 The Fingering Forum
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Author: Valster
Date: 2004-06-12 14:54
What do you to calm nervousness before a performance? Just thought it would be interesting for people to post their different tactics for overcoming nervousness-:7)
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Author: Erica
Date: 2004-06-12 20:25
Don't think of anything as an audition or performance (unless you like the idea of a lot of people listening to you... some people enjoy that).
Just think of the music, if you can. Concentrating on why you picked the piece you're playing, and thinking of how much you enjoy it or how beautiful it is really helps calm you down.
Think of it this way: Are you doing music because you want to be successful and at the top, or because you enjoy listening to it so much and it's a major part of your life? If you chose the former, it's absolutely fruitless, and you will be left with nothing. But if you chose the later, it will always enrich you, and you'll be much happier.
In my last few auditions, I've said to myself "I love the piece I'm going to play, and I can't wait to play it again and hear how beautiful it is." Or, "This will be a lot of fun. I can't wait until that part where the music...(and on and on...)".
In other words, the idea is to look forward to your audition instead of dreading it, if possible.
Recently, I had an audition for jazz piano for All State. I did this Bill Evans transcription (Bill Evans is my favorite jazz pianist) and improvised over a Sonny Rollins tune. Before I went in, I said, "This will be really cool. For the next 10 minutes, I get to be Bill Evans and play one of his solos. Then I get to try my hand at improvising, just like he always got to." I walked into the room, and the adjudicator and I talked for about 3 minutes about Bill Evans, and I was completely relaxed. I played one of my best auditions ever. Best of all, I enjoyed myself.
There were other cases too like this, but all of you reading get the picture.
Seriously, I've had auditions where I went in and only thought about making that group, or messing up, or giving a better performace than other people. THEY DON'T WORK!!!!!! Not only do you do poorly, but you really don't gain anything from it, except "do better next time". Once you're there, you're in a really bad cycle of bad auditions and performances. At that point, you need to take a long break and re-focus. It took me a whole year (last year) to recover.
If you enjoy the music, and not think about anything else, you will do really well. Guaranteed.
Take this from a person who auditioned at least 10 times this year. About 8 of these auditions were successful. The other two that I can think of were poorly done because of the way my mind was set.
Hope this helps.
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Author: Joel Clifton
Date: 2004-06-12 20:44
First of all, make sure that you know the music really well. If there is a part coming up that you know you have trouble with, that will make you more nervous and you will almost certainly mess up. Make sure there is no passage that you haven't practiced to perfection. Another thing is, try to memorize the music.
Another important thing is, do not play for the people watching you, play for yourself. Enjoy the music. If you concentrate on the audience, or what they might think of your playing, you will not do as well. I know this from experience. If you memorize the music you can close your eyes sometimes, and that will make it easier to forget about the audience. That certainly helps me.
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Author: dboe
Date: 2004-06-12 21:34
Like when going on a vacation, you have to pack your bags. You must prepare, or even better, overprepare, so that you're ready for anything. A lot of people think that they can get away with really hoping and praying that they will do well, but without preparing well. That's foolish, and would shoot nervousness through the roof.
You must absolutely know your music cold. In order for you to feel at ease and be relaxed when playing the music MUST BE EASY! Learn to play it from memory.
Focus on what you have to do. There will be times when you really don't enjoy the music, and it's putting far too much stress on you (i.e. major orchestral audition). Take a step back and re-examine what exactly it is that you're doing. Think only of what *you* have to do, and *not* what anyone else is thinking of you. You can only play as well as you have prepared, and if you get out of your own way, and just do what's needed, the result will be fruitful.
Another point to remember, is that the nervousness is what gets you going! You will always get those few butterflies before playing. The difference between excellent players, and not so great players, is how much control they have over their nervousness.
You can't let what people will think of you, get to you...you just can't!
To do well in a performance, you do what is expected of you, put all your focus and attention on the piece, shut out distractions, and just play. There's not much to it!
Dboe
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Author: Theboy_2
Date: 2004-06-12 22:23
things i do, is take a couple deep breaths before starting, to relax yourself. if you're in an ensamble, try playing the songs once through, to get the nervous air out. usually the first song sound less then it usually does, because of nervousness, then the second song sounds better, if you play through it first before going on, the first nervous song was already played, and you should sound better. hope this helps.
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Author: D
Date: 2004-06-14 00:09
i just make sure i know exactly what i am going to do and drinking water helps, and definitly no caffine, sugar etc... that day
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Author: Dori
Date: 2004-06-14 01:27
Some nervousness is actually a good thing. Before a test, my son's karate teacher would say that being nervous shows you are paying attention to what needs to be done and not expecting to just go through the motions without any thought.
Speaking of thoughts, try to keep them positve: You ARE going to nail that difficult passage. That tempermental note WILL come out fine. The nervous feeling now can be one of antipation instead.
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Author: Valster
Date: 2004-06-15 13:25
Wow, these are all really good ideas! Thanks for posting!
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Author: Alex H.
Date: 2004-06-17 21:04
I guesse people like to perform in front of a big croud beacause they like the feeling of it. the nervousness, the croud claping and cheering, i think some people might not like that. But heres' somthing that realy realy helps that i learnd from a profeshional:
(colse your eyes)
Pretend that theres a huge audiance in front of you and your on stage. the people cheering and claping loudly........ think about how you feel( somtimes saying it outloud with your eyes closed helps moore) ...... step back and open your eyes. take a deep breath... colse your eyes back up and think about the stage again. ..................... bark and howl like a dog (keep doing this until that feeling in your stomach go's away)...... step back....take a deep breath and say outloud what you feel. Some people might think that this might be kind of silly , but think about it. when someone hurts your feeling or makes you sad , you tend to whant to cry, and it relifes you, right , but here what you are doing is barking and howling, insted of crying to let out the nervousness. in this exsersise YOU DON'T WHANT TO CRY just barking and howling. Trust Me it realy realy helps a lot!
my best wishes to you from Alex H.
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Author: Valster
Date: 2004-06-18 13:44
that's really cool! I wonder what my friends would say if I started howling before a performance...but, hey, whatever works!
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