Stage Fright!!

[JazzIsFreedom]

Tell us your experiences with performing and those times of stage fright that may have effected your performance. How did or how are you overcoming this? I ask because I grew up performing solo's in high school, and had terrible stage fright!! It is something for me to kind of laugh at now because it was just a major mind game. I got better with this as I got better at the sax and started really putting my heart into it!!

[Merlin]

Get Kenny Werner's book: Effortless Mastery. While it does not deal specifically with stage fright as a concept, it does help you deal with the root causes (poor preparation, lack of confidence, etc.)

[dpwadw]

I recently started soloing again and boy, did fright set in. Thankfully I have overcome it on several fronts. Health, relaxation techniques, and preparedness are my talking points.

1. Know you biorhythms: This one takes time, but you will eventually get a sense of when to eat, how much to sleep, etc. If your body is messed up, the tension rises even higher than normal. Managing emergency bathroom breaks can be especially embarrassing during a performance :oops: . Obviously don't go for the big pizza right before you go on. Sleep well but don't oversleep. This sometimes brings on headaches. On the subject of headache: your caffeine level should be consistent as possible and don't miss any of your regular prescription medications. Sip water before and during the gig. Keep hydrated but avoid bloating yourself.

2. Relaxation: Before playing sit, close you eyes and focus on regulated breathing. Find a cold spot to chill out especially if you're wearing heavy clothing on stage. While waiting to go on, make small talk with others to help pass the time.

3. Preparedness: Practice, practice again. The best advice I have for playing well is knowing the material completely. The following may sound obsessive but consider this. A guitar player friend of mine practices a difficult song not 100, or even 200 times. He feels to truly master a song he practices about 500 times thru! He then feels confident to play that song for literally years of gigs!

I still get very nervous, its no joke :? . Regimen however has repeatedly helped me conquer the fears. Best of luck to all you scaredy cats out there!

[Paul Coats]

My friend Alan Handelsman does excellent work on relieving stage fright. He wrote:

"Hi Paul,
Thank you for thinking of me. Yes, I still help people with stage fright, mostly in private sessions. This can easily be done over the telephone, and usually the work is done within three sessions. If you know anyone who might want some help with stage fright, or simply to relieve tensions, both mental and physical while performing, feel free to pass along my phone number. It is in Arizona, so people in the Eastern time zone need to be aware that we are 3 hours behind. Thanks again.
Smiles,
Alan Handelsman"

For any that might need his services, please contact me at:

tenorman@teche.net

and I will send you his telephone number.

[Gaijin-san]

Find a cold spot to chill out especially if you're wearing heavy clothing on stage.

No way man! No matter how I'm dressed, and it's not even just when I'm soloing... I get COLD, not warm. My fingers turn to ice and lock up, and my body gets so cold that I'm shaking (not nervous shake, just a cold shake). If I'm sitting down prior to a song I'm playing in, I have learned to sit on my hands... helps, but I wish I could find something better.

[sopsax]

Strangely, over a career span of 1500 performances -- with frequent solos and improvisations -- I've never had stage fright. (Well, maybe once or twice.) I approach the stage or bandstand with a sort of calm glee. What I have is the opposite of stage fright: real life makes me tense, performing tames the demons.

[dpwadw]

Gaijin-San,

OK, point well taken that cold rooms aren't for everyone. I was being specific, but my overall point was centered around preparedness (physical, spiritual, mechanical).

Yes, you must do whatever ever works for you before a gig. Essentially my experience has taught me that being proactive and attacking my fears is better than stewing in them (what I used to do).

As for your finger lock-up and being cold, you might consider wearing gloves while in the proverbial green room. Try wool...awesome warmth.

See ya'.

[jdh3000]

I'm not a very good sax player, I'm here looking for some help, but I have played other instruments professionally for years
It has been said that if you were a little nervious, you wouldn't care about what you are doing. I know what you are going thru, and maybe these things will help:

Focus your attention completely on what you are doing, on how the instrument feels, notes on the page(if you are reading), just get completely into the music, and you won't be able to be worried about anything else. This takes a little practice, but eventually you will be able to look at the situation objectively. The people watching you are only people who have come to hear you perform, not to lynch you if you hit a sour note. If you are not the only one on stage, nobody knows how hit the bad note anyway.

Don't take it too seriously. Prepare well for the performance and when you get there, let it go. Make a deal with youself that you will practice well and when it comes time to perform, just do it, without overthinking it.

Know that your audiance wants you to do well, or at the very least don't care one way or the other. Very few people want to see you crash and burn, and those who would, their opinion is not worth the time to consider.

The main thing is to have fun. The more you worry something will go wrong, the more likely it will happen. Picture yourself being on stage, in front of thousands, and having a great time doing a great job. If you think about that enough and being relaxed while you do it, any show will not stress you out. A little bit of nerves are good, they keep you on your toes.
I've played in packed clubs, and in dives where we were playing to the bartender. When playing to an empty room I didn't really care how I sounded. To a packed room, I play off the energy level. Of course it's good to always do your best, even if no one is there.

Good luck, It ain't nothing but a thing!!!
JD

[JazzIsFreedom]

Nice reply jdh...

[Big Jim]

Hey, JDH, been there done that...Great reply. I've been playing Bass Guitar and Sax 30 years and you're right.. It's just a thing!
Regards,
Jim

[WindMusician81]

When I was quite young (ie 5 or so) I played piano, and did started out playing infront of a room of people, and then my instructor started getting me to play at small concerts in his back yard at the end of the seasons, and that gradually increaced to small auditoriums. Since I worked my way up to the big stage when I was very young, I have never had a problem with stage fright, but when I started playing real concerts in high school, I used to be a bit nervous. I'll list a few things that I've picked up

1) Never look at the audiance before the curtains open
2) Avoid looking directally at people in the audiance, and scanning for familiar faces. Look past the people. Making eye contact can cause you to get nervous, so don't focus on someone. At your distance, the person in the third row can easily think you looked right at them, and a person in the 6th row will think the same thing.
3) remember to breath. Before going on stage, take a few deep breathes.
4) Remember that there is nothing to worry about. If you make a mistake, you can just carry on with the next note, and the audiance will probably never notice. You'll be the only one who knows.
5) Be sure you are ready. Have a spare reed in your pocket, be well warmed up and relaxed.

When it comes to being prepared, I believe it was Paul Brodie that said the first 500 times are learning the piece, the next 500 are practice.

[Sassaphone]

Know your stuff cold!
Give yourself permission to make mistakes. If you don't the panic feeling will set in everytime your hit a sour note.

[adrianw]

I've only just started learning to play sax but I played bass guitar in a rock band in the sixties so I know what it's like to perform on stage in front of hundreds of people. I can never remember being nervous but the more I think of it the more I believe it was because I did things like focusing on any attractive girl in the crowd and playing to her. It certainly helped my love life.
I'm a cronic people watcher and I think I was watching people in the crowd more intently than they were watching me.
The one thing I didn't do was concentrate on what I was playing because it tended to make me more self conscious. If you practice a lot you will find it much easier to go on autopilot and that helps you relax into the music and enjoy the crowd.
My advice is, try watching the audience as if they are in a cage and they are there for you to look at. Nerves will come when you start to be conscious of YOU being the one in the glass case.

[ssgtjohn]

Hello SaxisFreedom,
I have been playing for about a yr. now and now I'm playing in church. I was scared crazy the first time and my bottom lip would shake out of control. Everytime I get a chance to play again, it gets better. I just close my eyes and feel the music. I also picture the audience as..."They wouldn't put themselves on the spot like I'm doing." I agree one hundred percent with what is being said, but for me, just closing my eyes and concentrating on the song and the music helps a lot. Hope this help you.

[BruceW]

I like the comment about playing in church.

I've been playing for about 10 years but only recently started to break out of the lonely confines of my basement. I've joined a concert band (floated in as first chair somehow) and have also soloed twice in church. Church is a great way to build your confidence as you'll be welcomed with a very forgiving audience. Personally, I prefer the fact that there's no applause. I'm kind of reserved so it fits me just fine.

My second solo performance could have been better. Although I knew the piece really well (Mendellson's violin concerto, second movement). I was short of breath and just plain nervous. The reverend told me he still gets nervous up there (preaching, not playing) and he's been at it over 30 years.

My advice is from the old Nike slogan..."just do it". That goes for playing, public speaking, sinking that foul shot in basketball or darn near anything else. You should get to the point were you perform *better* in front of an audience. I'm not there yet myself but the only way to do it is to get out in front of people and give it your best shot.

Take it from me, if you hit that wrong note, the world will continue to turn as usual.

[Lambik]

Not that I play alot in public (let's hope things'll change with the new found band), but with the jazz class things were great the first year (funky music (Chameleon, Watermelon Man, Mercy Mercy Mercy, ...), terrific audience, hell of a teacher, and a leak free horn), but the second year we got a new teacher who taught us basically nice songs (Cantaloupe Island, Afro Blue, Work Song, Caravan), but we had to read it from scores (on a performance, c'mon, that's asking for problems) and we were only allowed to stick with the pentatonic/blues scales (perhaps more sophisticated, but it messes up the mind if you got a sheet of paper with A-C-D-D#-E-G on it and you must stick with it). In top of that, my horn was completely messed up àfter a repair (reparation for fixing the synchronisation of the Bb bis pad and the right hand pads, but the fixer must have messed up the octave keys). In top of that, again, we played without drummer / bassist. A horn duo (alto-trumpet) + piano, oh my. Not to mention, next time I step up a stage, I won't be very calm.

In church (every three months, we go to the chapel of our school) I used to play sometimes, and I've must have played my best version of Baker Street (+ improvised outro as we made up the time scheme to tightly (about 7 minutes :)), perhaps because there were people watching I know. As said above, church audience is indeed quite forgiving (they don't have to pay, do they) and little do they know about "that strange looking trumpet that sounds like a clarinet".

But with the woodwinds & brass ensemble of my town, I got no fear or whatsoever, as I only play 2nd alto sax and the trombones play flat anyway ;) Only for the marches, I play first saxophone, but there's no such thing as an original part for saxophone (the first measure with the trombones, the second with the clarinet the third again with the trombones and the fourth with the basses).

However, an "advice" it'd give anyone: you certainly know better how to play that horn and that song than the audience.