Difference between revisions of "Calming the Nerves"

Revision as of 22:59, 27 November 2014

Practice

Experience

Ultimately, the best way to get good at something is to do it over and over again. Getting more and more gigs under your belt will make the experience less intimidating and mystifying. This can be open mic nights, playing in a friend's band, performing in front of friends/family, and subbing in for a night with another band, in addition to gigs with your band. You can even try to get your band small, low-pay bookings just to "test drive" some gig situations.

It's a good idea to have someone video or even just record the audio of your performance. This is useful to review to see what you did and didn't do well. These can be cues to work harder on those things at both practice and the next gig.

Work Up to the Big Gig

You don't want to work hard for months, book a big gig, and perform miserably, tarnishing your reputation and killing morale. Rather than practice and practice, make a demo, and try to book a big venue, work up to the big gig. Play some open mics and small-scale venues to remove some pressure and develop experience at a comfortable pace. You can even try to play in other groups or sub in for gigs - this can help develop stage experience quickly. And for some people that's less intimidating - when you're playing someone else's material, you should feel less anxious about crowd reaction/judgment.

If you have a bad gig, don't let it kill morale - it's just a stumbling block. You know that you were already successful at a smaller level. What went wrong this time? Video or feedback from audience members can help distinguish what to work on at practice and concentrate on at the next gig. Also, was the source of your failure your nerves, a preparation or hardware failure, or some random environment factor? If the problem wasn't nerves and something that can be corrected, feel confident to keep pushing forward with your ambitions and the size/prominence of your gigs.

Drugs and Alcohol

You may be the kind of guy that likes a cocktail or a toke to calm the nerves. Cool. If it works, I recommend doing so (of course I don't recommend becoming an addict spiraling into a life-destroying tailspin). The problem is that intoxication often has adverse effect on your playing ability. It can also disorient your perception to make you think that your playing is better or unaffected when intoxicated.

If this is going to be your method to deal with nerves, you have to be sure it won't hurt your performance. Plan ahead - try getting intoxicated when you practice, playing through entire songs as you would during a gig. Record yourself on a phone or video camera and verify that your performance is as good as you thought it was.

Ultimately, I recommend experience, preparation, and mental exercises over this approach; however, it can assist get over the initial hump for the absolute novice whose nerves would otherwise be far worse for the performance. Once gaining experience, however, you should transition away from it.