Jim Morrison - shy boy

Early in his career, Jim Morrison was notorious for being so shy and nervous on stage he would turn away from the audience and face the band in order to be able to sing.

Jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald was also known to be extremely scared of performing in a live setting, supposedly to the point of getting very drunk to calm her nerves before going on stage.

I definitely get nervous when I’m on a jazz gig, as I know that I’m not the strongest player, and I purposely surround myself with jazz musicians that are way out of my league.

Over the years I have discovered a few techniques that have helped me overcome my anxiety and trepidation when playing out. Hopefully these hints will help you as well.

Close Your Eyes

Close your eyes and get into the music

Not as much of a cop-out as you might think. If you’re intimidated by the number of people in the audience, first let me congratulate you on drawing enough people to the gig to make you nervous. That in and of itself should give you confidence, knowing that your supporters and fans are there to see you play. If, however, that makes it worse for you, close your eyes and play for a little while. Don’t do it for the entire gig, obviously, but there is nothing wrong with blocking out the people watching you for a minute. Plus, it will give the audience the impression that you’re really getting into the music.

Move Around

If you stand still like a zombie, you’re setting yourself up for a bad time. You’ll inadvertently tense up and lock your knees, strain your neck, and tense your body. This will wear you out very quickly and make it very hard for you to play an entire set. If you have the room, move around a bit. Stand next to your band mates, give them some eye contact and a smile; they may be nervous, too!

Just do yourself a favor and don’t move around while you are trying out the “Close Your Eyes” tip; that might get ugly.

Find the Hot Chick

Unless you are playing jazz, chances are there will be a bevy of attractive females in the audience. Find one that you find particularly juicy and look at her. Don’t stare at her and drool like you need to be put on a stalker list, but some eye contact from the opposite sex is a good thing. After you’ve looked for a few seconds, do the “Move Around” to the other end of the stage and repeat with another hottie.

Oh, but beware – you don’t want to end up staring at the girl standing next to your wife or girlfriend, so have at least a little bit of awareness. Just sayin’…

Play With Your Senses

If you’re firing on all cylinders, many of your senses come into play at the same time – sight, hearing, touch, and your sixth sense (in this case I mean feeling the “vibe” of the performance and the audience). With all four of these senses being heightened, it can get overwhelming. “Close Your Eyes” gets close to what I mean here, but I would take it a little further by saying that you should purposely tone down/dull certain sensory inputs.

I don’t necessarily suggest you turn off “hearing,” as that would pretty much kill your playing. But, for example, you can lose yourself slightly in what you’re doing and not be detrimental to the overall performance. Focus on just the drums, or just the singing for a minute. If you have some freedom in the song’s interpretation, turn on an effect in your pedalboard that you don’t normally use for that part of the song and let the sound take over for a minute. Embrace the tonal difference and let it carry you.

If you can stop playing for a second (jazz gives you plenty of freedom to do this), do so. Take a breath, re-center yourself, and then take off again.

Know the Material!

Sorry, folks, but this is perhaps the most important tip I can give you. If you are not 100% confident that you know how to play the songs, then you’re simply setting yourself up for self-doubt and a massive train wreck. Put in the dirt time to learn your songs and don’t leave anything to chance. You’re going to mess up, rest assured, but by having the material down you’ll be able to quickly recover.

5 Ways to Deal With Stage Fright is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Playing live is pretty much the worst thing in the world. Nothing on this Earth is worse than knowing your sound is crap, the rest of the band are playing out of tune, and your fingers are completely divorced from your brain.

As musicians, I venture that we can all agree with both of the above statements. Many of us would probably put it down to luck; the all important “vibe” which either blesses us with its presence or curses us with its absence. While that’s definitely a part of it, there are plenty of more tangible things the working guitarist can do to avoid drooping towards statement B. I’ve assembled a list of seven things to improve your live performances, for you, your band, and most importantly the audience!

1. Practice

This one might sound a bit obvious, but it’s absolutely crucial to the whole deal. Even if you’re performing numbers you’ve played a hundred times, practice makes perfect and can prepare you for the pitfalls that might arise. It’s like a familiar journey; you know exactly where you’re going and how you’re going to get there, but what if a road gets closed off and you don’t know a detour? If someone else makes a mistake onstage, it can throw you off course. If you suddenly find yourself drawing a blank and unable to get your pinky finger to hammer on to that all important G#, you’re screwed. Practice!

2. Prepare your instrument

We’ve all done gigs with crusty strings. We’ve all had slightly dodgy cables or amps that sound like they’re about to fall over. As exciting as living on the edge is, it can ruin the gig. Making sure your instrument and equipment are ready for the gig is just as important as making sure that you are. Don’t leave your strings on for too long – if you’re playing regularly, two or three weeks tops. I recommend string cleaner (Planet Waves makes some good stuff) in the interim. Have a spare guitar if you can! When you’re setting up your amp, check the output jack on your guitar and the input jack on your amp to ensure they’re firmly secure. And don’t underestimate the importance of a good quality guitar cable – they really do make a huge difference to your sound. If something doesn’t sound quite right, investigate and fix or it’ll bug you for the whole gig. Check that you have everything you need (capo, slide, whatever).

3. Prepare yourself

Here’s the important bit. Make sure you’re ready mentally and physically. Stretches or exercises to warm up the fingers can be crucial. I find it helpful to have a practice amp (or my trusty Vox amPlug) backstage to run through any tricky parts or anything I’m worried about in the upcoming set. Talk to the rest of the band, make sure everyone’s on the same page.

4. Just before the performance

Some very simple advice here from personal experience. Make sure you’re not impaired by alcohol. Instead, work off of your current emotional state. If you’re in a good mood, ramp it up to a brilliant one. If you’re in a bad mood, ramp it up to the foulest mood you can muster. If you’re nervous as hell, channel that energy into a confidence booster and try to reach for something new. If you go onstage with extreme emotion (whatever emotion it is), you’ll throw yourself into the performance with everything you have. Some of the best gigs I’ve ever had have been the result of being epically hacked off with something or someone. Who said bad moods aren’t cool?

5. During the performance

You are going to make mistakes. You might as well accept this now, as there’s no way around it. How you deal with a mistake is one of the most important aspects of live performance. This is where how much you practice comes into play. If you know the piece inside-out, you’ll be better prepared to jump back on track quickly. If someone else in the band makes a mistake but you’re all prepared, you will avoid a train-wreck. The best piece of advice I can give is to laugh it off. If you let yourself get pissed off when you make a mistake, you’re going to make a ton more. Hit a bum note, smile to yourself and carry on. Chances are, you were the only one who noticed. If a band mate messes something up, DON’T TURN AROUND AND LOOK! There is nothing more distracting to the people watching than for the whole band to leer at the one guy that hit a clam; it’s unprofessional and should be avoided.

6. After the performance

It takes a while to come down after a good show. You’ll feel untouchable for a couple of hours, basking in the glory of a job well done and, if you’re lucky, drowning in compliments and applause. Let your ego be rubbed, but don’t be fooled into thinking you’re invincible. All too often I’ve come off stage and started throwing pints of beer down my throat, feeling no effect but enjoying the moment. Then the next day isn’t so pretty, and you’ve got to do it all over again. Not fun!

Equally, if you’ve had a bad show (and you will), don’t let it get you down. It’s not worth beating yourself up over. You’ll know what went wrong, and you’ll know what you have to do to fix it. Adopt, adapt and improve (motto of the Round Table!).

7. Repeat

Experience.  You can’t beat it. The more you play live, the better. Every mistake, every train-wreck, every broken string and every dropped plectrum will be a learning curve. If you have a bad gig, get back on the horse.

And there you have it; your first step on the road to the perfect gig. Now it’s your turn – gig, make mistakes, and write your own list!

7 Tips for Playing Live is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.