Performance anxiety is something every performer faces—because it’s really just the body’s response to excitement or nerves. The challenge comes when our mind and body start to run away with us, leaving us feeling out of control and impacting our voice on stage.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to:
With the right tools, you can transform performance anxiety into fuel for a stronger, more connected performance.
Licensed Psychotherapist Ingela Onstad at Courageous Artistry
00:00 Understanding Performance Anxiety
2:20 Pre-performance tips
3:47 During performance tips
8:45 Post performance reflection
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Hi everyone, thanks for being here. We are jumping into performance anxiety today. What to do when we feel it come on? How to prepare before a performance or an audition so that we are less likely to have that big surge of adrenaline kick in? What to do if we are in the middle of something and we feel that surge kick in? And then I'd love for us to talk just a little bit about what we can do after the fact.
some reflecting that we can do to make the next whatever it is, better and better. I thought about this topic this week because I had a singer contact me. She is in New York. She had some really major auditions this week. And she was in the middle of an audition. And I think she just had this moment where she was like, I'm where I've always wanted to be. In the rooms I've always wanted to be in, doing the thing I've always wanted to do.
and she just got this big adrenaline rush, she said. And after that fact, she had a really hard time getting full control of her voice again. And I bring up that example because I think when we think performance anxiety, a lot of times the recommendation that I hear given to singers is, you know what you need to do to tackle that? You need to perform more.
And I don't disagree with that. If you are lacking experience, if you are lacking confidence, one of the ways, obviously, that you can get more experience and therefore build more confidence in your abilities is to go out and do it, is to go out and perform at every opportunity and really build that muscle, that performance muscle, just like you would build vocal muscles, or artistic muscles.
But performance anxiety, quote, end quote, I don't think always means we lack confidence. Anxiety to me, butts up right against excitement. That's what this singer was feeling.
It was this like extreme excitement that kicked in almost to the point of overwhelming. So I feel like anxiousness and nerves and excitement and nerves, right? They go hand in hand. So whether it's one or the other, the fact is it's something that throws us off of our game.
So let's talk about things that you can do to prepare
before the big performance, before the big audition, before the opportunity, the recording session, The first thing I just talked about, preparation, getting out there, working that performance muscle, getting as much experience as you can, so you feel more and more confident in your abilities and you start to build a real toolbox for success
for whatever it is that you're doing. Another thing that I like to think about for preparation is really grounding into your body. So stretching the body,
physical stretches, breath work, things like the inhale for 10, double exhale, things like box breathing. Box breathing is where you might inhale for six, hold for six, exhale for six, hold for six, and keep going. That makes a box. Inhale for six, just a hold, a pause, exhale for six.
just a hold a pause for six.
things like box breathing can be really helpful because we get off that hamster wheel focused on the counting. We also are doing that nice breathing, triggering the vagus nerve, lowering the blood pressure, all of those good things. So those are some things that we can do either well in advance or shortly before we go in to perform. The other thing I would say, I'd be remiss if I don't mention, warm up your voice, right?
really lock in where you feel and sound your best. But then the big question comes, what do we do if we're like the singer of mine who's in the middle of an audition, you're in the middle of a performance and here comes this big surge of nerves, excitement, adrenaline, and you can feel like, uh-oh, I do not want this to start to impact me. There's a handful of things you can do. I mentioned grounding into your body.
think that's huge and this might seem woo woo to some of you, but it's based in science. Taking the time to go where is down? Looking down. Where is up? Looking up. Where is right? Where is left? Orienting yourself in the room, in the space. Me just saying that right now makes me feel more centered and I did not do that on purpose.
I just think it's a good reminder when we're like, my gosh, adrenaline and everything starts to get us like, you know, really kind of ahead of ourselves or kind of detached from the moment. It's a really great way to be like, I'm in this room. There's my feet. There's the ceiling. Here's what's to the right of me. Here's what's to the left of me. Another great way to ground into your body is somatic tapping. And all that means is tapping, whether you take your hands and you are tapping on your legs.
tapping on your arms, tapping on your chest, tapping a hand to another hand, just reminding yourself, this is my body, feel it, get really grounded into it, because like I said, your body is your instrument.
Two breath exercises that I love that I got from the great Ingala Onstad. Ingala Onstad owns Courageous Artistry. I will put a link so you can look at her business down below. She is a high performance coach, a licensed psychotherapist, and she did a course for my Vocal Pro members called Understanding and Coping with Performance Anxiety. It is available to every Vocal Pro member. If you want to check it out, you can try two weeks of Vocal Pro for free if I could speak, and I will put that down in the show notes as well.
But what I love about the course is Ingela really goes into the biology of nervousness and excitement, what happens to the body, what's happening in the mind, and then really giving you lots of tools that you can start to work with and see how effective they are for you, And one of those is the...
Quick breath with the exhale. And it reminds me of what we do when we have been crying and we're trying to calm ourselves down. It's the, like the three quick and then the one long exhale. Now some of you might be thinking, I can't be in the middle of an audition and start to do a big, right? A big cry like that. That doesn't make me look great or sound great. You can do it with nasal breathing.
It calms us down. The other thing I love, is the hissing breath. So that's that inhale for as long as you can. And then you just exhale on a hiss. And you want to try and exhale.
for double the amount you inhaled. I just want to point out a lot of times when people get nervous or anxious, they're told, just take a really big breath. Taking a really big breath, you guys, all that does is increase your heart rate. That just makes things worse. It's not the inhalation that helps you. It's the exhalation. The exhalation is when our blood pressure drops. The parasympathetic nervous system is kicked in. So the exhalation, want it to be at least double. Another thing I love,
To not just ground into your body, but to ground into your voice, really connect with your voice, is resonant humming. Whether it's an HN, an HM, an NG, feel that nice, buzzy resonance.
It also triggers the vagus nerve. feels good in the body. It's one of the reasons why you hum many times when you are meditating or when you are doing yoga. But it's great for us as singers because it locks us into this nice forward resonance. So it gets us connected to our body. It gets us connecting back into our voice. And it is a real tool and strategy to lock in that effective resonance.
And I think it's important for all of us to remember that nerves, excitement, anxiousness, it is part of it. If you are doing something that you love and that you care about, those feelings are gonna happen and those aren't bad things. It's normal. We should expect it. So I think that's another really helpful thing too, instead of going, ⁓ no, here it comes. Just expect it to happen. You care about what you're doing.
And I always tell singers, you're not gonna have your most kick-ass audition ever if you haven't had somewhere you struggle. That's where you learn what tools and tactics work best for you. You're not gonna have your best performance until you have somewhere you struggle. That adversity in everything, and performing and singing is exactly the same, is what helps us build tools to be as effective and as resilient.
as we can be. And the last thing I want to say is I think it's really important and helpful after the fact to just take some time And look back on whatever happened when you had those nerves. Did you get any kind of warnings beforehand? Was there something specific that made it kick in? Were there things that worked great?
Were there things that did not work for you that weren't as effective as you wish they could be? And then really think about how can you set yourself up? What little things can you tweak to make the next time even better? Anxiousness, excitement, nervousness, it is part of it, friends. We shouldn't be afraid of it or ashamed of it. It means you're human. It means you care. And I think just starting to build a toolbox, just like you build a vocal toolbox.
is what's gonna make you the absolute most successful in managing that. I hope this is helpful everybody. Like always, I got a bunch of freebies for you guys. I will put it down in the notes. I really appreciate you being here and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Bye.
