Even the best performers experience performance anxiety. It is completely normal to be nervous!  The best way to ease any anxiety is to be fully prepared.  A secure, polished performance takes significant time to prepare. For advanced performers, perhaps 6-9 months is necessary to fully prepare for a high-level performance or competition. Ideally, the pieces you play or sing should feel like old friends, not like your worst enemies.

The more you perform in front of people, the more comfortable you become. Try and challenge yourself to perform for others whenever you get the chance (family gatherings, etc)! Over time, you will perform with more poise, self-control, focus, and with less worry and vanity.

Mistakes, missed notes and pauses often happen during live performances. Guess what? That’s perfectly fine.  Perfection is impossible. The point of performance is not necessarily achieving perfection in your performance. How well did you speak through the pieces? Take heart, forgive yourself for your mistakes, and try again another day.

The student also needs to know that the audience members are there FOR them.  Everyone there is cheering them on whether it’s a formal competition or not.

Tools to Combat Performance Anxiety

• Being prepared

• Using memorization techniques

  • Piano Techniques*

    • Memorize each hand’s part separately

    • Repeat small segments (1-3 measures) in a non-stop loop by memory

    • Count the beats while playing

    • Practice at a variety of tempos

    • Place accents on or off the beat

    • Use a variety of rhythms, sometimes in combination with accents

    • Transpose the piece- eliminates the rote component and tests whether the ears and brain alone know the material well enough to direct the fingers

      *Hans Boepple, California Music Teacher, Vol. 46, No. 2, Fall 2022

• Alexander Technique

• The Breathing Gym