I’ve noticed that between the ages of 13 and 17 years, many of my middle and high school students are suddenly hit with nerves or performance anxiety. I remember this time myself, when playing the flute in front of an audience was no longer a carefree event, but one I thought was fraught with danger. I wish someone had given me a manual or greeting card that said something like “Welcome to the World of Performance Anxiety, Everyone Gets It and You’ll Be Just Fine!”

There are an ever-increasing number of manuals and books about performance anxiety, which I’ll refer to later, but there are some basic concepts that should be discussed when you first notice the experience of nervousness while playing your flute.

As you become an adult, you’re moving from an uninhibited state of childhood to a growing awareness of yourself and how others perceive you. Many of my students talk about how easy it was to just get up and play in a recital or contest and ‘think nothing of it’, through their teens or even twenties. But then perceptions change – now that you’re older, you might think more seriously about getting up and performing because you know what can go wrong, and it has become important to play well and make a good impression on your audience. The key to dealing with performance anxiety is to ultimately find a balance between having that really great feeling of child-like freedom and a conscious, realistic awareness of your performance.

The primary reason for stage fright is physiological, stemming from our ancient ancestors who were faced with real physical dangers such as large toothy predators. In those situations it was important to have an increased heart rate, loss of blood flow to the extremities and a sense of heightened awareness. This is commonly called the ‘fight or flight response’. We can observe this ability in our pets, for example when a cat or dog feels threatened their fur stands on end to make them appear bigger. There are numerous symptoms of fight or flight response in humans, including goose bumps (our version of puffing up), fast heart rate, shallow breathing, sweaty palms, shaking, dry mouth, drooling, nausea, being too cold or too hot, inability to concentrate, and difficulty doing complex tasks.

In our modern world, it is less useful to have the urge to fight or run away. This kind of reaction to a perceived stressful situation is not going to be helpful to a flute performance! There are, however, some benefits to being nervous that many musicians relish and enjoy. The added excitement of playing in front of an audience can bring out a better performance, perhaps you can play faster than usual, and things feel more musical and spontaneous . To some extent, performers can use the energy of the performance to advantage. Problems arise when the body’s response to the performance results, for example, in a slippery flute. Dealing with performance anxiety, then, is a combination of using the nervous energy when you can and mitigating it when it gets to be too much.

The solutions and techniques for mitigating performance anxiety are numerous, and most musicians use a combination of approaches to get the best result. Firstly, I like to remember why it is that I enjoy playing my flute and performing in the first place – I enjoy sharing music with others and I genuinely like the music I’m going to play. Secondly, I find it helpful to remember an experiment that has been done in many performance classes.Everyone in the audience is surveyed to find out “What were you really thinking when Sally played her flute just now?” Almost always the answer isn’t “Oh my, she just played that note too sharp,” but something more like, “Oh, that was pretty,” or even “I wonder what I’ll have for lunch today.” Our egos, big as they are, often get involved in exploiting performance situations with thoughts like “Don’t mess up, that was horrible, you should be embarrassed, and so and so thinks that last passage was terrible.” In reality, audience members are only partially attending to your ‘very important’ performance, and are not so concerned with your mistakes.

Of course, one of the best remedies for anxiety is lots of practice and preparation for a performance. This may include drilling technical passages, extra rehearsals with the accompanist, and playing for others in advance of your performance – friends, family, your flute class, your stuffed animals, or a video camera – anything to simulate the reality of a performance so that you’re familiar with how you will feel.

Visualization, a commonly accepted sports technique, can be helpful both when you are learning a new piece and when you are getting ready for the performance. Scientists have shown that just imagining doing an activity in intricate detail causes your brain to make new connections and send messages to the muscles involved, resulting in improved performance. So, imagine your performance moment-by-moment, from waiting backstage all the way through to your final bow.

Meditation and breathing exercises can be really useful in diminishing the physical manifestations of nervousness, by slowing your heart rate and breathing. Simply counting slowly as you inhale and exhaling for the same number of counts can really help if you’re feeling short of breath.

Another remedy for performance anxiety is to imagine that you are a larger-than-life character just before you perform. My orchestra colleagues sometimes imagine they’re various artists, including Pavarotti, Elvis, Beyoncé and Kylie. Imagining that you can do anything will help you get to your peak performance. Learning to use and control performance anxiety will enable you to have fun and enjoy the beautiful music that you create, getting you back to the carefree performances of your youth.

Here is a really incomplete list of books that you might find helpful on the road to stress-free and fun performance:
A Soprano on Her Head by Eloise Ristad
The Inner Game of Music by Barry Green and W. Timothy Gallwey
The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
The Perfect Wrong Note by William Westney
The Mastery of Music by Barry Green

Dr. Sasha Garver is 2nd flute/solo piccolo with the Macau Orchestra and teaches in Hong Kong and Macau. Sasha formerly taught flute and chamber music at Regis University and has been on the faculties of Colorado Christian University, Rocky Mountain Center for Musical Arts, and Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.