Performance Anxiety

Dan O'Donnell · Heavyweight Member Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Posts: 2287

I used to struggle with this a lot until I truly understood the root cause for my stress.

I found that I was too much of a perfectionist to the point where I expected better playing than I was capable therefore getting stressed during the performance as soon as I did not meet my unreasonable / non capable expectations.

AS I continued playing the solos, I would continually hit those areas that were not perfect and my stress level would increase to the point where the by the end of the piece my breathing was horrible as I was shaking more than a Harry James vibrato!

Listening to the pros and wanting to play like them...when only practicing on Saturdays to play on Sundays was really stupid of me.

Trying to get the perfect Chris Botti tone quality (without spending the time he put into long tones etc etc etc over many years...not to mention reverb and a 1939's Martin Handcraft Committee with a Bach 3 MP) ...with the intonation of a great principle player of a great orchestra playing classical music...is a recipe for failure...which brings stress...which brings shaking and poor breathing...which brings more failure = train wreck.

I now have lowered my expectations to reality, play pieces within my limitations and realize that if I am a nickel flat or sharp, there minimal to no person hearing me play can even hear the difference especially when my background orchestration is not always in tune.

I am now more relaxed, my solos sound better and I am having more fun.
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God Bless,
Dan O'Donnell

"Praise Him with the sound of the Trumpet:..."
Psalms 150:3

veery715 · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:25 am Post subject:

Billy B has offered two one liners here: "Perfromance anxiety is a manifestation of the ego." and "The root of the problem is our own self image."

These statements are essentially the same. The difficulty comes when trying to figure out what to do about it. For me and countless others the solution has been the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness is usually taught as an outgrowth of Buddhism, most notably by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist teacher who has written many books on the topic. The Miracle of Mindfulness was the first and is probably the best known.

The practice of mindfulness has pervaded almost every field of human endeavor - the sciences, medecine, education, the arts, atheletics, law enforcement, business, politics, and many more - and has been found to yield benefits wherever it has been applied.

Most of us live a fear based existence. We spend much time dwelling on the future and the past, and we derive our "OKness" from what we want or do not have, or what we have done or hope to do. Practicing mindfulness helps us to learn to be present, to become centered, and to understand how little control we actually have over the activity of our brain. By practicing mindfulness we begin to gain some control over our thoughts, our fears, our feelings, and our behavior.

I am NOT an expert in this, in fact its practice is fairly new to me. But after over 60 years of living without it I can see that it is making an enormous change in my life now, hence the recommendation.
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veery715
Hear me sing!: https://youtu.be/vtJ14MV64WY
Playing trumpet - the healthy way to blow your brains out.

butxifxnot · Heavyweight Member Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 2353

What exactly is "mindfulness"?
Call me dumb.

The concept seems extremely interesting.
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"Never practice, always perform."
-Adolf Herseth

Billy B · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:46 pm Post subject:

Psycho-Cybernetics
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Bill Bergren

agolden · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 3:22 pm Post subject:

Psycho-Cybernetics gets another vote from this guy.
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trumpet - synths - cornet
Bach//Blackburn
Patrick Mouthpieces

JRoyal · Heavyweight Member Joined: 25 Apr 2003 Posts: 770

I highly recommend 'Performance Success" by Don Greene. I found it most helpful for addressing all sides of the issues needed to perform at ones best. The other books mentioned here are also good.

daniel.egan · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 12:07 am Post subject:

Does anybody know if beta blockers pose any serious/long term or even short term health risks?
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Dan Egan

Bill Ortiz · Heavyweight Member Joined: 02 Jan 2007 Posts: 904

Detrocious, I had similar issues early in my playing career. For me, the solution was basically just time. Then more I played in front of crowds the easier it got until it wasn't an issue any more- it doesn't bother me at all now. I think for some people, the thought of "everyone is looking at me now" or "they will hear me make a mistake" is tough to handle. Actually, most people are listening for the beauty of the song and the feeling you are bringing to it.

I believe this issue is something that most people can overcome by just desensitizing yourself to the situation. I would suggest that you set up informal performances in front of friends and small groups of people, and over time increase the size of the audience. If you are patient and work on it over time, I believe you can overcome this-best of luck!
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'56 Martin Committee Deluxe #2 trumpet
14B Schilke mouthpiece
Couesnon Paris flugelhorn
Bob Reeves Sleeves and PVA

Qnaza · Veteran Member Joined: 04 Mar 2008 Posts: 336

[quote="Dan O'Donnell"
I now have lowered my expectations to reality...[/quote]

Hear hear! A truer comment was never made. Nothing wrong with aiming to be the best but I believe that perfectionism is a disease which is best avoided. I'd far rather have a healthy self-confidence, mixed judiciously with good work-ethic and an accurate self-knowledge of what I can actually do and therefore have reasonable expectations of myself.

I suffer from debilitating Focal Dystonia which is purely psychological, brought on about 10 ago by continually feeling bad about my playing because it was never perfect. Kinda stupid, in retrospect, but hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it? It scuppered my fledgling musical career and only now am I beginning to enjoy playing again.

The FD comes and goes, usually flaring up when I'm anxious to impress or feel 'on the spot' and want to play above what I actually can. This leads to my tongue freezing up and my lips having a life of their own, never mind my breathing getting all panicky. As soon as I rethink my approach and just play what I can, how I can, the FD diminishes dramatically.

Problem is, my mind was so ingrained into that way of thinking and operating, that the FD is almost hard-wired into me. That said, I have chosen to see that as a good thing, since it forces me to be super-aware of my mental approach to playing.

DaveH · Heavyweight Member Joined: 20 Nov 2001 Posts: 3861

JRoyal · Heavyweight Member Joined: 25 Apr 2003 Posts: 770

I think becoming desensitized is only one step, it really requires a complete paradigm shift for most people because our society is one that values knowing the right fact at the right time, and is not based on a culture of sharing and performance.

shofarguy · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:04 am Post subject:

Usedtobegood · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:28 am Post subject:

There's a lot of good advice here. Your mind can really F with you right? I was never the best player, but in my mind I was and tried to play everything that way focusing on what I wanted it to sound like, vs. don't miss this note or that note. It worked many times....I too had some crash and burn moments...I still have a few feet of 24 track tape with evidence of that somewhere! You have to have a short memory like a relief pitcher or cornerback, brush it off and move on.

Your mind can only focus on one thing at a time and it will focus on the "don't" if you think that way. So, breath deep (important) relax, hear it in your head, think you are the best motherf'r player out there and just blow man!

Just my $.02 which is about what my 401k is worth now..

JoseLindE4 · Heavyweight Member Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 791

percivalthehappyboy · Heavyweight Member Joined: 05 Mar 2010 Posts: 731

A survey asked people what their worst fears were. Number one was public speaking. Number two was death.

As far as performance anxiety, I haven't felt ready to subject other people to the noises I make, but I have been a teaching assistant. First day I had ALL of the symptoms-- palms were wet, mouth was dry, I stammered, I forgot things I'd wanted to say, my knees literally knocked together. It gets better with practice. In the end, I was almost comfortable with it.

I probably did it more often than some people here perform. Maybe if you don't perform enough you just don't get enough practice. I'd read that some people practice in subways and at street corners specifically so that they'll be playing in front of an audience, even if it's an unwitting audience.

Here's something I don't get. When I took a public speaking class, the guy that sat next to me was terrified of getting up in front of a dozen students to give a speech. But he had no trouble at all sitting at his desk and telling the whole class about his drive in to work and the incident with the policeman, and taking questions about it.

AverageJoe · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 1:50 pm Post subject:

jcstites · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 1:59 pm Post subject:

I didn't read this whole post and this might have been posted before, but I wanted to say that beta blockers only deal with the physical effects of performance anxiety. If you get the shakes, dry mouth, etc it will help, but you still need to figure out how to get focused/centered and mentally prepared. This is the hard part, but I've found that the centering/breathing exercises in Don Greene's Fight Your Fear and Win to work really well.

JoseLindE4 · Heavyweight Member Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 791

J.P.S. · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 4:38 pm Post subject: Performance Anxiety

PhxHorn · Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:23 am Post subject:

Suppose all you had to do was walk out on the Tonight Show and stand there for 5 minutes. If you think you'd be nervous, why? You're not doing anything. There is no chance of failure, because there's nothing to fail at. Seems to me that in such a situation, you're afraid to be seen or unhappy about how you look. If you were seated at a table talking to a group of friends, why is that easier than standing at a podium giving a lecture to the same group? The 'formality' of the podium can change your whole attitude. It's all in your head. You can't go through life like a 6-year-old who hides behind Dad when a stranger walks up.

As students, we rehearse constantly and perform seldomly. The performances have a lot riding on them because they're either for our families and peers, or for judges.

As a pro, you rehearse seldomly and perform constantly, and so you get used to it. If you take a gig where you're playing 10 shows a week and you're onstage constantly, you cease being nervous because it becomes the norm. The first time I played an arena gig for 10,000 people, we were essentially sight-reading the book and I was a bit nervous. I played one a couple weeks ago, and both of us trumpet players were laughing about how we couldn't have been more relaxed. You do anything enough times and it becomes routine. So if there is a situation that makes you nervous, find a way to do it often enough so that it becomes routine.