Hello, my name is Betsy and I'm a singing teacher at TakeLessons. Do you want to
know how to get rid of stage fright when singing? Well in this lesson you're going
to learn about all the causes of stage fright and how to avoid it during your
next performance. So stay tuned and don't forget to click the link below to check
out our free online singing classes. So let's talk about stage fright. Stage
fright is totally normal and it just basically is when you get a lot of
nerves before you perform. I feel like everybody that I know is super
comfortable singing by themselves in their car or in their shower but you put
them in front of a group of people and all of a sudden they're afraid to sing
and open their mouth. I don't know a single performer that I've ever worked
with that can honestly say that they've never been nervous or scared. It
shouldn't be debilitating though. You should be able to work through it and
realize that nothing bad is going to happen, that most likely things are going
to be fine - you've prepared, you've rehearsed, this is what you do, so you can
do it. Stage fright would lead to your voice shaking or not being able to
control your breath, even your body starts shaking or tremoring. Some people
sweat when they get stage fright. So just being able to kind of calm
yourself down and get in your head and just realize that it's okay. You're just
gonna sing, nothing's gonna happen, the world's not going to come crashing down
on your head. It's alright.
In the days leading up to a performance if you know you're gonna be nervous, my
best advice is to practice. I find that being prepared and knowing exactly
what's gonna go on - visualize the performance in your head, go over things
a hundred times, because it's better to be well rehearsed and practiced than it is
to try to just wing it. I know for myself, I get very nervous if I try to wing
anything. I like to rehearse. I like to practice and really go over and
visualize what it's going to look like at the end of it. That helps me control
my nerves a lot. I feel like you know that you've prepared enough for a
performance if it's really memorized - if you as a singer can sing it acapella, if
you don't need to sing along with another voice, if you don't need to sing
with a track, if you can hold it on your own without any help. Then you know
you actually know it. If you're kind of relying on things and singing along with
the track or if you're singing along with the recording of something, I think
you're probably gonna make more mistakes because you don't actually know the
notes. You don't actually know the words. Practice it until you can do it in your
sleep back and forth. For instance, I think I've probably practiced "The
Star-spangled Banner" about ten thousand times, because I know that when I sing it
at a big event, there's a lot of people watching. If it's before a race or
something or a game, everybody is looking at you. I don't want to have any question
of what my notes are. I want it to be so well rehearsed that there's no chance of
me blanking on it.
My best advice is to just take deep breaths and try to control your
breathing and your diaphragm. I always tell my voice students - take a deep
breath, close your eyes, say: I'm a singer; I'm just gonna sing now. And it's very
simple and that's how I get over stage fright. I don't think that a CPA or an
accountant gets super nervous to go do taxes. It's the same thing for a singer.
You're a singer and you're gonna sing. It's very simple and I sometimes have to
remind myself that as well before I perform. There's a breathing method - I
call it the "three four or five." I don't actually know what it's really called
but I'll take a deep breath for five seconds and I'll breathe it in and then
you hold your breath for four seconds and then you exhale for three seconds
and it just kind of calms everything down. So I'll breathe in and hold and
then exhale and do that like four or five times in a row and it really does
kind of slow everything down. It slows your pulse down and you can focus a little
bit better. Another thing that really helps me for
stage fright is warming up properly. So I know as a singer I always like to
stretch; make sure that my body is loose, that my shoulders aren't tight. I'm not
carrying any tension in my neck or anywhere around my throat. So I'm gonna
vocalize, I'm gonna warm up my voice really well. I know some people like to
jump - get out some nerves, get the blood flowing. A lot of singers and a lot
of choirs that I've sung with will actually have a little bit of a
stretch warm up kind of session before we actually rehearse. That's pretty
normal. Same thing with like an opera or a musical - you'll have like a cast warm up.
I think it's important to limber up and be comfortable so that you can be
vocally healthy and you're not carrying any tension, even if you are nervous or
if you do have a little bit of stage fright.
Once you're in the middle of something, hopefully you've relaxed by now, but I
mean if you're on stage and all of a sudden you know your your big solo is
coming up or something like that, again just take a few seconds focus your mind.
Think about what's coming up; think about your first note. What's your first word? I
take a couple deep breaths and then depending if it's a choir or if it's an
opera or if it's a musical, a good thing is to just watch your conductor. If
you're in a choir just keep your eyes on them; make sure that you're coming in
correctly, you're counting, you're not missing a rest or you're not late. So
just keep your eyes on your conductor - that'll help a lot because they're
guiding you. If you're in a musical and you're acting, or an opera, I think it's
important to just kind of look out past the audience. Don't try to focus on one
person. Think about the meaning, think about the words and the intent, and then
let that kind of take you emotionally away from being scared into the scene.
I think it's important that you realize that as a performer you are not expected
to be perfect. There's no such thing as a perfect performance. I've never had one.
Mistakes happen and that's okay - it's live music. If people wanted
something perfect they would just put on a CD and listen to it because that's
been digitally remastered. Live performance, some of the beauty of it is
that things do happen and things do go wrong. That thought process kind of helps
me not to have stage fright because I realize it's a little bit out of your
hands. And it's gonna be okay and it's gonna be good and everybody is there to
have the same experience that you are. Which of these tips has helped you
overcome stage fright? Do you have any more suggestions to share? Leave a
comment and let us know. And if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing
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