Stage fright - confidence spell or something?

[KaidaPyralis]

I'm a music student, I've been performing since I was about seven years old, and I still get awful stage fright when performing classically. It's crazy, because I love playing and I love performing, I just get really nervous. I've been playing about twelve years, so I know I'm capable, it's all in my head. It's becoming a real problem though, I've got a performance module next semester and I really want to play my best. It's so frustrating because I can play fine in rehearsal but as soon as it gets to the performance it never goes as well as it should.

Does anyone have any ideas as to anything that could help me get over this, crystals, confidence charms etc? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Kaida

[wiccachicken]

From one classical musician to another I would say don't do anything!! In my personal experience, it is always best to have nerves and butterflies in your stomach. Without it, you wouldn't get that magic sparkle that makes real perofrmances so different from rehearsing.

Just keep performing alot...in front of friends, family, whoever you can...and eventually your body will get used to it. And you'll start to love the feeling. I have been a piano player for 13 years and a singer for 10 years. Without nerves, my voice would not blossom the way it does when I perform.

You can get nerve drops. Its kind of like a tincture. You just put a couple of drops on your tongue and it relaxes you. Don't take too many though! Just one or two or you end being a bit giddy!! lol! The only way I got over my nerves was just by performing as much as possible...then you learn that it's all part of the performing process.

Good luck sweetheart. You will do fine. I'm sure can still cast a confidence spell...just to give you an extra boost. Don't get cocky though...thats always a bad thing...and dont rely on the spell. Music is a magick of it's own. The true magnificence of it comes from inside you. Take care mwah x x x

[Makbawehuh]

A certain amount of butterflies and nerves are to be expected, but if it's affecting your performance afterwards, you could try what I did before I went up for debates- Not a spell so much, as a meditation and on-the-spot fixer.

I found that if I was having really bad nerves, it's because I was focusing too much on what others around me would think of it, or other outside forces. Fear of failing was big too.

What I did was create a bunch of personal black holes. I've noticed on other threads that a box can be used for the same thing, but I was reading Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" when I came up with the idea....

The short of it is, while you are meditating before a performance, you let the black hole suck away your fears. When you're as calm as you're going to get, you go ahead and ground it, and you create a second one. This one, I -would- make a box for. I would then sort of mentally carry it around with me until I was done with the activity that was causing the anxiety. Any time I felt my fears start to spike, I would quickly pull out the "black hole", let it suck away my fears, and tuck it back into it's box. When I went home, I'd ground it. Eventually the whole process happens very quickly- Though you might find, like me, that once you're actually on stage, you don't need it as much as in those last ten minutes beforehand.

Afterwards, if nerves hit, I would go ahead and ride it out. It's healthier to let yourself feel these things than to keep sucking them away, but you need to be able to deal with them on your terms.

[jcrowfoot]

I agree. There's an episode of Picket Fences where a famous female jazz singer says (paraphrased) to a small child....

"You feel that fear? Yeah? Well, that means you are going to have a great performance, because without that fear you don't get the juice."

See, the thing is, that fear is also excitement. It's like why some people love riding roller coasters. My advice is to roll that fear over into being excited to perform, since the two are so closely linked. Get pumped. Get psyched. Think about doing your best peformance ever...Cheer yourself on in your head even before you get out of the car on the way to the performance.

That way, that nervous energy gets focused where it belongs, rather than being frittered away from being scared. After all, you know what happens... you walk on stage, do your bow, and sit down (or stand if you sing) and then after the first terror filled bars you sink into that wonderful comfortable feeling of doing something you know, know well, and can finally share. By the time it ends, you've forgotten about the audience, and it's over.... and you stumble back stage because you suddenly remembered what you did. Then you feel good about it once you are away....

Sound familiar? I used to do competitive piano nationally when I was a kid. So... I kinda know the drill.

EDIT: You did ask about stones, and I got carried away in my performance and forgot about them.

I'd do a combination of Lepidolite, carnelian and clear quartz or herkimer diamond. The carnielian is for courage, strength and positive attitude, the lepidolite keeps away the gitters and focuses you on creating music, and the herkimer diamond helps you meld your energies with your audience without fear. You can't tell me that, as a performer, that you don't submerge somewhere else, and sort of become one with your audience. This can be very frightening, even if it's just a temporary thing... that conscious mind *hates* loosing control, and giving it over to the creative mind (who doesn't mind getting lost in the crowd) is scary. Even scarier to the ego than embarasing yourself.

So, that's my $1.59 on this deal.

[[ForestWitch]]

I can't really help you as far as recommending magick to cure performance anxiety because I've never tried that. I'm a musician, though, and I've done a lot of performing. So is my daughter. So here are my words of wisdom on that subject.

Meditation, meditation, meditation. The more you can clear and calm your mind, the easier it is to get past performance anxiety. Read The Inner Game of Music. There are many helpful ideas there. Actually, this IS magick although I didn't realize it until long after I had learned to do it.

Also, pay attention to your cardio-vascular health. If that pre-performance adrenalyn rush translates into a pounding heart and shaking hands, THAT's what's affecting your performance. (What do you play, BTW?) If you've been getting regular cardio-vascular exercise, your heart rate will be lower to begin with and won't skyrocket so easily. Beta-blockers are another answer to this problem, but I really wouldn't recommend them for a young person. Also, musicians who use them do sometimes feel they lose a little "edge" in their performance. Still, sometimes they're a good temporary tool if your nerves are really messing up your performances.

I assume you're at the collegiate level? Isn't your applied professor doing anything to help you with this?