Ashlee, you are truly brilliant, on many levels. Your ability to break down your explanations; your seeming fearlessness in talking to the camera as if you're speaking to a single person; your ability to explain the rudiments of physiology and music are exemplary. I feel extreme anxiety even playing for my teacher, never mind performing on stage!! And as the creator of online courses myself, I dread (DREAD!) attempting to talk to the camera in my next course, so of course, it's lying dormant in my computer. You're terrific, and I watch many of your videos.
Thank you so much for the kind words - I truly appreciate you taking the time to share with me your experience with performing and also video recordings! Perhaps the video can be helpful for both :)
Ashlee, thanks for the great advice. Although I had piano lessons as a child and for part of my teens, I am more or less a self-taught piano player who routinely faces performance anxiety. I have a large collection of music and I used to just sight read music and play for hours. Anxiety didn't seem to be an issue. I have been playing the piano for decades in my spare time but decided to try and update my skills when Covid first appeared. I took on increasingly difficult pieces that were too hard to sight read and practiced them until I could record them to my satisfaction. This has helped me to play advanced music that I thought was out of reach for me. Ever since I started recording, the fight or flight response appears in the background when the record button is pushed on my Yamaha keyboard. Your comments resonated with me and I have been trying various strategies to calm the inner tension that sabotages my ability to record songs. In the end, I get a good recording but only after calming the inner beast. I have recorded over 180 piano solos in the last three years so I know I can do it but I need to convince the guy inside. I think it doesn't help that I monitor performance quality while I am recording. The funny thing is that, if I run into trouble on the keyboard while recording, I can go upstairs and play the piece on my piano. That shows I can play the piece so the problem seems to be related to the conditions during recording. Slow breathing and short rest periods do seem to help reset my brain so I can focus better.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment! It’s so true that you have to calm the beast - I like the metaphors you use here - so spot on. Good on you for persevering and getting in touch with your experience around recording - it really makes all the difference!
One way to deal with anxiety is to flip it into excitement. The physical symptoms of anxiety are exactly the same as the symptoms of excitement. So, instead of telling yourself you're nervous about an upcoming performance, tell yourself you're excited!
Ashlee you’re brilliant. I’m just a learner and trying to learn G major scale over two octaves using both hands. I’m relation to memory finally the penny dropped and I realised on the left hand my first change of finger was to 3 Rd finger then 2nd change was 4th then 3rd again. Used same process with right hand and my playing improved. Ann Scott
YES! This is wonderful and thank you for the kind words! I’m very happy to hear that you’re playing improved with your scales :-) keep up the awesome work! And thanks for taking the time to share this with me.
LOL! At the point in the video where you said: "Learn to memorize," I thought, "nope, now it's time for me to close this video," but then you quickly added, "Don't turn off this video." 😗 You know us nervous people so well. LOL!!! Thank you for sharing this video. 😄
Hello Ashlee, Your channel popped up in my phone today. Pleasantly surprised I started looking through your videos, excellent information provided. Retired Piano Teacher now playing for my own enjoyment. Struggled for so many years with piano performance anxiety. Your tips are worthy…. I wanted to share my game changer. EMDR (eye movement desensitizing reprocessing) it totally desensitized the negative self talk patterns in my brain. This therapy modality really changes your brain through rem sleep. Once you reprocess, you then can start to use All the practice strategies that you mentioned in your videos. I have subscribed to your channel and look forward to your videos.
@@Dalicat I’m so glad you said hi, it’s great to meet you! I have heard of EDMR, but I have not heard of it used for performance anxiety, that is so cool. I have to do some more research :-) thank you for the tip!
Ashlee, you are truly brilliant, on many levels. Your ability to break down your explanations; your seeming fearlessness in talking to the camera as if you're speaking to a single person; your ability to explain the rudiments of physiology and music are exemplary. I feel extreme anxiety even playing for my teacher, never mind performing on stage!! And as the creator of online courses myself, I dread (DREAD!) attempting to talk to the camera in my next course, so of course, it's lying dormant in my computer. You're terrific, and I watch many of your videos.
Thank you so much for the kind words - I truly appreciate you taking the time to share with me your experience with performing and also video recordings! Perhaps the video can be helpful for both :)
Ashlee, thanks for the great advice. Although I had piano lessons as a child and for part of my teens, I am more or less a self-taught piano player who routinely faces performance anxiety. I have a large collection of music and I used to just sight read music and play for hours. Anxiety didn't seem to be an issue. I have been playing the piano for decades in my spare time but decided to try and update my skills when Covid first appeared. I took on increasingly difficult pieces that were too hard to sight read and practiced them until I could record them to my satisfaction. This has helped me to play advanced music that I thought was out of reach for me. Ever since I started recording, the fight or flight response appears in the background when the record button is pushed on my Yamaha keyboard. Your comments resonated with me and I have been trying various strategies to calm the inner tension that sabotages my ability to record songs. In the end, I get a good recording but only after calming the inner beast. I have recorded over 180 piano solos in the last three years so I know I can do it but I need to convince the guy inside. I think it doesn't help that I monitor performance quality while I am recording. The funny thing is that, if I run into trouble on the keyboard while recording, I can go upstairs and play the piece on my piano. That shows I can play the piece so the problem seems to be related to the conditions during recording. Slow breathing and short rest periods do seem to help reset my brain so I can focus better.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment! It’s so true that you have to calm the beast - I like the metaphors you use here - so spot on. Good on you for persevering and getting in touch with your experience around recording - it really makes all the difference!
One way to deal with anxiety is to flip it into excitement. The physical symptoms of anxiety are exactly the same as the symptoms of excitement. So, instead of telling yourself you're nervous about an upcoming performance, tell yourself you're excited!
Love it!
Ashlee you’re brilliant. I’m just a learner and trying to learn G major scale over two octaves using both hands. I’m relation to memory finally the penny dropped and I realised on the left hand my first change of finger was to 3 Rd finger then 2nd change was 4th then 3rd again. Used same process with right hand and my playing improved. Ann Scott
YES! This is wonderful and thank you for the kind words! I’m very happy to hear that you’re playing improved with your scales :-) keep up the awesome work! And thanks for taking the time to share this with me.
LOL! At the point in the video where you said: "Learn to memorize," I thought, "nope, now it's time for me to close this video," but then you quickly added, "Don't turn off this video." 😗 You know us nervous people so well. LOL!!! Thank you for sharing this video. 😄
Hahahaha I love this - thank you for sharing! Yes, I get pushback on the same kinds of things, that being one of them! Lol glad it resonated
Hello Ashlee,
Your channel popped up in my phone today. Pleasantly surprised I started looking through your videos, excellent information provided.
Retired Piano Teacher now playing for my own enjoyment. Struggled for so many years with piano performance anxiety. Your tips are worthy…. I wanted to share my game changer. EMDR (eye movement desensitizing reprocessing) it totally desensitized the negative self talk patterns in my brain. This therapy modality really changes your brain through rem sleep.
Once you reprocess, you then can start to use All the practice strategies that you mentioned in your videos. I have subscribed to your channel and look forward to your videos.
@@Dalicat I’m so glad you said hi, it’s great to meet you! I have heard of EDMR, but I have not heard of it used for performance anxiety, that is so cool. I have to do some more research :-) thank you for the tip!