No matter how novice or seasoned a person is, anxiety and stage fright can strike anyone. Here are some links to help with performance anxiety: meditationformu... www.brianmac.co... Jingle by: www.freesfx.co.uk
Thank you!!! This is very helpful!! To share a few things that have really helped me: do something loving/kind for someone else that day (get out of your head and empathize with someone else), whole body movement (dance like no one is watching!!), and deep, slow breathing (slow the heart rate).
I wish that I heard this before I left the business. I really miss it, but the anxiety and stress became this festering thing. Thank you for doing this!
I change from baritone to tenor few years ago and still today the fright is a problem because always I have to sing in public I feel like "you cant do this" "I will crack the high notes" and think like this is a realy sadistic way to make it real haha but try to work on it, one thing that help me is making fisical things, runing, gym, up and down stairs.
Thanks Tammy - really helpful. Do you have tips / techniques for memorising music? I am going to be singing my first ever opera role (Belinda in Dido & Aeneas - concert form) and would love to have them all from memory, but I've always been hopeless at memorising stuff! (We met at OBF and heard you in London when the pubs were closed afterwards, if you remember.)
Hi Dot! Good to hear from you. For memorizing I have a few methods. In no particular order: Writing down the words on a note pad. Write as much as you can remember and add things you forgot in another color pen to stick in your memory. Repeat until you can write everything correctly while hearing it in your head. Go for a walk while mouthing the words. The physicality will help get it into your body and muscle memory. Use note cards with the words and little pictures with drawings (no matter how bad) sometimes using images can help things stick. The add a line method. Singing: Start with the first line. Sing the first line and then the second line, then first second, third. Always adding a line then going back to the beginning. Looking at the music and "singing it in your head" before going and bed and sleeping with the score. I swear to god it helps. When you wake up lay in bed for a bit and try to sing in your head what you were looking at the night before. I hope some of these help and best of luck!
Do you have any advice for if you shake? Before a performance I will often feel cold and shiver, and sometimes it carries with me onto the stage. Is there like some sort of physical warm up you can do before to keep you from shaking? Or maybe a mental warm up (maybe like thinking about being on a warm beach)? I think a lot of people have this problem and it comes with nerves but sometimes you just can't *shake* it! :)
Hello Pauline, The problem is, once you have an adrenaline rush the only thing that will make it stop is using it up. If one of your main symptoms is shaking, you can jog around in your dressing room or practice room. This will use up the adrenaline at a faster rate. If it happens mid performance, think of gesturing with intent as if everything you were doing were a calculated and controlled body movement (like a ballerina). This will force your muscles to concentrate on something specific. It can be a vicious cycle when you start shaking and then your anxious because you are shaking. If every movement has a purpose it can alleviate that stress. If you are in a concert where you aren't allowed to gesture, think of energy flowing down into the ground from your hands and feet. p.s. my hands are always freezing during a show and my face is on fire. You aren't alone. :) Hope that helps. All the best, Tamara
Great, funny and useful video as always, thanks! Do You tend to have negative energy while preparing pieces, and if so, how do You act on it? I am still in studies stages, but as requirements grow and auditions and performances get really important, i find that i am extremely harsh on myself and that creates a lot of negative energy i just do not know how to manage some times... best, Stefan
It depends on the circumstances like how busy I am or what else is happening in my life at that point. I will say this, I'm a much happier person when things are finally memorized. I tend to have little to no patience for things not getting into my brain immediately. I am a perfectionist and I do tend to be hard on myself. Harder than anyone else is on me. Which is good sometimes and sometimes destructive. When you start to feel that pressure just remember that what happens, happens. It's not the end of the world if an audition goes poorly. It's also not the end of the world if you audition well and still don't get the job. Do you feel like the negative energy ever leaves? For instance if you perform a piece, can you ever enjoy it?
Do you have any physical tips to do in case you're shaking and can't really find support? I don't know if you've experienced shakiness but that happened to me in my last audition... Thanks in advance. EDIT: Okay actually someone had asked the exactly same question, so thank you for the answer... I'd still appreciate any tips for finding support and getting the breath down when you're nervous. The usual problem for me is that my voice goes "up", so it's easily all head voice that is disconnected from the support... One teacher advised me to squeeze my glutes (???) when singing but you can't really keep doing that throughout the performance either I guess!
pawws hey there! Squeezing your glutes will actually tense you up and cause more tension and as a reaction your other muscles will tense as well. This is not what you want when you’re singing. If you start to get shaky, I honestly think it’s better to not stand in one place. Start to move around like a character would onstage. It doesn’t have to be huge. If you give your muscles a place to expel that nervous energy they will start to calm down because you are giving them a purpose. I have had my knees shake from time to time. If I just stand there I become more and more aware of it. Those kind of nerves are a fight or flight response. Your body needs to move somehow. Might as well be as the character acting out the scene. I hope that helps!
Hi and thanks so much for the answer! Yes I thought it was sort of a weird tip. I guess the thing is to find inner "peace" and have a relaxed body. Another teacher advised me to search for the feeling of "starting to dance". Thanks for the new ideas, I'll definitely try them out. :) Regards from Finland! XX
