In surveys conducted around the world, it has been discovered that the act of speaking in public is something many people have an intense fear about. In fact, public speaking often ranks higher on our list of fears than death itself!
If your palms start to sweat, your legs turn to jelly, and you start to feel faint just at the thought of speaking to an audience, help is at hand!
“Going peripheral” – a technique from “Performing in The Zone”, can help you to feel calm, in control, and confident when you are speaking in public.
Be careful though, you might end up enjoying public speaking engagements
This article was sent to me quite some time ago by Nathan Schacherer. I believe the article originates from horndoggie.com
Definitely worth a read!
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The inner voice – friend or foe?
While practicing music, I mentally take note of areas that sound good, passages that sound OK, and passages that need more work.
I try my best to be non-judgmental in this process as I am aware that excessive negativity can destroy; negative labels can impede my progress with mental blocks and psychological hang-ups. Studies show that there is a direct mind/body connection between what a person thinks and feels with how a person performs. The field of sports psychology, in fact, is entirely devoted to exploring and capitalizing on this connection to maximize an athlete’s performance.
Mental blocks of one variety or another can appear when least expected. Besides the occasional paranoia about my chops, the second biggest mental hurdle for me is remaining non-judgmental of musical passages or techniques that are “in the works.” This holds especially true when I am working out a passage for an event where I will be judged: a recital, a jury exam or an orchestral audition. Staying positive and constructive in this scenario can sometimes be a challenge for me – especially if the outside world creeps in.
Here is the beginning of the eBook “Just another day at the office…How to get better results in auditions and other ‘high-pressure’ performance situations”
“Just another day at the office…” was originally written for classical musicians as an aid in preparing for auditions and other solo performances. However, the information in this eBook can be applied to anyone in a ‘high-pressure’ performance situation!
‘JUST PLAY NATURALLY’ is an account of Vivien Mackie’s three-year cello study with Pablo Casals in the 1950s and her discovery of the resonance of his teaching with the principles of the Alexander Technique. The book is written by Joe Armstrong and Vivien Mackie, and is available by clicking here.
(This article is published here with kind permission from the author, Joe Armstrong. For more information, please visit www.joearmstrong.info)
MUSICAL VISION
Suggestions to Students of The Alexander Technique for Dealing with Stress and Enhancing Expressiveness in Musical Performance
By Joe Armstrong
Boston, 2005
INTRODUCTION
Thirty years ago, when I wrote my master’s thesis[1] examining how the Alexander Technique can help musicians deal with stress in performing, I realized my research and writing on the subject couldn’t be more than a sketch of the widespread problem and its solution from Alexander’s psychophysical point of view, only examining the Technique as a very general resource and paving the way for doing more elaborate study and research in the future. As expected, the experimental study of a college piano repertoire class supported the idea that you could use the Technique to stay more integrated and more in control when you perform, thereby giving yourself fullest access to whatever degree of musicianship and musicality you might possess—no small achievement to anyone who suffers from nervousness or stage fright. So the window onto the inner life of musicians was opened a little more than it had been previously—but not much.
All my years since then of specializing in teaching the Alexander Technique to student and professional musicians have continued to confirm to me its value in dealing with “nerves” and in promoting superlative control. But this teaching experience, along with my own evolving use of the Technique as a flutist to maintain a performing standard that’s ever more whole, alive, and fully communicative, made me want to go on seeing if I could probe deeper into the barriers to fullest music making. In my searching I’ve come up with some ideas and observations that I hope can be useful to those of you who are working at incorporating Alexander’s discoveries into your playing, and I’d like to tell you about them here. As I do this, I’ll also include some writings and reflections on the subject that I’ve collected over the years, which I hope will enhance crucial points in the main text. I’ve put an “N” in the main text to refer to these selections that are placed at the end of each section. (The bracketed numbers are links to source notes listed at the very end of the article.)
Recently I was in contact with Dr. Dean FH Macy – CEO of New England Talent, Ltd. Having taught some big names such as Barbara Streisand, Dr. Macy has some interesting and very useful views on how to become a better performer!
He recently shared with me the transcript of a radio interiew with the then 13 year old Meredith Ryan Packer, after her Carnegie Hall concert. The interviewer Paul Harvey asked, “As you were preparing for the recital how did you feel?”
