After putting countless hours into practising for a big performance, the last thing you want, is to feel gripped with anxiety. Performance anxiety is an issue as it affects your performance levels greatly and can keep you from reaching your full potential on stage. Luckily, there are things you can do to reduce the nerves. We’ve put together a list of tips on how to treat and overcome performance anxiety.

Identify what it is that makes you anxious about performing

If you want to learn about how to tackle your performance anxiety, you need to figure out what the cause is. Only you know what the root of your stress is so to find it, you must investigate yourself. Once you realise what it is that’s causing the stress, you’ll be able to overcome it more efficiently.

Identify and remove any triggers before performances

Some of the anxiety could be brought on by your own actions. Your diet or personal habits could be causing you to get anxious before performances. One of the best ways to manage anxiety is through regular exercise.

Learn to control your breath to calm yourself down

Learning to control your breathing before and during your performance is a great tool for beating anxiety. A common symptom of performance anxiety is feeling disconnected from your body, but by having control over your breathing, you can reclaim your body and stay focused.

Remember why you play music

None of the above advice is useful if you don’t keep the reason you want to perform in your mind during the performance. Anxiety might take over your thoughts at a time when you should be focusing on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. So when your anxiety is really bad, remember why you want to play music.

Fighting the irrational fears that may be brought on by performance anxiety is the way forward. It’s only human to make mistakes in your performance. Famous cellist, Yo Yo Ma once said that he feels relief when he makes the first mistake during a performance because he’s then free to put his focus back on his playing and not on being perfect.

If you’re looking for music tuition in Guernsey, look no further than The School of Popular Music. We believe in giving our students the finest education in music and support them all the way.

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