Performance Anxiety

[sal_amanda]

i have to admit that i have performance anxiety. always have. i think i remember it first taking a grip when i was in the school musical in 6th grade. and it's selective. i can give educational presentations and sing in a group. but for some reason singing by myself in public freaks me out. and it's not that i don't have confidence in my singing. i know i can do it. however, i get up there and i just sort of play it safe. i don't belt it out like i know i can. i remain very tight. and i know i do it. i even used to do it at times with the band i sang with in college. at least with that, we practiced all the time (even got written up for it in the residence hall) so i was probably a little more comfortable with them, but i still got choked up for a real performance in front of actual people. even karaoke. i still get up there and do it, but i always know i can do better, that i can be a better performer. not that it matters with karaoke. but it does matter to me.

speaking of performance anxiety, i was in New World Record today picking up a rare Ben Folds cd that only they seem to carry, and noticed they had John Stevens' cd for fairly cheap. ah, what the hell. he's local and could use some support. so i picked it up. only gave it a quick skimming listen so i don't have much of an opinion at the moment. all the traditional sinatra stuff he's quite good at. wasn't overly impressed with his beatles cover ("Here, There, and Everywhere"), but it was also the worst arrangement possible. i do enjoy his swinging cover of a Maroon 5 song, though.

Comments

[jessakeenie.livejournal.com]

is john stevens that red head guy from American Idol last year?

I thought you sang great at karaoke. I myself also share your singing performance anxiety. And mine is only with solo singing. Put me up there with a script or a monologue or speech- not a single butterfly. Singing by myself- stomach all tense, hands shake, throat closes. And I have my BFA in Musical Theatre Performance. That's why I like karaoke. I think people expect you to suck, so there's no pressure. And it helps me get over my fear.

[sal_amanda]

thanks for the reassurance. every time we do karaoke (i.e. every time nick comes home because i have no one around here to go with), i ask john for about three days straight if i sounded all right. i know it's just karaoke, but i keep trying to make myself get past this. and i loved singing with a band. but i mostly loved just jamming with them casually. performances scared the bejesus out of me.

the really funny thing is that i have Karaoke Revolutions for the playstation and i would always bring it into work to play with the kids and i never got scared when i did it with them. i always kicked their butts when we played for points so they would set me on hard scoring.

yup, that's john stevens. he's from the same yuppieville suburb i currently live in so i look at buying his cd like a local fundraiser. when you purchase from a kid's fundraiser, you always buy stuff you wouldn't normally spend money on.