Emerging musicians often struggle heavily with stage fright. But, did you know: many seasoned performers grapple with the same problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stage fright, or performance anxiety, isn’t solely an emergent artist’s predicament\u2014it’s a nearly universal phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the stage lights beam, a musician’s heart might race; her hands might quiver \u2014 cue ‘stage fright’. Like an omnipresent shadow, stage fright has loomed over countless performances throughout history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this intersection of art and trepidation, the question emerges: where does this this universal reaction originate? The science behind performance anxiety is intriguingly akin to a symphony \u2014 complex, layered, and capable of stirring deep responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Known formally as ‘performance anxiety’, stage fright springs from a cascade of psychological and physiological reactions. It\u2019s evolutionary biology tuning up: the body\u2019s ancient alarm system\u2014the sympathetic nervous system\u2014rehearsing its primal repertoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You see, under duress\u2014be it predators of yesteryear, or the expectant auditorium’s patrons\u2014our bodies do not discriminate. That old sabretooth-edged fear grips us similarly. Muscles tighten, breath quickens, and the primal brain sings a unified chorus with our sympathetic nervous system in what one would consider a commendable albeit misplaced urge for survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The acute stress response involved in fight or flight sends adrenaline charging through our veins” explains one scientist. For musicians, it often crescendoes into those all-too-familiar sweaty palms, quickened pulse, jitters, or forgetting the song’s lyrics or the next line<\/a>. Ultimately, this involuntary concert within may discordantly clash with the one intended for the audience’s ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what precisely incites this sweaty-palmed, heart-throbbing anticipation before taking the stage? The answer takes root in our biological response systems. At its core, stage fright is a manifestation of the primitive ‘fight or flight’ response\u2014an archaic, ingrained mechanism which prepared our ancestors to either battle or flee in the face of threats. Unfortunately for those in the performing arts, this biological reaction often interprets taking the stage as such a threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n