Overcoming Stage Fright

My favorite musicians are able to transcend their instruments during performance; to bring the music to life, and truly tell a story. Stage fright is one of the biggest roadblocks to achieving this. Everyone gets nervous; how can we overcome this, in order to better serve the music?

Perform a lot!
One of the best methods to deal with nerves is to simply perform as much as possible. If I have only one concert per year, I get very nervous, but if I have one concert per week, each individual concert has less pressure on it. If I make a mistake during a performance, it is nice to feel that I have a chance to do it again in an upcoming concert. In a similar vein, why not apply for ten or twenty auditions? Ten or twenty competitions? You only need to add the ones you win to your resume. Along the way, you will improve so much from high pressure performance experience, and learn how to grow from mistakes.

Go for it
When I watch a musician perform, I can tell when they begin to focus on technique (intonation, rhythm, sound quality etc), and stop transcending the instrument. When this happens, it is always less satisfying as an audience member. Take, for example, a cellist approaching an expressive, yet difficult, shift. I would rather watch the cellist completely go for it and miss the shift, than carefully approach, and hit the shift. The only way to achieve a completely satisfying musical moment is to go for it. This means that in the practice room, you need to practice the shift with intense focus, and many repetitions, until it becomes hardwired in your brain. That way, during the performance, you can completely focus on the musical gesture. If you miss it during a concert (which happens to everyone), don't beat yourself up! Simply tell yourself that you will return to that spot during your next practice session with increased focus.

Performance mindsets
When I feel nervous before a performance, there are a few mindsets I like to enter to help relieve nerves. The first is this: as important as music is, it is not brain surgery. If you make a mistake, no one gets hurt! My favorite pre-performance mantra to tell myself is this: it's not about you. Especially as classical musicians; we live in service of great composers and artists! If a cellist does their job well while playing a Bach Suite, for instance, the audience's first thought should not be "Wow! What a great cellist." It should be "Wow. Bach is incredible." This will relieve pressure from you as a performer.

Practicing Focus

It's about the journey, not the destination. This is an idea that we hear so often. Yet, it is human nature to obsess over the destination; I find that I constantly have to remind myself to stay in the present moment, especially while I am practicing. As musicians, we would do well to place more emphasis on the process of practicing. By that, I mean to really dive into the weeds of what it takes to practice well: how to focus properly, and truly make the most of your time.

Try this: Close your eyes, and count slowly to 10. For each number you count, visualize it in large, bold font. If you find your mind wandering, thinking about anything else but the numbers (thinking about what you're going to have for lunch, an awkward moment from a few days ago, your Instagram feed, or whatever your mind tends to wander to), start over from the beginning. Once you can do this, you are in the proper mental space to practice! It's easier said than done, and the trickiest part is to maintain that level of focus throughout your practice session. Try to be aware of certain occurrences that cause your focus to wane. I find that I frequently lose focus at exactly the moment I am practicing a few notes that are difficult (a shift, fast fingering, double stops, etc). This is precisely the point that I tend to start thinking about lunch or dinner. Try this during your next practice session: when you are running through a passage slowly, pay very close attention to your mind at the exact moment you approach a difficult technical hurdle. What are you thinking about?

This is a change anyone can make in their practice, right now. In a world of ever decreasing attention spans, if you can focus well, you have a leg up!

To give credit where it is due:
-Counting to 10 exercise: I learned this from Steven Pologe (Cello Professor at University of Oregon)
-Your mind tends to wander while you practice a difficult moment: I learned this from Jerry Horner (former Violist of the Fine Arts Quartet)