You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - How to Stay Calm and Focused in Big Moments - #49

Episode Date: March 20, 2018

In this episode, Adam and Peter answer a question from user, Elia, regarding performing in big situations and dealing with nerves. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Manus and I'm Peter Martin and you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Today we're going to take a topic that was given to us by a user at our jazz piano studio Facebook group, Elia, who is a great user on this group and he's always participating in discussions and he gave us some great ideas for topics. We'll probably do some more of his because they're so good. And this is, he wanted to know, how do you stay calm and focused in big moments? And this is an important thing because, you know, you know, you're going to be a problem. can practice and you can sound good in your bedroom, but, you know, when the pressure's on, when the bright lights are on you, I mean, you know better than anybody because you play some of the biggest stages in the world.

Stadiums pretty much at this point, no, no, no, but I mean, in our field, in jazz, you are definitely playing the biggest venues, you know, in some high pressure situations and have for many, many years. So I think this would be a great one for you to kind of take the lead on it. How do you not get nervous? How do you avoid stage fight? Or if you If you're dealing with it, how do you still play? Right. Well, so I would say the first thing for this is, you know, the preparation before you get, you know, to the big moments, to the big stage. And, you know, when I think about the big stage and the big moments, it's, to me, looking back, it's been as much as, like, playing with amazing players.

Like, that's the thing that could potentially intimidate you. Certainly playing in a prestigious venue, too, in front of, you know, important people or whatever. But mainly, I mean, the people on the musicians on the stage are really. right there. I was going to say, I could be nervous in a small club if there's a really burning musician next to me. Right. Or like a recording session where there's no audience, but you've got, you know, great players.

But I would say, you know, the biggest part to even put yourself in a, with the possibility of being calm and focused in those situations is prepare, prepare, preparation, you know, practice, you know, everything from the very nitty-gritty of like scales and, you know, hand position, all the technical things. all the way up to kind of focus things like where you're imagining yourself in situations. I mean, I used to do that all the time before I'd have different gigs and different situations. I would try to visualize myself in that situation. And this was actually usually before I even knew I was going to be in those situations.

But I remember, you know, listening to Live at the Village Vanguard records that I would, you know, daydream about like what it would be like playing in those situations. So that actually kind of helped when I finally got to that venue. It was almost like I'd done it before because in my mind. Maybe it was a fantasy, but then it became a reality. But I think that a certain amount of visualization is important. I'm by no means an expert on it because there's books and podcasts and concepts on it. And there's a whole science behind it that I just kind of luckily did it because I was bored a lot.

And so I was thinking about stuff I wanted to do. But I think there's the nitty-gritty preparing, but then there's the mental preparation so that when you get in those situations, you have, you've put yourself in the best possible situation and chance for success. There's no guarantee still because a lot of things are going to come flying at you in the bright lights and sound can go crazy and you might get nervous and all that kind of stuff. But at least you've done everything you can to prepare. I think this is the most important point of all this is preparation is the key. The only times I've actually been really nervous before a gig is when it was something I had no idea if I could actually pull. You know what I mean? Like I was not as prepared for as I should have been.

Right. And that's a good lesson actually to have learned because I'll never do that again where I'm not prepared. Right. But the visualations, those are important too. If I'm on, you know, if I have a big gig for me, I will, you know, on my way to the gig or in the green room or whatever, I will, like, go through the gig pretty much moment by moment and try to try to picture myself out there handling adversity if it happens or whatever, putting myself in the worst possible scenarios on the gig. Right. And then visualizing, you know, yourself overcoming can be very, very, very important. I would also say, you know, just a practical physical thing is to breathe.

That really helps. It keeps you from dying. That's the first part of it. That is the first part of it. I love baseball, and we're in St. Louis, so obviously I love Cardinals baseball. They're pretty good, aren't they? They're very good. One of my favorite pitchers is Adam Wainwright, an amazing pitcher.

If you don't know his stuff, look him up. No. But one thing that I've noticed Wayno does over the years is before every single pitch, he takes a long, deep breath and a nice big exhale. And I know he does that because in that moment after that exhale, his heart rate is lower. He's more focused. His nerves have probably calmed a little bit. Just from that deep breath, from the physical, forcing your body physically to know, I'm going to live the next moment. Yes. You know what I mean? That helps tremendously. So

I do it all the time pretty much before, you know, if I'm feeling any kind of anything, just a nice, big, deep breath can go a long way. Yeah. Well, and I think that there's probably, I mean, there's the physicality of it, of taking. taking a breath, a big breath, but there's also the element of a routine, right? So that's something that I like to do. And breathing, how you sit, how you know, where you look. It could be a number of different things, but have a routine about how you're going about what you're doing because then once you get into different situations, you can stay calm

and focused because it'll feel like just any other time that you're playing and you can actually practice that. if you wait until you get to the village vanguard to think about how you're going to sit and like hold your hands and like, are you going to look at the drummer? Yeah, it's too late. You've got to do it in the highest pressure situation. Whereas if you practice and you always sit at the instrument a certain way and you breathe and you start to tune in a certain way and you look at a certain place, like you can actually have a chance to practice that stuff, then when you get in those high pressure situations, you can bring that routine. And maybe that's something like with the picture, you know, like breathing and doing. Because, I mean, I've been around some amazing athletes, you know, recently, actually.

And it's funny because, like, you see them on television or you see them, you know, live. And they are so focused. It's so amazing. And then if you get a chance to meet them, you realize that there are these, like, young kids in their early 20s or whatever, you know, like playing video games and running around like any other kid. They're not that focused outside of that. Yeah. But they've developed a routine and a focus to the point that's really amazing. That's totally true.

Totally, totally true. One thing that I would say that can calm. nerves, especially if your nerves are getting out of hand. This is another sort of physical thing you can force your body to change your mental state is to smile. I know that sounds a little corny or whatever, but go up and have a conversation with someone and smile at them and it will relax you. I mean, you're basically forcing your body to relax. You know, you smile, you release endorphins. Right. Just another thing you can do to help if you're feeling nervous or the pressure of the big moment.

Smile on stage. Right. If you're feeling like you're not, if you're feeling shaky or anything, you know, give the drummer a smile unless you don't like them. Then vibe them hard. Then vibe them hard. And maybe that's your routine. Maybe that's your routine. Every time I come out, I vibe the drummer. I vibe them, yeah.

I feel like I'm funny. What I think, too, I mean, this may not be the most politically correct. We might have to edit this out. But I think, too, you know, calming your nerves or whatever. And this could be, maybe it's not great to become part of your routine, but have a little taste before the gig. I think is, I don't know. No, a lot of people have a drink or have a smoke or whatever it is, you know, whatever your particular vice is. Right.

Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Several different I can pull from it in time. Yeah, yeah. But I think that that, but you have to make sure you're not just doing that as an excuse, you know, to numb the pain or something. It has to really, you have to check how it affects you and make sure that you can still execute fully what you have to do. But if that needs to, or not even become a part of your routine,

but if you need that a little bit to calm yourself because, you know, you're nervous about it. If that works for you. Yeah, some people I think adrenaline and alcohol can mess them up. But for me, it helps, it helps too. Yeah. Cool. So, Elia, right? Yeah.

Elliot, we hope we gave you a couple of little tips here to stay calm and focused in those big moments. And, you know, I hope that you have many big moments. Those are the exciting times when we get to present the music and really makes it all worthwhile. Yeah. And thanks for sending in these topics, Elia. And if any of you have topics or things you'd like us to talk about or questions, you know, you can email us. You can send it to the You'll Hear at Podcast and go to our website. Better go to you'll hear it.

Because, I mean, emails, they get lost sometimes. Have you heard that? It's a big problem now. Does that happen? It happens, man. Oh, man. Well, all right, well, then you'll hear it. Yep.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast. You can go to you'll hear it.com to get more information, submit a question, or just say hello. Wait, you can do that. Absolutely. All right. And if you like what you heard, please leave a review and a rating below. Thanks.