Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Use of Beta Blockers to improve performance

Don't think anyone has advocated their use without a consultation with a physician AND a prescription .
People should be open minded enough though to accept that for some individuals, help with the physiological reaction is necessary- experience, preparation and wisdom non-withstanding.

Wow, you must be psychic to have all this info on someone you don't know. But not a very good one, since you are wrong.

You're the one that said he changed and now has to take his courage in pill form.

I'm just working off of information supplied by you and supporting my original statement.

I didn't say he changed - it was the availability of beta-blockers that changed. Also, I didn't say anything about a mid-life crises or the person's actual age (neither of which have a bearing).

So you think it is courage in pill form? That's real cute, but no, that's not it.

My first post did imply that a person might get through some of this stuff with psychoanalysis, but actually, I'm not so sure that can work for everybody, anyway.

No, what you said was,

"Total nonsense. The person I mentioned who uses beta-blockers has been performing professionally for big audiences for decades, and for the first part of that career did not use them, since they weren't recognized as useful for stage-fright at that time."

So he was doing fine for decades, so why the change, he clearly was performing fine for all that time.

That's my point. I'm getting tired of your arguing. I think I've made my points quite clearly and will not pursue this further with you.

I didn't say he was doing fine for decades. I didn't even say he was doing fine for one minute. I don't know where you got that idea. He started using beta-blockers because it became known in the music community that they could help and he could get them, not because of he suddenly had an onset of the jitters mid-career. In other words, he had been playing and putting up with the problem all along, until he got access to the beta-blockers that helped to relieve it somewhat and make performing a better experience for him.

Exactly my point. He was fine, he just followed the lemmings to the sea.

And as I stated, he was not fine and you aren't in any position to second-guess his experience. Repeating your mantra doesn't make any difference. Not to him or, I hope, to any of the people here who have said they've benefited from beta-blockers.

You're not seriously suggesting, are you, that there's a valid parallel between choosing not to take a drug to ease an inconvenience and choosing not to accept medical help when one's life is at risk? That's simply preposterous!

Of course I am. He clearly did not have debilitating issues.

Stage fright is a NORMAL reaction for most people. It is a result of the complex psychology and sociology which makes us human. It is there for a reason. The adrenalin rush, the increased focus all provide a mechanism for the performer to focus on the performance to make it better.

What this person was having sounds very much like a normal reaction. Of course I was not there and only that person and their doctor can make a determination as to what is right, but certainly the situation as described did not seem to require medication.

In most cases performance anxiety is best dealt with as indicated by many in this thread - practice at both the task to be performed and practice in appearing before an audience. Repetition of these, relaxation and awareness of the situation - and particularly in this case the awareness of having successfully performed many times are the primary means of managing normal stage fright.

Stage fright is not something to be avoided by taking a pill, but something to embrace and use to enhance one's performance.

Nor is it to be dealt with by alcohol or drugs as many have done.

Certainly there is nothing wrong with a small sip of wine before going on stage (which can be part of a ritual to help manage the emotions) nor is there anything wrong with doctor prescribed medication in debilitating cases (though as I said above if this is the case the person is likely in the wrong profession), but for the average performer it is simply a normal emotion to recognized, used, managed, and even enjoyed as part of the job.

Nerves are good.

And if you are there to make music with an audience for everyone's enjoyment, you don't need drugs, not even Moisewitsch's Benedictine.

You love your audience -- your audience loves you, and will forgive you anything.

or not.. Certainly your manager or your recording company may not.

To take Beta blockers or not is a personal matter. But people should certainly not assume that what works for them should work for others. And if it doesn't, then something must be wrong with the "others". We are not talking about digging potatoes out of a field, although I am sure there is an art to that too. But performance anxiety is, I would argue, a complex matter taht should not be the basis of sweeping judgments.

That's very true. My teacher used to broadcast regularly for the BBC in the 50s-70s. I remember him telling me that you had to be on top-form for at least your first twenty engagements with them, otherwise you didn't get another.
I think in amateur circles, audiences might be more forgiving, though.
When you get to professional level you should have worked out your own way of dealing with nerves.
Funnily enough it often takes the form of superstition, or obsessional behaviour. Apparently Cherkassky used to ask someone to spit on his shoulder before he went onstage. With Michelangeli it could manifest itself as a fuss over the piano he was to use and with Richter as an obsession about the keyboard being absolutely level.

Nice try, but you are still not in a position to make disparaging remarks about his, or anyone else's, use of beta-blockers. You simply are not in their shoes. It is that simple. All the psycho-babble in the world can't substitute for the real individual's experience.

For some reason, I have this gut feeling that your performing experience doesn't encompass stuff like being on some of the world's major stages or recording for major labels. And also that you've never actually used beta-blockers yourself.

No, I was exaggerating to point up that if one is moralistic about beta-blockers, one should be equally moralistic about medical assistance more generally.

I don't think that the issue for many performers who use beta-blockers is merely a matter of "inconvenience", by the way, although it could be for some. I believe many would sooner or later completely withdraw from performing without them.

Beta blockers do nothing for nerves. You'll still be as nervous with beta blockers as without, the only difference is that you won't have the outward appearance of nervousness.

Can anyone here truthfully argue that hand tremors and sweating improves performance in general?

The worst effect of bad nerves, I recall, is that one panics and tends to forget everything you've ever learnt about music in your life.
So with Beta blockers you still play fistfuls of wrong notes but now with dry hands, eh?

Yes.

Beta blockers will not enhance your memory, or your ability any more than how you play when you're calm. They will not help someone whose problem is entirely mental. They simply decrease the physical symptoms of nervousness.

That is where beta blockers help, because a person who is physically calm can regain their composer faster than a person who is both physically and mentally panicked. And a person whose problem is the physical symptoms of stage fright can perform without those symptoms.

I like the typo in the last paragraph...I can remember playing Rachmaninov so badly that it sounded like Charles Ives: I certainly needed to regain my composer then!

Has anybody ever tried hypnotherapy to overcome any of these problems?

I can get you some extra 10mg from my supplier and send them to you, but only after you PM me a statement saying that you have consulted a doctor and that the doctor has approved your use of them in principle.