(48) Origin and Control of Nervousness
Performance training must include education on performance anxiety. Even great artists have stopped performing for periods of time and some of the reasons were related to nervousness. Although good piano teachers always hold recitals of their students and enter them into competitions, they have tended to be poor sociologists or psychologists, concentrating only on piano playing and ignoring nervousness. It is important for any person guiding youngsters through recitals and competitions to learn the fundamentals of what causes nervousness, how to deal with it, and its psychological consequences. Because teachers fail so often, the parents must look out for the social and psychological welfare of their children that take music lessons. Group activities such as orchestras, choruses, and bands present few psychological issues. Solo instruments, and especially piano, presents several issues that everybody responsible for the student must address, such as controlling performance anxiety, coordination with other activities (is piano compatible with golf or tennis?), how to divide the times devoted to piano or other education, etc..
Nervousness is a natural human emotion and arises in critical situations. Therefore, it is normally a performance enhancing reaction. Nervousness makes us concentrate all our energies towards the critical task. Most people dislike nervousness because it is too often accompanied, or is caused, by fear. Therefore, although nervousness is necessary for a great performance, it needs to be kept under control; otherwise, it can interfere with the performance in addition to causing suffering. There is a wide range of individuals from those who don't get nervous at all, to those who suffer debilitating performance anxiety. Performing should be a rewarding experience of communicating through music, not the most terrifying experience of a child's life.
Emotions are basic, primitive reactions, and have evolved to be helpful under normal circumstances. However, under extreme conditions, emotions can get out of control, and become a liability unless your name is Wolfie or Franz (Freddy apparently didn't qualify, as he was a nervous wreck and disliked public performances; however, he seemed comfortable in a salon environment). Youngsters, who are too frightened to perform solo, almost always enjoy performing in a group. This shows the importance of the mental perception of the situation.
By the time nervousness becomes a problem, it is usually spinning out of control. A lack of understanding of nervousness also creates fear because of the fear of the unknown. Thus the simple knowledge of what performance anxiety is, and what generally happens during a performance, can be a calming influence by reducing the fear of the unknown.
How does nervousness grow out of control, and are there ways to prevent it? Fundamental science provides some solutions. Practically anything in our universe grows by a process known as the Nucleation-Growth (NG) mechanism. The NG theory states that an object forms in two stages, nucleation and growth. This theory became popular because it is in fact the way in which the majority of objects in our universe form, from raindrops to cities, stars, humans, etc. Tiny nuclei are always forming and disappearing, but there is a thing called a critical nucleus which, when formed, becomes stable -- it does not disappear. In general, the critical nucleus does not form unless there is a supersaturation of the material that aggregate to form it. For the object to grow to its final size, the critical nucleus needs a growth mechanism by which to increase its size. In general, the growth mechanism is different from the nucleation mechanism. One interesting aspect of nucleation is that there is always a barrier to nucleation -- otherwise, everything would have nucleated a long time ago. Growth is a two-way street: it can be positive or negative.
Let's apply NG theory to nervousness. In everyday life, your sense of nervousness comes and goes, without becoming anything serious. However, in an unusual situation such as a performance, there is a supersaturation of factors that cause nervousness: you must perform flawlessly, you didn't have enough time to practice the piece, there is a big audience out there, etc. However, this still may not cause any problem because there are natural barriers to nucleating nervousness, because the person may not even be aware of nervousness, or might be too busy finalizing the preparations for the recital. But then, a fellow performer says, "Hey, I got butterflies in my stomach!" and you suddenly feel a lump in your throat and realize that you are nervous -- the critical nucleus has formed! This may still not be that bad, until you start to worry that perhaps your piece is not yet ready to perform or the nervousness might interfere with the playing -- these fears cause the nervousness to grow. Thus, asking a performer, "aren't you nervous?", etc., is the worst thing you can do to a nervous performer. On the other hand, a teacher who ignores nervousness and doesn't teach performance preparation is not doing his job.
It is not a good idea to pretend that nervousness does not exist, especially with youngsters who can more easily suffer lifelong psychological damage. Kids are smart and they can easily see through the pretense, and the need to play along with the pretense can only increase the stress because they must shoulder the burden by themselves and feel alone and abandoned. This is why performance training, in which nervousness is discussed and studied, is so important. For young students, the parents and friends attending the recital need to be educated. Statements like "I hope you aren't nervous!" or "How can you perform without getting nervous?" are almost certain to cause nucleation and growth. Unless you know what you are doing, stay away from such statements! You can help by keeping them busy, giving them simple tasks to do or discussing details of the music, how to adjust the chair, etc.
The nice thing about scientific theory is that it not only describes the process, but also provides solutions. We can attack nervousness at the nucleation stage; if we can prevent nucleation, it will never form a critical nucleus. Merely delaying the nucleation will be helpful because that will reduce the time available for it to grow. Playing easier pieces will reduce the supersaturation of worry. Mock recitals will give you more experience and confidence; both will reduce the fear of the unknown. Generally, you need to perform a piece three or more times before you know whether you can perform it successfully or not; thus performing pieces that had been performed several times will also help. All these factors reduce the supersaturation for nucleation. For someone like Mozart, nervousness never nucleates because there is no supersaturation of factors like fear of mistakes, etc.; instead, he was always eager to show off, which is the opposite of supersaturation. Thus the eagerness to make music for the audience can prevent performance anxiety.
Nervousness is generally worst before a performance; once you start playing, you are too busy with the task at hand that there is no time to dwell on nervousness, thus reducing the growth factor. This knowledge helps because it alleviates the fear that things might get worse during the performance. Not dwelling on nervousness is another way of delaying the nucleation as well as slowing the growth stage. Thus it is a good idea to keep yourself occupied while waiting for the recital to begin. MP is useful because you can check your memory and keep yourself occupied at the same time; thus MP is the most effective tool for preventing or delaying nucleation and for reducing growth. Playing musically is a surprisingly effective antidote against nervousness; when you can involve your entire brain in the business of creating music, there is little brain resources left to worry about nervousness.
Our daughter, Eileen, pointed out that Yoga-type breathing techniques are effective in eliminating nervousness. Breathing consists of two parts: (1) breathing techniques [(19) Breathing, Swallowing] and (2) breathing routines for specific purposes, such as for athletics, meditation, etc. Here, we need a routine for eliminating nervousness. "Breathing slowly to reduce nervousness" has been mentioned numerous times in the literature. What we need are precise routines with explanations of why and how they work, how to design the best routines and, most importantly, how to practice them.
The routine is: inhale (5 to 30 seconds), hold about 5 seconds, exhale (5 to 30 seconds), hold about 5 seconds, repeat. The exact times depend on the person and circumstances, as explained in detail below.
Why does this work to eliminate nervousness?
(1) It distracts the mind from the causes of nervousness, in a way that involves not only the mind but also the whole body. This may not immediately eliminate the nervousness, but it HAS to reduce it somewhat. But any reduction brings relief, and this relief feeds on itself, thus reducing nervousness further. This positive feedback process can eventually eliminate the nervousness. This is the same reason why, once you start playing, the nervousness generally subsides, because the brain becomes too preoccupied with the task of playing. Thus, as soon as you feel some relief from nervousness, you know that the procedure will work.
(2) When nervous, the body is in a tense state, often with the heart racing, and the slow breathing serves to slow down everything in the body. Stress reduction is a major component of yoga classes that teach how to breathe. Yoga has done a great job of identifying autonomous processes such as stress and nervousness, and finding ways to control them. Just for learning how to control performance anxiety, it is worthwhile for all pianists to take a few yoga lessons.
(3) The body is generally unaccustomed to operating two tasks simultaneously. In this method, you are forcing the body to breathe following a specific routine while it is undergoing nervousness, and the body gives up the nervousness.
There aren't many chances to get nervous, so there are few occasions for practicing breathing techniques to see if they work and to experiment with them. Fortunately, the method also works for inducing sleep. Practicing breathing to induce sleep will give you all the practice you need to control nervousness! Read the section on sleep [Post Practice Improvement, Sleep] for details of how to practice breathing routines.
When really nervous, breathing slowly, counting, and holding may not be comfortable or feasible. In that case, start by simply breathing in and out comfortably; this may be shallow breathing and relatively fast. Then slow it down gradually, and then start counting. A good starting routine with counting might be: inhale for 5 sec., hold 5 sec., exhale 5 sec., hold 5 sec., repeat. To start inhaling or exhaling, wait till you feel the urge to inhale or exhale, which is the urge that drives the autonomous breathing. Then gradually slow down the whole process by increasing the number of seconds.
Thus, if necessary, start with faster shallow breathing and gradually slow it down towards deeper breathing; eventually, you may be able to inhale/exhale/hold for 30 seconds or more. Breathing routines vary widely depending on the application. For reducing nervousness, it is usually best to breathe deeply, so that it is necessary to learn the mechanics of breathing.
A sample breathing routine that shows how it works is presented in [Post Practice Improvement, Sleep]. The main difference between sleep and nervousness is that, for sleep, you let the autonomous take over, so that the routine eventually changes, generally towards shallower breathing. For nervousness, the routine does not change once you achieve the routine you want, and you keep that routine until the nervousness is gone.
This breathing exercise is only a band-aid and is not a permanent cure. The permanent solution to nervousness must be the desire to produce music, the pride and joy of controlling the audience with music. A certain amount of nervousness is necessary because you can't be lackadaisical and perform your best. A good performer is not bothered by mistakes because the music is so much more important than mistakes. Excessive nervousness will adversely affect the music while the joy of producing great music enhances the performance. Performance anxiety tends to be an all-or-nothing phenomenon: either you enjoy performing or you are debilitated by performance anxiety. The transition from performance anxiety to the joy of performing can be the most profound transformation in the life of a musician. Although breathing exercises are just band-aids, they can help you to achieve that transformation.
Performance training must include lessons on how to react to various circumstances, such as when you make mistakes or have blackouts. For students who tend to have blackouts, have the sheet music ready; just the knowledge that the sheet music is available can reduce blackouts. Placing the music on the piano or nearby can act as a security blanket. A student must always bring the music with them to the recital. It is important, early in a student's career, to play easy pieces that can be performed without nervousness. Even one such experience can provide the existence proof that performing without nervousness is possible. That single experience can influence the performance attitude for life.
Some have claimed that, under a doctor's supervision, medications such as Inderal and Atenolol, or even Zantac will work to calm nerves. Conversely, you can make it worse by drinking coffee or tea with too much caffeine, not getting enough sleep [Post Practice Improvement, Sleep], or taking certain cold medications. The best solution is to learn enough about nervousness so that it can be controlled without medication.
This use of breathing routines to cure nervousness led me to its use for inducing sleep – another example of how learning piano can teach us skills that are useful in applications outside music.
In summary, performance anxiety is nervousness that has spiraled out of control. You can minimize nervousness by delaying its nucleation by keeping busy and reducing its growth by playing musically. MP is the most effective tool for these purposes. It is pure ignorance, and not helpful, to ask "do you get nervous when you perform?" Everyone does, and should. Nervousness is worst just before you begin to play; once you start, you are too busy with the playing to worry about nervousness and this will cause it to shrink. Nervousness needs to be taught using performance preparation routines and performance training programs so that most students can be in the camp that never gets nervous. Having fun with contemporary music such as pop, jazz, and improvisation, is good training. Playing easy pieces, and practicing by playing snippets in casual events, are helpful. Once you get nervous, it can be eliminated by using breathing routines.