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March 2008
Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | Since moving to South Dakota, I have gone from playing in band-type settings to doing a solo act. The audience used to look at the female vocalist, and I never had stage-fright. Now, even on instrumentals, they are looking at ME and I am a nervous wreck. Anybody else have this problem? Any advice on how to overcome it? |
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Posts: 627
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | Usually a few Jack Daniels would help over come being nervous, but then I would forget the lyrics. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6996
Location: Jet City | I'm there with ya, and looking for the same advise. It's why I haven't done anything solo yet. I keep threatening to though. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6996
Location: Jet City | Originally posted by Tommy M.:
Usually a few Jack Daniels would help over come being nervous, but then I would forget the lyrics. I think there's a name for that, "The David Lee Roth Method" |
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March 2002
Posts: 15682
Location: SoCal | Start out with your best tune and know that the audience wants you to succeed. Once you've done a great song and the audience has responded, you should be feeling much better.
Also, know that a lot of professionals deal with the same problem...... |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | you have to worry when you no longer have stage fright
Em A
Now deep in the heart of a lonely kid
Em(G bass) D C Single notes: B D#
Who suffered so much for what he did,
Em A
They gave this ploughboy his fortune and fame,
Em(G bass) D C Single notes: B D
Since that day he ain't been the same.
G Am
See the man with the stage fright
F F(D bass) G
Just standin' up there to give it all his might.
Am
And he got caught in the spotlight,
F
But when we get to the end
D G
He wants to start all over again.
I've got fire water right on my breath
And the doctor warned me I might catch a death.
Said, "You can make it in your disguise,
Just never show the fear that's in your eyes."
See the man with the stage fright,
Just standin' up there to give it all his might.
He got caught in the spotlight,
But when we get to the end
He wants to start all over again.
F#m Bm
Now if he says that he's afraid,
C D G
Take him at his word.
F#m Bm
And for the price that the poor boy has paid,
C C#o D Eb Em
He gets to sing just like a bird, oh, ooh ooh ooh.
Your brow is sweatin' and your mouth gets dry,
Fancy people go driftin' by.
The moment of truth is right at hand,
Just one more nightmare you can stand.
See the man with the stage fright
Just standin' up there to give it all his might.
And he got caught in the spotlight,
But when we get to the end
He wants to start all over again, hmm hmm,
F D G
You wanna try it once again, hmm hmm,
F D G
Please don't make him stop, hmm hmm,
F D G
Let him take it from the top, hmm hmm,
F D G
Let him start all over again. |
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March 2005
Posts: 5567
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | I did a solo act for nearly 15 years and still do from time to time including every Sunday in both churches...I rarely get stagefright or even nervous UNLESS I'm doing a new song w/o enough practice...I actually developed self confidence gained in part I guess from so many gigs...I found out that the audience can be a great time if you know how to play them as well...I also found out that, at least for me, the intake of anything other than oxygen/water actually impedes both vocal and guitar...To bad it took so many years for me to find that out.. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | The best advise I heard was from a singer in Hawaii who was part of the house band at the Jazz Cellar. I only mention the name as our Hawaii friends might remember the place when it was THE rock club downtown.
Anyway.. "It's ok to have butterflys. The trick is to get them suckers to fly in formation!!"
His trick was to not face the audience until the lights came up. Everyone thought it was a schtick to start the show, but it was his "thing" to get started. If he saw the audience staring at him before they started, he would be very uncomforatable and was afraid to freeze. This way, he's get the first word out, and spin to face the crowd as the lights came up. It looked good and worked out well for him.
My trick is that I don't really care what the audience thinks. Not from a "give-a-crap" stance, but from a "I'm going to do my best" stance. If they like it... cool.. if they don't.. oh well.. not much I can do about that. The result is I either get invited back or not.
Again... "It's called PLAYING music, cause it's supposed to be FUN."
I guess Identify WHY you might be nervous. When I play (or have played) I'm more nervous about equipment failure than playing. The tunes and their acceptance or not I have little to no control over. So I fret about the things I can control. |
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Posts: 1330
Location: ms | I used to get it really bad. I saw an interview with Chet Adkins and they ask him what he did for stage fright. He said for live TV he used a "very low" dose of inderal a beta blocker and it worked wonders. I ask my doctor and he said he used it himself when he spoke at a conference and had a lots of patients that used it for stage fright.This was back in the 80`s and i hardly ever use it now. It helped me a lot but theres no replacement for just doing it , the med just took the edge off. |
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October 2007
Posts: 2711
Location: Vernon CT | I hear this question asked all the time. As someone who doesn't get on stage that often, I'm realizing that just about everyone, at least the first few hundred time they get on stage (lol!!)
gets stage fright. So when I do get up there I try and remember that and it actually helps!! Just to know that someone I may look up to as a musician or is an acomplish singer gets nervous
actually helps me control my "nerves". |
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March 2008
Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | I think part of the problem is sheer laziness. A lot of the stuff I play is fairly complicated, so I need to put in a lot of practice time. I don't want to work that hard! Mostly I do just open mikes now, so I only have to be practiced up on a few songs at a time. It seems I'm looking for perfection, but I really don't think it's an ego thing so much as respect for the music. If I'm going to do a song, I want it to be right. If I'm singing, I look at the mike stand in front of me. The audience doesn't know I'm not looking at them. But mostly I just play, and I look at my left hand. But I can feel their eyes on me! And it's funny, I can play for a whole crowd in my living room. It's the STAGE, and the "LOOK AT ME" that gets me. Thanks for the advice. I can pass it along to my students too. Some of them have stage-fright too, and how is Scaredy-cat Alison going to help them? |
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Posts: 2793
Location: Atlanta, GA. | Start out with a joke. |
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Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | Damon, how is red wine as a substitute for the Jack Daniels? |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Butterflies are an important part of staying alert and focused. It keeps the adrenalin going. Once you're "performing", they go away. As Al said, there is a real problem if you become too relaxed and unfocused. I once did a show (George M!)where I walked up on the stage from the house and recited a 7 minute monologue...about 8 pages of memorized script. I knew it so cold I could do it in my sleep. Until one day I was just daydreaming when I stepped out on the stage and sure enough, 2 minutes into the monologue, I spaced out the lines. I paced back and forth a few times until one of the other cast members tossed me a line and I was back on track, but for a few moments, it was frightening. It never happened again. During last holiday season's performances, I had a couple of minutes of lines with the conductor. I had only about two days to nail down the lines because they kept changing at the last minute. At an early performance, I spaced out. On the one hand, this was not as bad as the monologue problem because I was in a full character costume and could essentially wing it by just staying in character and making up lines that got the same message across. On the other hand, one of the shows was broadcast live by CBS in the western United States and I knew I couldn't blow it like that again, so I really stayed focused. Performers often talk to the audience to relax and to kill time. One other true story...when I was with CBS (as a child), I met Red Skelton whose weekly variety show was adjacent to our rehearsal stage/studio. He never overcame his stage fright or nervousness and was constantly throwing up just before making an entrance before the cameras and a relatively small studio audience. Even the pros get nervous. |
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July 2005
Posts: 3411
Location: GA USA | Originally posted by ProfessorBB:
I once did a show (George M!)... So you were "the other guy" in Wham? |
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February 2008
Posts: 247
Location: Delaware | I haven't played out in a few years, but I have done quite a few solo gigs. I do recall becoming quite nervous at the start of the gig, but as others have said, as the audience gets into it and you see them enjoying it, you start to relax a bit and start getting into it. On the few occasions that it was a tough crowd or the songs I know weren't what they would like to hear, I actually was able to relax and consider it a paid practice in a venue larger than my music room ! I am actually practicing as much as I can, and learning some new stuff in hopes of playing out again soon. |
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Posts: 3411
Location: GA USA | Like Mishka, mine is usually only when I don't feel I've had enough practice. When I play with the group at church, I drive them crazy because I always want to practice it over and over.
I was more nervous playing "Beggin' Jim" than when I play for a couple hundred people. Like a dummy, I wrote 5 verses and 2 choruses, then TR Boy played with me the first time, so of course I knew he was going to foul it up. It was better the 2nd time because I knew g8r and Crimson would be able to cover his mistakes. |
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November 2004
Posts: 4413
| I am currently paralyzed by even the thought of getting back on stage. Don't know why. I blame the chemotherapy, but I doubt there is any scientific basis for this.
But booze is NEVER the answer.
If anybody cracks it let me know. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Kinda' along the lines of what Moody said . . .
I've got a cadre of about a dozen or so songs that I use as "openers". I'll play two or three (bang,bang,bang)in rapid succession (t'stretch fingers/throat & work up a slight "sweat"). Once that's out of the way, I'll take care of all the necessary "intros" while I check my tuning. It's usually about then that the waitress'll bring me a rum on the rocks w/lime and a tall glass of ice-water.
Then it's On With The Show . . . .
(& Jokes DO "help") |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | My audiences are generally 12 strangers with incredible power, plus the judge, a client and somebody who's going to try to screw up everything I do and point out every mistake. (Imagine having another musician object to everything you play and then tell the audience that you did it wrong.)
I can practice and memorize, but I have to adapt on the fly. There are always surprises. I rarely have slept well in 30 years. If I ever perform musically again it should be a piece of cake, except that I have acheived a modest comfort level that I don't have with my guitar playing. |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Matt Smith says the best cure for stage fright is 100 gigs.
Playing in front of people was the first big hurdle and I got past that by just knowing the tunes. Singing in front of people petrifies me. It's a little better now after doing it for 2 years (every Wednesday night at the www.Friskymermaid.com) and I only occaisionally piss my pants, but I wear dark pants so it doesn't show! Actually at the Mermaid there are 6+/- regulars and maybe that many others that it has become just about like playing in the living room. Many of the same crowd are there and we all know each other and there's only 50-75 in the room anyway. You just get used to it in time I guess is the answer you're looking for. It helps to know your tunes too, of course that doesn't work for me since every week is a new tune for that week's topic. |
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February 2003
Posts: 2178
Location: the BIG Metropolis of TR | Originally posted by Captain_Lovehandles:
...then TR Boy played with me the first time, so of course I knew he was going to foul it up....
Um, Thanks....Buddy!........ |
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Posts: 3411
Location: GA USA | Oh... you saw that. |
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November 2005
Posts: 4833
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Imagine the audience is naked.
For those with less imagination, only play nudist gatherings. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6996
Location: Jet City | Originally posted by Mark in Boise:
Damon, how is red wine as a substitute for the Jack Daniels? Now now, red wine is COMPLETELY different!
Originally posted by cliff:
the waitress'll bring me a rum on the rocks w/lime and a tall glass of ice-water Now there we go!
Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
I guess Identify WHY you might be nervous Good question that I don't have a good answer to.
I'll get there soon. Confidence is building. |
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Stagefright?
