John Pape Online Blog

By Nick Cresswell

If you’ve never performed anything to a group of people before, you will most likely find that the closer the time comes to stepping onto the stage, the more anxious about your presentation. Just because you are nervous it doesn’t mean that you still can’t do a good job.

Here are 5 tips that will help you overcome stage fright.

1. Don’t Fight It

As the great Australian blues guitar player Songdog once said: “Nerves are good. You’re designed to have them so that means you’re functioning properly. No nerves means no emotion and no emotion means no soul.”

The first key to overcoming performance anxiety is to accept that it is a natural occurrence. If you try and fight it, you’ll only make yourself tenser.

2. Focus On Your Breathing

Often when we are stressed our breathing goes from being calm and regulated to inconsistent and constricted. If you pay attention and ensure that you are breathing in a controlled manner, it will help you to steady your nerves. Keep this in mind before and while you are on stage.

3. Allow Yourself To Make Mistakes

Often our anxiety comes from worrying about what other people will think of us. Everyone wants to feel that they are accepted and what they are doing is seen by others as good. This becomes even more so when you are in front of many people with all the attention focused on you. You can take some of the pressure off yourself by allowing for mistakes. As long as you keep moving along with what you are doing, mistakes will go unnoticed by the majority of people.

4. Over Prepare

The best way to ensure that you can overcome the mind game is if you know that you can do a great job. The more preparation you do, the more confidence you’ll have in yourself. If you over-prepare, you will be believe in yourself and know that you can deliver the expectations you put on yourself. If you are making a presentation then do a dress rehearsal in front of members of your family. If you are performing music then find an audience of friends or find an open mic night to play at.

5. Get Back On The Horse!

The more you perform the more you will be able to steady yourself and learn how to control any nervousness that you encounter. You will learn how to control your energy and focus on what you are doing. Look for as many opportunities as possible and fine tune your presentation or your act in front of an audience. The more you do it, the better you’ll get.

Performance anxiety is a natural occurrence that most people go through. By accepting that nervousness is a part of being on stage and having good preparation, you will find that you will be able to overcome your worst fears about delivering to a room full of people.

About The Author:

Nick Cresswell is a musician, music teacher, author and webmaster of http://www.FreeJamTracks.com/. Free Jam Tracks provides guitarists, bassists and drummers with free, high quality jam tracks, articles and music instruction. Download your free tracks today: http://www.FreeJamTracks.com/.

(c) Copyright – Nick Cresswell. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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By John Newcomb

Most people are terrified of performing in front of an audience. What we call “stage phobia” is perhaps one of the most prevalent fears that a lot of us have suffered from at one point of time (and most still continue to). We can sing, dance, act, or play a music instrument effortlessly when we are alone or in the company of a few strangers. But when we are asked to do the same in front of a large crowd, most of us tend to panic and perform well below our skill level.

If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation when you’ve had to play a musical instrument, sing, dance, or act before a crowd only to have your legs freeze and your body panic, you’ll find these three tips useful in delivering a great performance the next time you’re on stage:

1. Practice.

I know this sounds very redundant, but the amount of people who end up on stage without ever properly knowing their instrument (your voice, your guitar/piano/drums, or your feet if you dance) is simply amazing. If you’re singing a song, don’t just rehearse it once or twice; practice it dozens of times until it feels like second nature. The number of hours you put into your daily practice is what separates the professionals from the amateurs.

2. Never, ever back up.

If you miss or mess up a section of a song, or if your voice falters at a crucial chorus, don’t ever back up and try and correct your mistake. The first rule of performing on stage is to keep going on, no matter what. You might have seen online videos of professional musicians performing ever after slipping on stage and falling down. Being able to pick up and continue after a mistake is a key trait of professional performers, and one that you must try and pick up.

3. Don’t be obsessed with your technique.

Face it: some of your notes won’t sound that well, you will hit the wrong key at some point in your song, and your voice might falter at some point. Many times, a mistake while playing can make your performance appear more authentic and genuine. What’s important is to see how your performance appeared as a whole: was it a string of mistakes punctuated by a few bright moments, or was it the other way around? If it was the former, then you might want to concentrate more on your technique when you practice. If it was the latter, you are doing quite fine and shouldn’t obsess over how technically proficient you appear.

Essentially, the more you play in front of people, the more comfortable you will become. Don’t expect your first public performance to be a knockout. Give yourself time, and you will soon find that playing in front of others will start coming almost naturally to you.

Source:

John has been writing online for several years. His late blog is about picture scanners, and how you should go about buying a picture scanner

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By Jutlan Dave

When it comes to launching a career in music, it’s important to know what you excel in. After all, the industry is full of people that have a variety of talents, so how do you know which is yours?

To start, figure out what you want to do. Are you a singer or just a general performer that can sing, dance and engage in a multitude of entertainment options? Are you a hip-hop artist or a country singer? The key to figuring out your musical talent is to determine where your passions lie. Do you love to sing with all of your heart? Is dancing your dream? Decide what you love about music or the entertainment industry and then follow your heart from that point. Figure out what you are good in, also; for example, entering some local or regional talent shows will show you how others receive your talent and how well you can perform in front of groups of people. This is an important skill if you want to become a musician of any caliber. And while you know you are talented, you must first find out if you can convey that talent to others before investing your time and resources into the music industry.

Next, you must figure out a way to showcase your musical talent. For example, if you are a singer, then you need to work with a London recording studio to put together a demo. The demo is your music on a disc of some sort that you can hand out to industry professionals to showcase your talents. Working with a London recording studio can ensure that you have the best demo possible to highlight your music talent in the best way possible. Music production is also the key to making sure your demo sounds amazing and gets you to where you want to go.

Once you have figured out what your musical talent is, you can pursue with all of the passion within you. Discovering your passion is actually the easy part; figuring out a plan to pursue it is where you will have to put in a bit of work. They key to working with an amazing London recording studio to make a demo that will show off this passion to those in the industry that matter and can help make things happen. From there, you will the ability to use your gift to touch the world.

Jutland Recording Studios London provides the highest quality service when it comes to recording, music mixing, music production and mastering. To learn more about services, visit our web site at London recording studio or blog at London recording studios

It is no big secret that proper care of your guitar will give you a more consistent quality of sound and an extended for the guitar . If you are serious about playing guitar you will want to get some accessories that are essential for the care of your guitar. A guitar player is only as good as the sound and the quality of the guitar that they are playing.

In the previous articles I shared information regarding these vital items to help care for your guitar.

• Guitar Case
• Cleaning Cloth
• Guitar Stand
• Strings
• Humidifier

Guitar Tuner

The last item that should be considered is an actual tuning device for the guitar. You will find that the longer you play the guitar the better you will become at tuning it by just using your ear. But for starting out, you will want to use something that gives you the exact sound and gives the guitar an accurate tune up. There are many devices that you can get that are very easy to use which will give you the exact tuning you need. When your guitar is not tuned correctly this can be very embarrassing – especially if you are singing along with the guitar!

Part 1

Part 2

So, you’ve bought your first guitar and you are eager to start learning how to play the guitar, right?

First though you may want to spruce up your knowledge on how to care for your guitar, so that it gives you years of guitar playing pleasure.  Caring for your guitar properly will also help it to sound better, the two go hand in hand, proper care for your guitar increases your chances of getting exactly the guitar sounds that you want.

Generally speaking, guitars are very durable, so basic guitar maintenance is all that is needed for it to stay in that, tip top first rate condition.

Guitar Case

One of your highest priorities is to think about how you will look after your guitar when you are not playing it or practicing new guitar chords.

Of course, your new guitar probably came with a case for it, but if not, consider buying a guitar case as soon as you possibly can.  You can buy cost effective guitar cases on eBay or simply look in your local paper, even simpler, ask around your family and friends if they have an old guitar case that you could use.

A guitar case will protect it from the usual knocks and bangs that can be expected from every day guitar use.  You must ensure that it fits your guitar properly, this is important, especially if you plan on traveling with it.

The guitar case is actually a sound investment, insuring you not only on the financial outlay of your guitar but also helps you to cherish your guitar playing skills as you build up an emotional attachment to your guitar instrument – Hey! Everyone loves their first guitar right?

You want to do your best then to keep it in the best first rate condition as possible!

Guitar Stand

If you plan on playing your guitar frequently, you may also want to consider buying a guitar stand, a guitar stand is a great guitar care idea especially if you don’t want to keep on taking it out of your guitar case and putting it back in all the time.

The Environment

It goes without saying that it is best to keep your guitar out of strong sunlight or places where it can get very warm.  If possible keep your guitar in the shade at a reasonable room temperature, this will prevent the materials used in it’s construction from being warped, drying out, becoming brittle, cracking etc and is also good for your guitar strings.

Oasis OH1 Guitar Humidifier With OH-2 Digital Hygrometer

Also try your best to avoid extreme temperature changes, for example do not keep your guitar in your car overnight in freezing temperatures or for protracted periods anywhere, only then to take it out of that environment into a well heated room.  If you do so, this will really affect the tonal quality of your guitar, something that you want to avoid.

Just these few tips alone will ensure you years of guitar playing pleasure and will help to keep your guitar in pristine condition.

Read Part 1

You want to keep your guitar in the best possible condition?  As with anything else regular guitar maintenance will go a long way to ensuring that your guitar delivers you only the very best sounds that you desire.  Just as you take pride in anything else valuable that you own and you clean those possessions regularly, do exactly the same with your guitar.

Regular guitar cleaning will also help it to deliver for you a great sound, with no distortion at all, helping you to get exactly the right tones from said guitar.

At the most basic end of the guitar cleaning schedule should be the practice of simply using a soft duster to wipe down the guitar body and neck, but be careful not to use this on the strings themselves as depending on your guitar strings, this again could leave residues of the duster / cloth on your actual guitar strings, thus affecting the quality of sound that you are after.

Your hands too, it might sound a little pedantic, but wash your hands and dry them properly before using your guitar.  The reason for this is that your fingers over time may burnish the guitar strings causing them to lose their shine and if you really want to care for your guitar instrument fanatically, you’ll be paying attention to these small but nevertheless important small details, again to give you hopefully many years of guitar playing pleasure.

You can buy guitar maintenance kits. One manufacturer is the Dunlop System 65 Guitar Maintenance Kit
and has everything needed within the guitar kit to keep your guitar instrument in perfect condition.

Changing Guitar Strings

Over time you may pick up on the fact that your guitar strings are starting to sound just ever so slightly ‘dull’. Or of course, they may just be showing signs of general wear and tear from normal useage.  It always pays to keep a set of at least one set of spare guitar strings nearby, for you may need them at any time.

There really is nothing worse than jamming with friends, getting an awesome good guitar riff going and one of your guitar strings snaps.  If you havn’t anything to instantly replace it with, you may never find that awesome guitar sound again.

Don’t let that happen to you, always carry a spare set of guitar strings with you wherever you go.  Keep them in your guitar storage case and you won’t go far wrong.

As a rule of thumb and depending on how often you play the guitar, you may want to think about changing guitar strings about every one to to three months.  If you get into the regular habit of cleaning and looking after your guitar regularly, after every guitar jam session, you’ll need to do this less frequently.

Guitar care really does pay for itself, not only in terms of ongoing guitar maintenance costs but also especially concerning your own guitar playing pleasure.