Dear Lisa and co vocalisters,
you wrote:
'I think part of what creates anxiety is that we tend to concentrate on the
things we think will go wrong or are afraid will somehow not be as good as
the rest of what we are singing instead of the positive'
I once talked to a teacher of parachute jumping and he told me, that if you
jump and you see a tree, or a brook, you should not look at it. If you
continue looking at it, you will land exactly in that tree or brook, whereas
if you look at some nice place to land, all will go well. Just another way
of saying that I agree it is very wrong to think about the things that might
go wrong.
You also wrote:
'You have to tell yourself how good you are before you sing - you have to
pump yourself up.'
However, I think there also is a deeper psychological reason, why some
people (or maybe all of us, once in a while) may start to think bad about
ourselves, shortly before the moment you have to prove yourself in front of
an audience. If you suffer from the combination of superiority and
inferiority feelings (and many artistic people do), you might often have a
unrealistic image of your own qualities, just to compensate for your hidden
inferiority feelings. As is the case with compensation mechanisms like that,
they might very well fail at the moment you need them most, leaving you with
the other side of your smaller or bigger neurosis, inferiority feelings. But
a weaker form of this also happens to less- or non-neurotic people (do they
exist?), especially singers, because it is very difficult, to have a
realistic image of yourself. One of the reasons for that, is that we don't
hear ourselves as others hear us. But somehow you have to find a way to find
that image, and if you bias it slightly to the modest side, you might be
better of at the end.
I think, the more realistic your image of yourself is, the less likely it is
stage fright (performing anxiety) will occur. And with realistic I mean: you
should first of all know your own qualities, and believe in them. But
telling yourself, you're better than you actually are, or even better than
x, y or z, is not a good idea in my opinion: it might cause nervousness,
instead of chasing it away.
In my opinion the joy of performing the music, of being part of a great
musical experience, might pump you up in a more pleasant and less nervous
making way. If you show that joy, people will love you and your singing,
even if you're far from the best singer in the world, or even from your
small hometown. And if you are a great singer, then the audience will
witness one of those rare moments, they and you will remember maybe even all
your life.
But it is not unlikely that you, Lisa, thought of all that as well: at
least your endquote:
'You are the music while the music lasts. ~ T. S. Eliot ~' gives an
indication in that direction.
Best greetings,
Dré
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