Battling Stagefright
unlascivious
220 Posts
what do you do???i've gotta be one of the most nervous people when it comes to performing or speaking in front of crowds. mentally i can brush it off, but physically my hands shake, my heart races, and i get nauseous. how do you guys cope?p.s. - i have to dj in a few hours, and im already getting chills.
Comments
Plus when you're on stage there's usually a lot of lights on your face so it makes it harder to see the crowd.
Plus the people are there to see YOU so don't feel that self conscious.
Usually I just try to focus backstage or whatever. Then, once it starts, my nerves go out and it's all good.
but yeah, i get nervous almost every time i DJ for a crowd.
I have a couple of drinks, is it right, am I an alky ? probably but...
who knows, it works for me.
-B-
tho acknoledge the headache factor on this one
For me one drink would sometimes help, but drink and drugs is a really bad pre show habit that I wouldn't actually recomend.
At least you can do it. The guy from XTC was so bad they could hardly ever play a show cuz he would freak the fuck out.
Just do your thing man. It's bad before but it all goes away once you start.
To this day I still get nervous the day of a gig. Even local one's at times.
It's just some shit that never goes away because you always want to do your best.
Hey,
The key to battling stagefright is over-preparation for the task at hand. Anxiety is closely (and negatively) related to task-specific self-efficacy, or your confidence in performing some specific task like public speaking (or DJing). So, the lower your confidence the more anxious you become. To overcome the lack of confidence, prepare your presentation (or DJ set) in advance and practice it repeatedly until you are comfortable with it. This should reduce your anxiety in front of crowds. The strategy I've described also works in reducing test anxiety for those college students out there (e.g., I was never nervous for tests because I knew the material cold)!!!
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
ive had to guest speak at some things before. like, folks were gonna be asking me questions about shit and i knew i couldnt be my normally obnoxious self, really. so what i did was invite all my homies down to this boring as thing. and they got hell of twisted, of course, and heckled me. that made me feel much more comfortable. hell, my dad heckled me at some screening thing i had once. that shit was awesome!
I was so nervous I puked when my moms came to see my high school fastpunk band.
SBN
If your DJing a bar scene, have a drink or two and just hang out before getting on. If it feels like you're just there doing your thing for a couple friends, you'll be less inhibeted and maybe even do some things you hadn't planned on. Also, over-prepare. If its a big stage or a big thing, just think to yourself:
"if these people are stupid enough to pay to see me play, then they wont even know the difference if I screw up."
That's been the main thing I've learned since I started. I used to think that everybody in the crowd is concentrating on you and waiting for you to slip. They're not. They're into their own things and unless its a bunch of hardcore DJs in the audience, nobody has a clue what youre doing nor will they know if you screw up or not. It isn't the best idea to actually underestimate the audience, but it helps to get the butterflies out.
i will definitely relax and try to enjoy the night.
1 quick question. the bar has a numark mixer and when i use the crossfader from ch3 to ch1, i only hear ch1 (correct), but when i move the crossfader to the right, when i should only hear ch3, i hear both channels. i screwed around with the knobs for a while with no luck. the send and pfl buttons confuse the hell outta me. anybody have a clue?
wish me luck on my first bar gig.
stay away from caffeine.
Make it 4 shots.