Musicians I Have Known
I was amazed to find out, years ago, that my little student, Anna (in 6th grade), totally loved performing on her violin for an audience. She seemed to get a "rush" from it! On the other extreme, I knew a semi-professional violinist who suffered from stage nerves. It didn't seem to affect his playing, but it did prevent him from auditioning for world class orchestras. And, he was good enough to play in any orchestra.
Fainting in the Chorus
When I was young, I often felt so nervous while singing in the chorus, that I thought I would faint. Little by little, I overcame those stage nerves, but it took years.
The Shaky Bow Syndrome
When I tried to play my violin in church, I didn't think I was nervous, but my bow shook uncontrollably and I could hardly play. I watched that in amazement and there was nothing I could do.
Positive Pleasure
Over the years, I became more and more comfortable with playing in public and speaking in public. I became fearless, but even more, I positively began to enjoy performing. My first really enjoyable experiences came when I was hired as a church pianist at a small church (they didn't have an organ). They had a very nice grand piano there. I prepared all the music for the service: prelude, postlude, offertory, etc. When I played, the church congregation listened in rapt attention. I was aware of the people listening and it changed my attitude about how I played. Rather than just play the music, I tried to create beautiful and interesting pictures through my playing. It was a marvelous experience! After that I began to really enjoy performing in public.
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5 comments:
Hi Liz,
One of the weirdest thing was I was paralyzed by fear when I was playing music in public, which lead me to stop playing.
On the other side, I totally enjoyed performing dance on stage and only had a little fright before.
I agree with you that the reaction of the public might have had something to do with the difference. And the self-confidence too. I had 0 self-confidence about playing, but much more about dancing.
Sophie, Thanks for your comment! It's certainly an interesting topic. Maybe in dancing, there is less chance for error (as compared to playing piano, for example)? What do you think? Did you play piano or another instrument?
I played bass, which is quite simple I guess.
In ensemble dance, there is a risk of mistake when you fall out of sync with the group... It can easily be noticed.
I've spoken in public several times and was nervous. About 5 years I started taking a beta blocker for my heart, I heard that many performers took beta blockers to kill stage fear so about a year ago when I had to speak before a group I upped my dosage. I felt nice and relaxed so relaxed that in the middle of my speech I said "f-ck".
Michael --
Hahahahahaha! Now that's RELAXED!!! This is hilarious!
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