Stage Fright

A follower on Instagram (I so dislike the word follower, it makes it sound as if I was some sort of Messiah…) wrote this to me yesterday:

“Hello, I have been playing the piano for three years and I had my first performance where I was very stressed and anxious. In a few months I will have my second performance and I am still very stressed. Can you help me with this problem? Did you have a similar experience? thank you.”

Being publicly nervous is something normal, but I forgot I ever had it.

I suffered from it as a young student, but fortunately (almost) never again after I was 20 or so.

But there are some concert artists, even legendary ones, that still struggle with stage fright.

I’m no expert on this subject, but this is part of what I think:

Stage fright is no more than being afraid to make mistakes in public. 

We are human. Part of being human is making mistakes (and hopefully learning from them).

If we perform, talk, or do any sort of activity in which everybody’s attention turns to us, the possibility of making a mistake during that time is there just like at any given moment. But when we focus on trying not to make mistakes, we´re actually drawing the attention to the mistake itself.

“We are what we put our attention to…”

If we accept the fact that we can (and will) make a mistake sometimes, and if we’re mentally prepared for that possibility, that moment will not come as a surprise. We’ll then have a higher chance of enduring it with more strength and focus to continue.

Of course, being well-prepared helps ;)

The last time I felt a bit of stage fright was in this performance somewhere around 2007 or 2008, the first time in my life I played in a grand hall: the Doelen in Rotterdam (NL). Click here to watch. And let me know if it shows…

Have a great day,

Claudio.