Tag: recording yourself

Record Yourself to Reduce Performance Anxiety

I asked many of my students to casually record themselves during practice to reduce their anxiety. It was something different that I wanted to try for getting ready for the Christmas recital. I’ve noticed a big decrease in stage fright this year and it reduced their anxiety.

Casual Recording vs Regular Recording

Casual recording is different than regular recording. Here’s the difference.

In regular recording, you’re playing through something 200 times trying to get a good take. You’re used to playing it perfectly, but it won’t come out right because that ominous recording light is on. It’s important to get everything perfect because you’re going to share it with others.

In casual recording, you just turn on the recording device, whatever comes out comes out, and you go back to practicing as normal. You don’t plan on sharing the recording, but you might review it to see if there’s something that you can improve. Maybe.

Some Results

First of all, I have to say that I didn’t create a scientific study. I’m dealing with people, not double-blind studies. Here are the patterns I’m seeing from my students and myself in the nervousness factor.

Starting Point: Crash and burn at least once per phrase, insists they can play perfectly at home. I believe them. I assign them to casually record themselves once a day.

1 Week of Recording Themselves: played through the whole thing with only one or two crash-and-burns.

2 Weeks of Recording Themselves: played through the whole thing with confidence, one or two small mistakes.

3 Weeks of Recording Themselves: played through the whole thing with confidence and emotion. Maybe a mistake or two because they’re human.

I have a tendency to attract a certain kind of student to my studio. I’m not saying that your results will be the same. Yours might be better or worse. This is just a summary of what I’m seeing in my studio, purely anecdotal.

Casual Recording Helps with Performance Anxiety

So, how does casual recording help? It makes the act of recording a no-big-deal, every day kind of thing. It makes you used to dealing with performance anxiety on a certain level each time you do it. That’s why I’ve been recommending my students to casually record themselves once a day to reduce their anxiety.

A regular recording might actually increase your anxiety because your body is thinking, “Ugh, another three hours to record one piece, and even then it won’t be perfect.” Can you feel the dread?

From my results, I’m going to start assigning casual recording for a month before a performance. I’ve seen how it has helped my students this winter. I know it will help them through the rest of their lives.

Fake Performance Practice Technique

Fake performance can be done in many different ways, and it’s vital for during the last few weeks before an actual performance. It helps you learn how to keep going despite mistakes and it helps get your jitters out before the performance.

Simple Definition of a Fake Performance

The simple definition of a fake performance it to play through a piece without stopping. This is so hard! We want to go back and fix the mistake. It’s a knee-jerk reaction, but try to fight it.

Play your mistake as if you meant to do it by extending the length of the wrong note, rather than changing it right away. For example, if the note is supposed to be a half note, then hold your wrong note for a whole beat before correcting it. If it’s a sixteenth note, hold the incorrect note for the entire time of a sixteenth, then move on to the next note.

If your mistake was an incorrect rhythm, just make sure that the number of beats equal the correct amount for the measure and move on. You get the idea. No one needs to know that there was an actual mistake.

Different Ideas for a Fake Performance

As I said before, there are several ways to do a fake performance. Here are several ideas. Each fake perfomance style increases the nervousness, which helps you get ready for being nervous for the stage.

Toys

I don’t care how old or young you are, perform for a stuffed animal or a doll. It will help you because you’ll see their eyes staring at you out of the corner of your eye. Toys are generally non-judgemental, from what I’ve noticed. 😉

Metronome

I know I didn’t mention it here, but I personally get a little nervous with the metronome. This helps with the gradual increase of nervousness that I try to build up before a performance.

The metronome forces me to not stop. I just own my mistake by playing it for the length of the note that I was supposed to play, then move on to the next note that I’m supposed to play. This is really hard. If you’re having a hard time doing that, try holding your mistake for twice as long as the note you were supposed to play – this gives you time to think.

Record Yourself

Recording yourself creates nervousness. Creating a sound recording makes me less nervous than a video, but you might be different. I’m not saying that you should do anything with the recording unless you want to, I’m just saying that creating a recording helps a lot.

Play for One or Two People

I am a very non-judgemental person, so those are the kind of friends that I have. I have been known to play for a friend and have them pretend to be judgemental, all the way down to the looks on their faces. It really helps me get the jitters out ahead of time.

Play in a (Somewhat) Public Place

Play your wind instrument outside. It’s not necessarily around other people, but someone could come along.

Play with your windows open. People might be walking past your house, they might not. You don’t know.

You can go to any public piano and start playing. No one will stop you (unless there’s a pandemic). No one might be there, but someone could walk by.

Ideas for public pianos? Movie theaters, nursing homes, churches, shopping malls, just keep your eyes open. You’ll see them. As I said before, don’t do this during the social distancing thing.

Conclusion

As you can see, the ideas for fake performance get harder and harder. This is on purpose. The whole purpose for fake performance is to practice performing. This way the real performance goes off without a hitch. Or maybe less hitches.