Re: [Harp-L] psychology of STAGE FRIGHT (was PERSONALITY TYPE)

[Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As a psychologist, I should say that performance anxiety ("Stage  
Fright") is quite common.  Performance anxiety - the most common form  
is fear of public speaking, but musicians get it too - is not  
restricted to introverts (although are more likely to be anxious in  
general). Performance anxiety is a common form of social phobia.  
Indeed, most people who are not skilled and practiced performers (and  
many who are) have a certain amount of anxiety about public speaking/  
performing. Those who entirely lack such anxiety often put in dreadful  
performances because they fail to recognise the limitations on their  
abilities.

As well as introversion, being perfectionist is also an important  
factor, so is whatever stress the person is under and the importance  
that they place on successful performance (which may have little  
relationship to the objective importance or size of the gig) relative  
to their self-esteem and sense of self. Performers can sometimes  
acquire stage fright mid career, having not had it before. Sometimes  
this is after a difficult or traumatic experience, other times it  
seemingly just appears. Methods for not screwing up on stage - such as  
practice, taste and not playing things you can't really play - help  
people not screw up, but may not effect stage fright at all. Some very  
able musicians avoid live work because they cannot face the perceived  
fear of humiliating themselves. It is the fear of screwing up, not the  
actual experiences of screwing up, that create stage fright. What  
seems like a humiliating performance to one person might seem superb  
(or at least tolerable) to another and, the higher you set the  
standard, the more potential to fear the mistakes. Furthermore people  
with social phobia tend to seek evidence for the inadequacies of their  
performance and ignore evidence for how good it was.

It probably doesn't help that music is an odd art because proficiency  
requires thousands of hours of mostly isolated practice (one estimate  
is that it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours to become an expert (at  
pretty much anything)  - favouring introverts - but performance  
requires a good, confident show: One reason for many musicians'  
fondness for alcohol and drugs.

Indeed, jam sessions can be plagued with people who are insufficiently  
anxious about playing in public! A certain level of anxiety is useful,  
but too much starts to impede performance. There are also a range of  
dysfunctional activities that people sometimes try that generally make  
stage fright and/or performance worse.

There are recognised techniques for handling stage fright. If anyone  
is interested in discussing these they can contact me off list.

It is also interesting that stage fright may be more common amongst  
musicians whose instruments make playing wrong notes 'easier' - to  
play trumpet for instance one has to trust that the right note will  
come out. On guitar (or keyboards), this anxiety is less, assuming you  
have tuned it. Harmonica is probably a relatively high anxiety  
instrument, especially if you rely on overblows.

Richard


On 9 Feb 2009, at 12:23, Frank Franze wrote:

> Taking this (free) 70 question test may help resolve some harp  
> players issues as to why they react to certain situations with  
> dread. Are you an INTROVERT or an EXTROVERT. Follow the link below  
> to find out.
> http://www.keirsey.com/sorter/register.aspx<http://www.keirsey.com/sorter/register.aspx 
> >
>
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Richard Hammersley
Grantshouse, Scottish Borders
http://www.last.fm/music/Richard+Hammersley
http://www.myspace.com/rhammersley
http://www.myspace.com/magpiesittingdown