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Managing Stage Fright

A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers

Julie Jaffee Nagel

· Examines the deeper psychological underpinnings of stage fright to help readers understand its origins and evolution
· Features activities and suggestions that teachers can use to help students cope in concrete ways with performance anxiety
· Applicable to non-musicians who experience performance anxiety at work, at school, or in their personal life

Managing Stage Fright

A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers

Julie Jaffee Nagel

Description

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 Fright: 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.

Managing Stage Fright

A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers

Julie Jaffee Nagel

Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1 - STAGE FRIGHT: WHAT IS IT?
Questions for Thought
Some General Considerations About Stage Fright
A Personal Reflection
Music Teachers as Mental Health Resources
Paradoxical Questions and Further Thoughts About Stage Fright
Yerkes-Dodson Law ("Arc of Anxiety")
Mental Preparation: Attitudes and Aptitudes
Talking and Listening to Students: Validating Feelings
Implications for Music Teachers
CHAPTER 2 - DELVING DEEPER INTO STAGE FRIGHT
Questions for Thought
Stage Fright: A Mind/Body Duet
Symptoms of Performance Anxiety
Discussing Performance Anxiety In Studio Class
Identifying Performance Anxiety Symptoms
Symptoms Chart
Two Activities
1-Mood Ring
2-Chill Out: Tools for "Cool" Students
Implications for Music Teachers
CHAPTER 3 - THE A B Cs OF STAGE FRIGHT
Questions for Thought
An A B C Model of Anxiety
Recap: A B C Model
Vignette: John
Actions for Teachers and Students
Activity 1-Identifying Letter B Responses
Activity 2-Letter B Cards (Supportive Self-Statements)
Examples of Supportive Self-Statements
Implications for Teachers
CHAPTER 4 - SYMPTOMS VS. MANAGEMENT
Questions for Thought
Symptoms as Cues and Clues
Vignette: Cindy
Assessing Thoughts and Feelings
Talking About Stressors
Implications for Teachers
CHAPTER 5 - CONFLICT - A PARADOX
Questions for Thought
Paradox: Identifying Emotional Conflicts
Recognizing Conflicts
Dealing with Memory Slips and Technique Meltdowns
Jam Plan
Some Childhood Antecedents of Stage Fright
Additional Examples of Conflict
Vignette: Robert
Young Children (and Adults) Fill the Gaps
Additional Considerations About Conflict
Conflict Chart
Symptoms Chart
Implications for Teachers
CHAPTER 6 - THE EMOTIONAL FUEL BEHIND STAGE FRIGHT
Questions for Thought
Psychodynamic Model
Why Consider Psychodynamic Models of the Mind?
Mental Ghosts Haunting the Teaching Studio
The Mind Does Not Forget: the Unconscious
A Visual Model of the Unconscious
Figure 1 - Conceptual Diagram of the Unconscious
Revisiting Cindy
Transference
Shame
Countertransference
Multiple Function
Vignette: Joe
Psychological and Practical Tips
Imagine This.....
Implications for Teachers
CHAPTER 7 - DEFENDING AGAINST ANXIETY
Questions for Thought
Performance as a Danger Situation: Ego Defenses
The Ego and Its Defenses Against Anxiety
Table 1 - Typical Ego Defenses
Vignette: Mary
Table 2:Performance Anxiety Symptoms as Ego Defenses
(Letter B)
A B C Model of Anxiety
Activity 1 - Recognizing Anxiety
Activity 2 - Relabeling Anxiety
Vignette: Cindy's Cold Hands as Ego Defenses
Shame Masquerading as Resistance to Performance Anxiety
Shame on You!
A Fusion of Musical and Personal Identity
Helping Students Discover Their Ego Defenses
Implications for Teachers
CHAPTER 8 - LEARNING THEORY AND BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION
Questions for Thought
Learning Theories as Guidelines for Teachers
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Implications for Teachers
CHAPTER 9 - COGNITIVE BEHVIOR THERAPY, RATIONAL EMOTIVE THERAPY, AND LETTER B
Questions for Teachers
What Is Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)?
An Example of Cognitive Relabeling Stage Fright Responses
Two Activities With A B C Model
Activity 1 - A B C Recognizing Anxiety Responses
Activity 2 - Rethinking and Relabeling Anxiety Responses
Neuropsychology and Brain Imagining
Beta Blockers and Performance Anxiety
Evidence-Based Claims for Reducing Performance Anxiety
Implications for Teachers
CHAPTER 10 - PERFORMANCE ANXIETY BEGINS IN THE NURSERY
Questions for Thought
Teachers As "New Parents": Developmental Issues
Human Development and Performance Anxiety
Elaboration of Erikson's Eight Stages in the Life Cycle
Stage One: Trust vs. Mistrust
Implications for Teachers
Stage Two: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Implications for Teachers
Stage Three: Initiative vs. Guilt and
Stage Four: Industry vs. Inferiority
Anxiety Alerts for Teachers!!!!!
Young Children
Middle School-Aged Children
Implications for Teachers
Stage Five: Identity vs. Identity Confusion
Anxiety Alerts for Teachers!!!!
Adolescents
Implications for Teachers
Stage Six: Intimacy vs. Isolation
Implications for Teachers
Stage Seven: Generativity vs. Stagnation
Implications for Teachers
Stage Eight: Integrity vs. Despair
Implications for Teachers
Recap: Developmental Stages and Stage Fright
Additional Implications for Teachers
CHAPTER 11 - A "VIRTUAL" RECITAL: A SYNTHESIS
Questions for Thought
Susan: How to Understand and Handle Performance Anxiety
Concepts for the Teacher to Convey to Susan, The Recitalist
Plan for Teacher
Format of "Virtual" Recital
The Recital
Implications for Teacher and Recitalist
CHAPTER 12 - RECAPITULATION AND FINALE
Questions for Thought
Putting it All Together
Performance Anxiety is More Than Symptoms
Stigmas, Caution, and Optimism
Tuning In To Students and Tune Ups for Teachers
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Criteria for Making A Referral for Professional Help
Music School Curriculum
Coda: Summary of Implications for Recognizing and Teaching Anxiety Reduction
Uniqueness of Music Teacher's Role
CHAPTER 13 - DA CAPO: BACK TO THE BEGINNING
GLOSSARY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TERMS USED IN THE TEXT
ILLUSTRATIVE READINGS ON PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
INDEX

Managing Stage Fright

A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers

Julie Jaffee Nagel

Author Information

Julie Jaffee Nagel

Julie Jaffee Nagel, Ph.D. is a graduate of The Juilliard School, The University of Michigan and The Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. The critically acclaimed author of Melodies of the Mind, she has drawn from over twenty years of multidisciplinary experience to shed light on performance anxiety as well as the important role of music in understanding a wide range of human emotions. She is also a regular contributor to Huffington Post and The Clavier Companion. She is in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Managing Stage Fright

A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers

Julie Jaffee Nagel

Reviews and Awards

"A most important book that addresses the elephant in the room for virtually all performers." - Leon Fleisher

"Julie Jaffee Nagel's impressively detailed and valuable analysis of stage fright provides an indispensable guide for teachers, students, and professional musicians concerned with this all too common and often intractable problem." - A rnold Steinhardt, First Violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet

"Julie Jaffee Nagel has given us a beautifully organized and sympathetically written book that successfully addresses the issue of stage fright, a topic too often neglected, to the regret of the performer...Students, teachers, parents, and performers of all types would do well to read it." - Joseph W. Polisi, President, The Juilliard School

"Utilizing her unique qualifications as a performer, pedagogue, and psychoanalyst, Nagel weaves essential psychological concepts, probing questions, insightful case studies, and practical suggestions into absorbing, easy-to-read guidebook on stage fright for musicians. This book should be required learning for everyone who teaches music lessons, or, as Nagel considers them, 'life lessons'." - Dr. Gary L. Ingle, Executive Director and CEO, Music Teachers National Association

"The well-organized, easy-to-read book is packed with sensible advice, insightful tips, and well-researched strategies. Its a must-have for any music teachers library. Thats what sets this book apartits not only for performers, its also for teachers of performers! ... it is a book that encourages deeper understanding of oneself, and the encouragement to make use of multiple options that are presented that can be helpful in reducing stage fright. The leitmotif throughout the chapters emphasizes that music lessons are life lessons." - Leila Viss

Managing Stage Fright

A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers

Julie Jaffee Nagel

From Our Blog

Reflections on music's life lessons

I find myself reflecting upon my own experiences in music as a student, a piano teacher, a performer, a psychologist and a psychoanalyst. How did I get from 'then' to 'now'? Who assisted me along my winding journey? Do you ever wonder these things about yourself?

Posted on September 28, 2017

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Stage fright and mental ghosts: managing stage fright as a growth process

William: I played in a violin recital a couple of weeks ago. I had played the music many times before but in that concert I really messed up my finger work passages ' one in particular ' and then I started feeling that my memorization was shaky. I was a nervous wreck and couldn't wait to finish. I cannot figure this out. I feel haunted that it is going to happen again and again. JJN: This sounds terribly upsetting ' both your concerns about your playing and your worries about trying to figure it out on your own and not being able to do that. Has this kind of thing happened before? Do you typically try to figure things out on your own?

Posted on October 26, 2017

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The origins of performance anxiety

Noted psychologist and educator Erik Erikson has written about human development from a biological, psychological, and social perspective encompassing the entire life cycle. His famous chart 'The Eight Stages of Man' is in his book Childhood and Society (1950). I have found his ideas particularly helpful to understanding the importance of development in musicians, particularly so since children begin to study musical instruments at very young ages.

Posted on November 2, 2017

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Tips for addressing stage fright

An A B C model to conceptualize anxiety responses was developed by the American psychologist Albert Ellis (1913' 2007) as a self- help and clinical tool to help people identify and understand what Ellis called 'irrational' thoughts and feelings. Ellis recommended challenging and replacing negative and irrational thoughts with positive alternatives represented by Letter B in the A B C Model.

Posted on August 1, 2017

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