Chill baby chill! (1)

Ok. Let's talk about nerves!
Playing music is a wonderful thing. It's exciting, thrilling, interesting, enriching etc... It can also be stressful sometimes as we all know espescially for horn players. Controlling your nerves is an important part of the equation when it comes to perform. It's no use being the world's greatest player if you collapse as soon as you're on stage.
 
In the ''Chill baby chill!'' series, I will try to help you with this important aspect of music making. I will post a text every once in a while about my own experience with nerves and you're all welcomed to comment and add to the discussion. 

So let's start from the beginning...

I use to be very nervous. As a teenager, I didn't have much confidence in myself in general. I was petrified when I had to speak in front of the class for exemple just to give you an idea! . I was practicing my horn a lot so I could do well with this but playing in front of even 5 people was quite a torture! I remember my legs shaking out of control,my hands becoming all sweaty etc... Most of us have been there I guess! I had to go through a lot to overcome this but I can say now that playing in concert is a fun experience most of the time and nerves aren't really a problem.

So why is that? Why do we get all nervous playing in front of people when we are doing just fine by ourselves?
There are many explanations to that. Normally, the fonction of stress is to prepare your body for fighting or escape in the face of danger. Your adrenalin level is higher, your senses are more alert and  more blood is pumped into your system.  What we experience in concert is called ''performance stress''. You don't have to face any danger but the kick comes from the fact that you are being observed and watched. How do we deal with that?

It is a perfectly normal human reaction to feel nervous to a certain point in concert. It can even be enjoyable believe it or not! I think the first thing you need to do when dealing with nerves is to accept that you are not a robot. You have feelings and emotions and it's ok to show them. You musn't feel embarrassed if people see you being nervous. We think that people will see us as weak if they see us vulnerable and that is not true. On the contrary, performing something in front of an audience takes a lot of practice, discipline, courage and commitment.
 The fact that you're on stage playing music, acting, dancing, juggling etc shows that you have the courage and the strenght to step out of your comfort zone and do something special.That's not weakness! If anyone thinks you're weak for being nervous, well let's hear them play!  For that reason, you need to walk on stage with your head up high and no matter how it goes, walk out of stage with your head up high. You deserve it! Allways keep that in  mind.

You need also to have realistic expectations about your performance. We've heard people saying that you need to aim for perfection to achieve excellence. In reality, aiming for perfection will put a lot of pressure on your shoulders and hurt you when you perform. You better aim for ''very good'' and get ''very good'' than aim for ''perfect'' and get ''mediocre''. If you allways try to be perfect, you will become increasingly angry and frustrated with your playing because it's simply impossible. You're not a machine! There will allways be something to improve anyway. Learn to appreciate where you are now as a player and be proud of what you've done so far. There will allways be  more and less advanced players.
A sane and realistic way to set your goals for your performance is to take your ''average good'' performance in your practice room and expect that in concert. If you've never been perfect alone, why would it suddenly happen in concert?
Having a more realistic and human approach to performing will take a lot of pressure off your shoulders and should make your concert a much more enjoyable experience.

So let's start with that and we'll definately talk more about it later!