[oldfolkie]

Hi all
my name is Marcus and as my name suggests I'm a bit of an old folkie. Not much of a songwriter though I have written a couple.  What I struggle with though is stage fright, even in front of just a small room of people and its really putting me off performing. I don't think I'm even that bad of a singer or guitarist, but when there's people watching and listening I get so worried I can't play properly.
What should I do?

[Captain Andy]

Hi all
my name is Marcus and as my name suggests I'm a bit of an old folkie. Not much of a songwriter though I have written a couple.  What I struggle with though is stage fright, even in front of just a small room of people and its really putting me off performing. I don't think I'm even that bad of a singer or guitarist, but when there's people watching and listening I get so worried I can't play properly.
What should I do?

My advice:

Try not to look people in the eye. Look above their heads, preferably to the back of the room.
Try not to worry about what opinions the audience might be forming. This can distract your concentration from what you're doing.
Be confident that you deserve to be listened to.

[tone]

Great post Marcus, and thanks for joining!

I have suffered quite badly from stage fright in the past to the point where my fingerstyle technique packs up and my voice starts to wobble. Not the greatest asset when you know you can do better.

Only 2 things helped me. Practice alone, and practice in front of others... Play a song until you know it backwards, until your fingers and your voice know it without thinking.  Record yourself playing it (a dictophone will do) and listen back to yourself, making notes of where you could improve.  Only when you feel very confident playing it on your own would I then take it to an audience.  You have a much better chance of being confident in front of them if you really know a song first.
And before you step onto the stage - do at least 10 minutes of warming up. Do a little deep breathing too, and tell yourself: you deserve to be heard.

You may even start to enjoy it one day
Best of luck with it Marcus - feel free to ask any other questions.

[aaron]

I've never had any stage fright - I just get up and play. How can you expect to succeed if you don't believe in yourself?  Just forget about the audience their there to see you play, not you there to hear them.  You can do it if you believe.

[mouse]

I've  only ever had it happen once, and it was awful, but i sat down afterwards and considered my options, and my first conclusion was this "i know I'm a very good guitar player (Sorry for the narcissism) and vocally i can stay in a tune, and making music,  this is something i really love being able to do. so i can either fold now and sit in my home studio pretending I'm enjoying myself or stop being an ass and get on with it. the  second conclusion was that when i gig,  I'm doing something that a high percentage of the audience either cannot or will not do and which they can only dream about. and my final conclusion is that once in a while no matter how much i rehearse,  every now and again at least one of my gigs is gonna be a bit of car crash and that is something i have to accept, but the more gigs i have done the better my performance gets and i have learned something magical and that's stage craft, which is half the battle

[waspfromipanema]

um, it scares the living crap out of me!!