Estimated reading time 3 minutes
Table of Contents
Stage Fear and Performance Anxiety #1: Overcoming Stage Fright Without Medicines for Performance Anxiety
Do you have stage fear? Stage fear, also known as stage fright or performance anxiety, affects a lot of people. It can happen when you’re giving a speech, performing a song, or on the soccer field (sports anxiety). Keep reading Stage Fear! How to Deal with Performance Anxiety to learn how to work through your stage fright without needing to take medicine for performance anxiety.
This article uses technical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
Stage Fear and Performance Anxiety #2: Self-Talk and Transforming Your Stage Fright
Stage fear can happen in many types of situations. I’ll give you some general tips in this section and in the next section I’ll talk about musical performances. Having said that:
- Stage fright can ruin a speech, a song, or an event that you’ve worked for weeks to perfect. It can affect even experienced speakers, musicians, actors, dancers, and athletes.
- Performance anxiety comes from a fight-flight-or-freeze physiological reaction. Namely, if you’re worried about screwing up and making a fool of yourself, you can’t relax and perform your best.
- However, these two tips will help you overcome stage fear without needing to take medicine for your stage fright.
The first tip: You must ask yourself, “What’s the best thing that can happen and what’s the worst thing that can happen?” This helps keep your fears in perspective and defeats negative self-talk. For more details:
The second tip: Your need to transform your strong physical fight-flight-or-freeze responses from feelings of fear into feelings of excitement. To learn how to do this:
Stage Fear and Performance Anxiety #3: How to Stop Fearing Mistakes in Your Performances
One of the best things you can do to overcome stage fright will be to know your music inside and out. If you really know your music, it’ll boost your confidence and reduce your stress.
Also, you need to accept that it’ll be okay if you make mistakes.
- If you worry about making mistakes, you’ll put a tremendous amount of pressure on yourself, making your performance anxiety worse.
- This in turn will make it more likely that you’ll make mistakes.
- If you accept that a few mistakes won’t ruin everything, it’ll help you relax and play better.
In fact, if you have a mistake free performance, enjoy it, because they’re rare.
In addition, if you don’t stop, groan, make bad faces, or say “Oops,” it’s unlikely that anyone will notice anyway.
- We have wax cylinder recordings of master musicians from the late 19th century, and they made mistakes that would be unacceptable today.
- Why could they get away with it back then? Because they performed live, and the brain’s short-term memory can only hold seven bits of information before it becomes overwhelmed.
- In a live performance with literally thousands of notes, any mistake you make will likely be forgotten… unless it becomes noticeable.
- Most people come away from a performance with a general sense of having enjoyed it or not – with maybe a few memories of what they saw.
- Therefore, if you make a mistake, you must try to avoid drawing attention to it.
- Also, this means you can make mistakes and still have a solid performance.
- So, it’s not whether you make mistakes, but how you deal with them.
Once you realize that mistakes aren’t that big a deal, you’re well on your way to overcoming your stage fear.
Stage Fear and Performance Anxiety #4: Final Thoughts on Stage Fright
Here’s a summary of Stage Fear! How to Deal with Performance Anxiety.
- Ask yourself, “What’s the best that can happen and what’s the worst that can happen?”
- Transform your performance anxiety fears into excitement.
- Practice your music, speech, dance, or sport until you feel confident in your performance. This helps short circuit your stage fright.
- Realize that it’s okay to take mistakes. Once you accept that you can have a good performance even with a few mistakes, it frees you up to let go and go for it.
- This in turn allows you to enjoy performing.
Using these strategies, you won’t need to take medicine for stage fright.
Have fun performing!
Related Posts
- What Does it Mean for Me to Interpret a Piece of Music?
- How Long Do You Take to Memorize a Piece of Piano Music?
- D’you Want Some Music Tips and Tricks I’ve Learned Over the Years?
© 2023 Geoffrey Keith
Join me for in-person or online lessons today!
Back to the All-Purpose Music Tips and Topics category blogs page
Glossary
How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Two Hands?
How does your brain learn to play the piano with two hands? Daniel Coyle, in "The Talent Code," tells us generally how the brain acquires skill, and I’ll give you specific tips for two-handed playing. Read more to find out how it works. Estimated reading time 4 minutes
Read More
Singing Shape Note Solfege Aeolian Melodies
Do you want to sing Eastern European folk melodies and mediaeval chants? Are you puzzled about how the aeolian mode works? Modes have been a feature of music from ancient times to today. Singing Shape Note Solfege Aeolian Melodies lets you explore the exotic sound of the aeolian mode. Estimated reading time 2 minutes.
Read More
What Makes a Barbershop Quartet a Special A Cappella Group?
“What makes a barbershop quartet a special a cappella group?” There are a number of stylistic elements that contribute to this music’s special, distinctive sound. Keep reading to learn more. Estimated reading time 2 minutes.
Read More
Singing in Tune with Vowels
Want to have better vocal tone? Want to sing in tune? Singing is all about the vowels. Vowels have a central role in singing, because the vowels impact your tone. Also, they impact how you tune when you harmonize. This happens when sound passes through the formants - the resonant folds in the vocal tract. The formants filter your voice’s harmonic overtones, which influences your harmonic intonation. Read more to learn about singing in tune with vowels. Estimated reading time 6 minutes.
Read More