Performance Anxiety

Posted on | August 26, 2010 | 2 Comments

I was watching “Spicks and Specks” last night on the ABC when it came to the section where the contestant sings a song using lyrics from a completely unrelated book. This is tricky to do, as my (not very frequent singer) husband can attest. last night, instead of asking the visiting guest who is usually a singer to do this, Myf and Alan, the team captains who know LOTS about music trivia, had to not just talk about performers, but perform themselves. They both did very very well, but Myf was obviously nervous. She stated that it had been five years since she had needed to do this. I was watching her body language and thinking, wow – here comes some performance anxiety! She did quite well, managed to sing in tune and the other contestants picked her songs easily.

What was fascinating to me as a teacher was her physical reactions, and the impact that they had on her voice. This is the flight or fight response that singers often experience before performing. It is terrible because although you want to sing and perform, you can perceive performance as being dangerous and off goes the body into action. Some of the signs of performance anxiety include a dry throat, sweaty palms, shaking limbs, increased heartbeat, butterflies in the tummy, sleeplessness before a performance and excessive muscle tension. These can interfere with the voice in performance, impacting on pitch, memory, breath control, alignment, and the ability to “be in the moment” and produce a really special musical moment.

Performers allow themselves to be vulnerable when performing and that can be a frightening experience. However, this is what we do, and discovering coping strategies for the physical and emotional aspects of performance anxiety can be of enormous benefit. I find that ignoring the elephant in the room and trying somehow to “push through” will only lead to another tense and ultimately disappointing performance.

Christopher Arneson, in the “Journal of Singing” (May/June 2010, “Performance Anxiety: A Twenty First Century Perspective” ), suggests a number of techniques including accepting your fear, understanding your fear (what is the source of the fear), silencing the negative inner voices (the judge, the doubter, the timid soul), getting rid of excuses, eliminating self-destructive behaviours, prepare, release physical tension, refuse to  focus on your nervousness, have realistic expectations and finally, be generous (to others, and I think, to yourself). Phew, that’s a lot to think about and work through. But singing is a mind body and spirit activity, so all aspects of performance anxiety need to be addressed. And the day that you perform with freedom is a great day!

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