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Student Performances (All Teachers)
I’ve just had one of my teenage students approach me about starting to do more public performances to help her overcome her stage fright, I have given her some suggestions but I was just wondering if anyone else had any tips?
I have told her (bearing in mind she is nearly 14 years old):
– see if there any local open mic nights that are happy to have under 18s perform (I currently know of none in my area!)
– get 3 to 4 cover songs prepared and put the backing tracks on her phone/ipod so she is prepared for any performances
– she has entered competitions before and so I have told her to keep doing these as the more experience the betterI have told her that I will keep her in mind should I be asked by anyone for singers for performances, but the main thing I am unsure of is where she can perform locally as she is under 18?
Any help is greatly appreciated! 🙂
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4 Replies
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Hey Beckie
– Open mics are great as long as they are not too intimidating – the one I take students to is in the downstairs area of a bar so that the general public aren’t walking straight into a performance! It’s also a fairly new open mic and therefore nice and quiet. Try and bring other students so she doesn’t feel like the only student and it should hopefully ease her nerves. Or even duet with her so she can relax into it!
– Good idea about covers on the iPod, as long as the venue don’t mind it not being a real instrument! The above place I take my students too are cool with backing tracks
– Good idea at this age to be active with competitions if there aren’t many pubs she can go to!In addition to this, have you thought about hosting Student Showcases? I run these seasonally, so every quarter there’s one to prepare the students for! It’s a great way to keep regular clients too 🙂
Also, this may be controversial, but as I have all my lessons back-to-back, I encourage the students to perform to each other, so one student will perform/play a recording of where they’ve got to in the lesson to the next person waiting to start their lesson. Usually they know the person which helps, as my students have the same slots so always meet each other which is nice!
Hope this helps!
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If you’re trying to find ways of dealing with performance anxiety specifically, I always find the Bulletproof Musician has some great advice. Trawl through the blog section and you’re sure to find something that helps: http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/start/
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Thank you – I do two showcases a year, my next one is on the 20th! She does find them useful but just wants a bit more experience. I also like the idea of the students performing to each other, I will suggest that to some of them! 🙂
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The only thing I can think of is looking at some of the Community Youth Events that are going on. Some of them do open mics and they re typically for people between the ages of 13 and 18. I know we did them in Leicester 2 or 3 times a year. I’m sure there must be someone in Nottingham that does the same kind of thing.