Performance Anxiety in Young Performers
Words by Ellie McLaren
When I started learning the fiddle at 8 years old, what I now know to be Performance Anxiety was never an issue. I could stand on a stage in front of friends, family and strangers, play to the best of my ability and had many successes in competitions and festivals. However, once these successes began, the nerves and inner voices did too. I was always told that nerves were “a good thing” or “it would be unnatural if you weren’t nervous”. However, as I got older, I began to think that this was something more than just nerves. I have spoken to my peers at university, and it would appear that everybody experiences Performance Anxiety differently - hardly surprising.
Personally, I find that inner voices attempt to sabotage a performance. For example, if a tricky set was going well without particular flaws, a voice would say – “Be careful, you usually mess this bit up.” or “Wow, you haven’t made any mistakes yet, bet you can’t make it to the end now.” Inevitably this sends my brain into overdrive and hyper-concentration which 99% of the time will lead to slipping up. Others have said that their inner voices just generally get in the way of their concentration, being more of a distraction and leading them to think about other things.
For countless others, Performance Anxiety presents itself in physical symptoms. Nausea, feeling light-headed or faint, having repeated urgency to use the loo, extremes in body temperature, sweaty palms, rapid heartrate and shaky hands or voice are just a few examples. It became much more apparent, when thinking about the list above and writing it down, that these symptoms can be more problematic than most are willing to admit, particularly amongst young musicians. There are, of course, ways to make these physical elements easier such as breathing techniques, but this doesn’t always calm the mushy brain.
A lot of pressure can be piled onto young musicians from an array of different sources. Parents and family, teachers, peers and your own brain can seriously hinder the process of improvement as a musician due to the extreme levels of pressure. A few musicians I spoke to whilst writing the blog mentioned the stress of financial strain on their families. Primarily, music lessons and instruments cost a lot of money. Paired with this comes a sense of responsibility to practise, turn up for lessons, look after instruments etc, and if these tasks are not fulfilled, money is being wasted. However, this does not call for extra added pressure and criticism from others.
Another strong contender is imposter syndrome. This is when an individual doubt their talents and abilities to an extreme and they have an internal feeling of being classed as a fraud, despite the successes and achievements they may have. This is very common, particularly with younger musicians, having the pressure to progress in order to keep up with the big names in the scene. Additionally, going back to my previous point, this pressure can be enthused by others’ expectations of you.
When reading through the blog myself, I feel like I have just listed various forms of performance anxiety, but I guess the point that I’ve been trying to make is that performance anxiety is an extremely common thing. I, unfortunately, cannot provide advice on how to help as I am still trying to find solutions myself. However, I have come to realise that feeling anxious, nervous, nauseous or faint before a performance is okay. Understandably, anxiety around performing can come from wanting to do well and make others proud, but it shouldn’t be off-putting. Raising the point and letting other performers know that they aren’t the only one experiencing these symptoms is the main point of the blog. It’s not something to hide or run away from, but to try to slowly find ways of dealing with it which would make performing easier. Hopefully by talking about it more, performers won’t have to deal with unnecessary pressure – audiences are paying to hear you, don’t take their criticism and pressure as a reason to doubt yourself, to lose motivation or to stop performing.