Linda's Blog
Overcoming SF
(a new disease called stage fright)
50 shows in December and still quite a few left! WE just had our 1 st portal and jury for over 40 promising young singers! Fears swept as the Master Singers and hopefuls walked onto the barren stage, where they stood "naked" in front of a panel consisting of teachers, fans we picked randomly and industry professionals...no band, no smiling judges, no audience.....just the singer and an empty room with 8 people.
...That's tougher than singing at the American Airline Center.
...And we had a lot of nervous young performers.
But that's the object...If you can overcome stage fright, you are prepared not only for the music business, but also for the world...because after all the world is the REAL stage. I don't believe, and never will, that alcoholism and smoking are "diseases". If you do ANTHING over and over, it will become your new norm and giving it an excuse causes you to have less control...BC (bull crap) Well, stage fright is NOT a disease!!!!!!!!!!!! You can and WILL control it and put it back in its dungeon....
Here are some valuable tips that I have discovered that work across the game board of life with a few changes in words. THESE ARE PRICELESS PEARLS TO ME. Please read them and absorb them...Don't just skim the value...
1. Your audience wants an EXPERIENCE!!! This is not just about you doing your hang on stage singing and hitting high and low notes....Fans want to feel the musical story and go somewhere with you. If you concentrate more about the experience than soloing out the song, your voice or your stage presence, you will find that each performance becomes an experience for you too.
2. Allow yourself to make mistakes. If you are worried about not singing or playing your best, you are limiting yourself. I often tell my artists that if you don't fall while "skiing", you are way too controlled and will never improve. If you fall you have probably tried something outside of your control realm. Many times if you deliver a perfect performance, it is also VERY boring. When you are making an experience for someone, you take chances, which can bring mistakes. A few mistakes are MUCH MORE important, than a bland, controlled performance...Leave that at your local Karaoke bar.
3. Exercise right before you go out on stage...ALWAYS. On all my tours I exercise with the artist each time on the stage right before they go on. It releases lots and lots of anxiety and opens up your chest. 20 wall pushups or floor push ups do wonders. A mile or two run earlier in the day is the NUMBER 1 way my rocker singers get ready for a performance...And all this time you thought it was drugs....:0
4. Visualization. As much as your visualize negativity, what could go wrong, and what may happen, and is that one note going to come out, etc., you have the same brain power to visualize a great performance, and an experience. We are in control of our brains, but it takes work. I do a lot with Neuro linguistic programming and it REALLY helps in reframing tough situations. One of my favorite tips that "Using Your Brain for a Change" offers is when you are in a tough spot and become nervous, play circus music in your head like you hear on a carousel or when you walk into the 3 rings of a circus. It sort of becomes funny and voile! Some of you are playing funeral music.
5. If you aren't prepared, you're doomed. That's it. You should be nervous if you have not prepared sufficiently for anything in life....tests, speaking, presentations....you are planning a failure and probably deserve having one so that the pain brings change!!! Practice over and over ..but practice right...because practice makes permanent. And DON"T change your songs at the last minute because you begin to second guess.....NOOOOOOOO! Your muscles also have memory and changing songs that you have been practicing can set you up for failure.
I have discovered throughout the years that those who could not get over stage fright were most likely not going to make it. That should tick you off enough to say, "Stage Fright, you are NOT going to steal my career!!!! I'll show you!" REMEMBER YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK! I think that's somewhere in the Bible too..so God likes that one.)
As silly as that sounds it works....When I was learning to ski, I was a real wus. Standing on top of the mountain after I had just experienced the contraption of a ski lift, I muttered, "NO WAY".....Well someone was with me and literally cussed me out telling me what a wus I really was. Well, my competitive nature hit and I was off. I learned to say something like, "Linda get your butt out there and shut up. You want this.....so go get it...you're prepared...now go do it and quit being a whiner"...It works every time....Now I cuss myself out every time I get nervous with a challenging new experience......
......your attitude CAN change.
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