Reframing performance anxiety

[timothy42b]

I could have put this in Performance but it's really more about Teaching. This was triggered by this morning's radio program.

I have an amateur handbell choir. I choose music within their abilities and ensure they have learned it well, but inevitably anxiety rears its head at the performance. You can see the dread on their faces. There's probably a fair amount in me too but hopefully I'm hiding it. It's reflected in stumbles and wrong notes that never happen in rehearsal. If it's bad enough they quit never to be seen again and I have to train replacements. (Yes, that's actually happened.)

Is anyone familiar with the weekly NPR puzzler? You send in your solutions to the puzzle, one person is selected from the correct entries, and then they solve another one live, on the air.

They are always asked: Are you ready? None of them are sure. There is a fair amount of dread. At the end they are always asked how they feel. They always say relieved. This was pure stress but they made it through the pain.

Kind of like my ringers. Except this morning.

Are you ready? And she answered, "Great, I'm looking forward to it, let's do it." And at the end she was not relieved, she was "thrilled."

How do we move away from approach A and towards approach B? We talk about how to deal with the fear and dread, but that's too late. I'm convinced there is a a way to skip that step at least partially.

[GabrielRice]

Tell us more about this particular ringer.

Musically speaking, what is her strength? What seems to come easily to her?

[timothy42b]

My description may have confused the two different scenarios.

My ringers who are most affected are the ones who seem to approach performance with dread.

The NPR listener who was thrilled was one who approached the contest with joy and anticipation. I used that example because it seemed a bit rare; I've never heard an episode quite like that.

If I could get ringers halfway there it would be an improvement.

Many decades back when I was in school, I deliberately tried to reframe a math exam as an opportunity, a chance to excel and shame everyone else <smiley> rather than a trap for failure, like an athlete would approach the championship game.

[harrisonreed]

You need to practice "performance". If all you practice is "rehearsal", there will always be dread when it comes to "performance".

Rehearsals go well because they are thought of that way. Performances have stakes, real or imagined.

[JTeagarden]

Not sure if this is practical, but I find having a sense of "flow," of being in the moment, as the ideal state for a performer, even in rehearsal.

These moments require a certain mastery/repeatability to your playing and a comfortable margin of error for when your body just isn't on the same page with your brain, allowing you to play in the present, and shut out the "I am being judged, and will be found wanting" death spiral performers can get caught up in.

I always come back to Ellington: The wise musician plays what he has mastered.

[JTeagarden]

Maybe one question of the OP: How quickly into practicing a piece do you play it completely in rehearsal, without stopping to fix it?

Giving people some experience recovering from their mistakes on the fly while the stakes are low I think is helpful, not treating the music like some kind of jigsaw puzzle that only gets "solved" at the dress rehearsal (or worse still, in the final performance).

[GabrielRice]

Ah, I see.

Anyway...I am more and more convinced that the most fundamental key to being 100% in the moment while performing music is rhythm. My students who struggle with performance anxiety usually also struggle with rhythm. The more we can be fully committed to a strong pulse - an internal pulse that is flexible enough to interact with external stimuli - the more we can be fully concentrated on the task at hand. Which leaves very little room for distracting thoughts about the possibility of failure.

This takes practicing that way very nearly 100% of the time. I'm not saying to practice as if you're performing very nearly 100% of the time; I'm saying to practice with a strong rhythmic framework that much.

[JTeagarden]

Ah, I see.

Anyway...I am more and more convinced that the most fundamental key to being 100% in the moment while performing music is rhythm. My students who struggle with performance anxiety usually also struggle with rhythm. The more we can be fully committed to a strong pulse - an internal pulse that is flexible enough to interact with external stimuli - the more we can be fully concentrated on the task at hand. Which leaves very little room for distracting thoughts about the possibility of failure.

Two thumbs up, great insight!

[Geordie]

Anxiety often manifests in physical signs eg sweating, increased pulse, dry mouth, narrowed vision. The brain responds to them: some brains label them as anxiety/stress, others as excitement. Consciously understanding the symptoms’ similarities and reframing and interpreting these symptoms as excitement has helped create a more positive and less stress/anxiety inducing reaction which aids performance. The books, Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game of Music have helped me.

[timothy42b]

Ah, I see.

Anyway...I am more and more convinced that the most fundamental key to being 100% in the moment while performing music is rhythm. My students who struggle with performance anxiety usually also struggle with rhythm.

Yes, definitely true in this case. A consistent internal pulse is more difficult for amateurs than seems reasonable, and I've had a couple for whom it was impossible. (Thinking of one who used to ask, "is this the piece where I play the hash tag F?" )

Insight maybe: we here can all count, but most of the time we play by feel - but that's mostly possible against the background of an internal pulse.

Bells are a little complicated because the motion must start so long before the ictus.

[robcat2075]

The two best auditions of my life were when I did not regard the situation as important.

I was prepared, and I did intend to play well, but without the crushing weight of thinking that everything depended on the next five minutes, I actually did play well and at my best.

How to recall that mindset when needed? When auditions became important again, I would usually fumble.

[Doug Elliott]

Giving people some experience recovering from their mistakes on the fly while the stakes are low

THIS.
There are always going to be mistakes. It's how you recover and keep going that's important. Not just in performance - practice that way.
Rhythm, time, internal pulse are a big part of that.
It's all part of overall preparation. Nerves usually happen because you're not fully prepared - including practice dealing with mistakes on the fly.

[baBposaune]

This is a really important topic! As I get older and find myself in musical situations that test my limits of technique, I find that more preparation (over preparation?) is the best course of action for me. In my 30s I could skate by with good sightreading chops, plus the fact that I was rehearsing and or performing 6-7 days a week. Now I have found that by doing much more music listening to pieces that are fairly recent and I've never played or heard before, it helps. I will listen once or twice to a recording. Just listen. Then listen again with my music in front of me. I can usually spot the places that would've tripped me up on a first reading and put in some pencil marks.

I practice the "hard licks" much slower now than I used to, and it pays big dividends. I keep increasing the speed each day and eventually "over practice" by playing it faster than it will be in performance. I sometimes with practice sections down an octave to help with breath control. I will practice my parts with a recording to keep me honest on "keeping up" and if I do make a mistake, immediately forget it and keep going! By the time I get to the first rehearsal in any of the groups I play in on a regular basis, I'm pretty relaxed BUT there is still enough adrenaline to keep me very focused even when things go wrong. Being prepared allows me to not get tense. If I'm not sufficiently prepared it's my OWN FAULT. Marking places to work on gives me things I can improve on before the next rehearsal.

Once preparation has gotten to a healthy state, I try to "perform" everything. Not go back, not try to fix things but keep the time up and get through everything in one straight pass. Also, I do take breaks at home between sessions to keep my chops fresh, but a couple of days before I big concert I will play everything through with only the amount of time between tunes that will happen on stage.

For a handbell choir I would try this. See if the group can memorize four measures and play without music and really listen to everyone else's parts to help them find where to come in. Then try another four measures.

[baBposaune]

Here are more handbell choir related tips from a friend who plays in one.

Put your more experienced players on the more active or challenging parts, inexperienced on easier parts.
Be very patient in rehearsals.
Play through the ends of pieces four times per rehearsal. Handbell music tends to build and endings are where they usually fall apart.
Give them permission to make mistakes.
Do some low stakes performances before the high stakes one.
Remind them to breathe.

Matt

[timothy42b]

I worked with some of your suggestions at last night's rehearsal. We have one more performance before the summer break. We'll see how it goes. I tried to move them further into "performance" functioning.

In general, there is a potential for an opposite problem, the activation of the default mode network in the brain. This happens when things are going too well or are too easy, and the mind loses focus. What measure am I on? Is this the repeat or the first time? That's the opposite of too much stress, and unlikely to be a problem here.

I'm going to share a short clip, the Papageno duet from Magic Flute, because of the apparent joy these musicians exhibit. Getting there is a fantasy, but maybe a worthy aspiration.

[Kbiggs]

Rendall and Boudreault appear to be enjoying themselves, and enjoying singing with each other. That joy in the moment, focussing on what’s happening, and purposefully responding to musicians around them, are part of what I think of when I see someone in a “flow state.”

Practicing skills away from the music can help, like when brass players practice breathing exercises. For performance anxiety—particularly that aspect of performance anxiety that makes people feel like their dissociating, or when they’re listening to and believing the negative narrative in their heads—exercises like grounding, rhythmic/paced breathing, and brief meditations are very effective. Once everyone is in place, 2-3 minutes of basic mindfulness exercises can help musicians calm down, focus, leave the rest of the world aside during rehearsal, and focus on the musical skills people have mentioned above.

[afugate]

I once attended a master class by the late tubist, Sam Pilafian. In that class he told the audience that one of his secrets was that he never played anything difficult. Of course, he then picked up the tuba and played something devilishly difficult. After, he looked at the class and said I practiced that until it was easy for me.

I say this to make a point. When I work with middle school jazz band kids, I try to find music they can play well within 2-3 weeks. Why? I want them to feel comfortable and relaxed when they step on a stage. If the music is too hard for them, the kids know in their heads that most of the time they still make mistakes. Their brains think, "I have played this a dozen times and I've only gotten it right one time." When the music is just past their performance level, easy enough to master in a relatively short period of time, but hard enough to provide some challenge and growth... Well, I find that's when they can relax and share their music with the audience.

--Andy in OKC

[hyperbolica]

I agree that practice is the thing. If you practice performing, it gives you more confidence and I'm convinced confidence is the cure for anxiety.

I do some public speaking. I'm never nervous when I know my material hands down. I prepare by reading and practicing taking questions.

For performance, I don't know if it's practical for handbell choir members to practice parts on their own, but that would be key. I know that works with other musicians. Rehearsals should be for ironing out ensemble issues, not to practice getting notes. If you know your part, you'll be more confident putting it together with other parts, and if you can rehearse confidently, you can perform confidently.

[Doug Elliott]

The handbell players should practice at home with a recording.

[JTeagarden]

Do they have their own handbells? The handbell ensembles I know of keep them under lock and key (in the basement of the Presbyterian church...)

[timothy42b]

Do they have their own handbells? The handbell ensembles I know of keep them under lock and key (in the basement of the Presbyterian church...)

From time to time I have a family member fill a vacancy at last minute.

Then I have them use a couple of big spoons or partly filled water bottles. We write the note names on the pretend bells and give them a chance to do the motions at home.

It helps a lot to have had a look at it. But, these two are both familiar with the common rhythms and basic notation. And right now I'm programming very easy music.

Bell notation can be a little tricky because there often isn't room to fit the rests in a given measure. There is rarely a piece where I don't have to figure out the counting somewhere.

But no, nobody has their own bells. Most don't read music and have to circle their notes.