“No, no please don’t!!” Betty shouted.
“It’s the only way to overcome that fear..” I responded.
“Out in the waiting room there are some parents and students just sitting there waiting. Let’s go and entertain them with your awesome talent.” I blurted.
“Please no, pretty please don’t.” Betty stressful said.
“Oh geez, you gotta work on your confidence and this is the only way to gain it. Alright we’ll skip it for now but next week you’re doing it ok?”
“Ok!!!” Betty retorted stressfully.
Fear and stress grips us all. Imagine if we lived a life stress free and totally fearless. Wow, what a world. We would be invincible.
Unfortunately for my old student Betty, she was a really shy yet talented guitarist with low self esteem.
During our private session she would say “sorry” 5 times a minute it was driving me insane! I literally had to tell her to stop being so apologetic.
I was training her for the upcoming singing competition. In class she would sing beautifully but every time I would try to get her to step out of her comfort zone stress bullets fell out.
I get it we all go through the same emotions.
We’re in our room practicing like crazy and everything is spot on. Then the big event comes around and fear turns us white and pale and we screw up every single note.
Why?
I’ll tell you why.
Two things.
- Emotions
- Environment
We need to control both. Implementing training for both these areas will make you solid as a rock.
The best practice technique nobody uses is what I call.
Stress Control Training (SCT)
Huh?
The military uses what they call Stress Inoculation training (SIT). They create real world scenarios for training. Check out this video.
Crazy, huh?
What we have to do is place our mind, emotions in an environment where stress is induced and we total feel the real deal. Just as if we are actually at the gig.
If you simulate this at the end of your daily practice routine you can control the fear and anxiety that overcomes you. Eventually you will be able to be fearless and invincible and be able to conquer any stage.
Here is some great info. explaining more about (SIT). Click here..
Conclusion
My bro David has not touched a trumpet in a decade. Last Memorial Day 2014 he played “Taps” on the bugle horn beautifully at church. I thought to myself, “Wow, he hasn’t done that in awhile.”
I had dinner at his place the other day and mentioned about stress inoculation training (SIT). My brother is a psychologist, but he looked at me weird and said, “What’s that?”
“You don’t know what that is? Aren’t you a head doctor?” I said.
I’ll explained it to him and surprisingly he looked at me and said, “That’s exactly what I did to practice on the bugle. I imagined myself at church with tons of people. Then I suddenly started to feel the anxiety and began to practice the tune with no pauses or stops at all. After days of practicing it that way the anxiety left. That’s how I played it so cleanly at church.”
Interesting!
Yes, this stuff works. Try it continuously and you will see the results.