All musicians, both amateurs and professionals, come across performance anxiety issues throughout their career and discover their own ways of dealing with them. Unfortunately a solution cannot always be found straightaway, but often comes with experience, and not necessarily a pleasant one. If detected early, the problem can be eliminated and some awkward situations prevented in the future.

Performance anxiety definition: “Stage fright or performance anxiety refers to an anxiety, fear or persistent phobia related to performance in front of an audience or camera.”(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_anxiety)

The first step in tackling the problem should be admitting that it exists. We are all familiar with a “bad” anxiety and its physiological and psychological symptoms. Physiological symptoms often include:

• Churning stomach
• Fast shallow breathing
• Sweating
• Increased pulse rate
• Inhibited movement
• Blushing

 Psychological symptoms can be:

• Inability to concentrate
• Reduced capacity to hear yourself and others
• Unwillingness to take risks
• Emotional disengagement from music, audience and other performers
• Nagging “voice” in your head

Is there a “good anxiety”? The answer to this question is “Yes”. It is simply a case of noticing it, being aware of it.

Physiological symptoms are:

• Sensations of power/energy (adrenalin)
• Sensations of positive emotional engagement: elevated breathing, pulse, pleasant butterflies

Psychological symptoms are as follows:

• Heightened concentration and sensitivity
• Greater capacity to listen to self and others
• Optimism – willingness to take risks and enjoy the frisson – anticipation of positive
• Emotional engagement with music, audience and other performers
• Unselfconsciousness – no separate voice in your head commentating, or distancing you from the experience

So, how can we deal with “bad anxiety”? Self-assessment comes first. This can be in a form of a small performance, where an individual will perform, paying particular attention at his or her thought process at the time, like a little voice in your head commentating. It is vital to learn how to train it. For instance, whose voice would you like it to be? What should they say? Practise focusing on what is working for you.

We interpret anxiety as an overwhelming surge of negative energy. Harness it: imagine it is a wave that you can surf on, or wind that will fill your sails. Sensations may not alter, but our interpretation of them will. This may involve changing our thought processes, for example, if “bad” anxiety is associated with feeling trapped; untangle the anxiety from the threat: perhaps if we can separate them out, the “bad” anxiety can morph into “good” anxiety. We do not want to make friends with the source of the threat. Yet we can channel its considerable power on a different course: make fear our friend - and give it another name.