Sometimes, as an artist, you find yourself a bit unsettled prior to a concert performance. You become quite anxious that you might mess up a song or any other thing. At such times, you need all the advice you can get from individuals that have experience with classical music concerts.
Firstly, realize that your anxiety is normal. Even experienced performers still have certain levels of anxiety. With that said, the following tips will definitely reduce your anxiety and its influence on your performance.
Use it:
Transforming the anxiety into performance energy is a common technique. You probably think stage presence and energy are only for opera singers and rock musicians, but even individuals and budding musicians must convey energy to their audience. Your brain is shooting adrenalin into your bloodstream whenever a jolt of nerves hits you. Just tell yourself that you are amped up and excited instead of being nervous. It’s really physiologically the same thing. Your mental state is the only difference.
Your health:
Several amateurs and even some professional musicians underrate how taking care of themselves in relation to their performance impacts their mental state. Ensure that you get the right amount of sleep, – 7.5+ hours if you can manage it – drink plenty of water and get sufficient exercise. If you refuse to take care of yourself, the raised stress in your body will significantly raise the stress level of your mind.
Preparations:
Obviously, if you don’t prepare for your classic concert properly, your performance will surely be considerably below par, and this will certainly increase the level of your anxiety. Ensure that you get enough practice and for a length of time that’s equally enough. Make sure that you take time to prepare yourself mentally – meditation, just laying down with a loved beverage, breathing exercises or just a simple nap – for a little period of time before you go on stage for your concert performance. You should also ensure that you thoroughly warm up – but not being tempted to use the warm up time for last minute practice.
Imperfection:
Ask almost all performing artists and they will surely admit that they have made their own fair share of performance mistakes. Most often such mistakes felt stupid or were quite embarrassing. Studio recordings utilize the best pieces and bits from any necessary number of takes. Additionally, the best ones are picked through and meticulously polished. Live concert performances are not the same. No amount or intensity of preparation will prevent you or safeguard you from being human or enable you to perform above your acquired skill level. Put in your best into learning from your mistakes and minimizing them as you go along, but when you screw up, know that it is normal and you should stop beating yourself up. As you become better, you will begin to learn the technique of rolling with your mistakes to make them less noticeable.
These are the tips. If you can follow and practice them, then you will always be calm through all your classical music concerts.