im soooo nervous on stage!!!

[Lady_Poseidon]

im a bass player and when i play in front of people my hands shake uncontrollably! what do i do? please help me i have a gig coming up on 2nd October!!!

[Malcolm]

The only way you can control stage fright or the fright of speaking in public is to get on a stage and play or speak.

Really that's it. The more you do it the less frightening it will be.

[Danster]

im a bass player and when i play in front of people my hands shake uncontrollably! what do i do? please help me i have a gig coming up on 2nd October!!!
Hey there Lady P. {disclaimer}I've never been on stage with my guitar, so don't listen to me.{/disclaimer} ;) I've done quite a bit of public speaking, and I'm not NATURALLY at ease when I'm in the spotlight, and I think there are parallels between speaking and music performing for a group. I think as much as is possible, you should try to avoid the mindset of "do I suck?" or "I have to impress these people" or "I have to be perfect." Better to have a mindset such as "I'm prepared, I'm gonna have fun, if I hit a wrong note, no one will die." (who was it that said that last one?) Just be yerself up there, try to communicate with the audience with your music... and HAVE SOME FUN for Goshsakes!!!

[Rizla]

Just drink a big glass of whiskey before you go on stage and you'll be fine. Any alcohol will almost certainly alleviate your fear of large crowds and stop the shaking. It is just a confidence thing. Like the other guy said, the more you do it the less frightening it will be.

[sugarbee]

I'm gonna say what I always say about this stuff. Breathe. Before you go on stage take a few long deep breathes and then as you begin to play try to continue breathing deeply. This is the best thing I have found for calming nerves. It won't take it all away, that'll come with practice and experience, but in my experience this does work to take the edge off, and I find if I can do that I can usually keep going on my own steam.
Good luck!

[JohnJumper]

I use to have the same problem. I started playing at in front of people about 13 years ago and I used to be terrified. I am no professional I just play at picnic type get togethers and church mainly. Now my fear is very minimal. The church thing really helps if you go to a church regularly because you get to play every week in front of people and begin to realize there is a routine to it and it is not as dramatic as your mind plays it up to be. Plus church music is not too difficult to execute when you are nervous. I still get a bit nervous but if I do I usually try to focus on the other musicians rather than the audience and that helps a lot. Good Luck!! you will do great!!

[Bizarro]

Try playing in front of some friends or family or pet... Just a little bit at a time. This really helps! :)

Realize that everyone makes mistakes, and that's to be expected in live performances. It's no big deal. I've been playing for 20 years and I've gigged quite a bit. I don't think I've ever played a song live without at least 1 mistake.

[Lady_Poseidon]

All your advice has helped a lot thankyou!! :D i have my next gig on october 2nd so i will put your advice into practice!! Anymore advice about how to stop the shaking hands is more than welcome!!

Thankyou!!

[fortymile]

with stagefright my goal is always to get beyond the sensation of being looked at. or to get comfortable with it. i don't want to trick myself out of the fact that i am being looked at, but i do try to experience something other than that uncomfortable feeling.

1. walk through the place when it's empty and get used to all the corners. walk through, experiencing dull normalcy in every nook and cranny, especially from the stage. mark your emotional territory. get truly comfortable with the place. when the crowd shows up, imagine them as guests in your home.

2. when you take the stage to play, remember the feelings from the walkthrough. the natural state of the room is empty. your natural state is not being looked at.

3. look above the heads of the crowd. the back wall above thier heads is a particularly good place. this not only helps you get in touch with the feeling of the empty room, it keeps your eyes UP instead of down, which is a bold thing that goes a long way toward making you feel more in control. there is no one looking at you from that point above the heads. it's a totally safe place to place your attention, and it's better than the floor.

4. if you're really nervous, do something strange or weird as soon as you take the stage to draw attention to yourself. it'll all be downhill from there on out: you've just faced the essential problem and survived intact, and maybe made them laugh in the process.

5. look directly at someone in the audience for too long. it helps to see the crowd as a bunch of individuals rather than one threatening mass.

6. one or two beers can take the edge off without screwing up dexterity too much

[Lady_Poseidon]

i had my second gig last night!!! and i wasnt nervous at all!! :D my hands didnt shake and i really enjoyed it. I actually felt like i played really well too!!! I just kept on thinking during the day "im going to enjoy it... the people that are going aren't there to see me they are there to see the headlining band so why would they care if i mess up" and it worked i felt really good about last night. Also i had a lot of people asking how long i had been playing for because i played really well! and got a phone number for a quite a famous bass teacher in england!

so the point of all this is to say thankyou to all of those who posted replies! it really worked!!! :D

[blank_frackis]

It's too late I know, but I want to reply to this post. The best way to get over your nerves in my opinion is to have a truly awful gig. Whether you do it on purpose or not doesn't matter, but I used to be absolutely petrified about gigs - I would always position myself behind a pillar or a speaker stack and would be a shivvering vomiting wreck for about 4 hours before we went on stage. However, then we played a gig at a fairly big place and absolutely 100% died, strings broke, songs degenerated into discordant out of time chaos etc.

Anyway after you play a gig like that you realise that the worst possible outcome really isn't that terrifying - so you messed up a gig, nobody cares! - and you're nerves will disappear all but completely.

[adambum]

We open our school's sportsfest (high school), I'm so nervous on my first time (we're playing "When I come Around" by greenday) that I can't sing. No voice comin out my mouth... I was so embarassed coz my girlfriend's mom (she's a teacher) was looking at me face blank (I bet she's thinking what a loser I am... :) ) because of that incident, I really tried to overcome all the fears of "sucking on stage". Just think that if you let it overcome you, it'll be the most embarassing moment in your life... Don't try to think that you have to impress someone, do it for yourself. goodluck!!!

[Guila]

I just read on a magazine that there's a new medicine that is being used by musicians. This medicine blocks the chemical reactions that turns the adrenalin on for a period of time... The guys that used that seemed pretty happy...

[sam6]

in my first gig i was so solid that i couldnot to walk...but after some drink ....
it works man.. try it

[fortymile]

"I just read on a magazine that there's a new medicine that is being used by musicians. This medicine blocks the chemical reactions that turns the adrenalin on for a period of time... The guys that used that seemed pretty happy..."

sometimes, though, people die of heroin.


:(

[wiechfreak]

"I just read on a magazine that there's a new medicine that is being used by musicians. This medicine blocks the chemical reactions that turns the adrenalin on for a period of time... The guys that used that seemed pretty happy..."

sometimes, though, people die of heroin.


:(
Ha!