Dealing with Anxiety Before Performing: Some Tips from My Experience

Dealing with Anxiety Before a Performance

It’s natural for musicians to be anxious before a performance. In fact, even the most well known and professional musicians in the world likely feel a bit of anxiety before they go on stage. To understand how to deal with performance anxiety, you should first understand why we get nervous and what actually causes this feeling of anxiety.

The Rush

When your hands are shaking, you’re sweating, you’re breathing rapidly and you feel like you might even just pass out from the stress, you’re feeling adrenaline. Adrenaline is part of your fight or flight instinct, which is entirely inappropriate for going on stage, unless you’re so scared that you need to run away unusually quickly.

This adrenaline, however, is exactly what some musicians get very much addicted to. The rush of going on stage can be incredibly exciting. If you can get over the hill of keeping your courage, getting on stage, doing your job and doing it well, you’ll learn to love the thrill of getting in front of an audience. There is a reason why successful musicians and up playing for many decades, and it’s not just the money. Many of them are absolutely hooked on what amounts to an adrenaline sport; getting up on stage and risking everything based on your skill.

Take a Breath

Remember that your performance will only last for a limited amount of time and that not everybody in the audience is going to identify mistakes that you make. Remember that you will make mistakes, as well. If you develop good improvisation skills, you can turn these mistakes into opportunities to shine, depending upon whether or not you’re playing music that is amicable to being improvised over.

I recently read a quote from a piano teacher's webpage that stated the following:

"I love to teach students in creative ways the concepts of music and how to perform on an instrument not only notes, but musicianship"

When I read this, it reminded me that there is a reason why music and live music in particular is a very human experience- and that is because humans are innately prone to error and imperfections. I don't  mean this in the negative sense and quite the opposite in fact. It is this innate humaness that makes every performance interesting and every "mistake" an opportunity.

Take a breath and realize that making a mistake on stage does not mean the end of the world. It doesn’t even mean the end of your career or the end of your gig. Some musicians get so good at handling mistakes that they manage to make jokes out of them, get a good laugh out of the audience and move on. If you do this right, it can actually make you very endearing to the audience.

Learn to Love It

If you can get through your first three or four performances and force yourself to get out on stage and play the music that people came to see, you’re probably going to develop a real love for this rush. In fact, for some musicians, there’s nothing like getting out in front of an audience and performing.

If you can channel that adrenaline into a good performance, you’ll start to learn that there’s a back and forth between the crowd and the performer. Once they see that your pumped up and into what you’re doing – even if you’re playing classical – they’ll start to respond with enthusiasm of their own. There is a very amazing thing that happens between a good performer and an audience. The only way you’re ever going to learn about it is to get out there and experience it for yourself. That, in and of itself, is enough reason to get over your nerves and get up on stage.