Stagefright

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
Inspired by dazzlez thread about thinking too much while playing. In that thread Mr. Double G posted a link to Hal Galpers website. There, I came across this piece Hal wrote about stagefright, and I wanted to discuss it here, if that's OK. Does anyone here admit to suffering from any level of stage fright? That thought never even crosses my mind. I'm more the opposite, I like being on stage. Also there's an underlined part near the end of this article that I can most definitely relate to. I went through that very thing in the beginning (and beyond) of my playing out days.

Here's a copy and paste to save you guys the sheer hell of clicking the link and searching for the article:

Stagefright and Relaxation
By Hal Galper

Expanded from the original article published in the Fall 1989 issue of the IAJE Journal

Problems with stagefright occur because of the performer’s inappropriate attitudes toward the performing experience. These include: confusion about the proper attitude concerning preparation (practicing) and performance, misconceptions about how energy is used, the nature of the performers “work,” and a hyperactive approach toward playing. Since the behaviorist theory, “attitude precedes action,” suggests that all action are expressions of attitudes and in order to change one’s behavior one must first change one’s attitude, let us first examine this issue.

PRACTICING AND PERFORMING

Practicing and performing involve two different and distinct mind-sets. Practicing is a goal oriented, intellectual activity, while performing is holistic, process oriented and emotional and intuitional activity. Students often confuse the these two very different mind-sets.

In their early formative years, students tend to spend more time practicing than playing. Without realizing it they are developing a practicing attitude. Because they don’t have much playing experience under their belts, they assume that the mind-set developed from practicing can be applied to the performing experience. It cannot. The result is a frustrating musical experience. Although the intellectual process is appropriate for practicing, it is too slow to use while playing.

A case in point that I’m sure every reader has encountered is when you’ve practiced a particular musical idea and tried to interject it into your solo during an improvisation. Notice how it stopped everything. The intuition, however, makes decisions at a speed 20,000 times faster than the speed of the intellect, often so fast that the performer is not even aware of it.

Students can become dependant upon their practicing attitude and feel secure in it because they have more experience with it. When they find that the practicing attitude doesn’t work on the bandstand, that security becomes removed and they get nervous.

The only way to correct this problem is to acquire enough playing experience to develop a playing attitude that one feels secure with. A playing attitude can not be developed in a practice room playing by yourself. It can only be learned from years of playing on the bandstand with others.

The playing attitude is developed by getting on the bandstand, forgetting everything you’ve ever practiced, and just “going for it and hoping it comes out okay.” “Going for it” is often defined as “Faking it.” “Faking It” is a very sophisticated process that can only be learned from years of trial and error. The feeling of “Faking It” is often described by musicians as “going out there without a net.” Getting used to this feeling can be, at first, unsettling. It takes time and experience to get comfortable with it. The only way to get good at this process is by doing it over and over until you get it right. There is no shortcut to this process. It can only be developed by practicing a “devil may care” attitude then bringing this attitude to the bandstand while not being concerned about being perfect or making mistakes.

All the great players started by “Faking It.” In their early years it was obvious to the listener that they were trying to learn how to do this. Eventually their ability to fake it became so highly developed that the listener could not tell that the advanced player was faking it.

THE PLAYFUL STATE OF MIND

The state of mind most conducive to creativity is the playful state mind. All of us are born in this state of mind and spend most of the early stages of our youth enjoying it’s rewards. As we grow older and begin to take our place in “grown-up” society, this playfulness becomes discouraged and suppressed in varying degrees. One can’t have a smoothly functioning society if everyone is playful all the time. We have to learn society’s rules of behavior and become a contributing member. Although during this process of growing up, this playful state becomes suppressed, it is not gone! It is still in all of us and can be retrieved and relearned. Learning how to get back to that state of mind will be one of the major goals of any artistic career. Understanding stagefright is the first step toward achieving that goal.

THE STAGEFRIGHT CYCLE

Often, the first thought of the day about the upcoming performance sets the stagefright cycle in motion. This cycle is a slow-rising day-long curve that peaks near or during performance and then decreases rapidly after performance and accounts for the “crashing” that most performers experience. It is often helpful to take a nap before performing as one way to interrupt the stagefright curve.

The establishment of a creatively physical, emotional, social and musical environment which remains stable should be a major goal of any artist. Daily activities should be decided solely on the basis of whether they are going to enhance your ability to perform. Physical activity before and during performance should be minimized to avoid stress and fatigue. Mental activity should be kept light and unstudied (a sense of humor is always helpful). Emotional activity should be kept low-key.

Stagefright is a natural phenomenon. It is basically a drug overdose of the hormone Adrenalin. This over-production of Adrenalin is a result of a conditioned reflex that is universal throughout the animal kingdom, what is often called the “flight or fight response.” This reflex becomes automatically activated when one’s emotional and physical well-being is perceived is being threatened. As a result you experience physical, mental and emotional discomfort and a diminished capacity to perform.

It is this negative perception of the performance experience that sets off the “fight or flight response.” This perception is generally created by the player having invested the performing experience with too much meaning or, taking it too seriously!

Society conditions us to take our endeavors seriously and teaches us to work hard to achieve our goals. This linear, “left brain: attitude is defninately appropriate to the study (practicing) of music and your instrument, but is inappropriate to creative performance (playing) which necessitates the development of an off-handed, carefree and playful “right brain” state of mind. Goal orientation will create the possibility that your goals may not be achieved which, in turn, is enough to strike fear in the heart of any performer and thus, creates the threat that sets off the stagefright cycle. Any attitude, apparently rational, that increases the tendency to make performance “important” should be considered negative and non-productive! Your goal will be to develop and practice mental exercises that can help you divest the playing experience of as much personal “meaning” as possible.

Some of the other elements that contribute to stagefright are:

Trying to analyse your playing while performing

The expectation of immediate rewards

Getting over-excited

Because of the way the ear works it is impossible to analyze the way you’re playing while performing. The ear, like the brain, works in a linear fashion. Although the ear can hear many different ways, it can only hear one way at a time. Listening how you sound while you’re playing (hearing “inside” the music) is one way of hearing, listening to how you sound on a tape (hearing “outside” the music) is another. When trying to analyze how you sound while playing, you’re trying to hear two ways at the same time and one can’t be hearing “inside” and “outside” the music at the same time. As soon as you try to hear “outside” while playing, you become excessively self-aware, which can then create apprehension. The desire to self-analyse comes from one source only, over-concern about “how do I sound?” You can’t care how you sound and be involved in your performance at the same time. When you become overly concerned with how well you are performing, the ego becomes involved and self-image become too important. While playing, one can only get “inside” the music and as mentioned earlier “hope it comes out okay.”

Approaching performance with expectations of immediate rewards (such as physical-emotional excitement and audience approval) is another serious drawback to creativity. It is human nature to expect rewards from our efforts but quiet often we settle for the gross, low-level rewards of physical and emotional excitement and deny ourselves the more sophisticated rewards of being able to play what you want to play, the way you want to play it, when you want to play it. Physical and emotional excitement are pleasurable and as such, are addictive but, are in themselves, nothing more than immediate gratification, about on the same level as masturbation. The student often gets “hooked” on these rewards and may not want to give them up. One can’t achieve the higher rewards that performing can offer without giving up the lower ones.

The appropriate use of energy has a direct, causal relationship on the degree of relaxation you can achieve. Consequently, the amount of technique and control you lose is equal to the amount of excess energy you produce. Since excess energy and tension will have a debilitating effect on instrumental technique, physical endurance and emotional control, you jeopardize your ability to produce a musical performance at the highest level.

This production of excess energy often comes from a misunderstanding of the nature of the “work” a musician does while playing. The amount of work that a human being does is measured by calories burned. If one compares the amount of calories burned by a musician performing for three hours to those of a ditchdigger digging for eight hours, the calories burned by each would be nearly equal, although the amount of physical labor would not. The nature of the “work” that a musician does is concentration, not physical labor. The goal is to become physically and emotionally “quiet.” Look at any videos of great performers and you’ll notice how “quiet” they are.

Over-excitement is also exhibited by the excess energy expended in “trying” to swing or “get into” the music. Students often translate this in their minds by thinking that in order to be able to successfully emote, one has to work oneself up into an emotional frenzy. Swinging has never been exactly defined, but an acceptable definition might be that one’s playing has and “emotional” quality to it. That quality is a gift that one is born with; it cannot be acquired but it can be developed. You either swing or you don’t. If you have determined that you have this quality of swing, then stop “trying” and begin to develop and control your swinging, not letting it control you. One must eventually learn to “disconnect” oneself from the emotion of the music as opposed to “getting in to it” and develop a dispassionate approach to playing. It is, of course, impossible to kill your emotions but you can, thru the ideas in this article, reduce them to a manageable degree.

It’s also good to channel your excitement outwards. To avoid keeping all your energy on the stage, risking over-exciting yourself and your fellow players, understand that energy can be directed simply by conceiving of its direction as flowing out towards the listeners. It can be helpful practice to pick a person in the audience to play towards.

PRACTICING DIFFERENT MENTAL ATTITUDES

Many performers have found the technique called “psyching oneself” effective for divesting a performance of over-importance. These “psych-out” attitudes seem to work best within three hours preceding a performance. One example can be called the “I don’t care” process. Start by convincing yourself that you don’t care how you sound and you don’t care what the other musicians in the band think of your playing. Extend that thought to the audience and the promoter. Recognize that you wouldn’t be there in the first place if people didn’t like your playing and use that thought as the basis for your self-confidence. After a period of practicing this attitude, you can then begin to approach the stage in a calmer state of mind. Other “psych-outs” you may choose include “the cosmic insignificance of it all” and “I’m bored with playing,” or you can create an attitude to fit your particular personality. These “psych-outs” are “as-if” attitudes that you put on like different colored glasses. For them to be eventually effective they must be practiced as diligently as one would one’s scales and instrument.

The development of a calm, dispassionate and “playful” approach toward your instrument and performance will help in achieving a high degree of relaxation and creativity. The idea is to be “exciting, not excited.”
 
Interesting view. I had stagefright years ago and im not sure why I don't suffer at all from it now. ( probably the beer).
 
The underlined bit is very pertinent.

When I was a kid, I would get dreadful stage fright - this was made worse by the fact that I was a singer and didn't perform with amplification (Classical) in the venues I sang at. I never did badly but was always nervous.

I started playing the drums and I wasn't very good. It didn't matter, I still played with other people but the stage fright was still there. I played through it. One day, I totally messed up a performance in front of my school. I left the kit, shaking, knowing I'd blown it completely.

That completely blew my stage fright away. It was the worst-case scenario. I missed things, dropped sticks, the gear broke on me and it was in front of my peers. The lot.

Nowadays, I still get a little nervous energy before I play but I wouldn't call it stage fright. Stage fright to me is a deep anxiety, I just get a little jumpy for about five minutes. I get more anxiety before I go to work than I do on the stage! I still connect with the music on a visceral or emotional level but I'm analysing what I'm doing far more than I am emotionally engaging.

When I'm at work, sometimes difficult situations occur, involving serious processes with the potential for wrongdoing to be enormous. In those situations, I completely switch off all of my emotions and go through the correct protocol, make the right phone calls and get the situation dealt with dispassionately. I could never be that cold with music but the idea of switching off some of your emotional connection during performance is sound. You make better decisions.
 
I do suffer from a minor form of stagefright, I suppose. I get some nervous energy before a gig, but it feels good to me. I feel charged up, not afraid.

My issue is that when I play for an audience, I tend to play conservatively to avoid making mistakes. So I play at maybe 70%-80% of my ability. I usually execute it quite well, but it's not very satisfying. I suppose that is a form of stage fright, the fear of making mistakes, but rather than overcome it, I've just reduced the chance that I'll make a mistake. I'd like to get over that. It's getting easier as I get older, since these days I don't have big musical aspirations and I mainly play for pure enjoyment. If I severely flubbed something and got kicked from a band, I wouldn't lose much sleep over it.
 
I think this all ties into that other thread where we talked about the conscious mind getting in the way of the subconscious mind. I forget the exact terms we used, but it was something like that.

I don't get stage fright, but I do get butterflies sometimes, depending on where I'm playing and who's there watching me.

One thing that I believe helps me a great deal is I'm arrogant. Having that sort of attitude is a turn-off to some people, I'm sure, but it has served me well. If you believe your sh** is working, others will buy in as well. I believe it also explains why nobody ever talks down to me in any situation I've been in.

Pluses and minuses, I suppose.
 
GREAT POST. i approve this message, heh-heh.

i admit some of the bigger / new gigs i get stage fright...same thing Hal describes, getting to psyched / excited the day-of the gig. thinking about it too much. then after 5 minutes playing no big deal or i get absorbed in the music. i think stage fright is much WORSE when i have not slept the night before or missing sleep all week. the "devil may care" attitude does work for me. never tried the nap thing but i want to.

playful state of mind so important. love this too..."be exciting not excited": The development of a calm, dispassionate and “playful” approach toward your instrument and performance will help in achieving a high degree of relaxation and creativity. The idea is to be “exciting, not excited.”

you want a candid interview on stage fright / gigging live. i have never heard a pro talk about this before like Aaron Sterling [90% studio but on tour w/ John Mayer] does. it's amazing & the fact that he is saying "screw gigging / its awkward for me" is almost refreshing.

+ http://idhitthatpodcast.podomatic.com/
 
Unfrotunatly I can suffer a form of Stagefright. It comes on usually in the build up to paking my kit for a gig. I start to feel nauseous and I get a terrably upset stomach, this will last right up to when I get to the venue, but as soon as I start setting up my kit it compleatly goes away. I don't feel nervouse at anytime and it doesn't always happen but I can't predict when I will get it. I just have to keep on going knowing it will disapeare and so far has never affected my performance.
 
Thanks Larry. Hal Galper is a brilliant teacher. That's a lot of info to absorb. Always had lousy stage fright but seemingly hide it more on the outside than I feel inside. Or part of me is calm and the other is steamed up. Ack.

These days I don't distinguish between practice and play. At home I just play but re-do the dodgy parts. It's not "efficient" but enjoyable and interesting.
 
I'm an amateur who doesn't play for audiences much, largely because of stagefright. My biggest problem is my mind goes CRAZY analyzing what I am doing, what I am supposed to be doing, how I might screw up, etc. Then, my fingers get jittery, which is about the worst thing for a musician. I have a hard time understanding it, because I am not afraid to speak to audiences. I spent quite a few years teaching, so being in front of a crowd is not an issue for me. Also, I did play in high school (many many years ago) band without any issues. I wish I could get over it, as I would like to play for audiences.
I found the article extremely helpful, and fairly accurate to my situation.
 
Yep Bob, how to get the brain to shut up. It's a discipline in itself.

But they are just thoughts. If you let them go without caring about them, they simply dissolve away into nothing.

The hard part is getting that initial moment of self-possession when you consciously see your thoughts for what they are - just pieces of information constantly flowing through your mind. How to break the momentum of that dreamlike "being involved with your thoughts" state of mind? Maybe a trigger - maybe noticing that you don't don't feel as good as you could.

You can take thoughts or leave them. When performing - anything that benefits from real time flow - you leave them.

Pardon the ramble, by writing I'm trying to clarify things in my my own mind.
 
from my understanding, the whole point (maximum creativity / music / flow) is to turn off ALL internal dialog on the band stand. very tough to do esp if you are sight-reading (there is a whole philosophy on memorizing your drum book if possible). Hal's exercises get you closer to a blank mind when playing live, which generates less stage fright, etc.

Vinnie's epic quote is relevant here again:
"...it's called flow. Our ability to control things and analyze things is in direct opposition to a mantra that I have: Thought is the enemy of flow. People ask me, “What do you think about when you’re playing?” The answer is basically nothing. Thought happens in a completely different way out of flow. It’s contemplative and analytical and problem solving. In flow, it’s completely different. It’s like a real-time program running in the background that doesn't interfere with what’s going on. The ability to adapt in a given moment is beyond the scope of another type of focused thought process.” -- Vinnie Colaiuta (from Modern Drummer, Jan 2012)
 
Timely thread. I am about to have my first public gig in over 30 years! The thing that is making me the most nervous is my kids will see me play with a band for the first time.

I have experienced a lot of different things.

Knocking my own snare off the stand during a school concernt when i was in 6th grade!
Middle school orhcestra doing cymbals Pshps and having my blow dried bangs poof with every chink of the cymbals to obvious laughter in the audience
Not being able to hear the monitor feed during an outdoor gig and the music was echoing, which caused me to play behind!

I totally relate to the disengage part of this theory. Whenever I find a particular new part difficult and I look at that limb, usually my right foot, everything breaks down.

For this gig coming up, I am subbing for a drummer at a venue out of the city, kind of a biker bar. I have never met the other players.

For some this would make for a perfect opportunity to stagefreight. It was the drummer that contacted me and he told me before he started playing with this band they constantly were using fill ins so they are used to a basic treatment of the songs. I am looking at it that they do not expect a really tight performance and I doubt I would ever play there again. So that makes it easier. Now mind you I do intend to be as prepared as possible and care a great deal how I play, but knowing these things I think will help my nerves. I guess we'll see soon.
 
Love, love, love Hal Galper!!!

I don't think I've ever had stagefright. Perhaps it was because I started gigging at 17 3-4 nights per week in front of a mess of people since the band I was in had rather large following. I think I was too young and naive to be scared.

This can't be stressed enough and is so appropriate - especially in today's environment where it seems people want to encompass all the speed and technique humanly possible....

"Practicing and performing involve two different and distinct mind-sets. Practicing is a goal oriented, intellectual activity, while performing is holistic, process oriented and emotional and intuitional activity. Students often confuse the these two very different mind-sets."

It took a long time for me to fully grasp this same statement handed down to me by all my teachers back in the 80's who always told me that once I learned all the rules, I had to forget about them, let them go and just play. This in no way negates the required hours/years spent on independence building and building technique. Those are and continue to be the necessary building blocks for the foundations of developing a musical vocabulary.

To some degree this is why I haven't worked on technique in probably 15 years or so. I don't have a Jo Jo Mayer grasp of it but what I do have allows me to play the music I so love to play and at the end of the day, that's what technique should provide.

Everything I practice is based around obtaining a greater facility on the instrument within the context of the music I'm playing. That's it. Without that as my compass, I'm nothing more than a boat floating around a giant body of water with no one steering it.
 
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Never had stagefright. I always looked forward to playing live. That being said, as a metal drummer I repeated my parts EXACTLY every single time. By the time I got on stage I could have performed the songs in my sleep. When not on stage or practicing with the band, I would spend about two hours a day working on the things I felt needed more attention. I also subscribe to the idea that if I need to be able to do something for ten minutes, I will do it for an hour. This builds speed, endurance, muscle memory, and CONFIDENCE. Most of the time I spent on stage I found myself watching drunks in the crowd, people moshing, checking out chicks and their goodies, so on and so forth. Being on stage is fun.
 
I used to get really really nervous before shows, and would usually stay out of site of everyone, hiding somewhere and trying to keep calm, breathing deeply, twitching nervously, and generally being a shaky mess...

Most of that would go away half way through the opening song, but it would always be there, that nagging voice somewhere in the dark recesses of the back of my head: "Don't drop a stick! Don't drop the beat! Don't mess up!" It was physically and mentally exhausting, and by the end of sets I was way more drained than I should have been...

It took a while, but I finally put two and two together and realized that all I was doing was focusing on the negative possibilities, when what I really should be doing is focusing on the positive opportunities! Once my simple brain made that realization, I flipped the script on myself, and started just thinking about how cool it was that I was able to play drums in front of a crowd, make amazing music, have fun, etc etc etc... It took a long time for me to make that connection, but once I did, the nervous energy dissipated, and shows became something to anticipate rather than fear!
 
Nice post, dmacc.

My worst case of stage fright was my first rock gig at the tender age of 14 - and it caught me completely by surprise. I had been playing in school bands, etc. for about 3 years by then and thought I was a pro. lol At the rock show, the curtain went up and my left leg literally began bouncing up and down. I could barely keep the high hats closed! Unbelievable, I was wound up like a top.

The only other time I really was nervous was when I was getting back into playing (after a prolonged absence - kids, house, work travel). I ended up playing a jazz gig and there was about 20 people in the place ... three of them were well known/respected local drummers in the audience. And yeah ... there was no flow, only thought, and I stank the place out! (I can laugh now, but it was brutal at the time.)

I think I use the "don't give a rat's a$$" approach these days, although I never thought about it enough to identify it as such. Being content and comfortable with bandmates, and playing for the song, leads to the creative place for sure - the listening and playing off the others. ... and stage volume encourages or prohibits this process to a large degree .. but that subject is well covered in another thread.... ;-)
 
Never have/had stagefright, but I'm always worried about whether the band enjoys my playing. They are my biggest critics and fans. I don't want to let them down.
 
Some very good comments and I love that Quincy Jones article, GG, especially this quote:
As a performer ... you can consciously open your mind and musical soul to a state of freedom and relaxation. That’s a state where nothing matters but the music. When that happens the performance flows out of the singer or instrumentalist and all physical, emotional, and intellectual inhibitions fall aside.
 
Some very good comments and I love that Quincy Jones article, GG, especially this quote:
As a performer ... you can consciously open your mind and musical soul to a state of freedom and relaxation. That’s a state where nothing matters but the music. When that happens the performance flows out of the singer or instrumentalist and all physical, emotional, and intellectual inhibitions fall aside.

Isn't this why we all play?

I mean - seriously. Isn't this is the 'high' that all musicians, once discovered, strive for every time we pick up our sticks (or other instrument)?
 
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