craigb
Something Dave just said reminded me that I definitely perform better once I stop thinking about it.  Whenever something distracts me (which isn't all that difficult - LOL!), I find that my "auto-pilot" works much better than when I'm focusing on the task too much.  I guess that's what they call "the flow."

This is just plain ... bizarre. Of everything I have ever directed on a stage, and almost all of them newer folks, never, EVER, have we had issues with nerves, except once. And she had never been on the stage. 
 
Points of interest:
 
1. We were very well rehearsed, including fun bits and pieces to help ease in and out of the moments cleanly!
 
2. Everyone knew the script really well, and who they were talking to. No one was "out on their own" putting hands out to an invisible audience!
 
3. Everyone was aware of where the lights were, and how close they should be to that spot, for example, to help facilitate the moment (... rock bands don't do lights, and that hurts ... because that means the lighting is totally fudged up, and wrong half the time!)
 
4. The audience has no idea what you are going to do!
 
5. The only necessity, specially in comedy, is that you have to "pause" sometimes in order to acknowledge the audience, and this is very tricky ... but we had rehearsed many of those moments and we never lost an inch in those moments ... the actors were ready for them!
 
6. There are things you can not prepare for ... like a Leko fell on the stage and almost killed the guitar player ... ooopppssss ... it's very likely difficult for anyone to continue at that point, and feel safe, and a professor would probably pull the plug. But, you and I are assuming that the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, ELP, and everyone else, never had issues on the stage that were very tough, and required a bit more than we know ... like a small jam added to it, to make time for fixing something! This happened in the first MAGMA show in Portland, when the bass drum pedal broke in half and the drum was loose from its pedestal. Can we ask Christian not to drum so hard? ... Hahahaha!!!
 
Be it Rain, or anyone else, if you are concentrating on your feelings, you are not paying attention to the music next to you, in the earlier stages of the performance, and this can make it really hard to clean up, but a quiet warm up by the band just before the show on the dressing room, should help, so everyone is on the same dot!
 
Performing, and you might not be aware of this, is a GIFT ... and some of you are magnificent on it, and the real issue, might just be ... you're hearing something different in your head, than what you are doing ... and that needs to be cleared up with the band and put to bed and rest. 
 
Do you EVER wonder why a child loves the attention so many times when singing a song, and they go away smiling, and maybe being shy afterwards? Don't take that "shine" away from yourself. You need that "shine" so that what you do on the stage is magnified and makes it all be so much more complete and ready to show and go.
 
As they say ... break a leg ... but your nerves can be dealt with well, and you should really spend some time talking to a theater/film director to learn a bit more about stage craft and being able to do what you do.
 
YES, there are some people that have that until the last minute, but ... wow ... is that the same person? YES, it is. And this time it's your turn. SMILE and let it go, baby ... this is your time to shine.
 
Maybe if we give Rain some kind of facial makeup and false teeth, and longer ears, and what not ... he will forget all the nerves! And smile some more. Like he doesn't know what he is doing? You gotta be kidding me!
 
Ohh, by the way, for being a newbie and all that ... she stole the show and got an amazing ovation.

The Kiosk Project
I am also an advocate for trying to perform sober and free of all chemicals (apart from the ones you generate yourself)
...

 
 
The time to "experiment" and try things is on rehearsal, and this is the reason why I always recommend that a band rehearsing, needs once a week to let it go, and just go crazy and have fun, regardless of what you do. The upside is that you find new things, and this is specially important for a band doing original material. For a top ten or bar band, that's another story, but those fun exercises are good to help with the chemistry and how each other adjusts. Some folks are mean in these moments and wait for someone else to get going, but in the end, it's about all together and jump ... and even if they all go in different directions, that's OK, because the trick is to get it all in sync, one moment at a time.
 
Depending on the theater at hand, the chemicals, can be played with, but I, personally, do not recommend it, and neither do I recommend weed, although nowadays, that's a very relaxing and hip things to do. The main issue is, that while it is still you, in the end, the outside intervention by something, will inevitably hurt, because it brings out different emotions than the ones you need to concentrate on to do the work you do at this particular moment. Now, if your name was Grateful Dead, or early jam bands, it might not matter as much, but the process in those areas was not as "free form" as we think, as much as it was what was called then, in theater and film, a "guided" exercise, or experiment. It already had a beginning and an end defined so everyone would know where to end up more or less. 
 
You can compare this with CAN, and how they put together some music in "cut and paste" style, regardless of what was in it, and ended up with a massive album (Tago Mago) and their next album, was almost straight out of the stage live, with no cuts. And yes, and they admit it, there were goodies around, and Damo does not deny it, but he also says that it was a lot more than the drugs that allowed him to do what he did, and Malcom Mooney was also doing before. America's main "jam" bands, I think, were much more centered on a note or chord to get back to things, although it is hard to say within Miles Davis context, if this is true or not, and I think he intentionally changed that too, so he and others would not get bored.
 
For any stage presentation, it is important that it be defined well and helped to be better than it possibly can, to prevent boredom and repetition, and keep an excitement level up where it needs to be, or it all falls apart much quicker. I do not recommend any extra goodies at all, although it is hard to control someone showing up already with a few beers in their gut, or something else ... but you know it right away, from the start. Only once, did I close the rehearsal, and told the folks, that the next time, I would report it to the Professors and that meant that one student would be out of the program right away.
 
You ruin your own life, I like to say, but don't waste it when you have the chance to shine. Even if everyone else is getting ripped. keep your wits straight and move along. If the whole band is ripped, at least maintain your professional standard ... and if someone asks why you don't, tell them ... you want to get to the professional level, and you don't get there by getting stoned very often, before you fall apart and lose everything! If they don't listen, you are in the wrong band or show!

How did Pedro turn this topic into psychic's and boxing??? 

I think I've grown more comfortable with public playing over the years. One thing that has helped me is knowing my material inside and out, where I can actually play without much thought and knowing when I'm starting to get nervous.
The hardest thing to hide behind if you're nervous is a violin. Everything is so critical...so I would notice my bow starting to bounce and realize I'm building up tension in my bow arm. Probably similar to a guitarist playing fine pickings. If I noticed myself getting tense I seemed to be able to counter it by simply relaxing. All of this is happening in milliseconds. I know that if I don't relax it'll only get worse. Once relaxed I'm fine.

bitflipper
Maybe I live in a delusional bubble of my own creation, but I have never suffered from stagefright. Not during my very first performance in Kindergarten, nor doing a live radio broadcast, not on large stages in front of thousands. Not even after months or years off the stage.
 
I can, however, relate to the sensation of being a fraud who's in constant danger of being found out. That's pretty normal, I think, and has no relationship to one's talent, accomplishments or even self-confidence. You know your own limitations intimately and wonder how many in the audience can spot them.
 
Ironically, if you don't feel this way then you probably are a fraud with an inflated sense of your own brilliance.
 
My own self-medication, which I employ only in extreme situations, is coffee. Whether it's going into the studio to lay down a part for someone else or performing live, caffeine speeds up my brain and my fingers to the point where I find myself looking down at my own hands and being surprised by what they're doing. This only works because I am normally not a big caffeine consumer, so all it takes is one Starbucks Iced Coffee to wind me up. 
 
A less-dangerous technique is simply warming up before a gig. I sit down at the keyboard with headphones and start doing finger exercises, scales and a self-jam around some simple chord progression. It takes a good half-hour for the effect to kick in, but when it does it's even more effective than a double-espresso.

This describes my experiences "to a 'T'"! i don't always add caffeine, but when I do, it's typically not Starbucks!

I've always been comfortable in front of people, but every time I'm there I am always afraid someone will discover I'm a talentless fraud! And yet I am drawn to do it as often as allowed!

Haven't you heard there are various stages to life Kris? 

Part of my fear of being onstage stems from a school production I was in when I was ten. It was a spoof musical version of Star Wars called (wait for it) Star Flaws (lead character - Luke Warmwater). 
 
Anyway I can't for the life of me remember what character I was in it but I had been selected because I had a strong singing voice. I had a few lines here and there but toward the end I had a sizable speech which I spent hours and hours memorizing and perfecting at home. So I was completely and utterly confident....until halfway through speech, on the opening night, with the hall packed with kids and parents....the headmaster shouted at me from the back of the room "SPEAK UP JAMES! WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!" 
 
I suddenly felt 300 eyes burning through me like laser beams. It ruined my confidence and I've had a fear of speaking in public ever since. Amazing how one single comment from a thoughtless adult can stay with you forever. 

Jeff Evans
The ultimate way to do it is to do some subconscious mind training.  As you fall asleep for about a week you spend time telling your subconscious mind from your conscious mind that you will not suffer any form of stage fright and you will do a stellar performance at your best.  You visualise it and really believe it.  Feel it before hand.  Then when you go out there it will happen exactly the way you have been imagining it.
 

Just make sure you word things positively.  Saying you will "not suffer" is actually telling the subconscious mind to suffer since it doesn't understand negatives.  Try something like "I will be comfortable on stage" instead.  When I was still working on my PhD, I was on the American Board of Hypnotherapy and we sent a letter to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) informing them of this which is why you see their "Don't Drink and Drive!" bumperstickers being replaced with the positive alternative "Drive Sober!"
 
Going a little further, you probably are aware that the brain has two sides with the left brain (the logical side) usually controlling the right side of the body and the right brain (the creative side) usually controlling the left side of the body.  (I say "usually" because both sides are capable of running the entire body if needed, think of it as having a back-up system!).  So what does this mean to suggestions and affirmations?  Well, you should frame what's heard in the left ear as a command (e.g., "I am comfortable onstage.") while the right ear responds better to a permissive voice (e.g., "It's ok to be permissive onstage.").
 
Note that suggestions and affirmations have very little effect when the conscious mind is aware and filtering.  This is the purpose behind a hypnotic induction which helps put you in a suggestible state of trance to bypass the conscious mind (also note that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, a hypnotist merely helps guide someone to the correct trance level).  That said, your comments about visualizing it, really believing it and feeling it before hand are very important.  You can't anchor things very well without emotion.  Visualize it (notice your surroundings, people involved, colors, etc. then turn up the power on all of it - brighter colors, more defined images and so on).  Hear all the sounds, smell all the smells and feel everything you can - the more intense the better!
 
An additional technique is to stand behind yourself on stage and see yourself being exactly what you want to be.  Say all your suggestions and affirmations as well as experiencing all the other senses intensely (as described above), then step into the image of yourself and BE that person.

craigb

Jeff Evans
The ultimate way to do it is to do some subconscious mind training.  As you fall asleep for about a week you spend time telling your subconscious mind from your conscious mind that you will not suffer any form of stage fright and you will do a stellar performance at your best.  You visualise it and really believe it.  Feel it before hand.  Then when you go out there it will happen exactly the way you have been imagining it.
 

Just make sure you word things positively.  Saying you will "not suffer" is actually telling the subconscious mind to suffer since it doesn't understand negatives.  Try something like "I will be comfortable on stage" instead.  When I was still working on my PhD, I was on the American Board of Hypnotherapy and we sent a letter to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) informing them of this which is why you see their "Don't Drink and Drive!" bumperstickers being replaced with the positive alternative "Drive Sober!"
 
Going a little further, you probably are aware that the brain has two sides with the left brain (the logical side) usually controlling the right side of the body and the right brain (the creative side) usually controlling the left side of the body.  (I say "usually" because both sides are capable of running the entire body if needed, think of it as having a back-up system!).  So what does this mean to suggestions and affirmations?  Well, you should frame what's heard in the left ear as a command (e.g., "I am comfortable onstage.") while the right ear responds better to a permissive voice (e.g., "It's ok to be permissive onstage.").
 
Note that suggestions and affirmations have very little effect when the conscious mind is aware and filtering.  This is the purpose behind a hypnotic induction which helps put you in a suggestible state of trance to bypass the conscious mind (also note that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, a hypnotist merely helps guide someone to the correct trance level).  That said, your comments about visualizing it, really believing it and feeling it before hand are very important.  You can't anchor things very well without emotion.  Visualize it (notice your surroundings, people involved, colors, etc. then turn up the power on all of it - brighter colors, more defined images and so on).  Hear all the sounds, smell all the smells and feel everything you can - the more intense the better!
 
An additional technique is to stand behind yourself on stage and see yourself being exactly what you want to be.  Say all your suggestions and affirmations as well as experiencing all the other senses intensely (as described above), then step into the image of yourself and BE that person.

Pedro, how did you get Craig's log-in?

craigb
Hey... Don't you have some hedges to trim? 

No, I don't.

Moshkito

jamesg1213
 
...
Pedro, how did you get Craig's log-in?
...

It's just weird for me to be reading this stuff. Working as a director for a long time, the one thing that one comes across all the time is the stage fright thing, and the other bit is the "lock ups" by actors who all of a sudden can not remember their lines or what they are doing. 
 
In music, it might not be that far, or different, at all. My thoughts have always been that the exercises and work that is done in rehearsal, is the difference, not the performance itself. 
 
If you, in my book, are having issues going onstage, you are not rehearsed enough, or properly, and the thought, usually is (by theater folks) that you are in the wrong place, or you would work harder on making sure that you are prepared and ready for the performance, which is what the whole things is about. AND, above all, there is no chance for a "warm-up" once the show starts, and you do not want to lose the audience within 5 minutes, because it is poring and perfunctory, and not exciting! Start with a good bang, and get it better, or the show will suffer!
 
This is a "private" observation, by myself, over the years. Most of the people that were having issues with stage anything, were people that probably should not be there, for various reasons, and usually, their desire is bigger than their libido, so to speak. And thinking they can manufacture that desire after a few this and that! 
 
Staging, be it music or theater, or film, is not as much about desire, as it is about how you apply yourself to the work you are doing. If you do not believe in it 1000%, it is not going to be as good, and this is an issue with many bar bands. You can tell the players that are good and bad, within 3 minutes, or one song!
 
As I like to say, give yourself a chance, and be ready. This does not mean you know your stuff, but also know the other stuff, like what the other musicians are doing, so you can work together with them and help cover/recover and hide the small errors here and there, and smooth out those moments into oblivion -- something that an audience, often does not see, specially in original music. If you are worried about yourself, and some physical this and that, GET HELP, because that stuff is eating away a large part of your ability, even if it goes away after 5 minutes ... those first 5 minutes will blow your ability when it comes to many previews, and chances to impress so be able to get a better piece of work, or even (at worst) to become a much needed and prepared musician all over town to cover everything from A to Z.
 
I think that most folks know their part well (no issue there!), but how well do you know how you blend with the other folks? I'm willing to bet that most issues are in this part, not what you already know.

I disagree.  If only by the true observation that those who have struggled and succeeded are generally thought to be the most talented.  Extroverts  make bad actors and musicians IMHO, and that's what we're discussing here:  extroversion versus introversion.  If you're having issues work through them.  There's often a relationship  between your talent and your fear of sharing it with others.  I'm 52 and have been around all sorts of *them*, the *its* this is definitely a truism. :D:D  I mean sure the director wants you to be a *team player*.  But what gigs do they get?  They get the jobs in the chorus.  Keep working on your art and don't let the p-nut's get you down!  OTOH I'll do anything for money.  No job too small for this p-nut!

Where did I say ALL?! :D  Also, I just said it was my opinion.  Take it or leave it!

craigb
All people who post in forums are weird.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Now that's for feckin sure! :D:D  But..the fear of success and the fear of failure are two sides of the same coin for the perfectionist.  I don't agree with moshkito.  So there!

Jeff Evans
The subconscious mind does understand negatives.  In fact if you give your subconscious mind negative information it will do its best to make that a reality.  If a negative is used the right way eg you won't suffer stage fright then that message will also still get through.  The most powerful thing you can do is visualise you doing the gig with real confidence and no sign of stage fright in sight and also feel what that is like.  Words are a great start but visualistion and feelings are way more powerful.
 
The real issue with the subconscious mind is the fact it believes everything you tell it and it never questions anything. That is the real danger.  If you see something you would really love to buy and you say to yourself there is no way I can ever buy that then the subconscious mind simply believes it and will do everything in its power to make that happen.
 
What the subconscious mind also has a problem with is when you are joking.  If you say to yourself in a joking manner I will never be able to do that or I can't pay my rent this month then it will simply believe it and also do everything in its power to make it happen.
 
Most people are sending the wrong messages to their subconscious minds.  For all the facts read the book 'The Power of your Subconscious Mind' by Joseph Murphy.  It's all in there.
 
Kenny has put it very nicely.  A little butterflies before an important gig is very good and healthy and can keep you in check.  Just don't let it ruin the gig though.  As Danny also nicely put it, get out there and really enjoy it.  Once you start, it should be all good from that moment on.

 
[Edit]I had a long statement here, but am removing it to keep things on target.  I'll just note that the book referenced above by Dr. Murphy was written in 1962 and there are many, many books on the subject (some much more recent).
 
I did note that visualizing and using your emotions were even more important than affirmations in my first reply:
 

craigb
Note that suggestions and affirmations have very little effect when the conscious mind is aware and filtering. This is the purpose behind a hypnotic induction which helps put you in a suggestible state of trance to bypass the conscious mind (also note that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, a hypnotist merely helps guide someone to the correct trance level). That said, your comments about visualizing it, really believing it and feeling it before hand are very important. You can't anchor things very well without emotion. Visualize it (notice your surroundings, people involved, colors, etc. then turn up the power on all of it - brighter colors, more defined images and so on). Hear all the sounds, smell all the smells and feel everything you can - the more intense the better!

An additional technique is to stand behind yourself on stage and see yourself being exactly what you want to be. Say all your suggestions and affirmations as well as experiencing all the other senses intensely (as described above), then step into the image of yourself and BE that person.