Get Rid of Performance Anxiety
In this issue:Get Rid of Performance Anxiety
Upcoming Events
Get Rid of Performance Anxiety
Spring has arrived and for many student musicians, this usually means playing a Spring recital. My students have been preparing their solos for Solo Commonalities for a little more than a month.
Preparing for a concert can cause otherwise calm musicians to become jittery, obsess about their future performance, and practice inefficiently. When the day of the recital comes around and you are about to walk on stage, you may get that feeling of butterflies in your stomach. For some, they are more like a pack of hyenas! It is hard to enjoy your performance with feelings like these.
There are a number of things I do on the day of a show to help me enjoy myself more. Some have evolved through trial and error. Others are based on advice from fellow performers. I'd like to share all of them with you and you can choose what might work for you on your next gig.
Physical Preparedness
It is vital to get a good night's sleep the night before. This becomes more important when I am performing in the early part of the day. For evening performances, try sleeping in a little. You don't want to be yawning in the middle of a song.
Eat a good breakfast. With proper fuel for your body, you'll be physically ready to play. What time you are playing will impact when to eat that last meal, whether it is lunch or dinner. You don't want to go on stage feeling full. Not only will your energy be diverted to processing your meal, you'll also find it difficult to take a deep breath and produce beautiful sound.
Drink water. Keep yourself hydrated with delicious, room temperature water. Avoid sodas and other sweet drinks. These will introduce sugar-laden moisture to the inside of your instrument and gum up your reed.
Stretch your body. In the previous issue of Musician's Motivator, I described a great way to stretch and get your breath moving. Review that article.
Mental Preparedness
Listen to your music. When you have been practicing your music regularly, you'll find that the music is in your head, ready for you to listen to at any time. So go ahead, sit down and listen to your performance. Read the music as you listen or not - whatever is comfortable. This is not an exercise to see if you have memorized the music. This is a way to relax. Hear the music played excellently in your head and feel the joy of a successful performance.
Take a guided visualization. Before my students went on stage at last Fall's recital, I led them through a guided visualization designed to tap into the great store of self love we all hold in our hearts. When you feel nervous on stage, you can revisit the wonderful feelings evoked by the visualization. Read the full text of the visualization here. Try using it before your next performance.
Technical Preparedness
Practice lightly. Play an abbreviated version of your regular warm-up routine. My regular routine includes longtones, scales, finger exercises, altissimo patterns, chromatic and wide leap passages, vibrato studies, and intonation work. Select the foundational warmups, such as longtones, scales, and finger exercises. Always start at relaxed tempi and gradually increase as necessary.
Selections from solo. Perform a light practice of challenging technical passages at slower tempos; gradual increase of tempo is optional. Overdoing these passages could induce feelings of insecurity. Have faith in your weeks of practice that have brought you to this moment of performance. (See Take a Guided Visualization above.)
Reed selection. If you are using cane reeds, you will need to select one reed for performance and have at least one more to use as a backup on hand. In the days and perhaps weeks leading up to your performance are when you need to be breaking in your reeds and keeping a chart of their individual performance strengths. This subject will be delved into more fully in a future edition of Musician's Motivator.
Ready to Perform
I've addressed physical, mental and technical preparedness for a performance. By taking these suggestions into account for your next show, you will feel more successful, enjoy your performance more, and best of all, have more fun. See you on stage!
Upcoming Events in Portland
Spring Recital: Solo Commonalities. Saturday, April 4, 2009, 2 PM. Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church, 5500 SE Belmont St. Free. The students of Grace Notes Music Studio perform music of Chopin, Debussy, Tcherepnin, Shrude, Bagat, Bach and others. Teacher performs too!
Quadrophones CD Release Event. Friday, March 27, 2009, 8 PM at Jimmy Maks. $10.
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