Sorry for the long post, but since thereās no one around to talk about this, iām doing it hereā¦
Yesterday evening, i had, along with the other students, a small showcase (1 song) to do. Keep your eyes open / Bill Frisell.
Every student got to play a piece they liked (instrumental) before a crowd of other students/parents/friends who were there.
All day long i felt well, no problems there. Went to school, no problems there. Entered the classroom, warmed up (ok, slight anxiety, but that was to be expected) and calmy waited for my turn.
When it was my turn, thatās when things went south. A trembling strumming hand is something you donāt want. Breathing thatās getting short impedes a lot. Sweating doesnāt help at all. And all this made me fumble through a piece i know well!!
At home, everythingās fine and dandy. I can play the piece (use a looper as well) without many problems. (ok, some work on barre chords) and itās not that iām Bill Frisell himself, but i can play the melody, along with a small solo partā¦
But not yesterdayā¦ Slept badly and iām still kicking myself for something like that.
It seems that, playing in a band is easier than going solo. That, or that guitar is cursed.
This is the second time i fall flat with this guitar, in front of a (small) crowd.
Clearly there is some underlying cause of anxiety. It may well be unrelated to public performing. Not the sort of thing you can really figure out in this type of forum. I can only suggest seeing a psychologist if you are able too.
Firstly, this is totally normal. Everyone feels some anxiety performing in public. There are a lot of strategies you can employ to help but the best one (imho) is to keep doing it. Play in front of others at every opportunity you get, formal or informal. I go to a lot of jams and while everyone else is tuning up getting ready, Iāll often sing and play a song - itās all practice. I still get nervous performing but the more you do it, the easier it gets - I used to have crippling nerves, but now I think they are mostly under control. Iāll never perform as well as I can play alone, but thatās just part of the deal - If performing solo, Iāll try and play songs that I can do in my sleep rather than ones that stretch me.
Playing in a band (which is 80% of my performance experience) is a lot easier I think - you aer not the sole centre of attention and if you make a mistake thereās a good chance it will be covered by your bandmates.
Finally, however good you get, youāll have bad days when everything falls apart. I was performing a few weeks ago and everything that could go wrong went wrong. It was so bad that all I could do was laugh about it. At the end of the day no one died.
Yep, thatās what i was thinking too.
Iām going to need to do this a lot more. Because: speaking in front of an audience, no problem. Why? Iāve done this before, and it became easier as i went along.
Playing in a band: getting better and better. Why: did this more than playing solo.
Solution: like you said, do it more often.
This will be an interesting summerā¦
But there are some technical problems iām afraid.
I donāt have the equipment. (microphone, camera, software).
Software should be no problem. Zoom runs on linux, it seems.
But what webcam, what microphone? What about lag, time zones, setupā¦
How does that work?
a basic camera from Thomann is perfectly ok
the time zone should be fine for you since you re from Belgium ( it usually starts at 9 pm for us )
the mic depends on your settings , we all have different ways of recording when playing
if you explain your material Im pretty sure someone will help you sort it out
the OMs here are a very good way of getting used to playing in front of other people and we re all very friendly ^^
Donāt be too hard on yourself. Most people experience nervousness, albeit in different situations and to different degrees. You will definitely get better at performing the more often you do it. Play something thatās not demanding all your skills and techniques: play a little slower than full speed; keep reminding yourself your having fun!
Iād agree with the others who say that what you experience is completely normal. Standing up in front of others all by yourself is daunting. Youāve got plenty of good advice, already but Iād also suggest that you practice playing in front of others gradually:
Start off with just one audience member ā a friend or family member that you know, trust and wonāt be judgemental, someone that youād be comfortable making mistakes in front of. Thereās a good chance you wonāt make mistakes simply because youāre feeling secure enough in the realisation that itās OK to make mistakes. Life can be ironical, that way.
After youāve successfully performed for that one person, include another person you trust for the next time. Then gradually add more people to increase the size of the audience. This will allow your confidence to build incrementally and help prevent your sub-conscious from sabotaging your performances.
For what itās worth, Iām still a beginner so have only played in front of my wife but itās my goal for 2026 to be able to play something for other people before the year is out. Further disclaimer: Iām also not a psychologist ā just a fellow human being.
Never expect yourself to play as good as in rehearsals
Prepare a lot! Practice performance, technique, pieces of the songs in different order, visualize yourself playing the set, song by song, etc. Play in a dark room, cold room, standing on one leg, making faces, in front of a mirror, and with eyes closedā¦ etc.
Gig a lot. Playing every week, or more, really helps. If not with the playing quality, then at least with the realization that nobody cares about your mistakes.
Good luck, and donāt get discouraged by not great performances. Some will be great, if you keep showing up.
This is my order of nerves from most to least. Iāve come to the conclusion that the most nervous isnāt worth pursuing, mainly because itās not and never has been, enjoyable. However, I did give it a good while before deciding it wasnāt for me.
Solo classical piano.
Piano in the church band if Iām the lead instrument on most / all songs. I still do it if required.
Duet piano (I do enjoy it, but as my duet partner has moved away, Iāve given up as Iām not motivated enough to find another one)
Any band situation on any instrument (though bass and piano are easier for me than guitar). The chance of all of us screwing up at the same time is so small as to not be worth worrying about.
4 equal) sitting down and playing at one of the pianos in a motorway service station, airport, train station etc. Still solo, rock / pop not classical, and fun.
4=) leading a singalong on piano. Again itās fun. People will only be singing because theyāve had a bit to drink and fancy a good time - zero judgement on my piano playing and everyone has a good time.
To be decided: Guitar and lead singing (both are bad enough for each to distract the audience from the inadequacy of the other ). As I do more of this Iāll work out where it fits, no doubt.
So my advice (and remember the good thing about advice is you can ignore itš):
Donāt give up on the solo stuff yet, but be prepared to let go of it later on. Youāll find what you like. Not every solo situation is the same.
100% agree. Went through this myself and have gotten well and truly on top of it, yet occasionally it crops up when I least expect it. Try not to have to long of breaks between public performances.
I come from a public speaking background. Have MCād many events, ran corporate training courses and have presented to hundreds at corporate events so being on stage doesnāt phase me.
itās worth the effort to battle this. I think I talked about my challenges with it in my learning log.
Yeah - itās not easy. Iāve had that experience - felt great until sitting down with guitar then heart rate spikes and hands feel like Iām wearing boxing gloves. Just keep doing it. You will definitely improve with more experience playing solo. Good luck!
Same here. Iāve given presentations in Japan to 500 suits using simultaneous translation and itās totally cool, but back in the UK with a guitar a 5 people in an audience it can fall apart. Weird isnāt it!
Thank you all for the support and wonderfull advice. @chris_m iāll postpone that visit to the schrink for now, because letās face it, the voices in my head are idiotsā¦
I have a second chance coming up next wednesday. Exam time. Iām going to do exactly the same, but this time, try to get it under control.
I went from kicking myself to motivating myself more and going over the piece again, but this time with @Alexeyd 's advice in the back of my mind.
Thank you for that!!
Letās see what happens on wednesday next weekā¦
Practice
Practice, as @tony and others and wrote
And add to that practice. . . . .
Externall Stressors
To add some external āperformanceā stress to your practice, maybe practice with a camera, play to a click track, or metronome, upping the BPM to above performance speed, practice in a different room, have a movie playing on your laptop within eyesight, donāt stop with a āmistakeā, sit in a different chair, look away from the fretboard more
These outside ācriticalā/ādistractingā forces help train/habituate your brain to focus.
Internal Calmer
Smile while performing. What my friend calls āgrimace therapyā
Very weird, but your brain goes, āFace is acting like Iām happy, so Iāll be happyā.
Familiarity doesnāt breed contempt as much as a sense of ease.
As most everyone wrote: Get familiar with performing in front of others
As @GrumpyMac suggested, join the open mics, watch others perform, perform yourself.
Perhaps there are others you can play/practice with?
More Complete Self Analysis
Have you a well rehearsed litany of how you so messed up that time? (totally normal behavior).
Is that litany quite light on what you did well?
Productive critical analysis includes the full spectrum of honest feedback.
Maybe I can help you get started on the parts you did do well ???
You decided to play the guitar -- into the void!
You decided to perform in public -- scary
You practiced hard -- time consuming
You learned the song -- new skill set
You are performing in public next week -- perseverance
You reached out for advice -- smart
... --
(hmmm, methinks I should do more of this myselfā¦)
One item that really helped me was creating a setup for rehearsal that was closer to what I encountered on stage at open mics. I play mostly fingerstyle and rarely rehearsed with either my acoustic guitar amplified or my vocals through a mic.
Invariably during a public performance, my fingers would hit the strings in a manner that caused weird / loud spikes when amplified that I just didnāt get unplugged. That would add to my stage anxiety.
So I upgrade to a high quality acoustic amp and mic (shure sm58, a very common vocal mic) and rehearsed with those intensively in the week or two leading up to my public performance.
What a huge difference that made for me. I certainly didnāt get those unexpected spikes. I do notice that playing amplified with my acoustic makes my playing much tighter and better.
Sorry to hear nerves got the better of you. It is also my Nemesis. When on a 2year music performance course over 20 years ago we had to learn 3 knew songs every 2 weeks and perform them and solo on at least one. We also had to sing 3 times in a year.
I found the whole performance thing very daunting. Early on our second performance I open the first number with the solo for āBlack Magic Womanā I came to n 1/2 beat late but got away with it, but fell apart and could not play the next song. This got better as the course progressed.
Keep at it the more you do it the better it should become.
). As I do more of this Iāll work out where it fits, no doubt.
