Getting Over the Jitters
If you’ve ever had to sing in public, you probably felt a surge of adrenaline as you stepped onto the stage. Your heart rate may have gone through the roof, your legs and voice may have shook. Oh no! So, what do you do?
One of the main things a singer (or any musician) needs to recognize is that there are two different types of anxiety. First, there’s performance anxiety, which is normal and also healthy! You can work on improving your response to it as you start making progress during your voice lessons. The more comfortable you feel singing in front of your voice teacher, the more comfortable you will feel when you start singing in front of other people. Some people are naturally more comfortable singing in front of strangers than others, but the more you practice in and out of your voice lessons, the more comfortable you’ll feel. You can use these 7 Unique Tips for Overcoming Performance Anxiety.
And, second, there is preparation anxiety. This is the bad kind of anxiety. Nobody likes the feeling of being unprepared, especially performers! The bad part about it is that no amount of practice or voice lessons can fix this issue. The good part is that you can fix this very easily by being prepared and following the advice of your mentoring voice teacher. Here is a checklist to make sure you are as prepared as you can be. You can use this checklist for your weekly voice lessons, or any public, or private performance.
- Did you memorize the music by heart?
- Did you memorize the words?
- Do you know what the words mean?
- Did you warm up?
Hope this was helpful for you! Next time we’ll talk about how to memorize your music so you’ll never forget it.