Is Stagefright Learned?

It’s natural to feel nervous energy when performing.  We know that in performance, nothing is guaranteed, and that’s part of what makes it exciting and fascinating.

But nervous energy is different from performance fear, stagefrightwhich we usually call “stagefright.”  Stagefright seems to happen when performers focus mostly on their weaknesses instead of their strengths.  They worry about what people might think, whether they’ll get through a tricky spot, or whether some unforeseen problem will throw them off.  They might even feel unsure if they’re “deserving” of being out on stage.

In other words, people with stagefright are thinking about themselves, not about the music.

My theory is that stagefright is learned, and can be unlearned.  Often I see advice to people about special tricks to make the situation less scary, but that presumes that it is scary in the first place!  Sometimes there is stern advice to avoid stagefright by being thoroughly prepared and therefore having nothing to worry about.  That too presumes that there should be something to fear if you’re not fully prepared, whatever that even means.

This notion that you should be afraid if you’re not “fully prepared” is sometimes imposed by music teachers who hold students responsible for every mistake, or who take every opportunity to complain that a student hasn’t practiced enough.

This is fear-based teaching, and the bottom line is that fear is never a long-term motivator.

When players become invested in the musicality of a piece, the feeling behind it, the composer’s intent, and even the background of how and why it was written and used, they can offer listeners something more meaningful than whether the notes came out perfectly.

They can put mistakes in perspective, and not be afraid of them in performance. This kind of player will be happy to work on their technique in order to make a piece of music more effective and compelling, rather than to make the performance perfect.  They can also keep improving by becoming a “good perfectionist” (see the recent article about perfectionists).

There won’t be any room for stagefright in such a player; it won’t even make sense to worry about, because they know the music has something to say.

This is not to say there won’t be nervous energy, but it’s important to distinguish nerves from fear.  Nervous energy can provide a great boost to a performance if it’s applied to your strengths instead of your weaknesses.

Make your musicality a strength.  Experiment with musical phrasing. Think about why a tune was made as a reel or a jig or a strathspey and which tempos work well for it.  Create a storyline for what is happening during the tune and think of the tune as its soundtrack.  Have a little fun with it!

It’s also important to recognize the difference between participation and performance (we’ll talk about this more another time).  Participating in a session is not a performance, even if you start a tune.  Everybody wants to play, and is grateful when someone starts a tune to join in with.  Starting a tune is not a performance, so just go for it!

Fear has no connection to making music. Stagefright is proof of this — it makes no contribution to playing or listening.  We want to hear what a tune has to offer, not whether the player can live up to some nonexistent standard of perfection!  Learn all you can about a tune, put it in context, and let people hear your way of saying it.

© Ed Pearlman 2015

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