Conquering stage frightMusic 

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under18carbon

under18carbon

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I have a problem.

Whenever I sit alone in my room and play the guitar, I can play the songs that I know well cleanly without mistakes, but when I have guests or friends come over and they ask me to play I get minor stage fright and start screwing things up. I miss notes, my fingers don't fret propery and even my picking gets all wrong (I guess it's not a minor problem then :lol: ). The only time I actually played on stage (in front of 650+ people), my stage fright lasted just a few seconds but when I started playing, everything went smoothly. But in front of my friends (just 6 of them) I had to actually turn around and face my back to them. :indiff:
(FYI, I played just 3 songs that I know *very, very* well)

Is it really a matter of how prepared you are? Is it practice?

Share your experiences and tips, please! Thanks. :)
 
I am not a performer of any sorts, so take my advice with a grain of salt: I just flatout ignore them. Focus on your what you are doing. Of course, if you are rockstar or something, you shouldn't ignore your audience, but if you are still "getting there" and need a quick fix, I think this should get you started. :D
 
This is what you do when you get on stage. Never look directly at your audience. Look at the wall behind them, and imagine you're performing to the wall. The audience will think your performing and looking at them :)

I did this each time I went on stage to perform. It works, you'll feel weird the first time, but you'll get used to doing it.
 
Put a roll of socks in your underwear, and just know that you pwn.

I always feel like crap before doing shows or performances and stuff, but once you get going, you just have to gel. And, yes, it REALLY helps the gelling process if you know what you're doing.
 
I have some type of problem with laughing when someone looks into my face when i'm playing in front of people,if i accidently look into their eyes,and the person is looking into mine,i feel silly!
 
Imagine the audience naked! Seems to work for a lot of people!
 
I used to get stage fright something terrible. I would be a nervous wreck leading up to the gig. Once I got started I seemed to OK but the anticipation about killed me. Something that still helps me is to really groove with the music. Most gigs I don't even see the people out there, I'm not playing for the people, I'm playing for myself. The last thing I'm trying to do is impress anyone. This attitude has helped me tons. I still get nervous when I know there's muscians watching closely to what I'm doing, but I try not to let it effect me and I go on playing for me and not to impress them. After all it's about the music....at least that's the case for me.

:cheers:
 
the first time i played guitar in front of a group, the band was playing in front of 20-30 people. we were opening up for the main act, but it was like a real show to us so we were a bit nervous. btu not nervous enough to really effect the show. We went in like that, but halfway during the show a few slipups occured. our drummer messed up, and I unfortunately (most embarassing thing ever) accidently unplugged my guitar with my feet.. Thats when I got nervous. But everything turned out well and some people said we did better than the main act so it was cool.
 
Pretend they're not there, works perfectly, if you look at them, you'll be more likley to go wrong :indiff:
 
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