How to Reduce Anxiety Before a Concert

by Ryan Rivera

Playing an instrument on stage is a lot like public speaking. You’re using your instrument as a method of communicating and as you play, all eyes are on you and your performance. Even the best bass players with years of experience feel a little nervous before a big event, knowing that they need to perform at their best.

But when your anxiety is actually affecting your ability to play – when the anxiety is so strong that you experience physical and mental stress – it can be a serious problem. Playing every note correctly requires confidence, and the ability to trust in your fingers and your experience.
Reducing Anxiety Before a Concert

Whether you’re on stage with an entire orchestra or playing by with a few of your college buddies at your first gig, you need to find a way to reduce that anxiety. The stronger it is the harder the process, which is why you will need to not only try to reduce your anxiety before you go on stage, but also work on reducing your anxiety afterward.
Long Before You Go On Stage

Practice Often

Playing the bass is not just about rhythm and skill. It’s also about the connection between your mind and your body. Your fingers start to create their own memories on the chords and know the next note long before you can think of it. The more you practice, the less pressure you’ll put on your mind and the more you can trust that you know exactly what’s coming next.

Cut Out Unhealthy Behaviors

Anxiety is cumulative, so before you go on stage you need to make sure you’re avoiding any behaviors that will add to your anxiety. Get a full night’s sleep, eat healthier food, avoid drinking – you should even avoid watching horror films or going on amusement park rides. If it increases your anxiety naturally, it has the potential to increase your anxiety on stage.

Deep Breathing
Deep breathing is one of many different types of relaxation strategies that can help you keep calm. You sit on a chair or lie on your back, keeping your body relaxed. You then breathe in very slowly through your nose, starting at your stomach and then filling up your chest. Hold, then release slowly out your mouth. Repeat this 10 to 20 times and it should be able to calm you down when you feel your anxiety building.
On the Day of the Concert

Before you set foot on stage, make sure everything you need is ready. Concerns over whether you have everything you need can be distracting, and make contribute to additional levels of anxiety. By ensuring that you’re completely prepared, you can rest your mind and focus on additional relaxation strategies while calming your mind and body. If you have your own method of relaxing – like skipping stones at a park or jogging – don’t forget to do them. Any method of keeping your mind and body calm is a useful one.

After the Concert
Reducing your stage fright is not just about preparing before an event. It’s also about performing the right behaviors after the event is over. After you’re done, even if you believe you did a terrible job, always remember to do the following:
Write Down Positives
Write down all of the things you did well. Try to come up with as long a list as possible, and avoid anything negative. You need your mind to remember all of the things that went right on stage, not dwell on all the mistakes you may or may not have made. Writing it down helps you do that, because it forces you to focus on the positives.
Relaxation Exercises

Once again, now would be a good time to perform relaxation exercises. A lot of bass players like to dwell on the adrenaline as a way of congratulating themselves on a job well done. But when you’re living with too much anxiety before a concert, you need to find a way to stop associating the concert with anxiety, which means relaxing after you’re done playing as well. You can try deep breathing, or any number of relaxation strategies that are effective.
Work on Your Own Anxiety

Finally, always remember to work on your own anxiety and depression issues. Anxiety builds on itself, so the calmer you are regularly, the less debilitating the anxiety you experience before a concert will be.
Maintaining Your Love of the Music

For many people, anxiety doesn’t stop them from playing well on stage. But it does take away the joy they experience bringing that music to others and that alone is tragic – both as a potential loss to you and as a loss to those that would love to listen to you. Learn to manage your anxiety so that you can continue to enjoy bringing music to everyone and live more comfortably every day.
About the Author: Ryan Rivera had a considerable amount of stage fright before big events, but worked on his anxiety with tips he shares at www.calmclinic.com.

The best piece of advice that i can give to any young auditioner is that your outcome is almost solely based on how much time you sound thoughtfully (that’s the key word!) preparing your materials. When a student doesn’t play well in an audition, they may mistakenly assume that they are not a good auditioned or that some outside force intervened to sabotage their efforts, when the reality is that they simply didn’t put in the time, or they put in the wrong kind of time. To me, the most frustrating kind of student is one who doesn’t prepare, doesn’t play well as a result, then offers up a litany of excuses for themselves rather than taking responsibility for their preparation and musical growth.

As a teacher, I can offer advice on how to prepare, take students through the process of effective practicing, show them how to be analytical, and demonstrate quality playing of specific techniques and repertoire. I cannot, however, magically appear and play all the notes for them. It’s on them to do that, and while I will always try my best to guide students through this process, it’s ultimately in their hands.

Here, then, are a few assorted nuggets of advice from an old guy on how to effectively prepare for an audition:

• Practice early and often – With rare exceptions, you cannot start preparing audition music too soon. People worry about burnout on a specific piece, and this may occur from time to time, but 95% of the time a student has under practiced rather than over practiced.
• Listen to recordings of what you are playing – A bass teacher once told me that listening to one or two recordings of a piece was just screwing around, but three or more recordings constituted research. Whether or not this is actually true, I do believe that the more interpretations you can find and absorb, the better. If you don’t like a recording, then you at least know what you don’t want to do, but don’t be too quick to write off a particular performer or performance. As students develop the skill of being able to discriminate quality, they frequently become overly quick to judge. Listen with open ears to everything you hear–you’ll be surprised what you’ll learn.
• Sectionalize your music and write down a plan – I always smile when I see a student come into a lesson with a practice log and a written practice plan–these people usually end up doing very well at whatever it is that they’re trying to prepare. It’s amazing to me just how powerful a written plan really is to the practice process, and I’m amazed that more people don’t do it. Perhaps one in ten students to whom I suggest that they do this actually does it.
• Get a three-ring binder and some protective sheet covers – This may seem like a strange suggestion, but vie found that the best way to prepare for an audition is to photocopy all the materials and put them in a three-ring binder using plastic sheet covers. You can also use this system to hold your practice journal sheets, mock audition comment sheets, info from the college or group for which you are auditioning, and even selected inspirational articles and quotes (if that floats your boat).
• Create technique exercises out of the repertoire… and write them down! – Again, setting pen to paper and getting this kind of material out of your head and into your practice binder makes a massive difference.
• Practice performing the music – Make sure that you practice playing the entire repertoire list for your audition in front of other people. Both musicians and non-musicians (i.e. your mom) will help. Do this frequently, but be sure to take note of what doesn’t go well and focus on that in your practice sessions.
• Use a variety of practice techniques – Explaining these is much easier in a lesson setting, and my shorthand may not make sense to everybody, but I encourage students to use methods like acceleration, non-vibrato equal note practice, vibrato equal note practice, rhythmic patterns, shift isolation, building from the back, adding a note, isolating problem moments and fanning out, and sets/reps on isolated small sections.

Any additional suggestions for auditioning high schoolers? Feel free to leave them in the comments.

TipsForSuccessfulAuditions.pdf

Robert gives his fingerings for this tricky solo, as well as describing the context in which it occurs. Surely this will become part of the double bass audition repertoire in years to come: 

http://www.robertoppelt.com/page19.html

I recently sat on an audition panel (something I’ve done frequently in the past), and I thought it might be instructive to put out the comments I wrote down for the candidates. These are all anonymous and randomized, and I think that they give a good impression of the type of comments that auditioners write down during this process. You’ll notice that the comments are, for the most part, short and to the point, and there’s a lot of repetition. You can quite easily tell who did well, who struggled, and who was somewhere in the middle. I offer this information up in the hope that readers will see how the auditioner’s thought process often works (many folks write comments like mine).

Audition comments for a recent panel on which I was sitting:

Candidate #1:

-good tone
-solid
-Glinka: some tone problems
-good intonation

Candidate #2:

-rougher sound
-good
-need more dynamics in Adams
-Russlan: not clear on 8ths

Candidate #3:

-needs to be louder for Adams
-missed notes
-not long enough in 9/4
-some rushing in Russlan

Candidate #4:

-problems
-?

Candidate #5:

-Stravinsky: slow – counting!
-Adams: good – not short enough or loud enough
-Glinka: some rushing

Candidate #6:

-Stravinsky: good
- Adams: well-learned
- some intonation and articulation inconsistencies

Candidate #7:

- nervous
- Stravinsky: too slow
- good character
- Adams: some problem shifts but good overall
- Russlan: rushing, bow out of control
- very musical

Candidate #8:

- Stravinsky: good
- Adams: missed notes, counting inaccurate at end
- Russlan: good! Nice job
- tone is not where it needs to be, but solid
-
Candidate #9:

- Stravinsky: good, could be bigger sound
- Adams: good intonation and articulation, some upbows inconsistent
- Glinka: good

Candidate #10:

- Stravinsky: good
- Adams: good
- Glinka: good

Candidate #11:

- Stravinsky: slow but solid
- Adams: not the right character, sounds like sightreading
- Glinka: sloppy, not the right bow stroke

Candidate #12:

- Stravinsky: wrong rhythm
- Adams: nice articulation, but I can’t hear the pitch
- Glinka: bow problems, can’t hear notes

Candidate #13:

- crooked bow
- Stravinsky: rhythm good but small sound
- Adams: too soft
- Glinka: bow problems

Candidate #14:

- Stravinsky: slow but good
- Adams: too long and soft but good intonation
- sounds like you have no rosin on your bow

Candidate #15:

- Stravinsky: good
- Adams: sounds like you don’t know the notes, wrong notes, wrong sound, needs to be closer to bridge
- bow out of control

Candidate #16:

- Stravinsky: good
- Adams: some missed notes, good otherwise
- Glinka: good

Candidate #17

- not making contact with string and bow
- missed notes
- Adams: wrong tempo and character, slow and soft, wrong notes
- Glinka: many different tempos, wrong style, bow control not there

Candidate #18:

- Stravinsky: good
- Adams: some missed notes, good otherwise
- Glinka: bow control lacking

Candidate #19:

- Stravinsky: slow but good character
- good audition, very musical

Candidate #20:

- Stravinsky: good
- Adams: good
- Glinka: good

The topic of discussion for today’s brief (15 min) episode focuses on tips for helping students to make quality audition tapes. Alan listens to many audition tapes each year when choosing bassists for the Birch Creek Symphony, and he offers advice to help students make better tapes and get more out of the process. Enjoy!

Here are a few classic posts about learning an instrument, practicing, getting ready for music school, and other such topics (from 2006-2008):

• Fifteen Practicing Mistakes that Students Make – These are a handful of common pitfalls that I have seen my students make over the years, and getting going with my bass studio has turned my focus to the practice room and how students can achieve the best results as efficietly as possible and with the least amount of frustration possible.
• Nine Dynamite Practice Room Accessories – When it’s time to hit the woodshed and do some serious practicing, there are a handful of no-brainer items that everyone needs–instrument, music, and music stand. Adding a few extra tools into the mix can make for much more productive and enjoyable practice sessions, however.
• Top 7 Considerations for Music School Applicants – Applying to music school? Think about the following points during the application process–they’re in order of most important to least important (in my opinion, at least).
• Advice for Aspiring Music Performance Majors – Musicians are often lured into university performance programs without a full understanding of what their odds of success are in the music business or what kind of a track record the institution they are investigating has. This article serves as a reality check for prospective music performance students and offer statistical evidence on what schools actually place classical music performers in full-time jobs.
• You Can’t Teach Professionally and Perform Professionally – Misperceptions on Both Sides of the Divide – Encouraging undergraduates to develop their instrumental craft to the highest degree possible is a value not shared by all educators. This article discusses common attitudes found among music educators and music performers and dissects problems resulting from these contrary viewpoints.

Choosing a Life in Music

Planning on going to music school, huh? Congratuations. Despite the many roadblocks, twists, and turns facing a prospective musician, a life in music is really a wonderful thing. Every time I have my doubts about this fact, all I have to do is listen back through all the archived Contrabass Conversations episodes with bass players from all walks of life sharing why they chose to be a musician. This reinvigorates me and makes me realize how fortunate I am to do something that I love.

Where Should You Go?

One important thing differentiates music school applicants from other prospective college students: your success as a performer is much more strongly influenced by specifically whom you end up studying with. While a liberal arts student can floursh in a wide variety of academic settings (big schools, small schools, “Great Books” liberal arts schools, and everything in between), options for serious music students are more limited.

I’ve blogged about making this decision in the past before in a post about seven considerations for prospective music majors, so I won’t rehash what was in that previous post, but check this post out for more specifics about prioritizing and winnowing down your list of potential schools.

Can’t students be successful no matter where they attend college? Sure, but there’s certainly a statistical relationship between where you decide to go to music school and your likely procpects, so school choice can help to stack the odds at least a little more in your favor.

After boiling down your school options to between five and seven possibilities, you have a task that nearly every prospective music student faces:

The “List”

How do you balance the requirements of a half-dozen schools in such a way that you’re well-prepared for each and every auditon? This dilemma faces most prospective music students, and finding a way to intelligently and efficiently chart a long-term practice strategy is a major concern.

The following steps may help to organize your practicing in preparation for those impending auditions:

1. Get repertoire lists from potential schools – The first step to getting your audition repertoire ready for music school auditions is to figure out what each school requires. One of my former bass students did a great job putting together a list of required repertoire for many of the major music schools for double bass, but most people will have to a little phone, email, and internet research to get a solid list of requirements.

2. Winnow down the list to the least number of pieces – You’ve done your research, finding that every school wants a concerto, some want sonatas, solo Bach, and others want an etude from a certain composer. Your task is now to figure out the smallest number of pieces that satisfy these requirements. What you don’t want to be doing is playing one concerto for school A and another one for school B. This might not seem like a big deal six months before your auditions start, but you’ll discover that there’s an “audition season” of about 4-8 weeks in January and February, and you’ll likely be doing one or more auditions each week for a period of time. Travel, fatigue and keeping up with high school homework is going to be sucking up a lot of your available time, and the last thing you want to be thinking about is having to switch gears from one concerto to another.

3. Prioritize your practicing – So much to practice, and so little time! How, you may wonder, should you approach organizing your practice time? The answer is both extremely simple and frustratingly elusive: practice what needs the most work. The challenge, of course, is recognizing exactly what needs the most work! The objective perspective of a teacher can be invaluable for this kind of decision-making. Sit down with your teacher and try to come up with a general plan for practicing. Do you need to be spending an hour a day on that etude that is only required at one school (which isn’t your first pick of schools anyway)? Maybe…but maybe not. Are there some fundamental skills–intonation, rhythm, spiccato, vibrato–that need to be solidified prior to your auditions? Fundamental skills take months and years to improve (most bassists are still working on all of the aforementioned skills every day!), and the time to identify what you really need to work on is not days or weeks before your auditions, but months or even years before.

4. Generate a “recital” mentality – I’ve found that looking at our audition repertoire as a kind of mini-recital rather than as a disassociated glob of etudes, excerpts, and solo movements is a very healthy way to approach this repertoire. If you feel like you’re putting together a recital that just happens to be made up of short little bits from different sources, you may be in a better place mentally–you’re not doing an audition (well, you are, but you see what I mean), but rather doing a performance, and your goal is to assemble this list into a unified whole that you can play at a moment’s notice. This is a tough distinction to draw in a text blog post (as I’m discovering right now!), but there’s a bit of a different mentality between recital preparation and audition preparation, and if you can harness the healthy things about the former for the latter, your preparation may be more peaceful and confident.

5. Start preparing early! – No matter how hard you try, if you’re auditioning for five or six (or more!) schools you’ll probably have a lot of repertoire t get under your fingers. Should you completely ditch technique and any other repertoire to focus on your college audition music, or should you keep a more balanced approach? I’d recommend keeping up a balance until 6-8 weeks before “audition season,” at which point I’d transition into an audition preparation mentality. Starting early and devoting a healthy percentage of practice time (perhaps 50% of your time) to this repertoire about a year before your college auditions should put you in a good spot by the time those stressful couple of months roll around your senior year.

There’s gigabytes of information on auditioning out there. Here’s a page my book, “An Introduction to Double Bass Playing” – it’s just a short, clean checklist to get you on track.

_______________________________________________

Auditioning

A competent teacher in a quality college program will be of the utmost importance when preparing for auditions. Find out who is winning auditions and what school they attended. There are many classes, masterclasses, and books on the subject of auditioning. Here are my suggestions.

•    Preparation, preparation, preparation. The primary cause of nervousness is the lack of preparation.

•    Decide on an interpretation and stick with it – don’t change things at the audition.

•    Video-tape yourself regularly. This cannot be emphasized enough.

•    Simulate nerves by running for a few minutes then play excerpts. This increases your heart rate and can you give you that ‘under the gun’ feeling.

•    Play for many different people including musicians that do not play the bass (cellists are particularly unforgiving).

•    Do mock auditions with teachers, colleagues and friends.

•    Study with musicians in the orchestra you are auditioning for.

•    Study the music. You should own several recordings and printed versions since editions do vary. Get an urtext or unedited / original edition. Edited editions such as the Zimmerman excerpt books are very helpful for getting a traditional bass perspective. However, don’t limit yourself to those fingerings!

•    Solos – some auditions will specify the solo, most will not. Some will give parameters – a movement of Bach, a movement of a concerto, two contrasting movements. If you have the choice, play something you play well. It is better to play an easier piece well than a difficult piece poorly.

•    Practice auditioning – set aside time in your practicing to run through excerpts with minimal time in between and without speaking, judging, or correcting.

•    Count rests accurately – know the other parts so you can hear them in your head.

•    Be musical!

•    Arrive on time – which means early. Give yourself ample time to warm-up, tune, and be at ease.