Stress is often our worst enemy, but it can also be a pal. Here are a few ideas you might try the next time your music really makes you feel like blowing up at it or someone else.
WHAT IS YOUR STRESS LIKE?
Everyone has their own personal stressors, and can find their own ways of making them work for and not against your music. Make a list of things that really bug you, how you usually handle them, and keep this list handy-you will probably find all sorts of things to add to it. Have you found some good ways of handling each one? Make sure you list your solutions next to each, and where they can be handy in those critical moments. If you have some problem areas, try to at least think of ways that you would like to try to lessen some of these irritations that perhaps you haven't yet, and note how well they do or do not work the next time this problem flares up. Sometimes, just focusing on solutions instead of the problem is destressing in and of itself.
ARE THERE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS?
Sometimes there are some nasty health problems that erupt when trouble visits us. Migraines or just plain vanilla headaches, dry mouth/throat, shaking, sweatiness, racing heartbeat and even rashes can occur with some folks. If you are prone to the more severe problems, keep any medication you may need nearby in case this strikes in the studio or before a gig-sometimes just being prepared can keep stress from happening in the first place. This goes in all cases-just rehearsing your instruments, music and practicing in front of small audiences can do wonders to lessen stress with time. The trick is figuring out just how bad the symptoms can get and knowing what gets them that way-once you can lessen the events that can lead up to stress, you may find that you will never get that badly stressed again. Getting together with other folks who have physical symptoms and sharing coping mechanisms can really help, too-chances are, there are some of your ideas that others haven't tried and vice versa. The Internet is a great place to find forums on this subject, so have fun finding others you can share the burden with-all will benefit.
LET STRESS BE YOUR PAL
I had coaches that would train you to put all that adrenaline into your work. If you tend to badly get your knees knocking, use this as an excuse to do some flamenco sorts of footwork, hand shaking to really put some cool finger vibratos in, leaping around or more physical activities to hide your tremors. Some folks work their shakes into really great tremolo in their vocals, or allow them to play some really fast notes that they just can't when they aren't scared to death. If you tend to get chills, make sure you dress for the stage-sometimes really heavy suits and lots of scarves and hats can hide when you feel cold even under those hot lights, and extra activity in your stage act can be easy if you aren't overheating from all the bouncing around in the first place. If you are really scared of recorders, but fine with an audience, have a bunch of pals along to be your audience and help you forget about it, or bring a bunch of favorite stuffed animals or a pet to smile at you to make you laugh and feel self-conscious over them being there, and put some fun energy into the job instead. If you really hate being put on the spot at a tryout and make up lyrics right then and there, practice making up silly rhymes about everything several times a day, and keep a written record of these as much as you can. If you already have a good bunch of lyrics handy, you may find, after a while, that you can just flip to a page of your journal and sing along with any band.
Go To Page: 1 2
