Dealing With Performance Anxiety

While at the Midwest Clinic, I attended a presentation on performance anxiety. Although the clinic did provide a lot of information about how to deal with it on an individual basis, I was hoping to learn how to deal with it in a rehearsal setting. I wanted to learn about ways to create a classroom environment that would prevent anxiety.

That presentation didn't answer my questions, but one of the high school rehearsal labs did, although it wasn't one of the clinician's main points. After thinking for a while, I've come up with some ideas for keeping performance anxiety at a low level in middle school and high school programs.

Until I have a job and an ensemble to rehearse, I won't know if my ideas will work or if they'll fail miserably. But in the meantime, I can ask questions and develop temporary opinions. I imagine my opinions will always be changing as I learn and experience more. I hope so, anyway.

1. Individual Attention

I expect I will have students like Gertrude Lang from Mr. Holland's Opus. These are the students who seem the most nervous. Perhaps they play too softly to be heard from the podium, or they freeze when asked to play something alone or with a small group of people. Although I will hopefully not create an environment to encourage that high level of anxiety, I know I will have some students like that... Students like ME.

My junior year of high school, I was very new to euphonium. However, my high school band director put me in the top band. One day, after several rehearsals of my section leader completely destroying a solo, my band director decided to give the solo to me. I don't know how many times I started the solo and stopped halfway because I cracked a note. I even cried a few times. What did he do? He took me aside and explained that he knew I could do it and that the group needed me to step up and play it. Then he offered me private lessons.

The individual attention he showed me didn't cure me of performance anxiety altogether, but it did help me improve.

2. Chamber Groups

A lot of presentations at Midwest touched on the importance of chamber groups in high school - and even middle school - programs. This is something I'd really like to do in my own program. Small ensembles improve musicianship in several different ways because they expose players. (You can hide in the sound of a symphonic band, but you can't hide in a quartet.) I think that encouraging students to play in chamber groups will be a fun way to help them get used to the pressures of performance.

3. Don't Condemn Mistakes

Although a large part of teaching music is error-detecting, one should try not to create an environment that condemns mistakes. Some may argue that fear of messing up is a good thing - that students are then more aware of their playing and are more likely to play well.

Here's a thought I had on this subject: A while ago, during marching band fundamentals week, my group was told to go through a drill by memory without messing up. If one of us did mess up, we'd have to start from the beginning. I was terrified, but I somehow got through without messing up. ...But was that the goal? Think about it... Wasn't the point of the drill to learn proper marching technique? I was too afraid of making a wrong move to even think about making the right move correctly. I'm not trying to criticize the technique my teacher was using (it did help us to get used to thinking ahead in the drill), I'm only noticing what might be one of its flaws.

No one wants to mess up. You can encourage someone to try their hardest to not make any mistakes, but that's probably what they were trying to do in the first place. Anyway, it's better than making them scared. It's a mind game. No matter what you do as a director, getting through something without making any mistakes will always be a reward and messing up will always be a punishment. You only have to decide which of those two you want to pay more attention to.

Dr. Maiello always says "please" and "thank you." I watched him create a rehearsal environment that was so comfortable and encouraging that you could literally see the kids changing and - more importantly - you could hear them changing. He created that environment in fifteen minutes - and he wasn't even conducting the ensemble (he believed their director needed to direct - that it was about them and not him).

This is how he reacted to mistakes: "It's okay, be brave!" Be brave. He said that often. He also said, "Everyone makes mistakes. Anyone who says he doesn't is a liar and a communist." He talked about how things are different every time you play them. "Thank God for that!" he said. The ensemble opened up and the result was so powerful that it almost brought me to tears.

The kids weren't as afraid of messing up, so they took more risks. And they were more successful because of it.

The best part is that Dr. Maiello still detected errors - errors that he immediately corrected. How could he do that while almost encouraging the students to make mistakes? Well, that's just it. He was detecting errors and NOT mistakes. According to Dr. Boonshaft, errors can be intentional or unintentional. Mistakes are purely unintentional. If you stop an ensemble every time someone cracks a note or uses a wrong fingering, you aren't accomplishing anything.

My point is not that a good band director ignores mistakes. My point is simply that one should use their good judgement to deal with mistakes in a way that will keep the level of anxiety down. The goal should be an environment like the one Dr. Maiello created. An environment in which students are brave. Think of how much more growth can happen in a classroom like that.

"Never be afraid and never let anyone make you afraid, you understand? Never be afraid to play!" - Dr. Maiello

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By the way, I went through my notes and realized that Anthony Maiello might not actually be a Doctor (because he's referred to as professor in them). HOWEVER, I'll still call him Dr. Maiello in this post because - in my opinion - he might as well have 50 degrees.