Do you want to conquer stage fright when singing or performing generally?
So, I was having a chat with a fab student of mine on Friday night about how to conquer stage fright. Despite having a sickeningly good voice, and performing regularly, they still find the nerves knock them off balance whenever they perform – so, how to conquer stage fright is the question to answer! I have also been chatting over Twitter with one or two people who find then same problem. Sometimes it’s mild nerves, sometimes it outright destroys performances.
While chatting with my student in their lesson about this, I explained my approach to being on stage and dealing with stagefright.
Most people, when they speak to amateur performers or people who do public speaking a reasonable amount, about how to get over stage fright, they often tell them ‘look over their heads’, or ‘imagine them naked’, or ‘pretend they’re not there’… but I think that approach is flawed. In my opinion, the whole issue of stage fright stems from an overawareness of one-self. It stems from being way too aware of how one looks and sounds on stage. And by doing all of the above it reflects an inward acceptance that you look stupid on stage (which isn’t true!), and only buys into that mindset even further. This approach doesn’t dissolve the issue of stage-fright, it actually makes it MORE concrete, but tries to ‘deal with it’ by placing this imaginary stage-fright demon character on the sideline.
Instead, I advocate changing the focus. I advocate changing the focus not AWAY from the audience, but specifically focusing ON the audience. Yep, you read that right.
Focus ON the audience to conquer stage fright.
Follow me if you will.
When people go to watch a performance, they think they are there to watch the performer – i.e. this places the performer as the ‘subject’ of this situation. They will watch the performer sing, dance, jump around on stage, and they will watch eagerly for the stuff you do, and the audience will think that’s what they are there to do… and the performer thinks that is what the audience is there to do. The audience has specifically turned up to scrutinise your every move and observe every mistake you make *cue hyperventilation*
Well let me tell you, this is 100%…
WRONG
This sounds petrifying! Til you realise this is WRONG and is not what’s really going on.
Yes, the audience is watching you, but it is not what the true situation is. The watching of you stems from what the true situation is. The audience watches you, because THEY are the ones who are there to be entertained. They are not there just to watch someone, they are there to be entertained and ultimately ENGAGED by you.
Wait a minute…
…if they are there to be engaged by you, then that means THE AUDIENCE is the subject in this situation. They are the stars of the show! They have turned up wanting to be charmed, won over, entertained, brought up and brought down. It is not their job to watch you, it is YOUR job to entertain them.
How do you entertain someone? Well, unless you are a hermit, you’ve all had conversations with people, and you can probably remember some great conversations you’ve had with friends and family members.
Whenever you have a chat with someone, you naturally try to talk about topics you have in common, and you exchange lines of conversation with them. When you are in a group, you organically take turns to speak, you make eye contact, your tone rises and falls, topics change and the people you look at change depending on the conversation at hand. These are simple social tools you can use and weave into the way you perform songs in order to focus on and engage with an audience. Treat them like they are the participants in a musical conversation. Of course, you are doing most of the talking, but you know in any conversation when someone is bored and when you need to change your tone or topic of conversation.
How much do you hate it when people can’t look you in the eye when they talk to you? Or when you are talking to them and they keep checking their phone? Or when people zone out because they don’t understand what you’re saying. Don’t let the audience do these things, and certainly don’t do these things yourself when performing. These are the goals to focus on, because when you’re doing all these things, you don’t have the TIME to focus on yourself.
Simple tips:
1) Make eye contact with the audience – your goal is to hold their gaze
2) Address whole sentences and thoughts in the lyrics to specific audience sections – your goal is to make them understand what you’re saying
3) Treat it like you are telling a story in front of a group – your goal is to hold their attention
THIS is observing the rules for enjoyable social interaction nature when it comes to human nature, and you can capitalise on this when on stage.
Remember, although they are watching you, they are the real stars of show. If you focus on the audience in the same way as you would when holding a conversation with someone, focus ON them and make sure they are looking at you, then your focus CANNOT be on yourself. When you make your objective to hold people’s attention, the focus on yourself very quickly abates. By changing the focus, you completely castrate and neuter the power that stage fright stems from. By focusing on the audience, they focus on you, without ‘you’ having to focus on ‘you’!
The audience is the subject, and they are the star of the show. By focusing on the audience and being so tunnel-visioned on engaging them, you don’t worry about yourself. In doing so, you make them focus on you, and engage with you, which makes your performance all the more compelling.