Last night I was invited from the Session leader to pick a tune to lead the group off (this session allows beginners to start a tune off for the group and is very supportive). I did so but I got so nervous that I actually “blank out” and forget how to play the tune. As the group continues the tune I jump back in but I can never play the tune all the way through. I can play the tunes I know fine if I am at home…but put me in front of people (or even just my teacher) and I get really nervous and mess up.
So my question to all the veteran session players is this: What do you do to calm your nerves?
I already know that practice, practice and more practice will help some and I also know that even the veteran players still get nervous.
Anyhow, thank you in advance for your replies. I am taking this experience as a positive; at least I got up there and tried…especially only playing the whistle for 3 1/2 months.
The only thing I could add is that when the nerves set in, sometimes we overlook simple things like breathing, etc. So, don’t forget to breathe !
Job well done. You are past the first step.
There is a difference, too, in being able to play a tune well enough to play along in session, and being able to play it well enough to start it.
Because the pressure is on and everyone will be watching you, anything that can go wrong probably will.
The solution is twofold:
First, tunes that you are going to start in session, you need to play over and over again until you can play them in your sleep. It needs to be clean, and you need to be very confident in your ability to play it.
Also, you will have a tendency when the pressure’s on to start the tune faster than you think you are playing. Knowing that, if you start the tune a bit slow on purpose, it’ll come out to be about the right speed.
Finally, don’t sweat it if you train wreck. Everyone in the circle will have, at some point, done the same thing.
I’m not nervous when playing in a group, but I am nervous when playing solo for family and friends. Playing with others is different than playing for others, at least for me. It’s even taken me close to two years to be able to play for my teacher without nervousness.
I think my years as a manager helped me immensely. Speaking to groups, public presentations, etc. all help with being at ease with yourself in front of others. Before that I was incredibly shy about some things, and still can be. I know it’s not directly related, but perhaps you could benefit from a public speaking course or somesuch.
I’ve not played in a session, but I have played at church on several occasions. I’ve sung in groups both large and small, and solo on occasion for the greater part of my life and that doesn’t bother me (I guess it did in the past, however) but playing the whistle in front of others causes my heart to beat so hard that I would imagine that you can here it in the tone!
Rap–James and sackbut are right on the money. The only way to get over it is to do it. I wouldn’t waste the money on “Inner Game”–I have it and wasn’t impressed. There’s no big secret formula. Or maybe there is, but it isn’t in that book. Just play, alot, for people you know will support you. Eventually the panic will condense into a slight nervousness that is more akin to excitement than fear. I use it to stay focused.
good luck, and congrats on your first lead–
Tom
p.s. If you are really into getting that book, shoot me a pm with your address and I’ll be happy to send you my copy.
When it goes well, when you start your tune and everyone recognizes it and jumps in, and then when it’s over, the lady who plays fiddle smiles at you, and the ancient box player who can barely walk anymore nods knowingly at you and gives you a thumbs-up…it’s worth it.
More addictive than any drug, that feeling is, and the intense hunger for it is the motivating factor behind some of the best musicians I’ve known (and, unfortunately, some of the worst as well).
My point: hang in there. I think you’ll find it to be well worth the effort.
peeplj - no doubt that I am going to stick with it. I played trumpet several years…a good part of them in a marching band. There was nothing like the feeling when everything clicked and finish the set to a thunderous applause. I miss that feeling and I am so anxious to get that back. I know that I will eventually get there…I just tend to be impatient and want to play really good in sessions RIGHT NOW. Alas, I know that I will need to keep at it and it will eventually come.
I marched in the NLU Sound of Today marching band in '84-'85 and '85-'86.
I still have the albums we recorded when I was there. They irritate my wife but always make me smile. The band had about 340 members: when we took the field, we took the field.
Good idea. Once you get used to playing with those couple of friends, try to convince them to come with you to the session. When you start your chosen tune, they’ll start right in with you as usual, and you’ll be on your way.
A four-times-a-year session in Hiram invited Liz Carroll to lead us last year, and there was a huge turnout. She asked people to start tunes and I decided, after much hand wringing, to start my go-to tune: Donnybrook Fair. I know it dead and can start it with a roll or without, which is the better way to start it when I’m nervous. Nonetheless, when I put lips to fipple and pushed air into the tube, my fingers decided to forget both openings. I had three false starts, and a friend started it for me. I wanted to crawl into a fiddle case and stay there until everyone went home.
My ‘stage fright’ makes it hard for me to show people new tunes by playing them through, because the swallow reflex intensifies and I have to make frequent stops to swallow, which does not make for a smooth rendition. I ahve found that the thing that helps me is to close my eyes and try to find the place where I feel like I do when I’m at home, just letting my fingers do what they know how to do. Over thinking messes me up.
So my question to all the veteran session players is this: What do you do to calm your nerves?
There are a couple of conditions that you allude to, firstly in the title of your post ‘stagefright’ and secondly in the question above, ‘nerves’.
Stagefright is where someone will get up and try to perform in front of a group of people (or even one for that matter) and then freeze. Even though that person has prepared long and hard, the brain goes blank, the fingers won’t recieve signals from the brain and when they try to think about what they are trying to do all they get is the microsoft ‘blue screen of death’ in their minds eye!!
How do you get around ‘the freeze’? I can only say, be fully prepared and know exactly what it is you need to do when you are ready to start.
Now, nerves are something different entirely. I still get nervous after all these years. I am not afraid that I will stuff up in a tune, I am well past caring about that, I just get so sick in the pit of my stomach that I am almost at the point of being physically sick. I have had this all my life, it happened when I was waitng to go out on the field to play football, it happened before I went out to play in a band on stage. I told tell a friend of mine (who had never played in front of anyone before) that it was all too easy, she would soon be over her nerves and before she knew it the show would be over and she would wonder what all the fuss and worry was about.
It wasn’t until we had been playing for a few years together that I told her what I suffered before going out to play. She said that she always looked to me for that calming tone, the ‘You’ll be fine, this is dead easy’ reassurance. She was surprised to hear that I had such bad nerves, and said that she never ever noticed.
Once I get out and start playing everything is fine.
I was used to playing in sessions and just fitting in, I hardly ever needed to start into sets as there were/are always people wanting to lead off with their sets, so it was never a case of ‘Oh dear, we’ve run out of tunes, hey! how about you start a set for us?’
So back to your question…I have never had to worry about freezing up in a session, I don’t have nerves that are related to ‘Am I going to stuff up when they ask me to start a set off’.
The few pointers I can give are these;
If you are going to start off a set, you must know it backwards. Take a big deep breath, and don’t rush into the start of the first tune. I am amazed at some of the beginners I hear playing who start off a set at full tilt and can only last for as long as their first breath will last, they then realise that by the time they have taken their next breath the tune has left them behind and they can’t catch up. A common comment from begginers after the set is finished is somewhere along the lines of ‘You all sped up, I couldn’t catch you’. In a good session, and I mean a session that shows consideration for begginers abilities, they will only play at the speed that you start off at. So if you are going to go ripping into a set with a breakneck start, then the other players will stay at that speed as they are assuming that is a speed you are comfortable with.
So really be mindfull of the speed at which you launch into a tune, and you will find that leading off a set will be a loy more enjoyable. Be fully prepared. Or drink a great deal!, thank’s s1m0n
I can totally relate to your plight- sessions, gigs- doesn’t matter- I undergo an emotional meltdown if attention is focused on me at all… That said, it has been getting better-I’ve even gotten to the point that I’ve been able to actually eat if I’m going to be playing with a group in public, as opposed to my prior existence of subsisting on coffee only all day as the thought of eating was enough to make me sick to my stomach. I don’t play a lot in public, but it has gotten better. I still try not to lead off a set in a session though, even though I know it’s dumb and what’s the worst I could do; screw up a tune badly?
What’s helped some for me, besides time and lots of practice, is playing with people who are supportive and not judgemental; sessions vary greatly as I’m sure you’ve figured and some are lots more forgiving and loving than others. I try to avoid the ones with attitudes. Also, I’ve found that playing a contra dance is lots of fun as the “audience” is engaged in dancing and not staring at the stage- it’s the staring at the stage part that gets me all the time…
Thus far I’ve only played fiddle in sessions- haven’t tried out my whistle yet- am easing into it by playing with a friend or two first but I know that no matter how much I have worked on a tune, I may very well freeze totally tying it in a session, so it will be one in someone’s livingroom and not a public one for sure…
Also, what else has kinda helped is to start paying attention to when musicians(professional types) whom I really respect make mistakes on stage in a gig- bagpipe squawks, etc- it does happen I’ve realized and they just sail on without for the most part even acknowledging that it happened. So I figure if at their level they STILL mess up now and then and they do this in front of 600 people or whatever, hey- what’s the worst that can happen if I mess up?
As for all the drug/alcohol reccomendations- yes, some people definitely use those, but my former fiddle teacher says that eating bananas helps- something to do with the potassium perhaps? I’m not sure how many one would have to eat, but it couldn’t hurt I suppose, unlike the drugs…
