Being a musician entails more than just taking music lessons in Phoenix or rocking out to your favorite jams at home. While much of a musician’s life involves nothing but an instrument and sheet music, another huge part of being a musician includes sharing your talents with others, usually in the form of concerts or performances. While nothing beats the high of a killer live performance, feeling cool and calm on stage doesn’t come naturally to most musicians. Like everything else, a musician has to work to conquer the stage and earn the applause of the crowd.

If you read our earlier blog post, you’ll know that confidence is the number one indicator of a successful live show. Nothing impacts your on-stage performance more than having confidence in yourself and your musical skills. But if you lack self-confidence or ever feel old insecurities creeping up, fear not. There are ways to boost your confidence to ensure you walk out onto that stage feeling invincible. Read on to discover the ultimate tricks for increasing one’s self-confidence on stage and in everyday life.

Keys to Becoming a Confident Performer

 

 

1. Practice Positive Self-Talk

This might seem like mumbo jumbo to some, but studies have shown that positive self-talk can do wonders for your self-confidence. Positive self-talk can include everything from paying yourself a daily compliment to writing down attributes you like about yourself or simply surrounding yourself with personal mementos that make you feel good about yourself. The idea is to train your brain to limit negative thoughts and emotions, and to replace those negative feelings with nothing but good vibes. Self-love – negative thinking = instant on-stage confidence!

2. Tap Into The Powers of Visualization

Positive self-talk often goes hand in hand with something called mental imagery. Mental imagery is a technique by which you mentally visualize positive outcomes for yourself. This can be especially helpful when preparing for a big show. Taking some time beforehand to visualize yourself basking in the spotlight and winning over the crowd with your music will allow you to focus your attention away from fear and anxiety, and will likely lead to a boost in your self-confidence. Our feelings and actions often follow our beliefs, so it’s imperative to be aware of the images you hold of yourself, and change them, if necessary. You know what they say, fake it til you make it!

 

3. Be Prepared

Preparation, preparation, preparation! Nothing is more vital to building your self-confidence on stage than by being prepared to the best of your abilities. And when it comes to musical performances, there’s only one way to prepare: by practicing day in and day out. Whether you like to practice on your own or prefer to practice during your vocal, keyboard or drum lessons in Scottsdale, know that your growth as a musician and your performance on stage depend on consistent and focused practice. By logging in frequent practice hours, you’ll be more than prepared for your big gig…you’ll be confident in yourself and your musical skills, which will certainly shine through in your performance.

4. Know Your Weaknesses

Knowing your weaknesses as a musician is very different from feeding yourself negative thoughts about your musical skills.  One way to judge whether your perceived weakness is actually real or simply invented by your own self-doubt is to videotape yourself during a practice session. Videotaping yourself will certainly shed light on your weaknesses, but you’ll be able to use that knowledge to come up with a game plan to improve upon any trouble spots. Knowing you thoroughly vetted yourself as a musician and corrected any major flaws will go a long way toward ensuring your self-confidence on stage. For extra assurance, consider soliciting advice from your instructor during your vocal, bass, or drum lessons in Scottsdale. Having an outside perspective will only help you to perfect your performance skills that much further!

 

All in all, feeling confident on stage begins and ends with feeling confident in yourself and your musical skills. There’s no doubt that working on improving your self-confidence will help you deliver the show-stopping performance you’ve always dreamed of.

For help perfecting your performance skills, give Scottsdale Music Academy a call at (602) 751-3537. We’ll help you banish self-doubt and bring out your inner showman in no time!