Whenever I play for an audience, exam, audition, etc, my hands end up shaking (nerves), which affects my performance. I can usually keep on playing, but often at the expense of accuracy or musicality.

What strategies do you use to conquer nervousness? Or is it just a matter of spending more time playing in front of people (I play in front of others very infrequently at the moment).

Thanks in Advance.

One great book you might use is
The inner game of music by Barry Green. It's
of great help for me. It helped me a lot to be
less nervous. Not only during playing for others
but also during my lessons and exams. It's very
practical and let you make use of your full potentials.

Good luck

Propanolol. I think the fundamental reason for my nervousness when playing, which sometimes causes shaky fingers and memory slips, as opposed to being in other public performances like giving speeches, which I'm completely comfortable with, is the fact that I have NEVER known a piece well enough to pick it up perfectly at any point. In a public performance, the automatic slight shakiness of my fingers caused by adrenaline makes them more shaky. It's all a positive feedback cycle, where the fact that my fingers are shaking makes them shake more, missed notes caused by shaking makes them shake more, and the likelihood of a more major error increases. In my particular case, mental calm and focus and other sorts of things explained in tennis or golf or music psychology books doesn't really apply, because I'm relatively mentally calm; it's just the physiological effect of adrenaline that is my downfall.

When I've experimented several times previously with propanolol, there's been substantially less shakiness in proportion to the size of the dose. I'm still experimenting to find the perfect dose, but I'm getting closer. It's an interesting feeling, because it seems as if my heart is trying to beat faster, but is being held back. Perhaps it's just my knowledge that that is what is physiologically happening, but it DOES feel that way.

That's my 2 cents. If you check the Wikipedia link I inserted, you can see that propanolol is a prescription drug that requires a checkup with your doctor to check your heart health, but for some musicians who pass that checkup, I think it has the potential to be very helpful.

Beta-blockers should an absolute last resort when talking about performance anxiety. Slowing your heartbeat chemically carries its own risks.

I have been using a product called "Anxiofit-1" that is helping to reduce my performance anxiety, of which I have been a sufferer for many years. google "europharma" and have a look, it's over the counter and has a form of echinacea as the active ingredient. My anxiety is now a 3 on a scale of 1-10, and was way off the charts before. This stuff helps me focus.
No, I don't sell it or have a vested interest or anything.

Another suggestion I have found to be helpful is to focus on the shaking hands, when this shaking occurs. Don't fight it or let it get to you. Just be aware of the shaking and it will subside.

I would highly discourage beta-blockers or any other form of medication used to reduce performance anxiety unless one has a medically diagnosed anxiety problem.

The real secret to overcoming performance anxiety is experience. The more performance experience one has, the less anxiety there is at the next performance. In short, more performance experience equals less performance anxiety.

Remember also that performance doesn't necessarily require an audience. In preparation for performances, I often do "practice performances" for my parents, family, or friends. I also occasionally record these "practice performances" and listen back, marking the areas which require additional practice.

I have this mental process that I go through before I play- I try to focus only on the keys, so I don't notice the piano, then I begin to lose myself- the more "in the zone" I am, the less I notice any surroundings, and the more I listen.

I highly recommend Don Greene's book "Performance Success." He quantifies different aspects of you as a performer, and by removing the mysterious aspect of the physical and psychological problems of performance, really reduces the self-conscious aspect of performance. Basically, you do a lot of positive visualization (very specific, as in you imagine you are performing and feel the piano under your hands), a lot of positive thinking ("Oh NO! What if I forget so-and-so?" Oh, that. Just the usual fear and doubt - no basis in reality!), and some physical suggestions too (regular light exercise, don't eat too much the morning of, releasing tension methodically and in tandem with breathing and a cue phrase).

Altogether brilliant, though hard to grasp all at once. It requires major work to reap the benefits, and I haven't put in the time yet. Maybe as competition season approaches...

In my experience, true. I made some comments in an earlier post on a similar topic, which I'll repeat here in summary:

1. Preparation. Be confident in your material, through practice. Preparation includes your instrument/s and
your physical self which leads me to …

2. Relaxation. That may be ‘easy to say hard to do’ advice. But have a relaxation routine or do what you do to relax and clear your mind before a performance. Being relaxed will help you to …

3. Enjoy yourself. If you are prepared and relaxed you will be ready to enjoy yourself. Remember, your audience is there to enjoy themselves too and they will be forgiving of minor errors (if they even hear them).

don't read books on the matter, don't swallow pills, just play, play, play, exposure will in the end set you free, hopefully!

yes dolce, that worked for me and is very helpful for most (not all) people.



...which is why I find exams so difficult - no audience determined to enjoy themselves. I can play for an audience, but much more difficult to play for "correctness". But I put myself through this torture. Again.

And don't travel to a performance via a long and intense bicycle ride! Unless there is a long enough gap before performance starts.

There are two things I have read that left a lasting impression on me and have helped me with performance anxiety.

The first idea was from the book "The Perfect Wrong Note" by William Westney.
"The ego drama of performance can be visualized in terms of where energy is directed. Onstage nerves are often drvien by thoughts of "What do you all think of me?". Such thoughts of powerlessness can cause a physical sense of constriction ...it's as if all the energy in the room is pointing in on the performer.


"But to embrace performing...means to reverse the direction of those arrows. Instead of the anxious egoism of "What do you think of me?" we can convert to the generosity of "Let me share this with you." and the receptivity of "What does this mean to all of us, right in this moment?" The circuit of energy in the room becomes complete. To sense performance energy as a bond with others is among the greatest rewards a person can have."


The second idea I embraced was from a 1923 edition of "Etude" magazine. It said that performance anxiety comes from our desire to appear better than we actually are. I read this to mean that once we become comfortable with who we are and how skilled or unskilled we really are, we can relax because we have nothing to prove.