Tips on how to reduce stage fright for Piano Recitals

We’re fast approaching piano recital season and it’s so exciting for our students and piano teachers! As exciting as it is for folks, it can also be terrifying for some students and the idea of public performances can bring up feelings of stage fright for some students. Don’t worry, performing in front of an audience and having anxiety is natural and normal! We here at PianoCommuters are here to help by providing resources, confidence-building skills, and practice time to help overcome stage fright for students. We’ve created this list of ideas you can utilize with your kids to help them find ways to overcome and reduce stage fright.

Symptoms of Performance Anxiety

Some of the symptoms of performance anxiety you might see in your child can be:

-        Uneasy feeling in the stomach

-        Dry mouth

-        Shortness of breath/ rapid breathing

-        Trembling hands, knees, lips

-        Dizziness

-        Sweaty palms

-        Increased heartrate

-        Headache

-        Chills

Here are our 5 tips on how to help your child reduce stage fright for piano recitals! Please reach out to your child’s piano teacher if you have any specific questions about your child and performance.

Record Yourself Practicing

This is a simple idea that you can do at home to help yourself or your child prepare for a piano recital. To help get over performance anxiety you can film the piano player performing their song. Then you can show the child or adult the video of them playing so they’re able to see how they look and better understand how they look to others vs how the fear makes them feel. This can also help build confidence and performing for someone filming helps with providing a safe environment for those anxieties and worries to bubble up and for them to work through those emotions before going on a stage in front of people. This can be repeated as many times as the student would like to help overcome performance anxiety.

Practice in front of Family & Friends

Before the recital or performance, you can set up a mini showing for family and friends, so the student has an opportunity to perform in front of others to help reduce anxiety. Performing in front of loved ones gives a safe space where the student can make mistakes and learn in an environment that is supportive and helpful in overcoming performance anxiety. This can also allow some time for the student to have confidence-building by hearing positive feedback from others to help reduce and squish their negative self-talk. Hearing from others positive feedback can really help reduce stage fear.  

Practice Breathing Exercises

You can help teach your child how to effectively use simple breathing exercises to help reduce anxiety. When it comes to how to get rid of performance anxiety you can take 5-10 minutes before a performance to help reduce stress and tension felt in the body. These exercises start with inhaling slowly and deeply through their nose, relaxing their body as they do it, and closing their eyes. Hold the breath for a couple of seconds and then exhale slowly through the mouth, keeping your jaw and body relaxed as you exhale. Repeat this as many times as needed to feel better and focus on each breath and relax your body each time. This can be helpful as the students are practicing at home and right before a performance or recital.

Get your body moving

One of the best ways kids like to get over stage fright is to move their bodies! Anxiety can manifest itself within the body making a child feel restless. To help reduce these feelings having the child move, and do activities to get their body moving can help reduce their restlessness and reduce the symptoms of stage fright.

Visit the performance space

A performance space can seem daunting, it can seem like the room is endless and like there are thousands of people. When in reality, the room is an auditorium that seats 100. If possible, provide time for your child to go to the space where they will be performing. Have them explore the space and understand how many people will be there, where the stage is, where they’ll be exiting and entering from and where they can focus their attention during their performance. If you are unable to access the space before the performance, arranging either online or with the performance space to access photos that you can show your child and allow them to understand the space can also be helpful!

Performing can be full of anxiety and nerves, especially if it’s the student’s first time performing. We here at PianoCommuters help to provide your child with the skills and confidence to help them perform in front of an audience to help build confidence! If you have specific recital or performance questions please contact us, or ask your piano teacher!