Realized recently I almost get more self conscious and embarrassed if I play especially ā¦ well!
HELLO! Has anyone else experienced this? Just curious.
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Has anyone had performance anxiety?!! Has anyone not?
One nice quote I heard recently is
āThe Audience doesnt know what you cant play until you show themā
I know its tough when learning esp early on but figure out what your current limits are and play a step back from that.
This is why we have the campfire easy 3/4 chord songs to fall back on etc too.
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I still never let anybody hear me play, so I donāt know!
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I donāt perform yet, so not exactly. I have noticed this: I play something and Iām pleased with it; I decide to play it again 'cause itās going so well and I start making mistakes the second time through. Even mistakes I donāt usually make. My current theory is that I let my head get into it too much that second time through. Or said a different way, perhaps I start trying too hard. Does that resonate at all, James @Pickin1? I havenāt figured out a remedy yet.
Yep, big time. When I started doing public performances (open mics and such) didnāt have much anxiety, when I gained confidence to try harder songs it bit hard. Had to go back to basics and work at it, was well and truly worth the effort to overcome it mostly. Still rears a little but not hard like it did.
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Iāve never played for anyone either largely because I know Iād be crippled by nerves. I know this because itās something that comes up a lot for me in all sorts of situations. My stomach gets badly affected whenever Iām a bit stressed about something thatās coming up in the future - I can be physically unwell for days.
Iām only learning to play guitar for my own enjoyment anyway. I have no ambitions of performing even for a small audience
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He heā¦ I almost got banned from this forum for playing well 
Just keep at it
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Them most important things Iāve learned to do about that:
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Stage fright is something physical | A solid advice I learned somewhere is else is either to get your body to slow down with breathing techniques (or meditation) or by doing and actual physical workout. It all goes back to your instincts and your fight or flight reflexes. Doing a bit of workout and then cooling down actually resembles fleeing or fighting and cooling down when the danger is gone. In this case, the situation on stage is your danger. By āfightingā of āfleeingā (doign that little workout), your body wth aftwards think āok that was that, weāre safe nowā.
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Learn to bend the energy into something positive that keeps me focused. Focused on doing things right but also focused on having fun. Easier said than done.
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learn to improvise. Not specifically music wise per se but learn to do things when stuff goes wrong. Just the knowledge of you having those extra cards in your pocket you can play at any time will give you confidence to handle what doesnāt go as planned. Most improv is actually stuff that has been thought about. I know I can improv a little story on how our drummer is a time traveller in the case of a little tech malfunction happens to one of the band members or PA or something.
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Learn to continue playing when making mistakes. This asks a specific kind of character to develop
| You might feel the urge to stop and even restart. no. keep that rhythm and flow going. Rhythm is king. nobody cares about a messed up lyric but a song that gets broken up is less fortunate. If if that means keep strumming a chord for 2 bars while you recollect a lyric or skip a verse because you canāt come up with a certain line. Happens to all of us. Masking it with a solid, continuous flow will fool your crowd and it will show your craft. Nobody forces you to do a song in a specific fashion. You practiced it this way but the circumstances made you alter it a bit on the fly. being prepared AND being able to adapt are two core skills!
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Music is a performance art. And playing guitar live must be one of the main activities in life where showboating is tolerated if not expectedā¦
I suffer with performance anxiety a lot. My fingers drip sweat and my hands shake.
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Good job you stopped professional knitting and took up guitar thenā¦
BlockquoteI suffer with performance anxiety a lot. My fingers drip sweat and my hands shake
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Are jokes allowed? Iām never quite sure on the world wide interwebā¦
Ah, anxietyā¦ Yep, iāve got it too and somewhat bad. The few times iāve played in public now (mostly at school, for a crowd bigger than 20 people), i start to sweat, my hands shake and i fumble things.
But, i keep going.
For me it seems that, the more i do this, the more comfortable i will get. In the beginning, playing even for my teacher alone would be troublesome. Now itās not a problem anymore. Playing for 2 peoplĆ© in the room, ok. The moment i get to 10-20 people, thereās trouble ahead, but iām learning to deal with that tooā¦ So iām guessing that eventually, iāll get comfortable with that tooā¦ iāll find out with the start of next yearā¦ Weāll be playing together, if i understood correctlyā¦
So that will be forcing me to get more comfortableā¦
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I always love a good joke, so go aheadā¦ 
I can play but fingerstyle is very difficult, Shakey hands
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All of us I reckon! What I like to do is to start with some easy song rhythm and chord wise, and only then move onto some more complex stuff or even fingerpicking, as I find this technique biggest challenge while stressed.
Interesting how half the comments here are about performance anxiety (I guess itās in the title) rather than feeling embarrassed about playing too well (showing off? 
)
One should never be embarrassed about playing well.
Though Iād like to find out what it feels like
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I think youād never have to be embarrassed about playing too well. Thereās no such thing.
Where it would get tricky, or not done, is to brag about it to others, or show off. (verbally, i mean, not on the guitar).
Everybody whoās listening, will know that youāre doing a good job. No need to rub in their faces, i guessā¦