The first steps toward auditioning well it’s is to realize you gethow nervous you are before auditions, where those nerves come from, and how the they present themselves. We all get nervous but understanding your nerves will help you get a lot farther in auditions then what’s probably happening now and more than likely help you win auditions.

Here’s my first soundbite of important information: nNerves exist. Period. Unfortunately you probably interpret these signals as bad and negative and they spiral out of control. In actuality, nerves tell the body that something big or important is going to happen. They don’t have to be bad or negative and you can learn to interpret them differently. Imagine if you interpreted those butterflies in your stomach as excitement. You can!
The problem is not that nerves exist. The problem is how you perceive them and what you do with or about them. Part of tThis means that on audition day you can’t just show up having practiced your violin. It’s It means you have to show up having a plan to deal with nerves.

What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety is really just a form of stress. It can be experienced in many different ways — physically, emotionally, and in the way kids view the world around them. Anxiety mainly relates to worrying about what might happen — worrying about things going wrong or feeling like you’re in some kind of danger.

Where do those these nerves come from?
Anxiety is a natural human reaction, and it serves an important biological function: It’s an alarm system that’s activated whenever we perceive danger or a threat. You probably perceive auditions s as a danger or threat and particularly when you aren’t playing up to your standard or the standard of the panel and they you think they will react to this. This reaction is totally involuntary. When the body and mind react, they are flooded with thoughts, dizziness, rapid heart rate, difficulty breathing, and sweaty or shaky hands. These sensations — called the fight–flight response — are caused by a rush of adrenaline and other stress hormones that prepare the body to make a quick getaway or flight from danger.

The fight–flight response happens instantly and involuntarily. When a situation happens, for example, you chip a note, you unconsciously find a way of dealing with it. Unfortunately, 99% of the time the coping mechanism we find areuse is not the most effective or efficient and actually gets in the way of performance. The great news is you don’t have to continue to deal with situations in the same way you have. You can develop news ways of coping with old situations.
How do nerves typically present themselves?

1. A situation happens, for example, chipping a note, and because you doesn’t don’t know how to deal with the situation you find a way, i.e., anxiety.
2. This anxiety then shows up every time you play that piece and it then starts to bleed into other pieces.
3. You get nervous and start to doubt yourself the day before an audition. I have not practiced enough. There is no way they are going to choose me.
4. Now, you can’t sleep the night before and because the anxiety has built up, you are incredible incredibly anxious the day of the audition.
5. All sorts of uncontrollable thoughts are going through your head: I suck. Why can’t I…Why did I….I can’t play Mahler #5. If I don’t play well I won’t win the audition.
6. The outcome: rapid heart rate, muscle tension, more negative thoughts, comparison, and the inability to play.
7. The result is more anxiety, frustration and changes in mood; particularly low motivation, and diminished confidence.

These responses to anxiety don’t just go away. As a matter of fact, they generally get worse with time. If you are struggling to audition well, ping me to find out how I can helpwe can put together a routine, or as I call it a mental toolkit!

Dr. Michelle

Photo cred: en.wikipedia.org