stage fright

**peter rankin** · 03-10-2011, 10:38 AM

I play a saxophone and struggle with stage fright or performance anxiety and have done for years, it makes my mouth dry and my fingers shake,I have a proteus is there a session or sessiones that I could use to help? I would be grateful for any comments. thanks pete.

**Marisa** · 03-10-2011, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by peter rankin

I play a saxophone and struggle with stage fright or performance anxiety and have done for years, it makes my mouth dry and my fingers shake,I have a proteus is there a session or sessiones that I could use to help? I would be grateful for any comments. thanks pete.

P23 is a 15 minute Alpha/Theta program that may help you approach performance with a calmer mind. You could also try P 33 or 34 - they are mostly Alpha programs. I'm thinking maybe Alpha because it can enhance creativity.

If you could find a NLP Practitioner in your area, they could clear that whole thing up in a couple of sessions.

M.

**peter rankin** · 03-10-2011, 09:57 PM

marisa thanks for your reply I will try the programes you suggested and get back to you.you help a lot of people on the site it seems, that is really good.

**Marisa** · 03-11-2011, 09:10 AM

Originally Posted by peter rankin

marisa thanks for your reply I will try the programes you suggested and get back to you.you help a lot of people on the site it seems, that is really good.

Thanks Peter.

M.

**neuroasis** · 04-10-2011, 09:58 AM

I would personally think that the ThoughtStream would be really good to calm you down (and verify that you are calm) before going on stage. It would train relaxation triggers as well.

**neuroasis** · 04-10-2011, 10:09 AM

One more thing about stage fright...
If you have read or listened to interviews from some of the great performers in history, they all have 'stage fright' and no matter how long they are in the business it never lessens.
However, they no longer interpret this as a negative thing necessarily. It is seen as 'energy', 'an adrenaline boost', 'raring to go', 'getting pumped up'...
They have reframed the feeling to be a positive and not a negative. In fact, this is what is so addictive about live performance the amazing amounts of energy and the brain chemical high.
All the same symptoms you describe...just seen in a different light.

**Marisa** · 04-12-2011, 09:40 AM

What you can also do is create an anchor for yourself so that when ever you go on stage, that anchor is activated and you will enter the positive state you desire.

To do this - first decide what you will use for an anchor. The anchor needs to be something that you won't set off accidentally but it can be something like picking up your instrument before you play.

The key to setting a good anchor is invoking your senses and creating an strong emotion and then breaking that state. You break the state by diverting your attention to something else.

To invoke the desired state, I want you to think about a time when you played your sax and really, got into the music. Remember what that felt like? Let yourself relive that moment and when you feel that feeling you had, that connectedness to the music and nothing else existed - I want you to press your anchor and hold (maybe it's a position you take before playing the sax?) When that moment starts to wane - break the state. Put the sax down, stretch and think about what you had for breakfast or something.

Next, I want you to stack those anchors. Same procedure as before, except this time I want you to think about when you played your sax for an audience or person and the performance went really well. I want you to imagine yourself back there, and look up and see the audience doing what they were doing and you knowing they were enjoying the music. Again, remember that feeling and while it's building - set your anchor - hold for a moment and release it before the feeling wanes (because you don't want to anchor the waning feeling, just the good one).

You can stack the anchor around as many good memories and associations as you want. For a good, strong anchor - try to find at least five good memories. They can be the excitement you felt when you got your first sax. It can be the satisfaction you feel when you play a song and know you did it well.

When you have set 3 or 5 anchors - take a break, go do something else and then come back to your sax, pick it up and see what happens. If you were successful in setting those anchors, you should get a flood of good feelings associated with the anchors.

Not only will this make playing the sax an even better experience for you, it will also get rid of the stage fright as it re-frames the anxious feeling into excitement - just as Neuroasis said.

One more thing, rehearsal also occurs in the mind. You don't always need to be playing your sax in order to rehearse a song and get good results. You can practice in your mind - you picture yourself playing the music, how your would move your fingers, play the notes, how you would breath. In your mind, you can recreate the exact same situation as if you were playing. You may already be doing this.

M.

**neuroasis** · 04-12-2011, 04:55 PM

Sage advise, Marisa.

The interesting thing about a musical instrument is that after playing for a long time we create 'musical triggers'. If you listen closely you will hear all artists do it. It is a certain fallback phrase or repeating motif that acts as a trigger to go 'deeper' or 'higher'...whatever the case may be.

Finding your voice on the instrument is one of the keys to transcending the conditions of physical limitation or self image. As long as you are trying to 'mimic' someone else's voice exactly there will always be a measure of doubt...imagine why.