We practice. And practice. Then, practice some more. Suddenly, it’s time to perform. How many times has it happened to the best of us, that even after countless hours of perfecting our playing, we still feel underprepared? Don’t worry, this is very common, and an experienced performer will know of a couple of tricks to help facilitate a more comfortable and confident performance. Let’s look at what those may be.

1. DON’T HAVE A ROUTINE

If you are one of the superstitious sort, you may likely have a whole array of to-dos before a stage performance. What to drink, what to wear, what to eat suddenly becomes so important, should you have a pre-concert routine. The issue with a routine is that when a part of it goes astray, you feel out of balance. Having no routine on the day of a show just means that you can enjoy your time in any way possible leading up to it, without any pressure.

2. PRETEND THE STAGE IS YOUR LIVING ROOM

The best way to take away the stress of performing is to take away the notion of importance given to a venue. Most of us feel comfortable playing at home, so why not treat the stage the very same way. In fact, when we pretend the seat on the stage is just like our most comfortable sofa at home, everyone in the audience becomes a closer listener, and not a distanced entity.

3. YOU ARE THERE TO ENTERTAIN

When we practice by ourselves, we commit to a certain level of perfection, and we anticipate the audience judging us upon that. This is likely false, because as many forms of entertainment, you are also there to entertain. So, relax and accept that everyone wants to just have a good time, and no one is there to judge.

4. MISSED NOTES

Contrary to the popular belief of perfectionist musicians, the listeners don’t count missed notes. What the audience does recognize is when a musician shows signs of disturbance, when a note is missed. Think about it–in an hour and a half long performance, there are likely many thousand notes played. A few slipped notes are imperceptible in the scope of a full evening.

5. ACCEPT IMPERFECTION

Hours of practicing make us wish for a level of perfection. Having that at the forefront when we actually perform exerts a lot of stress, and the whole show becomes a wild goose chase. No one is perfect, so accepting this gives us space to enjoy ourselves on stage at the level where we currently are. We cannot be better than ourselves, but we can be the best version possible.

We hope this article provided some useful tips. Write to us with any questions or topic requests, and we will happily consider.