Hey guys! I had a question to ask of ya'll :)

How do you calm yourselves down before an audition or a performance? I seem to tense up and then eff up the whole thing and I would really like to stop doing that to be perfectly honest.

I'd really like help with this too. At my first audition (UW-EC), my mouth was tensing up (badly affecting my sound). At my second (UM-TC), I was confident until I got in that room, and my mouth was tensing up.

I have never played in an auditorium before. The largest venue I played at was a pub which had a stage outside. There was probably 40-50 people there.

I am always nervous before I play. The fact that if I screw up it will make everyone look bad. They way I get over the jitters is to have nothing to worry about. I practice quite a bit and make sure that I only perform a song which I could play without thinking. Once I get to that level on a piece then there really isn't anything on my mind to give me the jitters.

Just constantly practice and record yourself doing so. Listen to it and adjust your playing to perfection. If you have it set in your mind that your playing is perfect then the only thing you have to worry about is how the heck can I make this crowd go crazy. At that point you aren't worried but excited! Well, I am...

Raise your fist and repeat after me:
"RAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

Practise by performing in front of a smaller group of people, like your family and friends. That'll ease the tension. Then when you perform in front of a larger crowd, you can imagine that you're still performing for your family and friends. Also drink a bit of water and take many deep breaths. And finally, think of it more as something fun that you're doing rather than something stressful.

Stop caring. Start playing. :D

Like Al said, deep breaths. Try some of those relaxation tricks, and be mentally prepared. Practice A LOT before the performance, and really know your stuff. It's good to practice in front of smaller, familiar groups, but try to simulate the real thing(like, don't have your smaller audience be perfect. Have them whisper, fool around a bit, but you go on with what you need to do). Oh, and try not to go up on stage with an empty stomach, but not completely bloated either. Nibbling on some chocolate or something before you go up might help (unless you have problems with caffeine) :3.

You love to play in front of an audience.

You love to show to people how beautiful and inspiring music can be.

But even more than that, you love to let the music play your heart out.


I used to take week-long breaks from practicing before every competitive performance. I'd get the pieces up ready to go a week beforehand, then stop practicing. On the day before I'd just play it a bit and enjoy it, then forget about it until I find myself on stage enjoying the music.

I have to thank my Russian piano teacher for that one.

The idea is that you let go instead of jamming your mind. Your mind already knows that you can play well, so give your mind some time to not think about the audition or the competition, and you'll always come out better than if you were to overthink it.

I always got nervous in symphonic band 'cause I sucked at mallets and was always BSing the parts. In jazz band, at first, I was always nervous 'cause I didn't know how to solo. Only later when I got better at jazz did it become fun...it was fun, so I wasn't nervous.

i don't know if you where glasses, but, being near-sighted, i found that if i take off my glasses, i cant see the audience, at all, it's all just a big blur (yeah, my eyes are really bad) and then i just pretend i'm on stage, having fun, nobody's there (i cant see them) and it always turns out pretty good. so, if anyone else is nearsighted, hope this helps, if not, then, just have fun with it, ignore the audience, pretend theyre not there, and enjoy yourself, the rest will come easily. if you psych yourself out, then you will mess up, but if you treat it like something fun, not a big deal, not a huge, important performance, rather, you're just gonna have fun, relax, it doesn't matter, whatever thought works for you, then your relaxed attitude will show in your playing, and the audience will know you really enjoy what you are doing. besides, the majority of audience members do not know every note of the piece you are playing, so if you mess up, dont worry about it, just keep going, cause more likely than not, you're the only one who knows.

To calm myself down I take a great big breath of good old oxygen. Works everytime. I also like to think of it this way. I know that I'm going to mess up one way or another since there's no such thing as a perfect performance. So instead of worrying about wether or not I'll kill the piece, I just accept that there will be mistakes and focus on having fun with it. It really doesis important though to play for family or friends and get to a level where your comforatable with the piece. Confidence is key so just believe you can play wonderfully and it will turn out okay! If you mess up dont dwell on it because mistakes happen and its not really the mistake that people focus on, it's how you recover from it.

Take 1 big breath, and hope that you don't screw your first measure lol xD

If you're playing by yourself, as in a solo and such, then my advice is to take deep breaths, review over the music, then have fun. The hardest thing to do first is starting your song/solo. But just relax and just tell yourself that you can do it. Once you start, you'll forget about the crowd and just the music and you. :)

If you're playing in an ensemble, then most of the time, your member(s) would try to calm you... along with themself. So it's pratically the same as playing by yourself. I mean, I have a flute trio this year and we were playing it by memory in front of the audience. Obviously in backstage, we were pratically shaking, no matter how much we tried to calm down. But when we went on stage and played, we forgot about being nervous and just played our music like it was just three of us.

I find it very helpful to just play the piece only once before you actually perform it. Practicing the piece too much before playing it isn't good.

That's true... But sometimes, when I actually freak out with my ensemble, without practicing my piece, I would blank out. I'm dead serious. That happened to me a couple of times. O_O

It's good if you're nervous. Remember that. It means that you care about what you're doing.

Second, just don't *think* about messing up. Honestly, what can you do if you get nervous and mess up? You can't go back. If you put the emphasis on enjoying your time playing the music, 9/10 you won't even "care" that you messed up.

I know it's easier said than done, especially for someone in your position, but just let it go and flow, man.

Hi !
There's a great book dealing with all those questions called "The Inner Game of Music", it really helped me a lot to be calmer before auditions.
It became much more easier for me when I realised that anxiety was an energy like any other and that I could use it in a performance instead of fighting with it !

Ah
I played my quartet in front of my class today and i was so nervous my shaking covered up my vibrato

I gotta techniqque I often use before a performance with a group of firends of mine. We actually have a small battle, with different styles of music. It helps relieve tension, for me at least, and it sounds awesome for anyone listening. you don't even have to be actually on stage. The audience just thinks it's an intro! I found this out when my music teacher found my band and I doing this for the first time and plugged us all in without us knowing (She turned the amp way down so we couldn't hear it at first) and then after a short while turned it up. Crowd loved it. And I felt way better once I got up there. ^^ Hope that may help you.

Deep breathing. In through your nose, out through your mouth, diaphragm.

Try this: Let out all air. Inhale through nose in 4 seconds. Hold it for 7 seconds. Let it all out SMOOTHLY and EVENLY from your mouth in 8 seconds (don't burst out all the air at once). Keep on repeating.

The real time doesn't matter, the ration of 4-7-8 counts, though :)

Good luck! I usually tell myself that if I mess up it doesn't matter because there's always room for improvement and I know I'm not bad or horrible, which is true and works.