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Performance Anxiety

This BLOG is about performance anxiety. I invite you to post your stories about your experiences before performances, either as conductor or as performer.

When conducting a church choir in St. Petersburg, Florida, I frequently dreamed on Saturday nights about choir members not showing up for singing in the choir for morning services on Sunday mornings. These dreams were certainly unfounded because singers always showed up, however, since I am not a singer and never had been a singer, I could not step in at the last minute and sing a solo to replace a choral anthem. The fear was that I could not produce the desired and expected musical result.

These dreams had many themes and projected many situations from me not having the appropriate music to not being able to find my robe. Many times the dreams depicted a situation where nobody had the correct music, we we out of time and confusion dominated the day!

On Saturday night after a most stressful week, I was especially stressed about the choir's performance the next day. The dream was about a day that no singers showed up. I'm really a bad singer and everyone knew this fact. However, in my dream, I put on a choir robe, got music for the Mozart "Alleluia" from the "Exultate Jubilate" and proceeded to sing the solo in worship. Since I am a bass (a choir singer bass) and would have to sung this in falsetto, this is especially funny. When I told the choir about this dream, I though they would never stop laughing! What fun is was! Especially since I was telling them on the day I dreamed they would not show up. Fortunately, they didn't leave at that point to see if I would really do it!

What's your story?

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Comment by Doug Lawrence on December 29, 2008 at 3:03pm
A quick story...

I was singing in Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Eugene Ormandy was guest conducting. I recall we were singing the Beethoven 9th Symphony. I went through my regular warm-up and "rabbit foot" sort of stuff in order to insure a good performance. I did everything perfectly and even followed my dressing routine exactly as I always did. There was one little mistake...
As I went on stage in front of about 17,000 folks and sat in my soloist chair at the very front of the orchestra, I realized I hadn't put on my black socks. In fact, I still had on my white socks from my tennis shoe "look."

Do ya think it was nerves?!?! Thankfully, not one person said a word to me after the concert about my socks, though I'm sure the socks attracted plenty of spotlight, especially when I was seated!
Comment by Doug Lawrence on December 29, 2008 at 1:59pm
Performance anxiety is real and exists in every human being. We ignore this anxiety at our peril because we must have coping techniques at the ready to move beyond its possible crippling effects.

Here are some quick solutions to prepare for anxiety reduction:
• Breathe from your belly, not your shoulders—in other words use very slow, very low breathing technique.
• Imagine you're performing for your mother—she always liked everything you did on stage.
• Shake your body in a very relaxed way in order to let the "evil spirits" out—don't go in tense.
• Figure out the worst thing that could happen to you if you fail—then pretend you're dying—that's worse!
• Make peace with your nerves, they're there to give you adrenal "pushes" which help you perform at your absolute best!

Hope this helps...

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