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You practised diligently, saw real progress, spent hours, weeks, or months getting ready to show the world what you have to offer with all your hard work. Then, during a lesson, exam or stage performance, under the eyes of your teacher, small or big audience, your focus dissolves, your heart races, hands shakes, and you play as if you haven’t touched your instrument in weeks.

Performance anxiety is one of the most common issues faced by aspiring musicians and even seasoned professionals. Feeling nervous before a lesson or concert is natural but when worry and stress get to be too much, “stress hormones” give people that “red alert” feeling, leaving you to feel cold or sweaty and like you can’t think straight. Some individuals tend to embrace the pressure that comes with it, while other students might need a helping hand. Whatever the reason you are worried about, these five tips can help you to settle your fears so that you can concentrate on what is most important and show everyone exactly what you can do.

Remember Why You Are There

Whether you are taking an exam, having your first music lesson or concert, you are here for a reason and earned the right to be here. Try to look at what you have already accomplished and ask yourself why are you doing this, what do you want to achieve, and what is the worst that can happen?

Remember that all things worth working towards and the more you perform, the more you will get comfortable doing so and move forward to achieve your dreams.

Regulate Your Breathing

While you shouldn’t focus on eradicating stress, you can try to practise calm acceptance. Breathing exercise is an easy and effective way to learn how to channel anxiety and stress in a more useful way. A few long, slow breaths help to soothe a jangled nervous system, counteract the fight-flight response and tell your body it is safe.

Also, as nerves and anxiety usually cause your hands to tremble, which prevent you from playing correctly on an instrument, the breathing exercise reduces your worry allowing your hands to settle and focus on performance. You can also start practicing yoga to overcome fear and live your life more passionately.

Set Time For Preparing

Given the many variables of performing, it can be helpful to leave a few moments to settle in and try out your playing before the important event. Start with private warm-ups and finger exercises, and sort out page turns, outfit, shoes, etc.

Stretching and breathing not only help to tune in the right mood, but also reduce anxiety and bring the player more controlled awareness of its movement once at an instrument. Furthermore, technical exercises at an instrument rely on muscle memory, allowing for some time for a person to adjust his or her focus before launching into more musically demanding territory. They are also great for adapting to a different instrument, its touch, dynamic and tonal range.

Establish Expectations

Try to see and feel the exam, lesson, or concert as being a positive, fun experience and stick to this idea until it is a more dominant feeling than negative thoughts. Imagine your composed entrance, comfortable position at an instrument, complete concentration and absorption in the music, your possible audience and a perfect finish.

The strong likelihood is that you will experience what you have visualised, so making sure it’s optimistic will be way more enjoyable. It can be done in advance of your performance or as at the time when you are waiting.

Consider Taking CBD Oil

The intake of CBD oil can help to relieve anxiety and stress, improve mood, focus, and energy – all critical factors when you are performing. CBD benefits also include regulation of sleep quality, decreased headaches, and aid to feel calm and settled, which can help to feel rested, concentrated, relaxed and fully prepared for the big day.

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a natural and non-addictive compound that is extracted from Cannabis Sativa plants and won’t cause changes in a state of mind. CBD is known to interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system that affects your mood, immune response, heart, skin, brain, etc. Support of the vital system means CBD products can maintain the proper function of main processes occurring in an organism to promote better health and general wellbeing.

Relax! You Got This

If you have followed the tips above, there is only one thing left for you to do: RELAX. Overworking and stressing will do you more harm than good. Try avoiding late-night sessions and practise smartly, as it will cause you to burn out more and face fatigue and lack of energy for the next day. Start early as an incentive to finish early so you can rest during the evening and get a good night’s sleep.

Don’t worry; it is normal to feel worried right before exams, concerts, and shows. Try to look at the situation positively – be confident in yourself and the hard work you have done and know that it will pay off!

 

Taylor Swift swiftly tailored the music charts to her liking with her latest album, folklore. Released on Friday, July 24, 2020, folklore is Swift’s eighth studio album. She recorded it while on lockdown during the pandemic, and announced its release less than a day before it appeared. The surprise album went in decidedly alternative, indie, and folk directions, displaying her sonic versatility, known from her country roots, hip-hop influences, and pop success. The album cover, a black-and-white in the woods, signals a back-to-nature aesthetic, something to listen to on a road trip, on the way to camp.

It worked. On its first day, Swift’s folklore was one of the biggest releases this year, with 66.7M streams. In recent memory, that is second only to the late Juice WRLD’s 77.7M streams on day one of the posthumous release of Legends Never Die on July 10. Taylor Swift’s folklore is by that count the most successful debut by a living artist this summer, if not of this year. The closest comparisons were by Lil Uzi Vert, Drake, and the Weeknd, whose album debuts each raised them to 34-40M steams on the days of their respective releases in March-May.

According to Music Maven’s proprietary technology — which provides the most current and accurate data on the performance of all artists and songs in daily music charts — folklore makes Taylor Swift The Most Streamed Artist, The Highest Earning Artist, and the Most Influential Artist. The Most Influential Artist — which encompasses not only streams and revenue, but social media presence, digital downloads, and concert ticket sales — is Music Maven’s highest measure of musical excellence online. Swift’s sweep of all three categories is an overwhelming confirmation of fan approval for her music.

The song charts say the same. All of the 16 tracks on folklore are now on the top 20 Most Streamed and Highest Earning songs, led by “cardigan,” with 6.1M streams, “exile,” featuring Bon Iver, with 5.95M, and “the 1,” with 5.1M. Taylor Swift’s latest caused a decline in the chart position of almost every other song in music in only one day.

Taylor Swift finally ended the reticence of artists and records labels to release full-length albums by living artists during the pandemic and response to protests over race and justice. So far, the summer has been dominated by artists who are no longer living, as echoed in the posthumous releases of albums by Juice WRLD and Pop Smoke. DJ Khaled’s release of a couple tracks featuring Drake last week began to change this trend, and Taylor Swift’s fans confirmed it.

A series of other living artists who have not been high on the music charts lately also released music that brought them into real competition with those no longer living. Besides Taylor Swift at number one with her 66.7M streams, Juice WRLD at number two with 19M, and Pop Smoke at number five with 8.7M, Logic rose to number three, with 15.4M streams, because of the release of his final album, No Pressure. Since Logic announced his early retirement to focus on fatherhood, his finale closed the circle with his debut from six years ago, Under Pressure. After seven albums, and his recent multi-million dollar deal with Twitch, the live-streaming platform for gamers, Logic is definitely under no pressure to produce any more music. Still, his lyrical dexterity knocked most other artists off the charts for his last hurrah.

Fan demand for music is extremely high, maybe higher than ever, and it is being driven and satisfied by only a few artists, or their estates, willing to release music this summer. Only those who supply that voracious demand can hope to make any change to the music charts.