Is The Audience Being Judgmental?

Judgmental Audience

Back when I was in school, part of what gave me stage fright was that I thought everyone in the audience was being judgmental towards me. I thought that they were going to come up to me and point out everything that I did wrong, or, worse, talk about it behind my back.

I thought they were sitting there, waiting to find something wrong with what I did. Ready to pounce.

My Epiphany

When I was about halfway through college, someone told me that the audience wants me to do well. They aren’t waiting for me to mess up, they’re happy (maybe even excited) to hear me.

It’s been a long road to change my thought process about an audience being judgmental towards me. It’s hard. Every once in awhile, I still catch myself going back into that kind of thinking.

Reminder

Fast forward to now (an undisclosed amount of time, lol). I subscribe to some blogs, a few of which are about psychology because I teach.

A few weeks ago, I saw this quote in an email: “If you feel that people are judging you, it’s really you who are judging yourself.” That quote was to talk about this article from one of the blogs that I follow.

Does that mean I’m judgmental towards myself? Probably, but how am I going to get any better if I don’t assess my playing ability?

It’s good to be able to assess your ability, but this article was a good reminder to not be so hard on myself. Maybe I need to set aside practice times when I only focus on what I did right so I learn how to not be constantly assessing myself.

This article reminded me of that conversation I had back in college. Everyone needs reminders like that. I hope it helps you.

Author: Tarah

I started playing flute in 1988 and piano in 1991. In 1996, my high school chose me to teach flute and piano to a partner grade school. I was chosen for a similar program in college. Tarah Schoell has always loved sharing her music and guiding others to learn new things. Because of this, she went to college to be a music teacher and has a B.S. in Elementary Education with a Concentrate in Music from Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN. Tarah uses her music education degree to teach from her flute and piano studio, play in various professional and community ensembles, and run a blog on practice techniques at thequarternotes.com. She is active in the Omaha Music Teacher’s Association because she likes to support her fellow music teachers and use the monthly continuing education opportunities.

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