By Laureen Kells, SRMTA Member
Laureen Kells has been teaching in the East Central area of Saskatchewan for 27 years. She is an examiner with the Canadian National Conservatory of Music and an adjudicator with the SMFA. She is currently serving as President of the SRMTA.
QUESTION: How do I help my student with performance anxiety?
All music teachers have run across students who experience stage fright. Many of us have had students who have discontinued music lessons due to their fear of performing. And many of us have had to undo the negative consequences students have encountered after a performance has not gone well due to stage fright.
Given those huge implications, it is at first surprising, then disappointing that our pedagogical training does not include some discussion on this topic. Having said that, we all have read the usual well meaning advice – get a good nights rest, be prepared, do more performing so it gets easier, avoid coffee etc etc. Unfortunately, while mildly helpful in a general sense, that advice does not hold up for the truly anxious performer, of whom I was and to some degree still am.
A note on definitions – “stage fright” and “performance anxiety” are often used synonymously. In my experience though, and I speak only from my limited perspective, these are two different experiences.
Stage fright is common among all performing arts. It can be good to an extent, as it provides extra energy, a heightened awareness and added stamina. Performance anxiety is all that plus much more and I would be hard pressed to find anything positive about it.
Music performance anxiety has been defined “as the experience of persisting, distressful apprehension about and / or actual impairment of performance skills in a public context, to a degree unwarranted given the individual’s musical aptitude, training, and level of preparation.”
In a recent study by Joann Marie Kirchner, PhD, participants reported that performance anxiety often was manifested through cognitive processes, which created potential hazards for the performers, distracting them from their task at hand. The consequence of each thought left the pianists with an inability to control their thinking while engaged in performing. From experience, this is real. Someone asked me one time what I was thinking / feeling while I was performing. I answered, in all honesty, that it felt like the building was on fire and I had to get out. No amount of practice, reduced caffeine, or a good night’s rest was going to solve that!
In reality, performance anxiety isn’t about the music or the stage or the piano…. It is about what is happening to the performer. No amount of reassurance will help. So, this all sounds quite grim. But I can tell you, by exercising some self awareness and a willingness to learn, I was able to overcome the more debilitating aspects of my performance anxiety.
But how do we help our students? Great question. Like all good teachers, we need to learn.
An excellent book is “Managing Stage Fright” by Julie Jaffee Nagel. Educate yourself on the difference between stage fight and performance anxiety. Avoid the usual platitudes – if what you are dealing with is performance anxiety, none of the traditional advice will help.
Performing will never be something I willingly partake in, but I can report that I have found a measure of comfortable – ness on stage that I can live with.
Best wishes
Laureen Kells
Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers
by Julie Jaffee NagelWhy is it that well-prepared, talented, hardworking, and intelligent performers find their performance and self-esteem undermined by the fear of memory slips, technique failures, and public humiliation? In Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers, author Julie Jaffee Nagel unravels these mysteries, taking the reader on an intensive backstage tour of the anxious performer’s emotions to explain why stage fright happens and what performers can do to increase their comfort in the glare of the spotlight. Examining the topic from her interdisciplinary educational, theoretical, clinical, and personal perspectives, Nagel uses the music teacher/student relationship as a model for understanding the performance anxiety that affects musicians and non-musicians alike. Shedding new light on how the performer’s emotional life is connected to every other facet of their life, Managing Stage Fright encourages a deeper understanding of anxiety when performing. The guide offers strategies for achieving performance confidence, emphasizing the relevance of mental health in teaching and performing. Through the practices of self-awareness outlined in the book, Nagel demonstrates that it is possible and desirable for teachers to assist students in developing the coping skills and attitudes that will allow them to not feel overwhelmed and powerless when they experience strong anxiety. Each chapter contains insights that help teachers recognize the symptoms – obvious, subtle, and puzzling – of the emotional grip of stage fright, while offering practical guidelines that empower teachers to empower their students. The psychological concepts offered, when added to pedagogical techniques, are invaluable in music performance and in a variety of life situations since, after all, music lessons are life lessons.
