Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers

by Julie Jaffee Nagel

Why is it that well-prepared, talented, hardworking, and intelligent performers find their performance and self-esteem undermined by the fear of memory slips, technique failures, and public humiliation? In Managing Stage A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers , author Julie Jaffee Nagel unravels these mysteries, taking the reader on an intensive backstage tour of the anxious performer's emotions to explain why stage fright happens and what performers can do to increase their comfort in the glare of the spotlight.

Examining the topic from her interdisciplinary educational, theoretical, clinical, and personal perspectives, Nagel uses the music teacher/student relationship as a model for understanding the performance anxiety that affects musicians and non-musicians alike. Shedding new light on how the performer's emotional life is connected to every other facet of their life, Managing Stage Fright encourages a deeper understanding of anxiety when performing. The guide offers strategies for achieving performance confidence, emphasizing the relevance of mental health in teaching and performing.

Through the practices of self-awareness outlined in the book, Nagel demonstrates that it is possible and desirable for teachers to assist students in developing the coping skills and attitudes that will allow them to not feel overwhelmed and powerless when they experience strong anxiety. Each chapter contains insights that help teachers recognize the symptoms-obvious, subtle, and puzzling-of the emotional grip of stage fright, while offering practical guidelines that empower teachers to empower their students. The psychological concepts offered, when added to pedagogical techniques, are invaluable in music performance and in a variety of life situations since, after all, music lessons are life lessons.

Genres: Music

232 pages, Paperback

Published November 30, 2017

Reviews

[Elisenda Fusté Forès · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una bíblia per la gent que en tenim o pels profes que tenen alumnes que en tenen. Tan de bo me l'haguessin posat a les mans quan en tenia 15.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great resources for anyone who performs or teaches music in any capacity. I appreciate that Nagel put together this book, touching on important topics for music educators. It is so important that these individuals are cognizant of what goes on psychologically for their students and within themselves.

I like that Nagel highlights psychodynamic theory, behaviorism and cognitive behavioral frameworks as well as rational emotive behavior perspectives. I would love to see more psychological frameworks included or incorporated into other books on performance/music education, such as person-centered models or parts work, however, I am partial towards those types of therapy.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bad news is there are no shortcuts to managing stage fright. The good news is this thoroughgoing book covers the entire life cycle of stage fright, focusing on musicians, from the early days of disastrous music recitals and the concomitant shame to later, more sophisticated forms of self-torture. Along the way, Nagel suggests a number of sensible ways of dealing with the problem, from familiar ones like deep breathing and visioning, to psychological ways of separating out the symptoms from the actions and people involved. A useful perspective on a difficult human struggle.

[Necalli Calavera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I half read this and half skimmed because this book is guided more towards teachers and helping them understand their student’s anxiety.
However, with me not being a teacher and being a student, this book helped me understand my anxieties with performing a bit more and how to cope with it in a different way than what I thought before.
I would recommend this to any of my musician friends!

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

A LOT of repetition of the same stuff. Very distant and analytic, you really have to plough through a lot of dry text to find anything useful.