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 Skyler Jett

Some people still believe that a singing voice is only something that you are born with. While this is true for some lucky people, not everyone was born with the most beautiful singing voice in the world. Because of this, practice, patience and education is needed in order to achieve the level of singing that you have always wanted.

It’s time to stop making everyone’s ears hurt and you can’t afford to replace any more broken glass so follow these key steps and you will surely be a memorable singer before you know it. Remember, you may not become the perfect singer over night so do not give up. You have to keep trying and hang in there and eventually everything will just click and fall into place.

Relax.

Many people find themselves tensing up when they start to sing. This is typically from nerves. While this is a natural reaction, it is not one that is going to help your singing voice. If there is too much tension in your body, your vocal tone will be destroyed. Keep your shoulders back in the correct position and allow the muscles in your neck to relax.

Push The Stomach Out.

Even though it may feel a little odd at first, it is important to push your stomach out when you inhale. When you do this, you allow more air into your lungs. When it is time to exhale, make sure that you are slowly pulling your stomach in by making use of your diaphragm muscles. All of this will help keep your tone under control.

Do Not Fear The High Notes.

The high notes seems to be what people have the most trouble with which means people tend to find themselves afraid of even trying to hit the high notes. Do not let that fear control you. If you want to sing and you want to sing well, you have to learn how to hit the high notes with grace and style.

When you find that you are not hitting the note high enough, try raising your arms slightly and give a small hint of a smile. These actions will help to casually raise your note. For the extremely high notes, close your eyes and turn your face up slightly, really feeling the note.

For those that hit the notes a little too high, move your arms down a little lower than where they are. You might also want to open your mouth just a bit wider by dropping the lower jaw.

Find Your Own Voice. While you may want to be able to sing like Mariah, not everyone can. Instead of trying to match your voice and tone to someone else’s, find your own, especially if you want to make a career out of singing. Music producers want new fresh sounds. You also want to make sure that you are enjoying yourself every step of the way. Otherwise, you will never make it to the level of singing that you want to be at.

About the Author

Skyler Jett is a prolific singer, songwriter and producer, who has worked with many top musicians, such as Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion and Aretha Franklin. He shares his singing tips and techniques, including how to throat sing. You can find more of his tips to learn to sing like a professional singer at http://howtosing.org.

Here is the Song Silent Night. It is an instrumental played on the guitar.  Feel free to download this song and listen to it the Christmas Season.

[podcast]http://johnpapeonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/silent_v1.mp3[/podcast]

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