In this 4-part article, we look at some very useful ways to fight off the dreaded stage-fright or performance nerves. Preparation is half the battle to combat these troublesome butterflies, and a great place to start with is you!

Stage Fright Remedies #1 Learn Your Stuff

Make sure you know the material that you'll be performing on the night inside out. It's best to learn, memorize and practice songs and lyrics over a few weeks, as this allows the information to become "set" in your subconscious mind. This means you can eventually do the song "in your sleep" as they say. If you are learning more than one song, use these methods on a song rotation basis.

Trying to cram a song into your head a few hours before the gig is best left to the more experienced performer who has learnt how to learn and memorize songs quickly, and can work unnoticed from stage notes and so on.

Some songs take longer than others to get to this auto-pilot stage, and beginners will learn to know when a song is ready to perform. Keep this under control by persisting in DAILY practice, and you can overcome this part of the problem and perform with confidence, knowing that you have done your homework.

• Song Learning Tip To help "set" a song into your head, practice regularly going over the music and lyrics away from your instrument. Use notes at first and slowly move away from these as you progress. Allow yourself lots of time to learn the song inside out before you first gig it. After the first performance, a song will be a lot easier the next time to do.

This is just one of the stage fright remedies you can start with and use to help fight those butterflies - leave no room for error and you'll find that half of those those nerves and performance worries will automatically and "magically" be dealt with.

See you in Stage Fright Remedies Part 2 where we'll be just a few hours away from that gig - In the meantime learn those lyrics, chords, and toons + gud luk ;-).

Regards

David