After all these years, many of them playing five or six nights a week, I still get nervous before I’m going to play for an audience. It’s not like I’m uncomfortable with the music, I think it’s more that I don’t want to let anyone down, my audience, and even more, the musicians I’m playing with that night. I want to hit every high note and play every chord with feeling and precision. Now you know you’re not going to go a whole night without making mistakes, so you can’t rely on that level of perfection. You can aspire to it, but it won’t happen.
I’ve learned that I’m more the rule than the exception. Most performers, the most accomplished, deal with nervousness. But typically, as you gradually lose yourself in the music the nerves calm. Still, at least for me, it’s something I have to deal with every time I’m going to perform.
Nervousness happens no matter the venue or the audience, from a small club to a concert stage. In fact, as others I’ve shared this with have agreed, some of the most intimidating situations can be performing for friends and relatives; the fact that you know your audience heightens the concern over meeting their and your expectations.
There are ways to deal with nervousness. My Music Life and Times podcast partner and What You Learn Learning Music co-author Kevin Bales has a process he uses with students to help them ease their anxiety before, for example, they’re about to get up on stage at a jam session. There’s also a drug, propranolol, a beta-blocker that slows your heart rate, and thereby eases anxiety. It’s a prescription drug but in common use by performers and speakers, so much so it has gained the nickname “the stage fright drug.” Works for me.
Just knowing that nervousness is something almost every performer has to deal with is comforting, and that’s a good start for dealing with it.