How to gain confidence when performing

Confidence when performing on an instrument can be difficult, but I like to think of it as a skill. The more you practice performing music in front of people, the more confident you’ll be when performing music in front of people.

A few years ago I started working as the music director at a local youth theatre program. At first it was nerve wracking. Every time I showed up for work I was nervous to play piano. And it wasn’t because I was new to the instrument. I’d been playing piano for somewhere around 8 or 9 years at this point. And it wasn’t that I was bad at piano. The first musicals I directed and played were Grease and Alice in Wonderland. Not easy musicals to play. But I was still nervous. It was a new job. It was new people and I was terrified of playing in front of anyone.

What helped?

Playing. Continuing to play for that program and continuing to regularly play piano in front of people helped me feel more comfortable performing in front of people.

So keep playing. Find an audience to play for. Regularly play for that audience and you’ll get better and more confident while performing. It’s a skill.

There’s a quote from Carrie Fisher that goes, “Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.” As far as I’ve seen that’s true.

You’ll learn how to be confident by doing it more and more.

ISJ