I've been doing some research on stretching for musicians. Most of the tension we have comes from our hands, neck, back, and shoulders. Many articles i've read show that stretching before practicing can reduce injury, and reduce the tension you experience while practicing. Here is a link I found for some yoga stretches for musicians. Doing simple stretches such as shoulder shrugs, and squeezing your shoulder blades can help relax you before your practice. Since many musicians experience strains such as Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Bursitis, and Tendonitis.. stretching is vital for us.
Another interesting article I found.

Professor Esposito

How many years have you been playing?

21

How did you deal with performance anxiety as a young player?

It was more triall by fire and preparation helped. You don’t really realize the awareness and the importance of each concert. Start  to learn how important it is, the background.

How do you handle it now?

Doesn’t get too nervous now just because of the frequency of the performances. Gets anxious sometimes. Gets less nervous with the quality of the audience. Its not that we get nervous about the task at hand. We get nervous about being nervous. Deals with it by accepting it as something normal. Accepting the feelings helps the performance. Don’t fight against them because that creates more struggles.

Do you know of any certain excercises that can help dealing with performance anxiety?

Hasn’t done anything like that. Visualization techniques. Thinks something physical manifestations of the nerves. Tries to work on breathing and pay attention to breathing cycles. Pictures herself walking on the stage and what the audience might look like. Putting music on stage, bowing, presenting herself.

Do you think playing from memory or improv can help performance anxiety?

It certainly can. You always have to be careful why you are doing it. The purpose is important. If you use memory as a tool in your practice so that you really know the practice, it can help. It really depends on the person. Sometimes playing without the music can make a person feel more nervous.

Interview with Professor Agrell

How many years have you been playing?

53 years

How did you deal with performance anxiety as a young player?

Badly. In high school got lots of solos and always got a waver in his tone. You never know whats going to come out of your horn which was frightening for him.

How do you handle it now?

Still gets nervous but he doesn’t get that kind of nervous. When improvising he never gets nervous cause he has no idea what he’s going to be playing. Improving feels good at the time, and enjoys every second of it because you don’t have to be focusing on whats on the page. Classical solos not so much because its harder to get through since you can’t lose yourself in it.

Do you know of any certain excercises that can help dealing with performance anxiety?

Practice focusing by siting upright in a chair or in the lotus chair. Some call it meditation some call it focusing. Practice sitting up straight and use the spine as supporting weight and using deep breaths. Do at least one minute of it. Pick one thing and focus on it for example a word without corners or one that is smooth. Take the word one for instant or pick out a note or anything really without a connotation. Watching your breath going up and down can help your focus. You want your hands to feel heavy and warm. Make sure every body part is relaxed from toes to your head. The radio in your head is a distraction, and your head is not your friend. Get the voice to shut up.

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Performance has two different main aspects

1. How well you know the piece

2. Standing up on stage

If you have discomfort it’ll drag you down.

There’s no substitute for knowing the piece inside and out.

You need to practice performing as much as possible, whether its for kids or a nursing home. Sports for example get to practice performing every week but musicians only get to perform occasionally, so we need all the practice we can get.

You typically focus on

1.     What you feel

2.     What the audience experiences

    You need to learn not to care about what they think when you make a mistake, because most of the time they don’t even catch it if you don’t have a reaction to it.

Use the voice in your head when practicing to critique yourself, however silence that voice when performing.

 Culture

The culture works against as keeping our focus(for example, technology). Be able to do one thing without doing anything else.

Mindset

Shouldn’t be there when performing. Different mindset. Performance mind is no words, just awareness of what you are doing and releasing what you had. Ads tension when thinking too much. Focusing, no tension(use only specific muscles you need), ego detachment. Not attached to the results. Performing is not about your ego, its about what just happened. You are almost expected to have a reaction when you do something wrong, however you shouldn’t let it phase you. What happens, happens. Always think of what you need to adjust, don’t be focusing on how you’re doing. Keep thinking about communication and less about perfecting.

Tips

We want to be good on stage, but we don’t have much stage time. Play a lot of easy pieces and go play for people. Do it as many times as you can so you get used to that environment. Selective creative not caring. You are not connecting their opinion with you to their ego. If you don’t care, you are calm and you let mistakes go. Welcoming the first mistake. Nothing is at steak if you mess up. Play it before you have the real hearing.

Relating musicians to acting

Thinks we should have to take an acting course to be comfortable on stage. Acting and musicians are a lot a like. This is acting and controlling the audience. Audience is immediately deciding on how they feel about you. Come out and look pleasant and your body language/how you carry yourself, because the audience immediately is analyzing what you do.

Recital Notes/how you carry yourself

Practice video of performance and how you carry yourself. Practice the recital notes. Make it conversational. Practice it to everyone you can. Move slowly because time and space warps when you go on stage. When speaking don’t talk too fast, let it go and stay in the moment. Put on an illusionand play as if you’re the best. First impressions matter so teach them and show them how to feel. Use lots of expression and convince them of something. Be a Story teller, illusionist.

Ego

Its hard to keep your ego out of it. They won’t catch everything you miss. Carry yourself well around people too even after the performance. If someone compliments a section you messed up on, thank them. Don’t bring up mistakes, because more than likely they missed it. Fight all of the culture and the training. Let mistakes be opportunities to learn something.

What is your scale jam about?

Just doing scales in a bunch of different ways. Making sense of small parts of scales. Learn different ways around music. Communication is key. Learning units of the scale. Automated so where you don’t have to think. 

So yesterday I went to a presentation over performing with Coach Alexander who is the coach for the Bengals and is a concert pianist. This REALLY applied to my final project because he talked about the Alexander Technique in his presentation and how not only musicians, but athletes go through the nerves. The movement/mental ability to do a certain skill as close to perfection as possible is hard in a performance setting. He mentioned that for example when he teaches football players a certain drill, he tells them to not think of each step they take, but rather more of where they are going. If you are thinking of so many different steps while in performance, failing will be a likely outcome. One interesting connection he used was with geniuses. Geniuses are so successful because they find an easy solution to things that may take a lot of steps. This I can apply to performing, because after you've practiced so much you should be able to put yourself on auto pilot for the performance so in case you do mess up, you can keep moving forward. You shouldn't have to think of every little thing when you are performing because that makes it easier to feel nervous and be more likely to fail. This was a great presentation, and I learned so much!

This weekend I went to a concert for Improvisation for Classical Musicians. I learned a lot just watching what the musicians did in response to each other's musical phrases. When improvising, other musicians would join into a voice and accompany them. This performance showed how much you really have to communicate through music. It was a good way to get their eyes off music and just play from their thoughts and eachother. I might try taking this class in the next few years!

The plan for this week(hopefully) is to interview the flute professor on performance anxiety.

Alexander Technique interview with Rachelle Tsachor

What is your definition of the Alexander technique?

A technique for consciousness of how you are doing what you do.

How can it be applied to musicians?

Learning the alexander technique helps the musician be aware of what they are thinking, and how they are carrying out that thinking in action, so that they add stress into the system.

What is your view on performance anxiety/how do you handle it?

Notice the thinking/stimulus, and then notices the response to the thinking. Sees if she wants to think of something different so not building up stress.

Are there certain techniques that are helpful in getting rid of tension for performance anxiety?

Alexander technique. Allowing the neck to be free is a start and let the body come out of startle and into a more balanced readiness.

Do you think it’s ever possible to completely get over performance anxiety/stiffening of the body?

One can become an expert in response to a stimulus. Becoming empowered.

Interesting experiment: She asked me how I feel about performance anxiety and as I told her how I felt, she said I tensed up and the color in my face actually changed a little.

Its important to notice our response to an anxiety.  Also noticing the physical response to a stimulus and then undoing the physical response.

Extra:

Movement helps relax from the stress.

Stress responses: Fight, flight, freeze, flop

Watch me play in my excerpt group! We still have work to do on our releases and such but we have been making progress. One very important thing I learned at the last coaching was about breathing and how you need to come in confidently and in time after you take a breath rather than hesitating and causing different entrances. Also a clip of our best take is here