You have practised for months. You can play the piece in your sleep. Then you walk on stage, your hands go cold and start to shake, and passages you have never fumbled fall apart.
Music performance anxiety is very common, from students to seasoned professionals. Some of the most celebrated performers in history suffered from it badly. It has nothing to do with talent or preparation.
Why music is so exposed
Performing music combines several things that provoke anxiety.
- Fine motor control, which is the first thing adrenaline disrupts. Trembling fingers, a shaking bow, a tight throat or unsteady breath strike directly at the instrument.
- One chance. There is no going back.
- Memory under pressure.
- Exposure to an audience, to peers, to examiners.
- Years of training bound up with identity, so a slip can feel like a verdict on your worth.
- Perfectionism, which the profession tends to encourage.
What the research shows
The research on hypnosis specifically for musicians is small. A few controlled studies with music students have reported reduced performance anxiety after brief hypnotherapy, with gains reported to last for months. They are small studies and need repeating.
There is a wider and better-established base to draw on.
- Cognitive behavioural therapy is the best-supported treatment for performance anxiety.
- Mental rehearsal and imagery improve performance in music as in sport, and are standard practice among elite performers.
- Hypnosis added to CBT improved results for public speaking anxiety in one trial.
- Relaxation and breathing techniques help with the physical symptoms.
Hypnosis is a way of delivering several of these together, in a focused state.
What hypnosis can offer a performer
- A lower baseline of tension in the days before
- Vivid mental rehearsal of the performance going well
- A rehearsed recovery from a slip
- A cue for calm, usable on stage
- A changed reading of symptoms: a racing heart as readiness
- Quieter self-criticism
- Absorption in the music, which is the opposite of self-consciousness
That last point matters. The state musicians describe when a performance goes well, being lost in the music, is close to hypnotic absorption. Anxiety pulls attention onto yourself. Hypnosis practises putting it back on the sound.
A rehearsal routine
Ten to fifteen minutes a day in the fortnight before a performance.
- Relax. Slow breaths, soften the body, with particular attention to the shoulders, arms, hands and jaw.
- Go to the venue. See the room, the lights, the stand, the audience.
- Walk on. Feel your feet on the floor. Bow. Sit or stand. Settle.
- Hear the first phrase in your mind before you play it.
- Play it through in imagination at full tempo, feeling the movements and hearing the sound you want.
- Rehearse a slip. Imagine a wrong note or a memory lapse. See yourself carry on without flinching, back in the music by the next bar.
- Finish. Hear the last note fade. Hear the applause.
- Set a cue. A slow breath out and a word, such as “sing” or “give.”
- Return. Count from one to five and open your eyes.
Then go and physically practise performing: play the piece through without stopping, for a friend, a recording device or an empty room.
Suggestions that work
Keep them about the process and the music, not the result.
- “My hands are warm and free.”
- “I breathe low and slow.”
- “I listen to the sound I am making.”
- “I give the music to the audience.”
- “A slip is one note. The next note is new.”
Avoid “I will not make mistakes” and “I must not shake.”
On the day
- Arrive early and get used to the space.
- Warm up physically, including shoulders and hands.
- Eat lightly; go easy on caffeine.
- Before going on: three slow breaths, the out-breath longer than the in-breath.
- Use your cue.
- Take time to settle before you start. The silence feels longer to you than to anyone else.
- Listen to your first note.
Beyond technique
Stage fright is not only about arousal. It is often about what a performance means.
- Change the aim from being judged to communicating something.
- Practise performing, not just playing. Low-stakes performances, often.
- Loosen perfectionism. Audiences remember feeling, not a missed note.
- Look after the basics: sleep, movement, time away from the instrument.
About beta-blockers
Many musicians use beta-blocker medication for the physical symptoms. That is a decision for you and your doctor, not something to borrow from a colleague, since they are unsuitable for people with some conditions, including asthma. They treat the tremor, not the fear. Psychological methods address the cause and have no side effects.
When to seek more help
If anxiety is making you avoid performing, affecting your career or studies, or spilling into the rest of your life, see your doctor or a psychologist. Specialists in performing arts medicine exist, and many conservatoires and orchestras now offer support.
For teachers
How you speak to students shapes how they speak to themselves. Treating mistakes as information and not as catastrophe, and giving students regular low-pressure performing experience, does more than any technique.
The bottom line
The evidence for hypnosis in musicians specifically is thin, but the ingredients, relaxation, mental rehearsal and a practised recovery from mistakes, are well supported. Used alongside real performing practice, it is a sound way to prepare.
Next in the series: Puységur and the Peasant: The Day Mesmerism Became Hypnosis
This article is for general information and is not medical advice.