Three Steps on How to Overcome Stagefright
For all those of you who are more advanced guitar players and are performing and have a little stagefright, this post is for you. You’ve practiced and practiced, but now feel you are ready to perform and show the world what you can do. Only problem is you’re afraid. No worries, this three step guide will help you in overcoming stage fright.
Learn Your Material as Best as You Can
Learning whatever you’re going to be performing is essential in becoming a great performer. What you’re doing when you practice is learning muscle memory. Muscle memory is when you don’t even have to think about going through the moves because you’ve practiced it so many times, it just comes naturally. The more you practice, the more your muscles will remember what you need to play, even when you’re brain is too frazzled to remember the notes. I must admit because it happened to me, sometimes you’re too nervous to remember everything because you’re focused on the act of performing in front of lots of people and not on the content you’re performing. The more you practice, the more you will feel confident, and the higher the chance that if you DO for get something, muscle memory will take over.
BREATHE
Breathe. And breathe via your abdomen not via your chest. This is essential. Notice when you’re totally relaxed, you see your belly move with your breathing, not your chest; and when you’re nervous you will probably see your chest moving when you breathe. Breathing through your chest is no good and it makes you more tense than you need to be. Practice this at home when you’re not freaking out about your performance and can focus on relaxed breathing. I’ve heard many times from others that most of your heart rate and level of relaxation is dependent on how you’re breathing. If you learn to breathe relaxed, you will ultimately BE more relaxed and ready to perform the way you know you can perform.
Baby Steps
If you have stage fright, performing for 1000 people probably sounds like a nightmare. Try performing for 5 of your closest family or friends. Then once you feel comfortable with that, try performing for 15-30 people, perhaps in a coffeeshop open mic setting. Once you don’t mind playing for 15-30 people, you may want to try performing for 50-75 people. Baby steps is what it takes to build confidence. I noticed when learning to play guitar that performing for 500 people was super scary, but so was playing for 100 people. When I played for 100 people, I was sooo nervous. Then I performed for 500 people a few days later. I was even more nervous as you might imagine. But then, a week later, I had another performance for 100 people. After the 500 person performance, 100 didn’t seem to be such a big deal, and I took it with stride and was barely nervous at all! You too can benefit from doing something similar.
Just remember…
No one else in the room is performing but you. That automatically makes you outstanding for making that leap of faith. While performing, imagine the same steps you do when you’re on your own rehearsing and practicing. Do everything you can to take your mind off of the fact that people are now watching you, and when you get more comfortable, embrace the crowd and connect. But for now, just focus on getting used to performing. It will come with time, and the more you do it, the more comfortable you will feel.
