is there a way to keep yourself calm before playing infront of a whole crapload of people!?! everytime i have to play, i get nervous! - even when its just my MOM or something! help please..and dont give me that crap about "oh, just imagine them in their underwear!" -that advice sucks! thanks, bye...p.s. im not that micheal jackson..its a coincidence

Well, I can say that I have the same problem! I get nervous even when I am just plying scales in front of people! I shake, for goodness sakes! I just bear with it, and sometimes my shaking gives me a good vibrato! I have played many solos in front of people, and have eventually gotten, well... used to it. It`s like, oh! another solo, ok, lets do this! Our concert was broadcast online, people watched in paris (im in the US) This doesn`t help, I know, but at least you know your not the only one with the problem, and it goes away.

If the advice "sucks", don`t bother replying

this is a great topic! there are several good books written on the subject of performance stess; off the top of my head, performance success by dr. don greene.

whats worked for me in the past is to simply practice performing. when getting ready for a big audition/concert i usually:

1. play through the audition/concert three times a day, at different times. in effect this is like three perfomances a day. the important thing is don`t warm up very much and don`t stop or replay anything.

2. run through the material in my mind. this technique is borrowed from sports. often atheletes visualize making a basket, touchdown, etc. in their mind, and the same technique can be applied to music. if you can "hear" it then you can also play it.

3. perform as much as possible. i usually play for friends, relatives, collegues, whoever will listen.

hope this helps some. good luck!

yer nerves everyone gets them people say they dont but they do. i always get nervous and they say its harder to play infront of ur family like sumone said even gettin nervous infront of there mum. ermm wot can u do about nerves hmm not much really lol its a hard thing to get over everone gets them but yer it is good to preform infront of people as much as u can u get used to it every chance u get to preform go for it! wot i usually do cos ive done loads of solos and every time ive got nervous i just try not to look at the people im preforming for usually makes it worse if i see how many are actually watching lol i also if im not using music close my eyes and feel the music sorta go of on my own so try and forget the people are even there if that makes much sense. also try not to go over it too much before ur about to preform cos that will only get urself worked up, and wont make things any easier for u.
Good Luck with the solos and all the preformances hope they go well

Laura x