Musicians and Performance Anxiety
Have you ever faced your time to shine, and felt overcome with an intense hesitation or worry about an upcoming performance? As the time nears for you to address your audience, do you suffer from sweaty palms? Is there a lump in your throat? Do you experience tremors, tension, stuttering, upset stomach or loss of focus? All of these symptoms are a sign that you may suffer from performance anxiety, which is a common problem that requires a little mental rewiring to get you on the right track.
Music performance anxiety develops from the thoughts, feelings and habits of a musician. The level of anxiety that one has will affect a musician’s desire to perform, as well as their ability. In order to deliver a high-quality performance, a musician must overcome the mental obstacles that create a barrier between wanting to perform and actually completing the act. When you feel anxious, pressure begins to build up that makes it impossible to pick up an instrument or sing a song.
Main Types of Performance Anxiety
There are three main kinds of performance anxiety that musicians encounter. The first occurs before a performance date is even mentioned. Fear of rejection or self-doubt regarding their abilities may hinder a musicians attempt to arrange a showing of their talents. The anxiety sometimes mounts to the point where a musician never feels they are truly ready to perform in front of others.
The second type of anxiety occurs during an actual performance. Gripped by fear of what the audience thinks of them, a musician’s body might tremble. Sweat may form on their forehead, nose, neck or hands. These bodily reactions may also impact the way an instrument is played. Voices become tight or locked, emitting cracked, flat or quivering notes. The anxiety of a musician might be so high that they may actually self-sabotage their performance without even knowing it.
Anxious musicians often become quite distracted by the slightest movement or noise during a performance. They might take this opportunity to blame their inability to complete their set because of outside interruptions. This is just an excuse. Within themselves, they do not feel completely adequate to continue their performance. Musicians with performance anxiety often exhibit poor concentration, as well as loss of focus.
After a performance, the anxiety madness continues, which is seen through a harsh, unforgiving critique of their presentation. The musician will nit-pick every aspect of their set and despite positive encouragement and comments, they will continue to downplay and dismantle their ability.
Tips On Managing Performance Anxiety
When it comes to getting over the hump of performance anxiety, there are numerous ways to combat the fears and doubt that come with presentation. Below are five aspects of performing that a musician suffering from anxiety should take into consideration:
1) Self-Assessment
When you get to know the ins and outs of yourself as an individual, as well as a musician, you are inching your way towards overcoming performance anxiety. Knowing what makes you tick both inside and outside musical circles will help you to better deal with the problems you face before, during and after a performance. A musician should analyze their performance goals, personal capabilities and limitations.
Musicians should also know that everyone has to start somewhere with infinite room for improvement. It is quite important for a musician to perform to the best of their abilities, as well as learn from mistakes and peer criticism.
2) Exposure: Baby Steps
Musicians should take the opportunity to gradually expose themselves to varying levels of performing. One moment a full-length mirror becomes a suitable audience, while the next could be a crowd of five friends. Testing low, medium and high levels of stressful performance situations will help musicians slowly overcome the issues faced in regards to performing. Additional suggestions include practice performances in an empty theater, dress rehearsals with friends and taping acts, then viewing them with family and friends.
3) Preparation
In anything that we do, preparation is an important component for achieving success. A good performance is one that has been thought out, thoroughly visualized and played over and over again in the mind. Once the mental preparation is complete, the physical part of the process involves sufficient practice and specific rehearsing for the particular venue you may perform at. Before a performance, a musician should enter this moment with a clear head. Meditation, yoga and other muscle relaxation techniques can create the right state of mind.
4) During a Performance
Every musician at some point in their lives will feel the flutter of butterflies before, during or after a performance. This is a normal occurrence that just takes some longer to get over. When it comes to the audience, you shouldn’t focus on blocking them out, but instead embrace them as support. If you go into a performance thinking that no one likes you or during a presentation focus on scowling faces, you will surely surrender to your flight or fight performance anxiety tactics.
Try to put anxiety in the backseat and attempt to stay calm. If you make a mistake, such as tickle the wrong piano keys, simply move on and do not dwell on small imperfections that pale in comparison to the overall scheme of things. Sometimes, if you don’t wear your disappointment or errors on your face, the audience is less apt to remember or care about mistakes. Breathing techniques will also come in handy once you get into the thick of performing and feel a touch of anxiety.
5) After the Performance
After each performance, take the time to assess yourself before relying on the approval or criticism of others. No one but you truly knows all of the hard work and preparation that went into your performance. Take the time to give yourself a mental pat on the back. Next, combine outside comments with your gut feeling to decide on what you can do next time. Regardless if you had the performance of your life or tanked on your first break, there are always aspects of your musical craft that you can still shape and mold for the future.
Kevin Sinclair
http://www.articlesbase.com/article-writing-articles/musicians-and-performance-anxiety-75282.html
Stress, Anxiety and Depression – What is the difference?
Looking after your feelings and emotions is as important as taking care of your body. Most of us take care of our physical health far better than our feelings.
Stress is a normal reaction to what is happening in your life, and it can be caused by good, as well as bad events. A little bit of stress isn’t always a bad thing; but being over-stressed may cause a range of health problems including headaches, upset stomach, high blood pressure – even strokes and heart disease.
The changes that commonly follow a traumatic event can affect your emotional wellbeing and your ability to cope. If stress is disrupting your life in a bad way, it may be time to learn new coping skills or to get extra help.
Anxiety is a normal feeling that everyone experiences in day-to-day life. I can develop more strongly when faced with something uncertain, difficult, embarrassing or stressful. Anxiety feelings can range from being mild or moderate to severe, and can bring on extreme physical symptoms.
If your feelings of anxiety are causing disruption in your daily life, you may have a more severe form of anxiety called an anxiety disorder. If this is the case, you need to seek professional help.
Depression is a common illness like diabetes or arthritis. Many people suffer from depression at some stage of their life and it can occur at any age.
A lot of people use the word ‘depression’ to describe feelings of sadness and loss. These feelings often pass within a few hours or a few days. During this time, people are able to carry on much as usual. However, if you feel sad much more intensely and for longer and your feelings start to interfere with your work, social life and family life, you may need to seek professional advice.
There are a number of symptoms of depression and it’s very rare for all symptoms to occur in one person all at once. You might feel it come on slowly, from sometimes feeling blue to deeper feelings more often. It is hard to accept that symptoms like sleeping badly or feeling worthless are depression. After all, don’t we all feel that way sometimes? That’s the key – sometimes. It’s not normal to feel that way for a long time.
There are a variety of treatments for stress, anxiety and depression available to assist you in getting through the physical and emotional issues.
To live your life as you want, and be able to give to your family, friends and work – it’s important to look after yourself. Don’t be frightened to ask for help if you need it. We all need someone to talk to at some stage of our life.
Anne Wolski
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/stress-anxiety-and-depression-what-is-the-difference-4071.html
Self Help for Panic-Anxiety: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You
Most people dealing with panic-anxiety tend to turn to the medical community first, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. It is generally accepted that some anxiety symptoms can be the result of a physical problem with the body — abnormal thyroid activity is one obvious example.
But the vast majority of anxiety and panic problems are not medical “conditions” caused by a physical ailment. They are emotional problems caused by poor “thinking habits.”
With every year that passes, the medical community is becoming more and more aware that our emotions have a profound effect on our physical health. For example, physical symptoms of panic-anxiety often seem so strong and pervasive, that can be difficult to believe they are caused by emotions, NOT a physical disorder in the body.
But even though doctors are becoming more aware of the connection between our state of mind and our physical health, unfortunately, this area of medicine is still not a priority in most medical schools. As a result, there are plenty of physicians out there who seem a bit clueless about the connection between emotional and physical problems.
Anxiety symptoms such as upset stomach, rapid pulse, breathing difficulty, compulsive yawning, tingling in the arms and legs, etc. are often treated with medications, as if they were caused by a physical health “disorder” or “disease.” In reality, this is a lot like putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg — it does not address the root cause of the problem, and isn’t likely to do much good.
What many doctors don’t tell patients with panic-anxiety is that anti-anxiety medications do not “cure” anxiety problems at all, or even treat the cause of the problem, which tends to be emotional in nature, NOT physical.
The truth is that overcoming these types of emotional issues requires an individual to change their lifestyle and their habits. If you continue the same lifestyle and especially “thinking habits” that brought on the anxiety problem in the first place, you can be sure the problem will continue. Prescribed drugs may alleviate some of the symptoms temporarily, but the problem itself won’t go away until you address the emotional issues that are causing it.
Bad Emotional Habits
As a former sufferer of anxiety I saw many physicians about the problem over the years, and not once in all that time did I ever hear a doctor mention the word “habits” in regard to my anxiety problem. This seems odd to me today, as I have come to realize that anxiety is ALL about habits.
The simple fact is that we all get into routines in life, and when a person is suffering with anxiety or panic attacks, it is clear that they have gotten into a routine (a series of habits) that does not serve them well at all. The solution is to simply change the routine, and first and foremost, this requires developing new “thinking habits.”
One powerful way to shake up your old routine, and develop new habits is to become very aware of what you are focusing on in your day-to-day life. Author and psychologist Albert Ellis is famous for saying “we become what we think about all day long,” and this is especially true when it comes to anxiety.
When we focus a lot of attention on anxious and worried thought, we tend to become more anxious and worried ourselves. To overcome these problems we must begin to take back control over our focus, and stop filling our minds with images of drama and conflict (especially unresolved conflict, like you’ll find in many television shows).
Panic-anxiety is usually a clear signal of an imbalance in our lives. Addressing the problem requires us to “shake things up” and challenge some of our old ways of thinking — those old (and unhelpful) “thinking habits.”
By: Jon Mercer (Download Natural Treatment for Anxiety Now!)
About the Author:
Discover real panic anxiety help that doesn’t use prescription medications.
New anxiety video series teaches advanced methods to stop panic attack and anxiety problems quickly.
Restore Your Life and Get Panic Puzzle Today !
Native Remedy
Relora Max
Native Remedy
