trumpettrax

Ed,

I was curious if you had stage fright when you began performing? If so, what did you do to "fix" the problem. If not, do you have any suggestions for those who do?

I'm curious because I assume that those who study the trumpet are studying to learn the craft so they can perform. If that is the case, then why is there stage fright for that performer - rapid heart beat, dry mouth, knocking knees etc. if the goal is to play infront of and for others?

Am I wrong to assume that everyone studying an instrument wants to perform?

Thanks for your time,


Trax

ecarroll

Trax,

In my experience, everyone experiences performance anxiety or "stagefright", particularly early in their performing career. It's not limited to music -- witness little leaguers in the first at bats, young business people making their first presentation, etc. It's normal and it passes with successful concerts, games, and contracts.

A few things to think about:

1) Nothing combats performance anxiety like total preparation. If you really know your material you should be looking forward to sharing it with your audience.

2) Nervous energy that makes your knees knock is misplaced energy. Concentrate on pouring it through your horn, not back into your body.

3) Remain in real-time. What you've just played is dead and gone. What you're about to play hasn't happened yet. Concentrate on the music at hand.

4) Replace evaluation with deep listening. The more deeply immersed you are in making the composition come alive the more mindful you will be to external stimuli such as your musical partner(s), the acoustic, etc.

Lastly, consider the following from Markus Stockhausen discussing improvisation last summer at Chosen Vale. I think that it applies here as well:

“Sometimes you don’t know what comes next. So you stop. There’s a gap. Relax in that gap. Don’t get irritated and think ‘What’s happening? What will come next?” Don’t just make something up. Just relax and the right thing will come. Just wait for it.”

This is a large and important topic. I'm looking forward to reading other TMer's thoughts. . .

EC

trumpettrax

I agree whole heartedly with you in respect to being prepared. In my case I enjoy "performing" in front of people. I've given presentations before, but my first presentation I thought I was going to faint. It really shocked me because I like being the center of attention! :) But I like being the center of attention when I know what I'm doing! It became easier and easier the more I did it. The trumpet playing is a little different because I don't have that much "solo" performace time under my belt. I play at church just about every Sunday and Wednesday and I do fine in the group, but ask me to do a solo and my knees shake, my mouth is dry etc.

I did have an opportunity to do a solo on a recording, and man was that fun! It was only an 8 measure solo, but it was a great experience. I did fine there because no one was infront of me. It may have been also that I knew if I messed up I could do it again.

The trumpet is like a gun, once you pull the trigger you can't call the bullet back so you better get it right the first time. I think that's where my fright comes from. Oh no, what if I mess up!?!

Thanks for your comments,

Trax

ecarroll

Trax,

Fortunately drive-by clams are rare, and nobody that I know has killed anyone with a missfired half note. . .

Ciao,
EC

noonan

Thanks for the suggestions Ed! I think your comment on 'misplaced energy' is a hugely important point. Casals spoke of dealing with immense anxiety performing throughout his career. I would offer that to one extent or another that is a common feature of anyone deeply committed to their message and the transferrence of it to one's audience. It's a difficult topic to discuss as we trumpeters often try hard to present a stoic, "I'm a trumpet bada@$!" A turning point for me came when I stopped interpreting nerves as a bad thing, and just learned to channel this extra energy into something positive. Of course, sometimes you just eat it. As Steve Burns said once in a masterclass at BU (2001), "The point is not to achieve perfection, but precision of perception." that's good stuff right there!

rowuk

A couple of years ago, I was playing the Hummel with orchestra and in the second movement, I started to shake like I never have before. It had nothing to do with the job at hand, so I kept breathing very deeply and got through without any train wrecks. I went to the doctor the next day and she put me on a bicycle with electrodes all over me. Blood pressure shot up to 215/150. We now had the villain. I eat less sodium now and take a little pill every day to keep the blood pressure down. No more shaking. Make sure your problem is not organic. Eating habits and stress could ruin a career or even your life.

Dave

The other thing that helps me is to remember that unlike a sports game, where some of the audience is rooting against you, your audience is there in full support. If I have done my best to prepare, then I try to just share what I have been working on with people who wish me well.

I try to downplay competition with my students for this very reason. We don't have to have winners and losers in the arts. Of course, for professional musicians seeking a job, it is an extremely competitive experience, but for the majority of musical experiences, competition is not necessary or even valuable. And even for the professional audition, it is a competition with one's self. You cannot play defense when the other guy auditions.

B15M

For me the only time I seem to get nervous is in an audition. I think that I haven't done it enough and it would go away if I did. I used to get nervous in a performance but it just went away so I'm thinking that we are all afraid of the unknown. Do it a lot and the problem becomes routine.

I've read threads on here about weather to take an audition or not based on weather you think you will get the job. I believe you should do it often and it's one more thing put in your pocket.

I love the thing about once you play it, it's gone. My teacher says that and it's helped me. I also like the idea of not forcing things.(that's how I interpreted it) Wait for it and it will come. I think the most musical players are a little laid back. By that I mean the music is like a sentence or a line, regardless of how fast or hard the line is they don't force it out, it just flows naturally.

Years ago Woody Herman came to my school and he talked to the band. He said, "when the leader calls a tune and you think, oh no, not that one again. That's when you are just starting to get it."

The same thing for an audition or a performance or an excerpt.

TPT81

To kind of expand on what Carl (noonan) said, and what Ed said, the physical manifestations of nerves that we feel (dry mouth, shaking, etc...) is all part of our "fight or flight" response. As we get in to these situations, our body prepares us to perform at a higher level by releasing adrenalin in to our blood. If you have ever heard stories of people doing "super human" things, such as running faster than ever before because they were scared, or lifting incredibly heavy objects to save someone underneath them, it is the same physiological activity that we feel in auditions or performance that those people felt at those stressful times. So, what we percieve as detrimental, is actually our body's way of giving us extra energy to perform at a higher level. Unfortunately, we tend to think of this energy as "nerves", and as Ed said, we misplace it. Use what your body is giving you to perform at the higher level you are capable of.

Zeb

Clarence

ecarrollwrote:2) Nervous energy that makes your knees knock is misplaced energy. Concentrate on pouring it through your horn, not back into your body.

Boy that happend to me at 17, while i was on stage playing the opening
solo in the song feel so good!
couldnt stop my knees from banging and shaking, thinking back that sh@t was hella funny! hahahahaaa!