50 to 100 aggressive jumping jacks lol. I have been playing for years, and I still get so nervous that sometimes I shake. It's like too much adrenaline or something. It's generally only the first song or two in the set. Anyway, my secret is jumping jacks to get my heart pumping. It's almost like getting that first song out of my system backstage. It works wonders for me so I can play more relaxed. I hope this helps someone. Cheers. :)
My blues band definitely broke my stage fears. Three hour sets with no set list. Everything on the fly, including songs I'd never heard. But as my band leader told me once " you're a natural and you always got it, I don't worry with you behind me " Those are the compliments that mean the world to me. But having a little fear, trepidation, anxiety, etc... is normal. We're only human.
I've played on stage a couple of times and now thinking about what you said that makes me think that my performance would be so much better. Thank you!!!
As a young man I wanted to become a professional violin-player and my career failed because of massive stage-fright. Every time I played in front of an audience my limbs started to shake and I could only play 50% as good as at home. It's totally devastating, when you experience this in a competition after years of practicing. Much later when I had already decided to change my profession I learned, that you can cure this with a soft medication, if anything else does not help. I don't want, that anybody here abuses medicaments, so I don't tell you, which medicament it is. I just say if nothing else helps, visit a doctor.