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Man when I first started playing I couldn't play in front of my family much less complete strangers. I would get so nervous and my muscles would get so stiff before long I hit so many wrong notes I just stopped playing the tune. It's something about facing the people I'm playing, knowing they are watching me to hear me play something remotely understandable that gets me too nervous to keep going. Maybe it's because i'm feeling like I'm being assessed, which I guess I am. I do the same thing at work hahah.
I found my answer to my nerves though. The great Streetjelly.com
I think the best thing about that, for me at least, is that while I know I'm playing live I can't see those who are watching, only their comments if I choose to look at the screen. It's a bonus that people can and do give you some money if they are so inclined. And I found the more I've played on there, the more confident I can play in front of people face to face. Somehow knowing I could play live without messing up my tunes to much, and even if I did the world didn't burn down, and I just re-started my tune, increased my confidence in all areas. Weird how the sub conscious works huh?
What have you, of the nervous to play types, done to help your ability to play in front of other people? Any tips and tricks that keep you from getting to tensed up to play correctly? Any fun stories of how you 'broke the ice?'.
If you are interested in venturing into the public performances we have a Fiddlerman Fiddlefest going on,on sunday via street jelly! Even if you don't know that many songs feel free to play what you do know. It's really fun and we have an amazing group preforming and encouraging from beginners to more advanced! Just pop on over to the fiddlefest page if you're interested https://fiddlerman.com/forum/s.....yy/page-2/
Lead me, Follow me, or get out of my way!
~General George S. Patton
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Awsome, awesome @RockingLR33 
You said it all.... TYVM !!!!
SJ ROCKS...
Y'all need to register, even if you are not yet ready to play live.... and once registered, you can select "favorites" so you will then be "warned in advance" ( hahaha ) by email when one of us, or indeed anyone else you "faved" sets a schedule on SJ....
Really, you just gotta do it... LOL - great fun, even as an audience member....
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh - 
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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I can force myself to perform in front of people, but it is super hard. Those nerves aren't there when I play on StreetJelly, I love it 
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World's Okayest Fiddler
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I always had problems with that
Like, not talking about violin atm, since I'm new to that, but for example I could always sing pretty 'well', but I was always afraid to do so when there was even a remote possibility of someone hearing it (has to do with my social anxiety and stuff).
Even when I decided to maybe record something, once the camera started rolling I was pretty much shaking or just simply too tense to properly do it in a natural way so everything I recorded ended up really 'forced' and non-expressive
In recent years I've been working on it a lot though and now I pretty much got to a point where I can sort of put myself in a 'performance mode' or at least try to.. and just do the thing (still a bit reluctant when starting though) and worry about potential judgement later :))
If I think about it, probably the thing that helped me the most is taking on different kinds of leadership roles in the gaming community I'm part of, since that forced me to talk 'in front' of other people (it's a well organized, registered non-profit organization with almost 3k members and we use a voice communication software that allows for direct talking between an entire group at the same time)
So by the same logic, yes - StreetJelly can probably help a lot, especially if you try to engage with the audience and not just try to ignore the camera.
I did recently register there and overall it seems really nice, but I did find a number of things I don't really like, though most of them are related to technical stuff.. (like them not allowing HD streams off the bat or at least a decent framerate in this day and age... it kinda reminds me of having a video call on yahoo messenger 10 years ago
Community wise, everyone seems really nice there, I wish they typed more though.. applause smileys are awesome, but overusing them makes the chat seem a bit zombie-like to me.. But anyway yea, it seems like a great place and I will probably try doing some broadcasts there as soon as I figure out what to play or level up my violin play to a degree that I feel comfortable with :))
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Isn't it amazing how something as simple as a camera being on can make us nervous? I try to tape some of my practice sessions, especially when I feel i'm having issues to see what i'm doing and to be able to hear myself to ensure i'm not really hitting the tunes off the mark. As soon as I know the camera is on...man it's so hard not to get tense and nervous.
but like everything I think it's practice practice practice. Not being afraid to mess up and start over lol. Once I realized making an error didn't end the world it became a lot easier to play infront of people. I just say "oops" and start over and so far no ones complained....though I play for fun not for money. hahaha If someone was paying me it might be a different story lol.
Lead me, Follow me, or get out of my way!
~General George S. Patton
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Working on performing is just as important as working on learning to play.
The first time I performed at any venue I was nervous. The first time (times) I auditioned, the first time I played solo, the first time I was concert master, the first time on live TV, the first time I played a concertmaster solo..... You get used to it whether you think you will or not.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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It's also hard to learn to play while distracted. With StreetJelly, it's gotten me to where I can play and read the the chat at the same time, but Sunday I got reminded I still have way more to work on to be able to play distracted.
I kept thinking about the business trip I had to leave for, where I'd have to meet with clients which made me feel like I was going on a job interview or something (it really is very similar, finding out if the company is going to keep employing our company and if we will still have jobs, haha, so it was high pressure, very happy it's all over, haha). So my mind was not in the game for FiddleFest, and couldn't get through tunes I know and play all the time, so that really showed me something I need to work on in my performing. If I'm going to think about that stuff, I need to be able to play on autopilot a bit more.
I'm glad there is a place like StreetJelly to help me work on that where I don't have to really see my audience, haha
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World's Okayest Fiddler
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Agreed @damfino!!!! I know I wasn't truly prepared for fiddlefest but I had the most fun my second go round. I have no idea how good/bad it sounded but i was just having a blast mostly making up tunes and enjoying playing in the moment!
The best part of the violin,especially as an adult beginner, is there is constantly something new and interesting to learn. new styles of music to try and sometimes just winging it because some time needs to be filled
Lead me, Follow me, or get out of my way!
~General George S. Patton
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@RockingLR33 I do love that about the violin, that it never gives us a chance to get bored, that is always something new for us to learn
Even though I screwed up a good bit of the tunes I played for FiddleFest, I did have fun
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World's Okayest Fiddler
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I enjoyed all of you. Thanks for the great show. I will try to catch more of them in the future.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Every new performance context takes some getting used to. A couple years ago, I found the first time I played as a soloist with orchestra really nerve-wracking, even though it was in a rehearsal with my community orchestra, and even though I was already an experienced musician and had played solo passages as principal violist in that same orchestra for more than a year. It took me several rehearsals to get used to it and be able to just focus on playing. This year, after 6 years as a semi-professional violist, and having performed as a soloist, I found that I got extremely nervous when I started my YouTube channel this year and played for the camera. Oddly enough, I'm the opposite of other people posting here: the nerves aren't there when I perform live, but still affect me a lot when I'm on camera. I think it's just that you have to learn to perform in a new context by doing it and getting used to it.
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That's very true! It's amazing how changes to our routine playing can make us nervous! We get so used to the way we normally play that when we mix it up we can get nervous.
@AndrewH Welcome to the forum!!! I saw this is your first post. It's nice to have experienced players who can give pointers and just add a new perspective as many of us here are adult beginners
Lead me, Follow me, or get out of my way!
~General George S. Patton
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Thanks! I'll do my best to add what I can -- I was a very late beginner too (not quite an adult when I started, but almost), so I'd like to help out with and try to be the kind of resource I wish I had!
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My nervousness shows up in an odd fashion. I don't feel nervous at all, but my playing reflects it. (I usually say my fingers are nervous.
I'd agree that the biggest thing to overcoming it is just exposure. I used to play much worse in front of my teacher than I did at home. That still shows up at times (especially when I'm trying a new technique I don't have integrated in with everything else yet), but mostly, it's not an issue anymore.
Thinking about it, some of that might simply be that your attention is distracted. Bowed instruments take the whole "rub your head and pat your stomach" thing to ridiculous levels. If your attention is pulled away by the audience, you have less to coordinate everything with. Once you've seen that audience (or type of audience) a few times, it becomes "normal" and you (or your subconscious) considers them safe to ignore.
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Which reminds me
Charles, are we going to see you on StreetJelly performing? Because I don't think I've seen you there in the short time that I've had an account on that site
Cheers!
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Charles joined in for the first Amateur Hour
Funny, my teacher told me today that finding a humble fiddle player is a hard thing to do, that they all love to share just how awesome they think they are, haha... and I said not in the group of players I know, we all feel like we can't play, and we have to drag each other out to play, haha.
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World's Okayest Fiddler
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Funny, my teacher told me today that finding a humble fiddle player is a hard thing to do, that they all love to share just how awesome they think they are, haha...
Bah hahaha. oh that is so funny. Maybe it's the fiddle players who have been playing since they were kids? or those who have gone to a conservatory? All the adult beginners I know are just like you described. We all come out like "um well...prepare your ears...this could get painful" hahahah
Lead me, Follow me, or get out of my way!
~General George S. Patton
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RockingLR33 said
Funny, my teacher told me today that finding a humble fiddle player is a hard thing to do, that they all love to share just how awesome they think they are, haha...
Bah hahaha. oh that is so funny. Maybe it's the fiddle players who have been playing since they were kids? or those who have gone to a conservatory? All the adult beginners I know are just like you described. We all come out like "um well...prepare your ears...this could get painful" hahahah
Maybe it's just that I'm mostly around classical violinists, but I find that the better they play, the more humble they are too. The ones who think they're the greatest thing ever are mostly high school aged kids who started when they were 3 or 4, and the best in their school orchestra. If they actually go to conservatory, or even continue playing in a college orchestra, they start to realize how much they still can't do. It might be different in fiddle circles? The classical music world tends to get really good at exposing people's limitations at a certain point.
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damfino said
Charles joined in for the first Amateur Hour
I've been working on a couple of new techniques regarding tone production and only working with a couple of songs. I signed up for the Fiddlerfest, but when I actually tried to play something besides those two songs, they sounded horrible. It only took a few days to get them back to halfway decent, but there was no way I was going be able to do that much in a couple of hours, so I dropped the scheduled show.
You don't see me on most Sundays, because that's the one day of the week I get to see my girlfriend. By the time she leaves, everybody has packed up and gone to the bar.
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Ahhh, @charles - not a problem - life comes first....
**BUT** just thinking - it is partly because of me and my timezone that we get together around that time - which will be your afternoon....
How about "Strings on Sunday with your morning coffee" ( USA side "morning" ) - I guess between east and west coast USA there must be 3 hours difference - if I planned for say my time 3pm GMT that might span USA zones 7am (west coast) thru 10am (east coast)
I probably got that all wrong - but you'll know what I'm getting at - I'm pre-occupied with half a dozen other things right now..... but I just saw the post and, honestly, it makes no difference to me. The one thing that IS difficult for me is playing in your "late evening" - because that takes me into the next day, like 1, 2, 3am - which is OK once in a while, but I dislike having to run into Monday morning... LOL
Anyway - just a thought....
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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