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Having Singing Lessons? How to deal with performance nerves.
So you’ve started having singing lessons or piano lessons or even maybe guitar lessons and your first performance is coming up. Having your first performance on the horizon can be quite nerve wrecking and cause people to dread the upcoming event.
There are many ways to deal with nerves and the good news is you will get better at coping with them. Through experience you will learn to use them to your advantage and eventually you wont even notice them anymore.
Here are 5 simple things you can do to cope with nerves at your first musical performance:
Perform a piece you feel comfortable with.
When selecting a piece of music for your performance, it’s important that you choose something that you enjoy and that you feel confident with. Choosing a song just because you really like it is not a good enough reason. You should be sure to choose something that comes as second nature to you that doesn’t require you to think too much.
Be prepared
If you are performing a piece that doesn’t require you to think too much, that means you know it back to front. It’s important that you have rehearsed every inch of the lyrics and music and you know that you can sing or play all the notes freely ad easily. If you know you have prepared thoroughly to perform this particular piece, then that should ease some of your performance anxiety and give you piece of mind and confidence.
Breathe
Whenever we feel nervous or anxious often we forget to breath. That doesn’t mean that we don’t breathe at all, but it means that we’re only taking short shallow breaths.
A great way to calm nerves, is to focus on your breathing. Make sure you’re taking slow deep breaths into the belly and expanding the lower ribcage. Then release the air slowly and consistently. Repeat this action for 5 to 10 minutes and you should begin to feel calm, relieved and ready to take on the performance world.
Try some natural relaxing remedies
The are some great natural elixirs and sprays that can help calm you before a performance. You simply only need to put a drop under your tongue and you will feel at ease with the approaching performance. It is very important, however, that you don’t become reliant on these elixirs and only use them in extreme cases.
Focus on the music and tell its story
Often people say that nerves are a good thing and that you should feel nervous prior to a performance. However, you should never allow nerves to stop you from performing to your potential. It’s important to learn how to make those nerves work to your advantage.
One way you can do this is to focus on the message your piece is sending to the audience. Whether you’re singing or playing an instrument there should always be a story or message in the music you are performing to your audience. If you focus on this and interpret this to the best of your ability, you will quickly forget about how nervous you are and before you know it you’ll be wanting to perform again.
Learning to cope with nerves and use them to your advantage can be a difficult journey; however, when you learn to do this the sky is the limit. You will learn to love to perform and feed off the enjoyment of it. Being a performer and a storyteller through music, is one of the most beautiful things a human being can do, so most importantly enjoy it!!