Simple Advice on Nervousness.

As I sift through the various musical message boards, I come across this underconfidence problem of musicians over and over and over. Some have actually come to think it's a musicians bane to feel inferior. The solution to nervousness in any situation is simpler than ever.

Exercise! Exercising your body will provide you with balance, control, and general confidence in everything. In fact if the only thing you do is run or jog for 15 minutes a day you will go at anything with force and determination coveted yet unreachable by the inactive types. It will also help you greatly to do away with whatever addictions and indulgencies that are oppressing your life right now.

Remember - exercise is a basic need of any moble organism, and only some humans thought it unnessessary. The price for that may be too much to pay: fat, slugginess, lack of ambition and confidence. Or even worse: deseases, addiction, utter negativity, with the list going on and on ....
Bruce Lee said that everyone must jog everyday to stay in good health; to that I will add from my personal experience and experience of others I know - daily running increases efficiency of your guitar practice and anything else you do by 10 fold!

That's pretty much all there is to it, but as some final tips:
1) To stay motivated join a group of others that are active also. E.g. sports team, dojo, or even a simple gym (where coincidentally many fine shapely females ...and males are abound)
2) Exercise outside. Running outside will get fresh air and some sun in your head to clear it up.
3) Take good care of your back. Yoga teachings state that the person's youthfullness is determined by moreso than age as the health of one's spine.

Keep up and enjoy!
Citizen Lev

P.S. some stage fright will always be there, but if your body chemistry is balanced through exercise you will know and use stage fright as an energy boost your body is giving you. Bruce Lee himself used to get "the butterflies" in his stomach before fights. It's not only normal, but even nessessary for the best of your performance.

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More or less... nervousness is an emotion that is caused by a mixture of insecurity, doubt, excitement, and incresed adrenaline flow.... Normally the best way for a musician to overcome being nervous is to expose yourself to situations that you're placed in front of a crowd on numerous occasions. The more you do it the more confident you'll be... the more confident... the less nervous. It doesn't really have anything to do with your physical fitness... Nervousness is an emotional state not a physical ailment. You can take a musician that has never played in front of a large crowd before.... Have him run three miles a day... do yoga everyday... and put him in front of a crowd of 300 people with a guitar and a microphone and they'll still be peeing down their leg... gauranteed. The one thing I do agree on is the sports thing... Joining sports teams does put you in the spotlight... It helped me tremendously because I was fairly use to being in the spotlight.

Like I said though... my advice... Practice your songs until you can play them blindfolded... literally. Practice until you can play them without much thought. Then practice them some more. The next thing is work out some small gigs... like open mics or something where you're playing in front of small groups of people. I know musicians that make good money playing paid gigs that still go to one open mic a week... Also do some warming up exercises before you go out on stage... play some scales to limber your fingers up... go through any rough spots of any songs that you have... just so you have it fresh in your mind when you have to play it. It's always a good idea to do something to take your mind off of the show right before you go out there. Have friends around to talk to or if you're old enough have a beer or two to calm your nerves a bit.... that's one thing about beer... it's pretty much liquid courage.

That's my advice... it doesn't involve any work out routines or having to join sports teams or dojos... or doesn't require you to contort your body in a bunch of weird positions for the sake of enlightenment.... It's just about confidence... and believing and trusting in yourself that you knwo how to rock a crowd... Not difficult.

Yeah...the only way to feel comfrtable in a position is to put yourself in it many times. I'm not saying it's bad to be healthy, but I don't really think it makes you more comfortable playing music to an audience. The only thing that can do that is playing music in front of an audience.

I don't see a direct link between exercise and stage fright...

But, I do feel better generally when I'm doing regular exercise - there may be something to regular exercise making it easier to process some of this stuff...

I'm with the others though - you do it, you throw up.. next time you do it you throw up a little less. I first played guitar in front of a crowd almost 20 years ago, and I still get the shakes before a gig... and beer makes me feel worse...

I just have to grit my teeth and do it. After the first tune I'm rocking out on my own and barely care what the audience think anyway... :D

Originally Posted by: aschleman......................

More or less... nervousness is an emotion that is caused by a mixture of insecurity, doubt, excitement, and incresed adrenaline flow.... Normally the best way for a musician to overcome being nervous is to expose yourself to situations that you're placed in front of a crowd on numerous occasions. The more you do it the more confident you'll be... the more confident... the less nervous. It doesn't really have anything to do with your physical fitness... Nervousness is an emotional state not a physical ailment. You can take a musician that has never played in front of a large crowd before.... Have him run three miles a day... do yoga everyday... and put him in front of a crowd of 300 people with a guitar and a microphone and they'll still be peeing down their leg... gauranteed. The one thing I do agree on is the sports thing... Joining sports teams does put you in the spotlight... It helped me tremendously because I was fairly use to being in the spotlight.

Like I said though... my advice... Practice your songs until you can play them blindfolded... literally. Practice until you can play them without much thought. Then practice them some more. The next thing is work out some small gigs... like open mics or something where you're playing in front of small groups of people. I know musicians that make good money playing paid gigs that still go to one open mic a week... Also do some warming up exercises before you go out on stage... play some scales to limber your fingers up... go through any rough spots of any songs that you have... just so you have it fresh in your mind when you have to play it. It's always a good idea to do something to take your mind off of the show right before you go out there. Have friends around to talk to or if you're old enough have a beer or two to calm your nerves a bit.... that's one thing about beer... it's pretty much liquid courage.

That's my advice... it doesn't involve any work out routines or having to join sports teams or dojos... or doesn't require you to contort your body in a bunch of weird positions for the sake of enlightenment.... It's just about confidence... and believing and trusting in yourself that you knwo how to rock a crowd... Not difficult.

My advice goes not for undermining the nessecity of actual practice, but to emphasize the importance of exercesise. Let me comment, therefore on parts of the quotation I've made bold.

First of all stage firght is nervousness or fear, which is an emotion, mixed with excitement, which is an energy boost and motivation for spectacular performance. All, I think, will agree that we want more of the latter and less of the first.

From that conclusion we can start looking at the roots of the fear and fuel for excitement. It goes without saying, that a primary item of preparation of performing material is practicing and perfecting the material prior to the performance. But none the less the problem for many musicians still persists.
Why is that so?

To further elaborate I will disagree with the next bold item in the quotation. I artist involved in yoga and consistent running will most likely not pee his pants in his first performance; be it even a crowd of 300 people. As I have mentioned in my first post you achieve chemical balance in your body through exercise. That in turn gives you great leverage over your emotions, which are for the most part play a negative effect on your wellbeing. A person of good health will be able to keep things such as fear in check and under control. On the other side of the spectrum, you will also have a healthy supply of energy to boost and further intensify your excitement before the showtime.

And keeping your comment in mind, Reynold, the above, in addition to things such as enhanced motivation, efficiency, and blood circulation (for faster restoration used limbs and quicker thinking) seems to provide for several direct links between exercise and performance on and before stage. Don't you think?

Oh, I see now. Yes, you make a good point. I had thought that you were saying excercise was more important than actual practice and preporation, with which I disagree. However I will agree that along with practice and preparation being physically fit will at least somewhat help you out onstage. How much it helps is of course debatable and I'm sure this forum will always be divided on it, but I think we can all agree that it certainly can't hurt.

Originally Posted by: citizenlevAnd keeping your comment in mind, Reynold, the above, in addition to things such as enhanced motivation, efficiency, and blood circulation (for faster restoration used limbs and quicker thinking) seems to provide for several direct links between exercise and performance on and before stage. Don't you think?

I assume that you're talking to me... though my name ain't 'reynold'...

I said I thought physical exercise helped well being, and therefore might well assist in dealing with stage fright, but I still dispute that exercise alone will stop it.

I've been performing live, and taking exercise for years. I still get stage fright, but I can manage it and carry on as I said.

I still do not see a direct link between exercise and ability to handle nerves. So no, I don't think you're right.... but if it works for you, fine....

I still don't FULLY agree with the fact that you say physical fitness helps you be less nervous on stage... I have, however, agreed that being part of a team or playing a sport in front of a crowd will help tremendously. With that, comes part physical fitness... dealing with the conditioning and running that is done on a daily basis during practices... and the social skills and confidence that the specific sport creates. Team sports do a lot for young adults... Developing disciplne, social skills, leadership, as well as helps increase the confidence level... I still don't agree that if I do yoga by myself or run by myself everyday... then I will have the necessary skills to get up in front of 300 people for the first time and not be nervous or slightly scared... It doesn't work that way. Sure, running with people or doing yoga in a class of many other people may help... because you're doing something in front of people... I see what you're saying, and I agree on the terms that I've explained below... But stage performances still come down to the artists confidence in their abilities. Personally I believe that a guitar player/singer that practices a set list with his/her band for 3 hours a day... has a tremendous advantage over an artist that runs/does yoga for an hour and a half and practices a set list for an hour and a half. Granted, it's good to be in good physical shape during shows... it helps keep the energy level up and it helps keep you going through the concert... But if you've ever been in a band that has full band practice every day... or even 3 days a week... you would know that you get plenty of cardio and general conditioning from playing for 3 hours straight... That's exercise a musician can use... In my opinion.

But again, not to say that you're wrong... I agree on some of your points... I'm just saying that what you're placing a lot of emphasis on is one of the least important things to worry about when preparing for a show... especially one with more than 300 people... I just think practicing in front of small crowds is the best thing. Exposure, exposure, exposure. Practice, practice, practice. Exercise IS good... don't get me wrong. As far as the music goes though... exercise isn't going to help you play an entire song of barre chords without your hand cramping... or it's not going to help you nail that solo...

Let us refer to "nerves" or nervousness as anxiety, which is a more comprehensive term for what we are discussing. In my understanding a direct link between anxiety and physical exercise would be this: if you are physically active the amount of anxiety is lessened, perhaps in proportion to the amount of each.

Has such link been established by medical science? The answer is yes, with an overwhelming amount of evidence. Little of which I have referenced below.

An aritcle was published in the Research Digest of the Arizon State University on this topic. It is an unbias meta-analyses of close to 200 studies with over a thousand subjects. You can read the full article at this link
http://www.fitness.gov/mentalhealth.htm

But I also listed several quotes after reading it myself:

'Landers and Petruzzello (1994) examined the results of 27 narrative reviews that had been conducted between 1960 and 1991 and found that in 81% of them the authors had concluded that physical activity/fitness was related to anxiety reduction following exercise and there was little or no conflicting data presented in these reviews. For the other 19%, the authors had concluded that most of the findings were supportive of exercise being related to a reduction in anxiety, but there were some divergent results. None of these narrative reviews concluded that there was no relationship.'

'All six of these meta-analyses found that across all studies examined, exercise was significantly related to a reduction in anxiety.'

and...

'The research literature suggests that for many variables there is now ample evidence that a definite relationship exists between exercise and improved mental health. This is particularly evident in the case of a reduction of anxiety and depression. For these topics, there is now considerable evidence derived from over hundreds of studies with thousands of subjects to support the claim that “exercise is related to a relief in symptoms of depression and anxiety.”'

In addition to the comprehencive review above, I listed some credible sources that support the same idea:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/depression-and-exercise/MH00043
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/07/030715091511.htm
http://www.mclean.harvard.edu/news/press/current.php?id=86
http://health.msn.com/centers/depression/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100096414

Ren, on a side note though, I see you not referencing to any negative side effects of your stage fright. I didn't hear that you skipped a show, or threw up on your audience. Perhaps due to your consistant exericese they are little present if not at all, and the stage fright you mention is nothing more than an additional energy you're getting for a challenge of another performance.

After a complicated surgery the patient wakes up and with concern in his eye asks the doctor:
'Will I be able to play the violin after this?'
Enthusiastic with the surgery's success the doctor replies:
'Yes! Of course you will!'
'How odd', says the patient, 'I've never even touched the thing before'

Aschleman, I think, that exercise either in groups or by oneself is greatly undervalued in your post.

The improved sleep quality will help you focus on your performance avoiding the billion of distractions that happen on stage.

The improved blood flow will greatly reduce the chances of the hand cramps.

And the raised energy levels will help you nail that solo with intensity and confidence.

And the anxiety will not lock you up, inhibited, before the crowd of whatever size.

As I'm sure you're aware it is not an easy task to practice 3 hours/day by yourself, not to mention getting a band together to do the same. High energy levels are required for such a feat. Sadly many bands resort to get that energy out of cigarettes, caffiene, and booze. Or worse... :eek:

Also it is unrealistic, I think, to presume that even a yoga master trained in virtuoso guitar can get a gig of 300 people his first time performing in public.
More often than not, if you're able to book your first or second or third gig it will be small and you would be good enough to perform your material there, at least somewhat ok. Any anxiety at that time is reasonably useless, and would drop it's chances of occurence if you had exercised.