Turn a Light On Stage Fright

There are indeed few of us who have no fear of performing in front of people, especially if those people are sitting in judgment, as, say, at an audition or competition.

By the way, when I told Nathan Milstein of my intention to play at the Flesch competition he shook his head in disgust and said, “Why waste your time, it would be better to take a vacation.” And he was right. But let’s save that for another day.

Getting back to ‘nerves.’ Take a moment to give thanks that we have them. Yes, I mean that. When nervous energy becomes excited energy and is brought under control, you have a powerful source of ‘high octane’ fuel that can boost performance beyond anything you have done in your practice room.

The raw, uncontrolled energy of nerves is ‘fight or flight’ energy. The adrenaline is pulling blood from your extremities, and preparing you for a sudden, explosive burst of activity – either fighting for your life, or running like hell to save it.

Once you have ‘given thanks’ for this energy source your next order of business is to get control of it.

As you contemplate an approaching concert, audition, or competition, feel your level of nervous anxiety. That gives you an indication of how much energy converting you will be doing on the day of.

Once you have a sense of that you can lay a little strategy to handle it. The ‘fight or flight’ response is going to pull blood from you extremities. You are going to experience a loss of fine motor control. The more anxiety you feel over an event the more adrenaline you will need to process.

You will process that adrenaline by showing up as early as your anxiety sense tells you to show up. The more anxiety the earlier you will arrive.

Now it’s the day of.

You begin warming up. At first you will feel the effects of adrenaline. Relax about it. Move the bow back and forth, vigorously. Focus on making a full, rich tone; begin to enjoy the sensation of movement.

Do not start with the most difficult passage you will have to play!

Now you are ready to engage your mind. Slowly begin downloading into you consciousness all of the rich detail you have stored there during practice sessions – the feelings, the visualizations, the musical intentions.

I have begun this process up to 11/2 hours before a performance.

What is essential is that you have secured in your practice sessions all the knowledge and feeling that you will need to put on a great show.

Knowing that you are as prepared as you can possibly be is a wonderful feeling in and of itself. Don’t settle for anything less.

To unlock your potential for preparation I highly recommend you take advantage of my learning methods now. They will give you the confidence of a tiger in hot pursuit of prey.

All the best,
Clayton Haslop