mind is going to focus on something, and that something is usually him/herself. When his/her internal focus goes to something else, then there is less reason to be nervous.

Again, this is just my own personal experience, but I think performance needs to be about the music, not the performer. I think that removes a lot of the anxiety, for me at least.

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Permalink Reply by Georges Remboulis on July 20, 2009 at 3:51pm

I find, for myself, that the trick is to get the ball rolling with a tune that I know very well and involves a lively rhythm, and one that will get back positive reaction from the audience (foot tapping, smiles, etc...). My favorite starting tune is the Cannonball Rag. If I find myself a bit too uptight, I tune-up my guitar while talking to the audience...

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Permalink Reply by Tony Hogan on July 24, 2009 at 1:20am

I used to be really bad with this. I was always fine once I had played my first note I ended up going to an acupuncturist and he gave me mustard seeds to tape on to some points on my ears and whenever I felt anxious I would just rub them and it would relax me.

I was talking to the great jazz player Ike Isaacs about it one day and he cured me forever with one line. He said "Just use it, it's sent to you so your music will have a little more life in it, without these feelings music can be a little flat". It never worried me ever again because I then saw it as a friend not an enemy.

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Permalink Reply by John Francis on July 24, 2009 at 3:02am

You should understand that everyone in the audience is there to wish you well. They are there for you and most likely sending you good vibes. If you are able to engage the audience, with a short intro or a funny anecdote, you may soon become quite comfortable and find the experience very enjoyable, forgetting such anxiety.

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Permalink Reply by Stevie Coyle on August 19, 2009 at 6:58pm

I agree completely with John. Just as an experiment, next time you find yourself in an audience, check in with your expectations about the performance that is about to happen. Nickles to dimes you are predisposed to like the performer, and I'm guessing that no part of you is thinking "Boy, oh boy, this guy better not screw up." Your job as a performer is to be in the same room as your audience, and -- with the ironic exception of an open mic night (arguably the worst possible and most highly judgmental audience anyone could imagine assembling) -- that room is full of people ready to have a good time. So be in that room. Have a good time, regardless of what happens, because your first job is to provide an enjoyable musical experience, not to not make mistakes. Music is not Olympic competition, and there is no Russian judge there to give you poor marks for infractions real or imagined. T

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Permalink Reply by Ralph Foy on August 15, 2009 at 5:34am

I play regularly at a church with an attendance of approx 3000 people a weekend across 3 services. Admittedly a fairly forgiving audience, but daunting for some folks.

One thing that helps me is going to watch professionals perform. While it often appears that they always perform perfectly, if you follow an artist carefully you'll see moments where they slip. Usually they always "keep the grove" and the sour note passes.. 90% of the folks listening don't notice and of the few that do, most forget within a minute...

I've even seen a Grammy award winning artist completely flub a song. He restarted and joked about it later with the audience. A humbling experience for him, but it was clear that this thing happens... life went on... generally your listeners are really pulling for you!

I attended a workshop with Ed Gerhard and someone asked whether he made mistakes while performing. He said he never did. "They're only mistakes when I practice. When I perform they're texture notes"

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Permalink Reply by David Shade on August 15, 2009 at 8:46am

That's great - texture notes! Or maybe one could say like the Chinese every rug weaved has to have at least one small flaw.

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Permalink Reply by Graham Helderman on August 19, 2009 at 7:12am

I dont normally get performance anxiety but when I do it's because I'm playing for someone who is going to be critical of me. Such as someone who taught me how to play something on guitar or a person who was brought somewhere JUST to see me. Otherwise I simply dont worry about anyones opinions and feel free to play and sing and have a good time.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Pellegrini on August 20, 2009 at 8:24am

Mocking Segovia is a result of the all to common mode in guitar playing circles where "excellence" is defined as playing all the right notes perfectly every time, and doing it faster than the next guy. Too many guitarists are playing guitar for other guitarists, instead of making music for people to listen to and enjoy. Let's see how well those self-proclaimed studs are playing when they are in their 8th decade of life.

As for stage fright - it is a problem I have, and one poster below correctly identifies a big part of the problem; striving for perfection. A recently sold a guitar to a friend's son, and even though he has only been playing for less than a year and a half, and is 14 years old, he has already gotten up in front of a number of audiences, including a local telethon just this past weekend. He makes some mistakes, but it just doesn't seem to bother him that much...he just trudges on and does his best. In fact, at the telethon there were amplification issues not of his making, but he just hung in there and did great - I am a far better player than he is (although I think the shelf life on that will be limited), but that would have really messed me up more than it did him! Over time, he will be so comfortable in front of people that it will of course minimize the mistakes made. I admire him for his willingness to put what he has out in front of people at such a young age.

If you read biographies of now famous musicians, you realize that they all pretty much went through a stage where they were not so good but played in front of people anyway. Doing it repeatedly gave them the familiarity with the situation and allowed them to get past it, so they could concentrate and think about what they were doing, and not where they were doing it and who might be listening. (including the jerks who would be the same ones to deride Segovia.) If you are going to wait for performance perfection, you will never get in front of an audience, because the very act of doing so makes perfection harder to achieve. Once you get past that, you will actually open the door for the "perfect" performance, if in fact it is ever really achieved...and trust me, I am preaching to the choir here! We must all try to remember playing for an audience is not about us and our ego, it's about them and their enjoyment. (Note to self.)

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Permalink Reply by Ken Rhodes on August 20, 2009 at 8:47am

Well said. I always remember reading an inteview with Barbara Striesand, sometime in the early part of this decade, where she talked about how she still would get physically ill just before a performance because of stage fright. And this was after a three-decade-long performance career with some truly exceptional reviews. And my own classical teacher, Scott Kritzer, once told a story about one of his former teachers who stopped playing entirely because he could not handle the level of stage fright any longer. It just played on his nerves too much so he quit!

If these people can suffer stage fright, then some would wonder what hope some of us have. For me, it all boils down to the things that have been said here already by others, in that you are there to play music. That doesn't mean flawlessly, just play and enjoy the sound of that music, even with (or especially because of) the "texture notes" that pop up now and then.

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Permalink Reply by David Shade on August 20, 2009 at 5:08pm

Thank you Mark! It is nice to read someone in this forum who doesn't seem to be made of steel. I hope others will reply honestly about having struggled with this and how they have addressed this problem. I know many people do struggle with this. For example, I was at a camp where there was a seminar on performance anxiety and it was very well attended and many talked of their anxiety. At the same camp, students had a performance night and most were nervous about their performance. There was also a master class and we of course performed in front of a renowned fingerstyle player and all were nervous.

There have been many good observations and recommendations in this forum and I have taken several to heart. However, I have to say I am a bit put off by some apparent unwillingness to discuss personal experience with performance anxiety. I can imagine that someone new to this discussion trying to cope with performance anxiety would be reluctant to discuss their difficulties frankly.

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Permalink Reply by Barry Gray on August 21, 2009 at 1:16am

Hi David,

Well, all right: I certainly have issues with performance anxiety and thought about sharing some of my experiences so here goes:

- I too took a performance anxiety seminar at a camp (CCMC) and it helped a lot. Cozy Sheridan taught it, and we had a lot of fun. A very helpful piece of advice was to have pre-prepared a little introductory banter about the song, to tell the audience. Make the song something a little special, a little personal, to establish a little connection to the audience. I did it, and son of a gun, it worked. Was I frightened? You bet! But what was so cool afterwards was the adrenaline high, like surviving a really good roller coaster. I couldn't wait to do it again.

- I also took at class earlier this year from Jorma Kaukonen, Fur Peace Ranch (on the road, in southern Cal). Remembering what I had learned the previous year, I played one of Jorma's songs at the student concert (in front of him and some other very talented and very experienced musicians). But the song was straightforward so I was able to rely on the hundred of times I had played it before, and it all worked out OK.

- Lastly, I have a small independent coffee shop near my house. I got to know the owner a little and asked her if she wouldn't mind if I played in a corner occasionally, for maybe an hour or two. I figured that the more I do this the more I would get used to playing out. So I've done this a couple of times, and it's fun! What's very funny is that without amplification my guitar gets drowned out by the latte steamer and other kitchen sounds. But it's all good, and has been helpful.

One additional tip that I put here as a reminder to myself: go ahead and feel free to play slowwwwllly. Under pressure I tend to rush it, as if I'm either afraid that the audience wants me to just finish it and get off the stage, or something. But I think they really want to hear the music, and if I am able to add a bit more legato by allowing the music to breathe, then so much the better. Imagine the feeling we get as listeners when BB King plays a single note: Magic!

Hope this helps...

Barry

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