Afraid to sing?
“Of course I am nervous. Each time I sing I feel there is someone waiting to destroy me, and I must fight like a bull to hold my own. The artist who boasts he is never nervous is not an artist. He is a liar or a fool.”
Your palms sweat. Your heart races. Your chest tightens. You run to the toilet. Worse, worry overwhelms your thoughts, and you’ve forgotten the words to your song.
Why is performance anxiety so debilitating? Even the mighty suffer: Barbra Streisand ceased all public performances for 27 years after forgetting the words to a song. If someone that famous can wither under stress, what hope is there for ordinary singers?
What is music performance anxiety?
Stage fright, or music performance anxiety, afflicts singers of all ages and skill levels and has both physical and psychological components [2].
Darwin first described the physical, a “fight-flight-fright” survival instinct. Heart rate, breathing, and other body markers elevate to aid a cornered animal.
In singing, mental vagaries often pose a greater problem. All music performance anxiety is characterized by an intense focus on one’s own feelings and experience. People who are “worriers” fixate unrealistically on future tasks, while those who ruminate fail to let go of a past error. Such behaviors do not tend to lead toward active problem solving.
Medication for performance anxiety
Prescription drugs can provide relief, and beta-blockers are by far the most common choice. Some surveys have found that the number of professional musicians using beta-blockers is as high as 30% [3].
There are important caveats, however. This class of drugs only reduces physical symptoms, like palpitations and hyperventilation, not the psychological ones. You will still worry and ruminate as before.
And beta-blockers won’t enhance performance. Unlike the drugs which propelled Lance Armstrong to break cycling records, beta-blockers will make no difference in your ability to hit new high notes. Whatever you were able to achieve in practice sessions will still be your limit.
There are reasons a singer should avoid beta-blockers. Sataloff and colleagues point out that since singing demands athletic levels of lung performance, beta-blockers, which dampen the respiratory system, could interfere. You might need that extra breath control for a long musical phrase [4].
It hardly needs mentioning that many musicians bypass formal medical advice in favor of self-medication. You know…sex, drugs, rock and roll. Interestingly, the cannabis extract CBD has been shown to significantly reduce performance anxiety [5, 6].
Maybe this is a reason Willie Nelson always seems so chill in front of a sold-out stadium…
When it comes to alcohol, thousands of studies already provide ample documentation of the cognitive and motor impairment it causes. A singer should not expect any positive effects from drinking.
![Adapted from Fernholz et al 2014 [8].](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f84b9693ead3458779699c7/1625866049925-NHGQ93CQR3BLTVB6H7MA/MPA+infographic.png)
Adapted from Fernholz et al 2014 [8].
Anxiety management
Since feelings of anxiety are universal, it is difficult for doctors to diagnose what is normal and what is pathological. A certain amount of anxiety actually enhances performance, but you have to find the sweet spot. Too little arousal, and the performance will be lifeless. Too much, and you’ll choke.
Serious cases of music performance anxiety overlap with more general anxiety disorders. In one study, 95% of musicians with serious stage fright also measured high in social phobia [7]. What makes performance anxiety distinct is that the task is physically or mentally demanding. Belting a high pop song requires fine-tuned motor skills. Going to a dinner party does not, though both activities may cause similar levels of fear.
Anxious feelings like worry and rumination are sometimes linked to childhood experiences of over-intrusive or punishing parents. “Fear of success,” for example, may actually be fear of retaliation following triumph over a domineering parent [9]. Family dynamics like these contribute to low self-efficacy in adults—people who don’t believe in their ability to master a task.
To combat performance anxiety that is deeply rooted in childhood, experts advocate traditional psychoanalysis, now called psychodynamic therapy [10, 11, 12]. Picture lying on a couch and talking about your past…and your mother.
For mild to moderate forms of music performance anxiety, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) works well [13, 14]. In contrast to psychodynamic therapy, CBT deals with the present. Through homework assigned by your therapist, you learn to deconstruct your own thoughts.
Avoid beta-blockers during CBT, though. CBT typically includes controlled exposure to anxiety-causing stimuli. To overcome your fear, you’re intentionally experiencing it in small doses. Any medication which reduces your response will interfere with the therapy.
Successful treatment frequently triggers a profound shift in thinking. Once your mind is free from the burden of self-focused thoughts, you will feel a connection to those around you, a new sense of belonging: “I am not alone in this.”
“The wise person makes the difficulty to overcome their first business. Success only comes later.”
Meditation, yoga, and other relaxation techniques occupy an interesting place in the list of options for treating music performance anxiety. Unlike prescription medication or CBT, mindfulness meditation aims not to change or eliminate feelings of anxiety but rather to “observe their rise and fall with an open attitude” [15].
Both yoga and meditation have a positive record in reducing performance anxiety in musicians [16, 17].
Considering their lower cost and the fact that there are no documented negative side-effects for these approaches, for anyone whose performance anxiety isn’t acute, they would seem a wise choice.
Life after performance anxiety
All the treatments I discussed in this article are supported by strong evidence. And there’s more good news…
Music performance anxiety very rarely causes an actual performance breakdown. Moreover, the audience almost never notices anything amiss, even when nerves get really bad. Research also shows that it tends to diminish with age.
If you’re in singing lessons, your teacher can be your staunchest ally in dealing with performance anxiety. After all, they’ve experienced it! Singing teacher and voice scientist William Vennard acknowledged, “A singer is more than a musical instrument; he is a person, and must be taught as a whole person” [18].
Perhaps best of all, on the path to becoming a whole person, those who love singing get a wonderful gift as they wrestle their fear “like a bull.”
They get to sing as they do it.
Sources
I would like to acknowledge my great debt in preparing this article to the expert scholarship of Dianna Kenny.
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Nagel.
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Sat Bir S. Khalsa et al., “Yoga Ameliorates Performance Anxiety and Mood Disturbance in Young Professional Musicians,” Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback 34, no. 4 (December 2009): 279–89, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-009-9103-4.
William Vennard, “Philosophies of Voice Pedagogy,” The American Music Teacher 7, no. 5 (May 1958): 4.
