Controlling Performance Anxiety, Part 2:
Building the Bridge by John Wunsch


Introduction

This month's article will present a paced approach to playing comfortably in front of others. This method can either help novice performers avoid ever developing performance anxiety, or assist those who are currently having problems getting past that anxiety.

Many performers feel their nerves keep them from playing well in front of others and some players simply cannot get comfortable enough before an audience to enjoy performing. There are great benefits to be had from overcoming these feelings; I hope you find this approach helpful for your students, your friends, or perhaps yourself.

Building the Bridge Step by Step

The conditioning we acquire from our experiences go a long way towards building confidence or breaking it down. While most of us are geared to shoot for the big one, i.e., performance of a challenging work for a public audience, we can do ourselves a huge favor by appreciating the value of performing short and simple pieces for audiences as small as one. You read that correctly, 1!

Performance is one of the ways of sharing our music. It involves physical skill but it also involves a level of risk and vulnerability. When successful it provides fulfillment that makes all the effort worthwhile, but for many it is very difficult to get past the nerves associated with the risk and vulnerability. A paced approach can make the transition from playing alone to playing for an audience far more bearable. Simply put, a gradual, patient buildup from the simplest pieces and smallest audiences can provide the opportunity for enough successful experiences along the way to make the developing player comfortable at the next level of difficulty.

While there is no substitute for experience, no number of completely negative experiences will prepare a player for being comfortable before an audience. Certainly some less than perfect and thoroughly enjoyable experiences are often a part of the process as we learn to deal with the emotions and nerves of live performance; a series of manageable experiences, however, can help players in developing comfort in performance, despite those factors of risk and vulnerability.

Each individual has their own set of sensitivities as to who intimidates them and who does not, so a consultation to set up a custom graded list of practice audiences for each student is best. The goal is to gradually increase the difficulty or the degree to which an audience challenges the performer. It is wise to spread the experiences out enough for the player to regroup and improve on problem areas, but keep them coming often enough for them to become a regular part of the player's musical life. As with the list of audience members, the frequency can be customized to fit a player's tolerance and practice needs.

The list might look something like this:

Week 1

Audience 1- A parent
Audience 2- The other parent
Audience 3 - Both parents

Week 2

Audience 1- A good friend
Audience 2 - A second good friend
Audience 3- Both of those friends

Week 3

Audience 1- Parents with another adult, or a sibling
Audience 2- Parents with 2-3 other adults, or siblings

Week 4

Audience 1 - Both friends from week 2, plus 1 more
Audience 2 - Both friends from week 2, plus 2-4 more

Week 5

Audience 1- A mix of adults and friends from earlier weeks.
Audience 2- A small new group of adults and friends or other known acquaintances, such as teachers from church or school.

Week 6

A recital or concert, perhaps a guitar teacher's sponsored studio recital.

I often tell my students that we carry the souls of our listeners on a journey when we perform. It is much like we are building a bridge for them to cross with us. In the practice room, that bridge only carries our own weight. It appears strong enough to carry others, but until we have them on that bridge with us we may not discover the weak links or vulnerable portions of the structure. We have to go out and try it. We will discover the areas that we need to strengthen, only after we see how it goes in performance.

Of course this graduated approach not only helps put the structure of the piece in order it allows us to gradually get acclimated to the emotions of performing. So in terms of the analogy, when you have someone else on the bridge it may seem to move or sway, the footing is just not what it was in the practice room.. That is due to the emotions you experience with an audience present. But just like the person who learns to walk on a swaying or gently bouncing foot bridge, we can get used to the added motion of our e-motion-s as we perform, and be more and more comfortable with these added travelers on the crossings we lead.

So the performance is a necessary test and we must realize it is not unusual to discover problems in performance. But if we slowly add to the size of audience, and how much of a challenge that audience poses to us, we can gradually create the structure we need for safe passage to a successful performance.

In upcoming articles we will examine more facets of both preparation for performance and having reasonable expectations,

Until then Best wishes,

John Wunsch

© Copyright 2007 John Wunsch. All rights reserved, used with permission.

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About the Author

John Wunsch has combined his folk roots, classical training, and jazz experience to specialize in solo guitar performances which include a wide range of music from classical tangos and Malagueñas to bluesy renditions of popular music, jazz standards, and gospel-tinged versions of hymns. His original compositions include rhythmic Latin-inspired music, unique fingerstyle 12-string pieces, and heartfelt ballads.

John has released seven recordings and toured extensively, appearing in Europe and Japan as well as the United States. He has appeared in such venues as the Newport Jazz festival, the New York Seagram's Festival, The Philadelphia Seaport Festival, Blues Alley, and the Blue Note. He has been nominated three times for the "Best Instrumental" category of the New York Music Awards and received numerous grants from Meet the Composer, New York State Council for the Arts, Arts Serve, and The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, among others.

John is currently the Instructor of Guitar at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Director of the annual Interlochen Guitar Institute on the Interlochen Center for the Arts campus. He formerly served as Music Theory Instructor at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Guitar Instructor at Oakland University, and Director of Guitar Studies at Northwestern Michigan College. He studied with Jesus Silva, Nicholas Goluses, Fred Hand, Oswald Rantucci, and in master classes with Maestro Andrés Segovia, Janos Starker, and David Russell.

His music has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered, network television's Entertainment Tonight, and in films and documentaries in both the United States and Europe. He has shared performance billings with B.B. King, Dave Brubeck, Kilimanjaro, Special EFX and others.

Critics have described John's work as:

"Pure enjoyment..." (Baltimore Evening Sun)
"Extraordinarily original" (Boston Globe).
"First rate!" (Guitar Player Magazine)
"Subtle and elegant... especially sensitive..." (Frets Magazine)

For more information, bookings, and downloads of recordings please visit:
www.allguitar.com