How to Conquer Performance Anxiety: Body Language

Stress has the power to adversely effect your entire body posture… often without your permission and sometimes without your awareness…

In my case, I discovered that I have an unconscious tendency to withdraw into the fetal position. I curl my back, scrunch my shoulders, tuck my elbows at my sides, and pull my knees together.

Special Note from Frank: My tentative explanation for what is happening in my case is that my natural predisposition to become small and motionless (and therefore invisible to a predator) has been triggered and turned into habit by some unpleasant childhood memories of being judged for my performance in many different ways.

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No matter the reasons and roots causes, such a closed posture is devastating to a performance in at least four ways:

1. It automatically creates muscle tension that impacts your entire body.
2. Such muscle tension leads to awkward technique and unmusical timing.
3. Such muscle tension distorts the sense of where your body and the piano are in space and time, leading to feelings of insecurity and missed notes.
4. Because you did not practice this way, your body is in a situation that it has no experience with.

Of course, none of the above are conducive to an enjoyable, artistic performance. Instead of being fully present with the music you are making, you begin thinking about all those things that can go wrong.

So what’s a poor piano player to do?

One remedy is to simply observe yourself in the course of your routine activities… typing at the computer, driving your car, washing the dishes, signing your name, standing in line at the grocery store. You just might notice that you carry this this closed posture around with you all day long.

The antidote, of course, is to consciously practice the habit of a free and open body posture in everything you do, especially under pressure.

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learn more… Performance Anxiety: The Third F