Stage Fright

Stage fright, what a frightening word to musicians. A big, ugly monster called fear, creeps under our skin just before performing, or slaps us the minute our feet hit the stage floor. I know about this monster very well. It grabbed me in my early teens, at a show in front of a thousand people. I blanked out on the words to the song, and forgot if a verse or chorus was next. Unfortunately, I ended up walking off the stage in the middle of the song and vowed never to perform again. But I did perform again and still do to this day. Laughter and light-heartedness go a long way. Picturing the audience in their underwear has helped me a few times, but getting mad or emotional about a mistake while singing only makes matters worse. We are human after all. Professional musicians make mistakes but are rarely seen or heard because they know how to get around a mistake and make it look fine. So I thought I’d let you in on a few of their secrets.

1. Know your material before entering the stage.
2. Focus on something that makes you feel relaxed.
3. If you can’t look at the audience, look at the wall behind them.
4. Focus on the first sentence of the song if you feel you can’t remember the words, and the rest will come.
5. Be aware that vibrato, sharp, and flat notes are more prominent when you are nervous.
6. If you missed your moment to start singing the song, wait for the band to come around again and then begin singing.
7. If you're singing a verse and blank where to go next, you're probably heading for a chorus and vice versa. The chorus is sometimes followed by a bridge or instrumental. It helps to read the band's body language.
8. Trust your intuition, and be confident in your decisions.
9. If you blank on the words, don’t stop and try to figure them out. Make up your own words.
10. When people get nervous, their breath becomes shorter, so make sure you have plenty of air to sing with.