Nuff Said Piano Grade 2

[Elgin Carmona]

Iget so nervous before a performance that I can hardly play at all. I'm kind of an intermediate, I mostly play pieces from Suzuki books 4 and 5. Recently I volunteered to play for a charity gig. My friends were singing / playing a very simple traditional Irish song and I said I'd play along with the melody. Nothing more complex than a nursery rhyme really. But when it came to rehearsing I was shaking so much that I could hardly place my fingers in the right place on the fingerboard and I almost dropped the bow. I felt so embarrassed because I thought my friends must have thought I was awful. They were nice about it but I sounded like I'd been playing for a month. So I said I was sorry but I didn't think I could do it. I now and feel so sad and disappointed. The same thing happened when I tried to take my grade 5 a couple of years ago. I could definitely play the pieces I was just a total emotional wreck. I try to practice for an hour to an hour and a half most weekdays. I'm fine when I'm on my own!

June 11, 2010 at 03:15 AM Record yourself. It's cheap and easy to get the equipment to make decent recordings. I have an mp3 player I got in a bargain bin for $5 that does the trick. If you make a mistake, keep going. Can you get through this exercise? If you can't, maybe it's the issue of performing itself that's a problem - not playing in front of others. I like to think the two are totally different things, as I often practice performing (i.e., going through a piece or a part of a piece without stopping, regardless of what calamity occurs) even when no one is in the room with me.

Try opening your windows or playing in an area when you know people will probably hear you. Just get through your piece and then close the window. How do you feel you did, knowing people were probably listening to you, or heard part of what you just played?

Long slow bows to warm up. Really focus on the quality of the sound rather than the act of bowing without bouncing. Turn your head away from the instrument and close your eyes. I find this does something to relax the arm.

Offer to play something at a nursing home or a hospital. These performances will give you all of the joy of playing and none of the pressure, and will also help you remember the value of music and why you started in the first place.

Keep trying!! If you give up now each performance will be worse. If things don't go the way you want, accept it and even celebrate it as a step forward. Beating yourself up over errors and falling short of high expectations is counterproductive.

June 11, 2010 at 03:53 AM Hi, Recordings are terrifying but very efficient for stage fright! Guarenty you feel the same as unfront of 1 000 000 people so it's a good way to train! (maybe this is just me???)

Close your eyes before the performance and think that nothing matters at all. Think of your favorite soloist and you can even play to this silly game to pretend to be him/her! Seems awfully pretentious and childish but it works!!!

And never think you don't deserve to be there or worth nothing... everyone who has the courage to get up on this stage unfront of people and play is a hero... (so much people don't even dare to get embarassed publically because their ego is too big to take this and would never never dare to go onstage because they are too afraid)

You have the right to be there and it's legitimate for anyone to be learning something. When you are on stage (solo...) it's your time so own it! (or try to own it the best you can... ; ) Always remember that what seems like a very long moment for you is actually a very short for the audience.

I was 17 wen it first happened to me. I was playing at a level definitely beyond Suzuki Book 10 at the time (Mendelssohn and Beethoven concertos) and I had been performing solo around the county on violin and cello for at least 3 years. But this particular time I was just playing some old-English ditties for my high school English class and my bow started to shake. I had no idea what was going on, because I did not feel scared or nervous. Later Mother told me that was "stage fright." All my future performances were plagued by the fear that the shaking would happen again (only that).

Then it began to affect my cello bow arm about 10 years later. It never went away in the next 25 years, and if anything it got worse for solo playing and eventually for ensemble performance (not orchestra) in which I would be heard. Then I learned about beta blockers at the 1977 San Diego Chamber Music Workshop (where the first evening was a panel about "Stage Fright."). Upon getting home, I got an Rx for Inderal from my Dr. and I've never had a problem again. I break my pills into quarters and use about 5 mg at least 40 min before the performance is to start. (I might be over the problem now, but I'm reluctant to try a performance without medical reinforcement to find out.)

To me, the 'process' you refer to is to keep doing it. I find that performing & sight-reading are 2 things that really tend to improve with experience. Try to play with people in a situation where you're not working towards a performance, just jamming with your friends.

June 11, 2010 at 03:24 PM I have the same problem. I always shake some, but sometimes it manifests itself as severe shaking - essentially unable to play, sometimes as poor technique (that was fine during practice) and sometimes as completely forgetting the music that I've definitely memorized. I found the information on the following page to be helpful for the forgetting the music part, and I am hopeful that it will help with the other manifestations as well. I don't feel nervous before performing, but clearly there is some change in my body / brain response. The second paragraph in the link I think provides an explanation for why my performance is bad when my practice is good and I don't feel nervous. _music.html Hope this helps.Ann

June 11, 2010 at 03:44 PM I have said this before in a few other places, but one of the major culprits here is what is called "anticipatory anxiety." It is essentially a very normal reaction, but it can get out of hand. It is basically worry not over what is happening, but over what one thinks and anticipates is going to happen. It is essentially worrying about a worst-case scenario that in fact has not happened. Look it up; you may get some useful information on how to deal with it.

Sandy

June 11, 2010 at 06:16 PM Jude - Bravo to you for reaching out. Be confident that you can become the fearless performer that you aspire to be. It'll take some work, but, with a positive attitude, you can have fun tackling this common problem.

Along with the excellent ideas already posted, allow me to suggest that you deliberately incorporate practice performances into your weekly routine. I describe three types of practice performances on my blog: =469.

Practice performances give us the opportunities we need to acclimate to performance situations and try out various preparatory and stress-busting techniques that build self-assurance and counter the shakes.

June 11, 2010 at 08:18 PM You cannot let yourself worry about mistakes. In fact, I have never made a mistake (I thought I did once, but I was wrong).

Did you ever hear of a cowboy getting stage fright?

(.....a cowboy getting stage fright......get it?)

The point is, do not let yourself get too seriously worked up about this. It is not an earthshaking problem to make a mistake while doing one of the most demanding and difficult tasks ever devised in the history of civilization - playing the violin. Years ago I recall reading that Heifetz (I think during the 1950s) stopped playing in the middle of a concerto - he simply forgot. I believe it made the news at the time. He passed it off saying that no one is perfect. If you want perfection, do something other than playing the violin.

One of my favorite quotes is by Vince Lombardi, regarded as one of the 2 or 3 greatest football coaches who ever lived. He said, "We will chase perfection. While perfection cannot be attained, we will catch excellence."

Hope that helps.

Keep smiling.

:) Sandy

June 11, 2010 at 08:54 PM BTW, there's a really good article around by Malcom Gladwell about choking and the difference between it and panicking, both of which are often lumped together under "stage fright" or "performance anxiety," but which are actually quite different. Google it; it's a good read.

Choking is common among high-achiever types who are worried about perfection. It severs the link between you and your instinct, and you start overthinking everything. If you aren't consciously aware of the music you're supposed to be playing, it will desert you, and often the most thoughtlessly perfect parts of the music are where it will surface. The stuff you could play without thinking becomes the stuff you CAN'T play WITH thinking, when you are overthinking and unable to just go with the flow.

Never let yourself become mindless about performing, never go on autopilot. A lot of people think that when you can perform something perfectly "without even thinking about it," that you're done. You're not. In fact, you never get a free pass to stop thinking when you are performing. Just remain conscious of what you're doing while you are practicing. (Well, it not quite "just.") "Here's those triplets, then down into Em, okay, we resolve that, then it's back to GM, then back to EM with a Picardy third ... " Don't ever let your brain check out to lunch while you're practicing, or else when you choke (and we all do), that's the stuff that will bite you on the backside.

Basically, when you panic, you can't get into your brain, and when you choke you can't get OUT. The music needs to be in both hands and brain, or else one of those two situations will pop up and cause you to lose your connection to it. Those 10,000 reps dare not be just mindless reps until you can do it in your sleep. You can NEVER allow yourself to do it in your sleep; it's brutally difficult to repeat something 10,000 times mindfully -- but that's exactly what you need to do.

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