I was wondering if any of you have had this happen:

Things are going well during practices at home, but upon stepping in front of your instructor, the hands start to shake, the bow bounces like a jumping bean! The violin screeches like a cat on the rack and the song you played a gazillion times sounds like the first day you played it!!!

It`s especially silly coming from me, who teaches complex computer concepts in front of my classroom audience daily, and has made speeches in front of as many as 1,000+ people, to go shakey with stage fright when I know good and well there`s no reason for it. Just goes to show what happens when we get knocked off our pedestles and have to perform when we are not in our element!!

My instructor is wonderful and encouraging. I let her know that I`m having major stage fright playing in front of her and she was very understanding. I assured her I sounded a lot better at home! I know that confidence will come with time and practice, but it would be great to hear of any stage fright experiences the rest of you have had.

Believe me it IS normal :c)When I played guitar at home my friends were really amazed sometimes. Then when it came to time, that I had to present my work to my teacher I was frightened to a level, where I almost forgot what my name was :P The point is, that when You want to show You`re best You become stressed that something might go wrong, even though you did it hundreds of times. Don`t worry, believe, that all will be fine :c)))

Well, It happens to me too. But only when I play in front of strangers. I care so much what are inside their minds. when I am playing, I am also thinking what are inside their minds. About what they think about my play. And then the shaking bow will come after that and all fingering become entangled. But Once I get to know and meet those people quite often all those things gone.

well i feel good and want to play in front of people and when i do you get happy when they say like woah. what have you to lose? if you stuff up who cares? Heres a question, have you ever seen someone do a mistake performing and actually remembered it for more than a week? if not then im quite sure everyone else will be the same when you make a mistake and anyways when i played for my friends with piano when i stuffed up or repeeted something i pretended that it was part of the piece. ( just dont go " oh i made a mistake". if you keep quiet they say nothing and will think its just a wierd song.

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This happens to me to, but only with certain people. For example, I think its fun playing in recitals and music festivals and am only mildly nervous. When I first started playing for my current teacher I was deffinately nervous (I switched teachers at the begginning of the year) but I`m used to it now. I went to a music camp last summer and I was very nervous in the master classes, about what the other players and expecially the scary teachers would think. The wierd thing i, there were some teachers that I was really nervous for (LIke the one guy where he asked me what the smalest note in the first bar was and I said an eight note even though i knew it was a sixteenth, and then he spent the whole rest of the time going over easy rythm stuff with me, and I kept answering his questions wrong!) Then I had a private lesson with this other lasy, and I wasn`t nervous at all. I think it was because she was so nice and calm, and I just started playing the very same song I played for everyone else but I did my best and enjoyed it .

The other times I`ve been very nervous is to play at school for my class, and of course, exams. I don`t mind playing for a whole group of people who I don`t know, but I can`t stand just playing for one person who`s completely focused on me and marking me.

It happens to me too, especially in front of my teacher! I`m much better in front of a larger audience than I am in front of her. I think it`s because I know she`s going to listen for and hear any and all mistakes I make, whereas an audience either won`t, or doesn`t care so much (unless it`s a whopper!). ;-)

Also funny is that I`m extremely uncomfortable when my lesson starts, and her other (very young) students are still waiting for parents to come pick them up. LOL...go figure (even though I`m still better than most of them...like, not to brag or anything...;-)).

My nervs work randomly. Usually, there is almost always a medium amount of nervousness at least, but one time I got a "Best of Site" solo for a piece I played for the String Fest competition. Then, I had to play my solo on stage at the spring concert! I had only been playing for 1 year! I was convinced I was going to get sooo nervous. I prayed almost every night before the concert for a week for me not to be nervous, and convinced myself that I would not mess-up etc... I played it the morning of the concert during orhcestra practice in front of my teacers and I was medium-nervous. Then the night of the conert, I wasn`t nervous at all! I think I had been sooo nervous before it and everything that my nerves didn`t make it to the performance!

However, I switched teachers shortly after that experience (this concert was last spring). When I had my first recital and he was there I was the most nervous I had ever been in my life! I really wanted to impress him, and I really didn`t do my best performance, but it was good. I then performed the same piece two weeks later at a small mall in a rotunda-type area (outside a barns and noble where the piano was). Once I started playing, all these people stopped to watch and listen. There must have been at least 15 by the time I had finished! I wasn`t that nervous, if at all.

My experiences all differ, like I said at first, for me it is almost random.

-Tim

Yes, yes, yes. With my 2nd most recent teacher, who got mad at me for the slightest mistake, and with my most recent teacher, until my subconsciousness got the message that he wasn`t going to yell at me. And even then I didn`t play my best.

Thanks so much! I`m glad to know it isn`t just me at all! That helps a lot. I kinda thought I`d get one or two responses to that question and was very surprised and encouraged to see so many! Thanks again!!
-Claire

I had a bad case of `stage fright` during last night`s lesson. I have no idea why. I`ve been playing the same 3 songs for the last 4 lessons (I`ve got the notes down pat, we`re working on technique)...yet I just blew it! I think it was a combination of being tired, excited, had my new violin, the teacher had moved to a new location...

...LOL...but I was still so BAD...hahaha...

I tell you guys... it is SUCH a relief to know it`s not just me that this happens to! I had the same thing happen. When I went to my second lesson I`d practiced about 2 hours daily, was pleased with how much better I was doing, but got so nervous, I played horribly, almost as badly as the first time I picked up the violin! I swear my bowing hand was shaking so badly I sounded like I was doing a vibrato!! (when I wasn`t making schreeching sounds, that is!!) I`m hoping my 3rd lesson, which is tomorrow, will go better!

I`m sure it will...keep us `posted`.

Anyone heard of the Alexander Tachnique?