how to overcome nerves

[wooliteeuph]

so basically i have a problem with being nervous. i know that many people have a problem with this but I have realized that it actually controls my playing because i find myself shaking uncontrollably in addition to the normal lack of air support. it even affects me when i practice because i always feel that someone is listening to me. for years i have been practicing with music blasting in my ears to relax myself (oddly enough after hearing recordings i found that i sound 100 times better this way). recently i have tried to get away from that but my nerves still haven't changed. what would the folks in the euphonium world like to say to help me out. is there a book i can read or even a pill. i would try anything right now. its weird since i have been performing for years but its about time I actually overcome my fear of the stage.

[Wyvern]

is there a book I can read

The Inner Game of Music by Barry Green
http://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Music- ... 0385231261

Strange thing nerves. I don't normally get nervous playing with band or orchestra, but did yesterday for a quintet gig. I suppose I had moved out of my comfort zone? I have done very little quintet playing.

[tubajoe]

Nice topic!

The best way to combat nerves is to continuously perform -- so much that it becomes commonplace. BUT, for me, even after thousands of performances there is still a situation once in a great while that rattles me a bit on the inside, and usually creeps up unknowingly.

You can analyze and analyze (as many teachers teach you to do) -- but you can only go so far. I've read the Inner Game books, I've read a Soprano on Her Head, studied a bit of Alexander, Yoga, Tai Chi and I've even tried beta-blockers. All of that stuff helps, but only to a certain point.

The thing that really got me to be able to manage it and get beyond it was a teacher telling me that "you cant fight the nerves" you have to let it wash over you and run its course. (that parted the clouds for me!)

...which makes complete sense, since when you get nervous your brain chemistry changes (Adrenalin released... thanks RD!) You have to deal with the simple fact that those chemicals are now THERE and already released and there is nothing you can do but ride it out and let them run their course. When I accepted it all and did not fight it things got exponentially better. I learned how to recognize that.

Now in the event that I do get nervous, I can hold it together and get beyond it.

On top of that, it helps for me to really go with the whole Jacobs school of playing -- where mechanically controlling the physiology is NOT what you want to do. It's all about believing what you are doing and dictating the entire process with a model of a single ideal. Also accepting that the way your body feels is never completely consistent from day to day, time to time, performance to performance. That's an unavoidable aspect of humanity and it does not have to be a big factor in your performance.

I think that micromanagement of process is one of the biggest paralyzers of all.


A really successful horn player once told me that some of his best performances are where he chips a note early in the gig and gets it out of the way as then there is nothing left to worry about.


We cant control the human condition, only learn to accept and deal with it. And, above all, while on stage, you gotta be willing to F up. That's part of the spirit of performance. You have to be willing to take a chance; to live on the edge.

[UDELBR]

Over-preparation. Have everything so hard-wired that nothing can go wrong.

[Roger Lewis]

Great topic.

There are a bunch of things it helps to understand that go on in recognizing "nerves".

The traditional "approach/avoidance conflict" is one. Two people look at a roller coaster. One sees the most exciting thing in the world and will move toward it. The other sees the most terrifying thing in the world and will move away from it - protection.

"Labeling theory" plays another huge roll. When a person is excited, the body goes through a number of nerve related reactions - a tightening of the abdominal muscles, constriction of the pupils of the eye, and adrenalin jolt, etc. If you are looking at a roller coaster and you enjoy roller coasters you will "label" this as excitement. Since fear has almost the exact same physiological response, another person looking at a roller coaster who is afraid of them will label the same physiological response as "fear:. So "interpretation" of the physiological reaction plays an important part on the stage.

Comfort is another factor. When I was a Mannes I would practice in the late nights on the stage. I came to know every board in the floor, where every creak in the boards might be, how my sound would be affected based on the direction the bell was pointed - it was like my living room and I was comfortable there. Many people never get to see the stage until either their recital hearing or the actual recital - so this is unfamiliar territory to you. Getting comfortable is a great key to just going out an having fun. Alan Baer has mentioned similar things in his audition preparation. You take YOUR chair and YOUR tuba stand, have all YOUR tuning and metronome gear with you - make it into your own room, not someone else's room. This is a great idea as now you KNOW that everything will fit YOU properly.

Here's the biggie, and I believe I have posted on this before. What happens when you walk out on stage?

"First, you will probably be a bit nervous. This will cause you to have a great deal of tension on the 1st inhalation and under breathe – not enough fuel. THEN, you will attempt to play very softly so that if you do miss a note (in your encumbered thinking of that moment) the audience won’t hear it. Now you are doing something you haven’t practiced – the softer dynamic. How dare you change the rules when the performance begins – this is what I refer to as “the kiss of deathâ€

[lgb&dtuba]

You take YOUR chair and YOUR tuba stand, have all YOUR tuning and metronome gear with you - make it into your own room, not someone else's room. This is a great idea as now you KNOW that everything will fit YOU properly.
Roger

That trick has helped me a lot. I do take my own chair, stand, music, mike, etc to gigs. I'm pretty much self contained. That feeling of being in control of my immediate environment and using familiar, comfortable and dependable equipment regardless of what else is going on around me allows me to just relax and get on with it.

[jon112780]

When you sit down for pizza and beer, are you nervous? No, because you enjoy it (also because you've done it hundreds of times). Playing music should be the same way, do it because you enjoy it. It's not too hard to tell if a performer likes the work that is being performed.

Moods have a great deal to do with it. I remember one performance during my undergrad where the brass studios would have an hour every friday where different students would play (with accompianist) for the brass facutly and studios. Before one performance, something happened (I don't remember exactly what)and I was positively livid. Ten minutes later I had to perform. People told me later that was one of my best performances ever. Why? Maybe because I was to the point where I didn't care what what anybody thought about my playing, so I wasn't holding back; I had nothing to lose.


Just my $.02

[tubatooter1940]

A little pre-gig jitters is a good thing because it keeps us on our toes. Too much nervous is distracting - besides - we do what we think about doing. If we think about blowing clams, that's what we do.
Our tubenet buddy Windshieldbug has alluded that sometimes we're the bomber and some nights were the bombee. We may feel successful at first then find a disaster in the making. Example:
We were cooking along one fine night to a nice crowd when the owner of the venue got drunk and violent. His wife left him that night. We count that as another bump in the road. This a tough business sometimes.
Then there are the great gigs that we talk about for years afterward that make everything so worth while. These magic evenings don't happen often enough but when they do, savor them. Remember them.

[rascaljim]

Make the music you are playing in your head louder than the negative thoughts. When you sing in your head very loudly along with what your playing it puts more of your focus on the controls for the subconscious to do it's thing. If you're still hearing negative thoughts, you need to concentrate on your mental singing even more.

Give it a try. I'm sure Mr. Jacobs would approve.

[wooliteeuph]

thanks everyone. as far as just dealing with being nervous i understand what everyone is saying. my biggest problem though is the shaking. you can hear it in my playing and some people have said that they can actually see me shake on stage. of course this only hits me on solo gigs or on pieces where i am being featured. you would think that I could get over it since performing isn't a new thing for me (i performed for busch gardens for about 5 years now and i have been in the navy for about 3 years). i just want to be able to walk onto the stage and get through a piece without shaking like a madman.

[MaryAnn]

Good stuff here. Performance Power is a good book; Roger's advice is right on, as are most of the others, including the one just above this post.

I have the shaking problem too on occasion. Telling someone to relax when they are in this condition of over-adrenalization is useless, because, as Roger says, the chemicals are already in your system. At least I didn't have the freakin' runs like I used to get when I was younger.

The last time I remember having the shakes really badly was a performance of the Brandenberg that has the two horns as soloists; I was shaking so badly I had trouble, literally, keeping the mouthpiece on my face. My reaction was to get mad at my body, tell it to just stop that RIGHT NOW. I also invoked my "love the audience" attitude; I know that the reason why I get nervous to this point is because I am afraid of the audience. I can't love them and be afraid of them at a the same time. By the second movement I was still nervous but the shaking had lessened considerably, and I did a passable, if not stellar, performance. You do have to "just go for it" and wail away and not be timid.

MA

[Rick Denney]

I've told this story before. Back in my TubaMeister days, we agreed to share a recital with the students at (then) Southwest Texas State University. The TubaMeisters were really at the top of their game at that point, having just completed 35 weekends at Fiesta Texas. We decided we'd play a little long-hair music along with our regular polka and polka-parody set.

We started with a tuba quartet arrangement of Till Eulenspiegel. Guess who had the opening horn solo. Yup, the third part--me.

In all but the first half dozen or so of the many hundreds of sets we played that year, I was utterly calm. It was just doing what we did, and I never really felt the pressure.

But as we walked out onto that stage, it occurred to me that in the years I'd lived either in Austin or San Antonio, I had come to many faculty recitals performed on that stage. I remembered the standards I brought in with me in listening to those performances. That's when panic hit.

I started sweating, breathing shallow, and vibrating like a plate compactor. Roger and Joe are right--but it's not an endorphin surge. It's an adrenallin surge. Adrenalin is an anxiety hormone, and it will really ramp you up. But it's there and there's nothing to be done. In retrospect, I did all the things Roger suggested, and that's where the experience from that year really helped. I knew to just bull through it. I took a big breath, and applied a megadose of false confidence.

Other than a bit of shake-induced vibrato, it went fine. It was obvious that we were all a bit stiff performing those long-hair works, and the tension we felt palpably released when we walked away from the music stands, stood in a row on the front edge of the stage, and launched into our polka set.

I've had a similar reaction a couple of times since then, and on one occasion I let it get the best of me and I ruined a solo. Oh, well. In that case, it was over-rehearsal--I gave an relatively easy lick more worry than it deserved. I've learned to practice stuff cold but not to practice from worry.

Rick "noting that practice is for the brain more than the lips" Denney

[UDELBR]

Rick "noting that practice is for the brain more than the lips" Denney

The lips don't make us nervous; the brain does. Thus my recommendation of over-preparation.

[Tubadork]

thanks everyone. as far as just dealing with being nervous i understand what everyone is saying. my biggest problem though is the shaking. you can hear it in my playing and some people have said that they can actually see me shake on stage. of course this only hits me on solo gigs or on pieces where i am being featured. you would think that I could get over it since performing isn't a new thing for me (i performed for busch gardens for about 5 years now and i have been in the navy for about 3 years). i just want to be able to walk onto the stage and get through a piece without shaking like a madman.

Check out your diet.

I used to drink about 3-5 cups of coffee a day, when I got to grad school I noticed that same shaking (in my hands mostly) so before any big performance I would lay off for about 2 weeks and that would usually do to trick, but beware of decaf (which is all I drink now) it still contains some caffiene, so you won't see me drinking it during sound check (unless I'm really dead tired).

See how much sugar you are eating, when adrenaline hits sugar or caffiene it's like giving it a boost. Processed sugars are really the worst, I used to see some black spots when I would perform (probably lower blood sugar?) I would eat a banana, which is also a natural beta blocker and I would be fine.

Experiment, see what works and discard what doesn't. It sounds like a physical issue, when it would happen to me, it was. My hands would shake and I would think that I'm not nervous, but wait my hands are shaking so I must be and then I would get nervous.

Good luck,
Bill

[SplatterTone]

There are the times when I knew the music so well that there was no question I would perform well ... ... ... as long as I didn't get nervous. So now you get nervous about getting nervous. A travel cup with ice, water, and bourbon. About 30 minutes before it is time to play: Relax. Sip. Enjoy. Just don't overdo it.

Phooey on all this mental stuff. Better music through chemistry.

[Brassworks 4]

Run up and down a flight or two of stairs in the middle of your practice session. While you are still winded, play. The shortness of breath is similar to the shortness of breath you may feel when you are nervous. Working your way through this will help you when you are nervous performing. As with anything. it takes a bit of time to learn what you need to do to continue playing in this state - but it is well worth the effort.

[goldtuba]

One thing that I've started doing is playing in very public places. I sit in front of my dorm and play the most difficult things that I have. My particular dorm is in the middle of campus and right next to the music building. I enjoy this because people will walk by heading to class and give me funny looks. People don't expect to hear a tuba playing while they're walking to class. I really enjoy it because people don't give me dirty looks. They must like what they hear.
Playing in an open area is still less pressure than a performance situation, but if you think about it like a performance, than it really helps.

[Brassworks 4]

On a similar line, a friend of mine told me about his trumpet teacher who, before a major audition, put one square of toilet paper in his shirt pocket and said "Just remember, the judge uses it just like you and I do"

It helped.

[tubajoe]

On the practive level, this does not work unless you picture yourself naked and laugh that you are doing this while playing the tuba. I do have a friend who will strip down his clothes while auditioning. He claimed it helped with overheating.
Do what you feel works the best.

Funny story that relates to this.

Once upon a time at a notorius tuba school, auditions for ensemble placement were held behind a screen. One very good euphonium player decided that he'd test this theory and actually do the audition naked. (no, it was not me)

This particular euphonium player was an exceptionally dilligent and very organized practicer, so naturally his rationale included the process of replicating the audition environment in his practice routine. So, for the week prior to his audition, he practiced entirely in the buff. (he only told me about it, no I didnt want to see it)

He won the audition.

But the professor judging the audition wondered why he did not hear shoes when he walked out.

[Dylan King]

Remember that we live in a physical world controlled by the spiritual.

In the spiritual world (where there are actual beings fighting for control of our minds as humans) we are vulnerable to all sorts of influences, including fear and the nervousness of performance in front of others. Satan wants us to be afraid of making good music; and to the contrary wants us to fear making music that is honorable to God.

I find that a few minutes of deep prayer and meditation breaks through the boundary that makes us fear others as human beings. Put your performance into the hands of the supernatural, and do it to the great glory of God. If you have His love in your mind, you cannot go wrong.

I hope everyone in the tuba world, and the American world (the blessed decedents of Ephraim and Mannaseh) have a profitable and most blessed Thanksgiving day.

-DK