Performance Anxiety

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Permalink Reply by bruce wilson on October 2, 2009 at 2:29pm

Here's a stage fright fantasy that actually came true. I was sixteen and sitting crosslegged on a stage in front of about twenty-five high-school students playing the intro chords to “Michelle” when I accidently broke wind. The old hollow wooden stage acted just like a giant soundbox and people in the back of the room easily heard it, I’m sure. Oddly, no one said a word or laughed, I think everyone was too startled to respond, but, crimson face and thundering pulse and all, I kept going. I mean, really, you don't want to stop playing there. Fortunately no close friends or relatives were attending and I never heard anything about it from anyone after the event, but it was definitely an experience not to be forgotten. Once you go through that, little slips in playing or forgetting a few words don't seem like much.

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Permalink Reply by Ed Burns on October 2, 2009 at 9:36pm

Believe in yourself and your instrument. I like to think about a performance as just a walk around the block...I've done it a thousand times. For me, the anxiety went away real fast. After my first performance, anything would be an improvement. I was playing bass in a garage band. Someone heard us who owned a bar and invited us to play. It was a cluster-F. Fortunatly, it was a biker bar and everyone was drunk. All they wanted was Lynyrd Sknyrd as loud as we could. Wrong chords, notes, missed verses, total stage freight. After a few sets and few fights, we settled down to what we were doing in the garage and it went away. Trust me, the first time is the worst. Just practice as much as you can and believe in yourself. Your ax is your best friend and she won't let you down, trust her!!!

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Permalink Reply by Charles on October 8, 2009 at 12:28am

Something that I have experienced in my life is that age and experience have tamed the demons of anxiety and fright while speaking or performing to others. As a younger person, I stuttered. Speaking in front of others was extremely harrowing. Something I learned was that presenting a canned speach by others was much more difficult than actually presenting my own thoughts. From this, I learned that being invested in what I was saying gave me much more confidence. The same applies to music.

Once you have this confidence you still may falter, however, the consequences no longer appear to be so severe. I still may stutter or make an error in playing an instrument occasionally.....the key is that it no longer frightens me.

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Permalink Reply by Stevie Coyle on October 8, 2009 at 7:28am

Right on, Charles and all. Mistakes need to be in your budget during a performance. Your audience is there primarily to have a good time, not to hear perfection. If you don't get upset about the few mistakes you will certainly make, they won't either. And you know what? They literally won't even hear half of what you consider mistakes anyway, especially if you don't "cue" them that you flubbed.

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