Practice Performing
When musicians practice, Greene has observed, they are rehearsing more than just their musical skills. “Classical musicians are used to spending a massive amount of time—and rightfully so—in practicing, doing all the things in practice they need to do,” Greene observes, “stopping, checking, correcting, trying a different way of fingering, a different method of bowing, playing pieces in fits and starts, doing all the things a student, and even a professional, needs to do to get the technical piece of the repertoire down. “The mistake I see is that they never switch over from practicing practice, to practicing performance. And then they go out on stage—where the environment is very different—expecting to do something they’ve never adequately practiced.”

How does a performer practice performance?

“I encourage musicians to either play for a friend, a teacher, a colleague, or to simply put a tape recorder on or set up a video camera,” Greene says. “Having a person there, or a camera or a tape recorder, puts pressure on you, and you realize that, and that’s beautiful, because then you’re practicing performing.”

The whole idea is to apply as much stress as possible, so that it mimics, as closely as possible, the conditions of being in a performance. “Believe me,” he laughs “it’s better that you figure out how to deal with the stress and find good ways among friends than to wait and see what happens in front of an audition panel, a jury, or a paying audience at a professional gig.”

Fake It
While Greene encourages his musicians to practice making their entrances and exits—since an entrance can be a powerful anxiety trigger for certain performers—there’s more to it than merely walking onto the stage and standing there. “When a lot of people step out on stage, their adrenaline is pumping,” he says. “So when my musicians practice performance, I want them going up and down stairs or doing jumping jacks or something before they practice making their entrance. That way, they can feel some of the symptoms of what they may feel when they actually are making an entrance in front of an audience.”

Whatever you do—don’t relax!

“Powerful performance is not about being relaxed,” suggests Dr. Greene. “You have to accept that when you perform, you might be feeling some extra energy, and the more you can get used to feeling that energy when you play your first few notes, the better.”

Don Greene is the author of Fight Your Fear and Win: 7 Skills for Performing Your Best Under Pressure; Performance Success: Performing Your Best Under Pressure; and Audition Success: An Olympic Sports Psychologist Teaches Performing Artists
How to Win.