The rush and thrill of performance is the wrangling of confidence and the ultimate dominance over stage fright. For any adrenalin junky it is the impending danger that predicates the thrill. So keep in mind that the thrill comes from managing the fright and creating a pathway to allow the confidence to shine through.
You owe it to yourself and to your audience to overcome whatever is inhibiting you, but how?
You have another big show coming up and you’d really like to enjoy it for yourself. But like clockwork, the nerves come back and consume everything. It’s all you can do to keep from being completely incapacitated.
Knowing what to do and how to deal with Stage Fright is imperative for participation. What you do know is that you cannot continue on in the same way any longer.
So let’s discuss some methods and strategies to help you get yourself positioned in the way you’d like to be.
Believe me when I say I get it. I’ve been there and long before I flipped the switch and dove headlong into reckless abandon, I was on more then one occasion inundated and overcome with anxiety to perform on stage or in the vocal booth.
That anxiety would be so severe at times that it would impose an immediate affect on my performance. My vocal range would contract and I’d even be rendered blank and forgetful. It was no fun but I gradually overcame the worst of it.
So let’s start by having a look at some physiological responses that may manifest from the anxiety of taking the stage to perform.
After identifying those, we’ll detail some actionable tips to help combat and evade stage fright. These proven strategies will put you on a pathway to better confidence and competence.
Our Bodies And Stress
First lets talk about what happens to our bodies in these types of high-pressure situations. I’ve listed a few symptoms that may not only be perceivable internally but also may be visually identifiable.
- Acceleration of heart rate / Breathing
- Pail / Flushed Face
- Dry Mouth
- Tunnel Vision
- Shaking
We all know how it feels to have our hearts racing too fast right before a big show. The Acceleration of heart rate is usually coupled with accelerated breathing. Neither of which are enviable symptoms to be burdened with moments before your big opportunity to introduce your music to new people or other important ears from inside the industry whom you’d like to make a good impression upon.
In addition to having an accelerated heart rate and breathing. It can also be fairly common for this particular type of stress to manifest itself with skin discolorations. A Pail or Flushed face would be a visual sign and symptom of anxiety. While not as detrimental as perhaps some of the other symptoms, it is still not desirable as performance at its very nature is a presentation. For the audience the alternating skin tones of the performer could certainly be perceived as a distraction and thusly undermine the presentation.
In some cases stress may cause the performer to have Dry Mouth. For the singer or singers having mounting stress directly affect salivation is far from desirable. This can be one of the harder symptoms to manage as it makes it very difficult to sing and to articulate well when salivation has been restricted.
I suppose if the anxiety were significant enough it could even trigger Tunnel Vision, where a person would have short loss of peripheral vision.
A person who is also experiencing a great deal of stress, can also experience involuntary Shaking. Which makes the capacity for performance more challenging.
Being Prepared
Whether you have a big show or an up coming recording session, doing everything that you can to mitigate undesirable anxieties becomes that of the highest importance.
The first step to preparedness is establishing a stable schedule and routine. This should be done in regards to both on and off the stage as well in the recording booth.
Create your very own pregame ritual and make it habitual. Do the same things each and every time with consistence. These constancies will become ledges and nooks for you to grab onto and pull yourself upwards with.
Before live shows and recording be sure to keep a regular rehearsal schedule. Give yourself the confidence that comes from preparedness and remove one more variable from the equation.
When you know that you are competent with the material you’ll be just that much more confident. And as the process of overcoming stage fright involves collecting a lot of different bits of confidence then find them where you can. Eventually they’ll be what you rely on to get you through your event.
When I was performing regular there were times that I would want to change things up in order to make things more exciting. That makes a lot of sense once you are comfortable but if you are still feeling the pressure of anxiety than changing things up for the sake of excitement wouldn’t be the most prudent course of action. Instead, and only for the time being, choose a regular set list and do it in exactly the same order each time you play out. Do this until you have worked up your personal fortitude and capacity.
I know that sounds a bit boring and dull and all of that would be completely counterintuitive but this entire effort is like threading a needle and for now you are in a position to have to move yourself from not skilled at mitigating anxiety to skilled.
So if your shows are predictable fans may notice but if you fumble on stage your fans will surely notice. So its safe to say that for now it is better to be predictable and slightly confident then unpredictable and crash before a live audience.
As you build confidence with yourself and what you are doing eventually you will be able to give yourself a bigger challenge. For now crawl first and walk later. Your friends and fans will grow along with you and quite frankly that’s part of what will bond them together more intimately with your project.
Notwithstanding that each situation always has it’s own particular demands, and you will certainly grow to be able to meet a wider array of them but for the foreseeable future and with the best of your ability do not delineate from your routine. It is the structure with which you will navigate your show, interview or recording session.
Attitude Check
A long time ago they would say, “accentuate the positive” and even today doing so is extremely important. It’s ok to be a bit nervous but you certainly do not want to be a prisoner to that.
It is very important to intellectualize all of this. You have to do your best identifying irrational fears and choosing how you allow ideas to affect the quality of your life experience.
I know that simply saying intellectualize your way through will not remedy everything but each step is a practice towards the whole and if you are not actively using every tool at your disposal battling back against the nerves then they win.
We all know that being nervous is a natural part of life. But that does not negate that you are good at what you do and accomplished. Those reasons are in fact why people are interested in hearing and enjoying the performance you are about to give.
So in that you can see the positive. A musician has a symbiotic relationship with their audience and the fact that you are currently preparing to do better with your end of the deal is a positive in and of itself.
Once you start recognizing all of these micro-positives you can begin to start to derive a confidence from the idea of positivity, which should lend an advantage. No one has any time to waste and that certainly includes you. So don’t allow yourself to fall victim to the practice of giving away what you don’t have to give.
Positive Affirmations
Focus on the upside and remember while reciting self-affirming Mantras may or may not be your thing it is important to keep in mind that we are what we think. If we are self deprecating than what do you suppose will be the result? Good things?
Reaffirming negatives couldn’t possibly be as constructive as projecting the opposite. So it goes without saying that if you are in the habit of being awful to yourself then perhaps that is just another thing to consider adjusting.
Control the Playing Field
Magicians do not reveal their secrets and neither should musicians. The Magician creates an illusion by using clever trickery to entertain and astound their audience. So should the musician.
If the anxiety of all the unfamiliar faces causes for an ever increasing self-perpetuating panic, then rather falling prey to it, flip the script. Instead of dwelling on all of these strangers whom you are terrified to disappoint, focus back and forth between one or two of your close personal friends.
These could be people who are a part of your bands extended “family” maybe they are your media people, roadies, people from the local street team, your significant other or your best friend.
Dictate the terms and make the night yours and your friends. The more you feel comfortable the more you can use the stage to make new friends, reaching out one by one as comfort allows. Control what you can, because just like the magician the over arching theme of how things are viewed is yours to control.
In the event that on this particular night you do not have the luxury of having any of your regular party there to help you anchor, look for one or two of the friendliest faces you can find. As I’ve said before this is a symbiotic experience. Those friendly faces will recognize your need and they will stand in the gap. So long as you have a modicum of talent I can say that with certainty.
Performing More Often
If practice makes perfect, then it is an imperative to practice performing as often as possible. I am aware that having a show where your band is on the line up every night just wont be practical. That said playing every night is not necessarily impossible.
It’s an issue of scale. Start squeezing in every open-mic night you can. Open-mic nights have a culture all of their own. They are a great tool to building regularity and familiarity with the exposed feeling of playing a guitar and singing into an amplified microphone. They force you to find courage and to find it all on your very own with no band to hide behind.
You can leverage yourself in this situation because when you are playing a big show with your band there are so many variables at play for you to be responsible for. The “importance” of the event, your bands draw and your ability to be a powerful front person are not marginal obstacles to overcome.
The low key vibe of the open-mic on the other hand may seem like small potatoes in comparison all the while offering so much.
First there are far fewer people in attendance to potentially embarrass yourself in front of which should relax you. Next your performance at the open-mic will not affect your bands career trajectory. Lastly the people who regular participate are salt of the earth people like you. They are there to cut their teeth and build community with other like-minded people and you may potentially turn one or two new friends on to your music.
While there are less people to perform for at the open-mic, without your band it will be entirely on your shoulders, but at the same time you are not responsible for the success of the night so the pressure comes off. You’ll feel more comfortable and at ease to find your stage legs and figure out how to become a performer.
Eventually you’ll prove your own reliability. The more regularly you reinforce that to yourself the more it will lend to your overall growth and confidence.
If an open-mic is hard to find an alternative would be to find a Karaoke night or Karaoke bar. These places have their own unique culture as well but will yield similar results.
After you’ve exhausted all of the local open-mic nights and karaoke bars, grab an acoustic and go play for some friends and family until they are forcibly demanding you to stop.
Once they’ve thrown you out of the house and if you’re still feeling ambitious grab a handy Internet device and search for a singing club or choir. By taking initiative like this you will move the ball a long way in your favor. Remember when you do nothing you get nothing.
Rely on Good Technique for Autopilot
Having time spent with a professional vocal coach could also lend to expanding confidence. Well learned technique to rely on during the otherwise seemingly eternal weight of a blaring spotlight is another advantage you could give yourself.
Think of all of the tips that you’re given as tools for the toolbox. You can fill yours with what ever you want but the more tools you have the more likely it is you’ll have the right tool for the job.
The vocal coach will teach you breathing technics and provide you with a better understand of your diaphragm. With the overview and the understanding of the process being more systematic and mechanical, a greater capacity for managing those systems and mechanics should also develop.
Thusly endowing you with greater confidence from learned experience. When the calamity of pressure ensues fall back unto trained behavior to carry you. Like a pilot using autopilot, rely on the internal systems you’ve developed and are developing for yourself.
Fake It ‘Till You Make It
Smile and exude confidence. Always keep in mind that no one asked you to do this. No one begged you to climb up on to that stage. This is all your own doing so don’t pretend otherwise.
But if the drama just continues to overtake and you are doing your very best to wrestle it back, just keep it in perspective. Force the smile because this is where you wanted to be and this is what you wanted to be doing. From here on proceed to fake it until you’ve made it.
You’ll find that your audience will better respond to a smile anyway and you will better respond to their response. So it is perpetual.
You will eventually come to manage all of this. Quite frankly as I mentioned before it is most certainly a matter of frequency and growing accustomed to this as a new normal. You’ll eventually desensitize to the adrenaline and your body and mind will eventually mitigate the production of adrenaline on these types of occasions.
Try to be a little bit transcendental about it and keep smiling throughout because the only other option is dropping out like a flunky and if you’ve only climbed up on that stage just to climb back down than who is it that you’re kidding?
So what is it going to be? What decision will you make? Quite frankly, this shouldn’t even be a question. If this is what you want then assume the mantel. Please note that I am pulling for you.
Accept Mistakes
Learn how to play through and manage mistakes. Unfortunately the only way to do that requires that you make a mistake in a public situation. Doing that is very humbling. But if you can survive your way through one or two of these types of mortifying experiences eventually you’ll stop making a big deal of it and learn to laugh at your self.
Then you’ll have gained the insight that by keeping your composure and playing through the mistake, the mistake will find a way of disappearing. Once you have grappled a firm grasp of that logic you can start enjoying yourself a bit more. Eventually the amount of preshow anxiety you have become so accustomed to should evolve itself into preshow enthusiasm.
Additionally and as a note of consideration, you’ll likely find that there seems to be some self-fulfilling perpetual mechanism in regard to the mistakes that are made as a result of anxiety or stress. If our stress is coming from some desire for approval or validation, then approval will come should we not fail, so stress is in effect some expectation that it is likely we will fail. That expectation may provoke and precipitate the very mistake you are afraid of making. So once you’ve gotten a handle at laughing off mistakes the likelihood is, so long as your act is well rehearsed, you wont be making many.
The Goal
Remember to stay on task, do not allow yourself to be self-important. Part of the wave of emotion that comes with playing live has to do with the anticipation of reception. That mixed together with rush of managing the show and the responsibilities to your own performance and parts to play.
On some occasions certain individuals can envision grandiose outcomes, those outcomes are often filled with streets lined with gold. This isn’t intended to be critical of that, we’ve all thought nonsense at one point or another, rather the intent is to illustrate that by indulging this behavior, you are effectively making mountains out of molehills.
So bring it back down to earth and remember the goal is not where you may get to tomorrow, but where you’ve gotten to today. This is your moment to enjoy so don’t muck it up for yourself.
Alter Egos
I don’t know anything about being a fire fighter or police officer, but I’d imagine that there must be something about putting on the uniform. It must psychologically transform an individual into something other than the individual.
The other more obvious reference would be to consider an actual superhero. Clark Kent for instance walks around all day fantastically normal then flips the switch and takes on another persona and does extraordinary things.
I realize that to the great disappointment of every living human, Superman is a fictional character. But that doesn’t lessen the value of the metaphor.
A more concrete example may be writers writing under a pseudonym, or a singer singing under a stage name. In both cases the artist shapes and creates the backstory and characteristics of the characters that they have created. So if you are a solo act or you are in a band, think about the personification of the act and then envelope those characteristics and traits into your performance expanding the performance to personify those traits almost like an actress or an actor.
Don’t Forget to Remember
We only live once. So give yourself permission to calm down and breathe. Managing your breath will help to manage your heart rate and other physiological responses. If yoga and meditation are not your things, than at the very least focus and practice on maintaining your rate of breath especially during high pressure situations involving heightened dispersals of adrenalin.
Conclusively
All of this is in order to connect with others in a symbiotic union of artistic expression and relative appreciation. It is your part to deliver a commanding performance and should you do that well, it is audience’s part to appreciate the effort.
Performance as a craft is something with which to create momentary spectacles of escape that break the routine of the ordinary, as well as enlighten and inspire. Moving away from fear and moving towards participation and submersion is vital to become truly engaged in the activity.
I dearly appreciate you taking your time to consider some of my thoughts in this regard. I hope that in some small way something of it can be useful to you.
My time playing and performing is so fondly remembered I certainly wish that you walkaway with the same enrichment and fondness.
Having stage fright is neither a bad thing nor does it make you bad. It is yet just another obstacle to overcome and navigate in an endless sea of them.
The way I see and measure things is most always in relation to time. Just how much time do I want to give over to any particular obstacle? It isn’t that I’m suggesting that if something might take too much time I’d stand down. Rather if something is robbing me of my most precious asset of time then I take great exception to my culpability in that. I would then do my utmost best to reassess the circumstance and in a forthright manor stop lollygagging about. I would use my repulsion for wasted time to brazenly leverage my self through.
You owe yourself the fastest route possible.
So at your earliest convenience overcome the obstacle, find your stage legs and create accomplishments to fondly reflect on later.
Now go and get to it.
Good luck!