While listening to music I get these daydreams of me playing guitar in front of tons of people as a future career. I have had a bass for 2 months and acoustic guitar since November and people say I'm good but here's the catch: I can get nervous to play even in front of my own PARENTS. Confidence tips to play in pubilc?(still a teen, this confidence thing is a pain in the butt)
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Good daydream, maybe good as any. Your candid comment on "confidence" gets my attention, anyway. So let me bore you with an old man's take. That confidence bit is as much biological as anything. A young lion on the plains of Africa may be bold enough to try to compete with the big older males, but if it gets too bold, it might get killed or at least seriously messed up. So its a survival instinct when it's balanced. Good thing.
'Back in the world, it's still a balance of skills, getting some/any real experience performing, and then accepting what's OK for whatever level you're playing at. Surviving a single-set gig for free can - and should - be a good thing for a noob performer, then (as always) its uphill. But as you (might) get up there, you can always look back to see how far you've come... Along the way, best to be as prepared as you can, deal with performance anxiety ("stage fright" etc. by concentrating on sharing your music with the audience - not the fantasy bad dog/whap thing that can get in your head), and keep going.
The best thing to sustain you all along is the music itself, not the crowd, not the venue, and probably not your own view of yourself. I was a very shy teen, but found I could pretty much be who I wanted when performing. Guys I played with almost had to drag me out there top get me to do that. But plugged in and going for a song, it just went poof. If the music's like air and blood, that you gotta have, you can knock down walls. You may never play in front of a ton of people, but 'don't matter. (Playing for a hundred screaming dancing people is more fun anyway!)
A tune for you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr_eVcCAUXo
Anonymous
Don't play in front of your parents much....No one plays good in front of their parents, no matter how long they've played.
Here's the difference between ma real musician, and some who just plays an instrument. A musician plays for themselves, no matter who is out front listening. You do what feels good, and the crowd just sort of gets tuned out until the end of the song. Real musicians know there is really no such thing as wrong notes, just different interpretations.......Someone who just plays an instrument is worried about how they look, if they hit all the right notes on the piece of sheet music garbage they have to play from, and what people think of them.
Forget who is listening. Just hit the first notes, and slip into your own little world. Let the music take you where it will, and enjoy the trip. The stage is yours, and you are the only one that counts.......