Pre-performance nerves.

[hais1273]

On New Years Eve I had the pleasure of playing a short set at the Brighton Bal Folk ( Bourree a deux temps, An-dro and Rond du Quercy) all went well. I'm pleased to say that the worst of any stage fright, now seems to be thing of the past. I'm still a little nervous which is a good thing I guess, but my hands get so cold, icy cold my wife says. I wear warm gloves for a short while before playing and that resolves the problem. Does anybody else have this or other issue before playing or are most people here laid back and cool?! It's actually a damn nuisance, particularly if I forget my gloves.

 

[TomBR]

Well done you, I'm glad to hear it. Do you think it's increased playing-in public experience, or greater playing confidence that has reduced pre-performance nerves?
(Some professionals never get over it, I think.)

I get excited before a performance with the group I lead, but I don't really feel nervous.
My wife does not allow me to forget that when we hadn't been together that long and I went round to meet her in the lobby before a performance I put out my hand to shake hands!

 

[losthobos]

My nerves manifest as a wink...so I just use as advantage and assume the audience accept it as interaction

 

[Tom]

Congrats Hais! Glad to hear it. I definetly get nervous and feel that adrenalin kick in, but don't get the cold hands. I try to get over it with a little banter and playing a real easy (for me) tune to start.

 

[debra]

For me being nervous before a performance is inversely proportional to how well i know "my stuff".
Alcohol helps to calm the nerves but the quality of the performance goes down as the alcohol level goes up. Normally one drink (half-pint of beer will do) is enough to calm my nerves enough without affecting the performance. More alcohol is ok if the audience keeps up with the level of drinking. This is increasingly not the case.
I play in a few orchestras in which I'm just responsible for my own part and nothing else, and then just making sure you know your part very well is enough to not be nervous. I also play in two quintets for which I make the arrangements and mostly take the lead in studying the repertoire and that's tricky. When something goes wrong there is no conductor to take any corrective action. So it's imperative that all five players master their part and know exactly how the music is supposed to go.

 

[JerryPH]

As a teen performing, my hands would get cold, but that was not so much nerves, because I felt excitement. I recall starting the evening off going to the washroom and just letting my hands sit under warm water that I warmed up more and more until it was just about to the point of being uncomfortable, after that, I was good for the evening.

If I played in a location where I could no do this, I would warm up by playing exercises for 30 min before going on stage.

The last several times I played in public, I was pretty nervous, even if I knew my material really well, that's just lack of confidence and went away after the first 2-3 songs. In my head I had the concept of "I'm not being good enough, what am I doing here??" (lol), but once the people started to react and get in to it with me, all was just fine, and only a 5-10 minute warm-up was needed, but the hands were never cold.

 

[John M]

For me being nervous before a performance is inversely proportional to how well i know "my stuff".
Alcohol helps to calm the nerves but the quality of the performance goes down as the alcohol level goes up. Normally one drink (half-pint of beer will do) is enough to calm my nerves enough without affecting the performance. More alcohol is ok if the audience keeps up with the level of drinking. This is increasingly not the case.
I play in a few orchestras in which I'm just responsible for my own part and nothing else, and then just making sure you know your part very well is enough to not be nervous. I also play in two quintets for which I make the arrangements and mostly take the lead in studying the repertoire and that's tricky. When something goes wrong there is no conductor to take any corrective action. So it's imperative that all five players master their part and know exactly how the music is supposed to go.

I can't believe how I can identify with a couple of comments by Paul that I have experienced.

- If I played (as a kid) I had the nervousness, but, if I knew the tune extremely well, this would counteract the mistakes I would definitely make due to the nervousness. But, with all the extra practice, it all came out well.

- As a kid, (I am 80 now and this was in 1948), my dad would have a small polka band over to our new house. They would play in our new barn that he built. It was a nice place for a gathering and dancing. The Slovenian band, he had over, would start playing early in the evening. It was good, but I could tell the band was "not in the groove". My dad said they need a drink to "loosen up". He gave each band member (usually 4 or 5 piece) one drink. He was right. I was only 8 then, but I could tell the difference. It was great and everybody that was there, had a good time.

John M.

 

[davidplaysaccordion]

I tell people I sound better with beer, so drink up!

 

[Dingo40]

I remember being so confident at one accordion school end of year concert I didn't even bring the music for my pieces.
When I came to play, my mind totally blanked out and I couldn't remember even the tunes to begin playing.
It became a total stand-up comedy routine!
Luckily, after a long period of serious attention to several mediocre musical efforts by a long series of tyros, the audience was in much need of comic relief.
Consequently, my impromptu stand-up, given in total sincerity, was received as intentional comedy and much appreciated.
I got the loudest and longest applause of the evening!

 

[debra]

I remember being so confident at one accordion school end of year concert I didn't even bring the music for my pieces.
When I came to play, my mind totally blanked out and I couldn't remember even the tunes to begin playing.
It became a total stand-up comedy routine!
Luckily, after a long period of serious attention to several mediocre musical efforts by a long series of tyros, the audience was in much need of comic relief.
Consequently, my impromptu stand-up, given in total sincerity, was received as intentional comedy and much appreciated.
I got the loudest and longest applause of the evening!

Playing by hears certainly adds to the challenge of performing live. When I was young and learning to play the piano all performances had to be done by heart. It became routine.
Later, playing in accordion ensembles, I experienced that playing the lead voice or solo was something I could do by heart, but the other "voices" are much more difficult because they do not play the melody of the song as we know it.
I still play by heart when I have a solo, like a few times I played solo accordion with a philharmonic orchestra, or when I play the accordina for the solo in a piece with accordion ensemble. For anything else I use sheet music.

 

[Mullanphy]

A suggestion for the colder weather when gloves could help: buy a pair of "fingerless" gloves or cut the finger tips off a pair of gloves you already own and find comfortable.

 

[davidplaysaccordion]

As far as nerves go I think to solution is a combination of knowing the music, knowing and being competent on your instrument, LOADS of practice and then actually just getting out there and playing, either with or in front of other people.
I have found both street busking and playing farmers markets to be a great way to get used to playing for an ‘audience’ as you are not really ‘performing’ just doing your own thing and hoping folks like it (and tip accordingly!).

As far as ‘performing’ goes I think it looks better to play from memory but unless you are doing a paid performance, most folk are quite happy just to have you there.
Went out New Year’s Eve just for an early drink, bar had a duo playing. 2nd song in I noticed the lead player/singer had his head down in an iPad with the words on it. It’s hard to engage with the audience when you are not looking at them, or at least appearing too. Maybe that’s just me but I never see any ‘professional’ musician putting on a performance (as opposed to an orchestra or backing band musician say) playing from sheet music.
In the end it all comes down to the level of ‘performance’ that you are doing. Hobby/charity/fun stuff is fine to use music but if I go see The Rolling Stones I don’t want to see iPads on stage!

 

[davidplaysaccordion]

Re gloves. I’ve taped those chemical hand warmers to the backs of my hands before now!

 

[jozz]

On New Years Eve I had the pleasure of playing a short set at the Brighton Bal Folk ( Bourree a deux temps, An-dro and Rond du Quercy) all went well. I'm pleased to say that the worst of any stage fright, now seems to be thing of the past. I'm still a little nervous which is a good thing I guess, but my hands get so cold, icy cold my wife says. I wear warm gloves for a short while before playing and that resolves the problem. Does anybody else have this or other issue before playing or are most people here laid back and cool?! It's actually a damn nuisance, particularly if I forget my gloves.

good job

you can try to stretch out and fling your hands/arms downwards a couple of times to get blood deeper into your hands by centrifugal force - this is a trick I was taught by mountaineering guides on cold days