What follows is excerpted from numerous Masterclasses and lessons on the topic:
Lately, I’ve had countless students approach me about the topic of self evaluative untapped potential in a performance or audition. In other words they were admitting that they had been disappointed in their performance, despite their preparation.
Therein lies the dilemma…hard work leading to perceived failure. Therefore why put in the effort when I know I won’t succeed.
But there’s another way to look at it… could it be that you care, really care about your music? It actually means more to you than most things in your life? Don’t ever lose that realization and read on.
What to do about getting nervous.
What follows comes from years of successful performances as well as lifetimes of failures. As musicians we are constantly being criticized from others, and also from within. It’s the tone of the criticism that matters, and the way that we interpret that criticism will determine our overall self-esteem. Realize that the act of living the life of an artist means enduring self-reflection and self-criticism on our journey towards something magical. The act of auditioning or performing is an opportunity that will yield very direct results, generally right away, and that probability can be stressful in itself.
Fight or Flight on steroids!
When the brain perceives that we are in a stressful situation- as it rightly does when a sabertooth tiger races to chomp on us, it tells the body to create adrenaline and other hormones to “get up and go”, to put it mildly. Those are powerful enhancers, developed over millenia as a life saver- since our bodies won’t be functional if we’re in the belly of said tiger.
The problem arises when the brain perceives the same danger in a performance situation, and kicks in the known solution- adrenaline. We aren’t well suited to perform- musically or otherwise, when we are stressed to the degree that nerve function overtakes our bodily norms of performance.
There are numerous books and offerings online on this very topic, and I encourage students to seek out titles that seem particularly relevant. I grew up on “Peak Performance” by B. Garfield, and Dan Millman’s “The Peaceful Warrior”, in addition to Donald Green’s “Auditioning” book as well.
Mindful Practice
It seems that Russian Olympic Athletes were way ahead on the “Mindful” practice that is common today. They used mental imagery to assist in their training, a technique I have adapted to musical performance. Deep breathing, slow heart rates, almost dreamlike mental states provide a great canvas to see the body actually performing the task at hand. These must be practiced to become easily proficient in the ability to instantly induce a state of relaxation, and thus a perfect mind-set for performance.
Metronome on 60
Upon arriving at my performance site, I immediately set a metronome to tick at 60, and on this, I immediately focus my breathing. Four in six out, four in eight out, two in six out, two in eight out, etc. It’s amazing when we focus on our breathing, even in slow careful breaths, we are much less nervous- and we are more focused mentally and more relaxed physically!
Tools that can help…
Make a Breathing Bag (consult your teacher), Breathing Exercises, Use of Berp, Cut-Away Mouthpiece, Recording device (smartphone, or handheld recorder) for mock auditions, Cardio workouts, Yoga, and a general Optimistic outlook.
What’s the Worst that could happen?
Sometimes it helps to remember that if we play poorly, or an audition doesn’t go as well as we’d desired, the world won’t experience a catalysmic extermination event. The Earth will continue on it’s path around the Sun, and the Sun will continue providing warmth to earth’s creatures (at least for the next million years!). Our very existence won’t be thrown in the balance because of the success or failure of our individual event. Okay I’m speaking in superlatives, but the point is that if we place our performance in perspective, we will feel a bit better about our musical performance.
We merely want to play up to our greatest potential, and let the chips fall where they fall.
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