How do many of you deal with performance anxiety?

Peter Golemme for me, and perhaps others, there are two principal hurdles to getting more practice at performance: (1) finding opportunities to perform; and (2) the obsessive perfectionism that afflicts most piano players, and the extreme anxiety and fear we feel about falling short of our expectations or aspirations in performing  

The solution to number one  is to participate in the Tone base challenges and community concerts, as well as in Zoom groups, such as those people are talking about in this thread, as much as possible

The solution to number two is a little more difficult. But I find it helpful to remind myself that. ultimately my own bad performance is of little consequence to the rest of the world. Nobody’s been hurt, world peace has not been threatened, and there has been no devastating critique in the New York Times that is going to ruin my career.

the only collateral damage is to my own pride , and with repeated exposure to this experience, the wounded pride itself becomes more familiar, and ultimately less painful, and the corresponding threat of having it happen after a performance also diminishes. So let’s all go for it!

Peter Golemme 

The way I see it is simple and perhaps fatalistic in the healthiest possible way:

We will always fail to play as well in live performance as in the practice room. Our performances will always be distorted versions of what we try to achieve. So maybe the key lies in striving to achieve an end product that would sound distorted in the opposite way in the practice room! I.e., overly articulated if you tend to under-articulate when nervous, and overly slow if you tend to rush when nervous, and so on. I spoke about this before. And wasn't it Horowitz who said that if you can even recognize the piece during practice it means you're not practicing effectively?

Noel Nguyen Interesting quote from Horowitz. Can he really think that, or is that an overstatement designed to provoke thought?? In my case I usually recognize the piece when I'm practicing it, but I'm not sure anyone else would!

The idea of practicing the "negative" version of what tends to go wrong in performance is also very intriguing. I am definietly going to give that a try.

I also don't completely share your fatalistic view point.  I have experienced some very rare moments when the performane actually goes better than in the practice room.  The tension of the performance stage and the desire to connect to the audience can sometime release just enough adrenalin to inspire the right flow of technique and emotion., and sometimes even some new ideas on occasion. 

Admittedly it's very very rare, and in performing a classical piece from memory, you have to be absolutely secure in your memorization in order to set the stage for this to happen, because otherwise you're worrying about that on top of everything else.

It's a little less rare --but still rare - when playing a jazz tune, because you're not wrestling with memorization at the same time. Instead, you're implementing various options from your improvisational bag of tricks and can pick and choose among them depending on how it's going at the moment and the emotional direction you want to take. Of course a lot can go wrong there too, if you should get too bold or go down what proves to be a wrong path, or be unable to pull off what you were trying to play.

In improv, i find that the best performances are when you leave yourself a little bit open and at risk, but that also increases the probability of errors.  It almost never works for me to try to stick to a tried and true arrangement because it just doesn't seem to 'flow' in such cases.

Ok, well, I seem to be getting a little bit off topic here.  Whoever's read this far, thank you! and I'll go back to what I'm supposed to be doing today..

Peter Golemme always happy to read your well written and thoughtful posts 😊 and many things you have written here I find relatable.

Peter Golemme said:
The only way that I am aware of to get less anxious, and better at performing, is to perform!

I also had a monthly zoom group which ran a few years though now disbanded (it was also challenging to arrange when the timezone spanned from UK to LA!) Then of course Tonebase Community Concerts which I very much appreciate the friendliness and positive responses. Now I also participate in in-person meet ups whenever I can. From shaking legs and hands with upset stomach hours before, progressed to hands shaking mid-performance and continue trembling back in my seat for another 10mins after I'm done playing 😂 , and now I'm just relieved to get to the end without major incidents. And when people come up to say how much they appreciated the performance then the weight of those mistakes during performance is very much lighten.

Peter Golemme I also have played better when performing than practicing.

I don't really have performance anxiety, so I can't really relate to making mistakes because I am nervous.  

Maria I've never heard a performe say that Maria! that's very interesting to hear.  You seem to have a deep musical background and are immersed in many interesting pieces.  I hope we get to hear you in a Community Concert or other forum one of these days!

Maria Peter Golemme Thurmond, as well, doesn't have performance anxiety. He gets excited and ready to play, but has no fear of performing in front of people. Indeed, he seems to enjoy it immensely! Me, not so much.

It's been many years since I performed on stage in an athletic capacity (I think I was pregnant with Thurmond the last time), but as an athlete I have always tended to do better on stage or in competition than I did in practice. The crowd and the pressure always gave me a boost. Singing is so athletic, that I can usually handle any nervousness that comes with that. But piano is quite different, and I find that I get quite nervous if I'm to play in front of anyone. And it seems to be getting worse not better!

It seems Maria and Thurmond are extremely rare breeds! I'd say anxiety is a very natural response when there is a lot a stake. But some people are supernatural, I guess! I'd consider myself to be "smack dab in the middle of the average" in terms of performance anxiety. Most of the time I'm moderately anxious at the beginning of the performance, and sometimes when I'm in the zone it becomes exuberant excitement. But in most cases it's a mix of both. I can't say I have ever felt very calm when performing in front of people. Oh well

Peter Golemme I'm not really a performer. I think the reason I don't really have performance anxiety is that I just focus on what I am playing and don't really care whether people are watching me. I plan to participate in the next community concert, and hopefully I don't have something else happening that day as usual!

Michelle R I remember that time we had the opportunity to talk to Gwendolyn Mok about performance anxiety and Thurmond straight up said he didn't have it hahaha 😂 

Noel Nguyen Have you seen the movie “Free Solo”? Many people have theorized that Alex Honnold, the climber, has an amygdala that is not prone to fearful thoughts..

Researchers put him in an MRI and showed him disturbing images. His amygdala showed almost no activation, unlike the amygdala in the brains of other people. 

Now, this is a sample size of one so we shouldn’t jump to too many conclusions.

Alex has said that he feels fear but that he is not easily triggered. He may have trained himself to reduce his feelings of anxiety. After all, his mother found him on the roof of the house when he was a small boy.

Pianists who don’t feel performance anxiety may have trained themselves in order to mute those feelings.

My new piano teacher told me that she has a relative with Alzheimer’s who is still playing the piano, but who has lost her performance anxiety. 

This relative would never play for anyone and now she plays for people all the time, with no fear. I think she forgets all those feelings quickly.

Larry K  That's very interesting, and just confirms my point that performing with zero anxiety is extremely rare, unless you're a special kind of genius or have a brain defect. It's safe to say I am not even remotely a genius of any kind, so I guess I'll have to ask my neurosurgeon friend to remove my amygdala 🤣.

Michelle R  Looking forward to hearing you and Thurmond at our meeting next week😊.