Vocal/Performance Anxiety and How to Cope
Vocal anxiety can be any part of the singing experience that ranges from emotional discomfort to fear to serious anxiety attacks. Anxiety is defined as “… an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure” by The American Psychological Association. Anxiety is often triggered by an event or a thought that sets into motion a simultaneous chain reaction of intrusive thoughts, physical and emotional feelings often resulting in behavioral shifts.
In the case of vocal or performance anxiety, the trigger will be unique to each singer. The trigger, whatever it is, will set into motion a series of responses, some physical, some emotional, some cognitive and some behavioral. Overcoming performance anxiety will revolve around training yourself to react differently to your trigger through practice, experience, and sometimes, for those who need it, therapy.
Common Vocal Anxiety Triggers
VULNERABILITY
To express yourself is to be vulnerable. To express fully or engage vocally in front of another person can be terrifying. An explosion of self-doubt can erupt in a singer when they are put into the exposed position of expression. “What if my way of expressing is wrong, or silly, or embarrassing. What if I’m rebuked, what if I’m turned away?”
Your feelings and emotions belong in musical expression (or anywhere else you feel the need to express them!). In fact, having an emotional connection to what you’re singing will make your performance more authentic. If you are honest about your vulnerability in your performance, the audience will react to it. Honesty is authenticity. Authenticity is always appreciated and celebrated.
BAD EXPERIENCES
We all have memories that make us cringe. We’ve all done things, or not done things that make us want to crawl into a little bitty cave and curl up into a ball.
Bad experiences can be from childhood, they can be performances that did not go the way you’d hoped, they can be a memory of someone telling you’re your ‘can’t or shouldn’t’ sing. I once had a student who shared with me a bad experience that caused them great vocal anxiety. They told me about how, as a child, they would belt loudly around their school yard. Little did they know they could be heard all throughout the classrooms with open windows. They were made fun of by their classmates for years to come. It was somewhat of an ongoing joke at the singer’s expense. The joke was in good humour and had no malice intended, but as the singer and I spoke more about this experience, it became clear that it had made a huge impact on the way they used their voice as an adult.
The simple act of acknowledging the relationship between this experience and the singer’s current vocal goals gave way to a new chapter in their vocal growth. In the following weeks, the singer’s voice opened, became louder and more projected. I swear to God I almost cried. It was very moving.
LOOKING OR SOUNDING SILLY
Most people don’t enjoy looking silly or ridiculous on purpose. To that point, most people don’t like sounding silly or ridiculous on purpose. Here’s the truth of the matter: during your vocal journey, you will sometimes sound silly, you will make ridiculous sounds. My advice? Enjoy it! Maintain humour in your vocal practice. It will get ridiculous sometimes, best to get comfortable with that sooner rather than later.
There is only one cure for this fear. Just do it. Sound silly, make silly voices, silly movements or silly faces. Practice makes perfect in everything and feeling silly is no exception. You might find that after being silly for long enough, you simply don’t feel silly anymore.
STRAIN OR VOCAL PAIN
Vocal strain can happen anywhere in a singer’s range, but it most commonly occurs in the chest voice. It is a result of tension around the larynx and/or the over stretching of the vocal folds. We’ve all experienced vocal strain in come capacity or another. There are some singers who fear the discomfort of vocal strain so much, they limit their voices from producing even healthy sounds!
There are those who shut down when they begin to feel strain. They will either clam up, lose their momentum or stop singing completely. If you’ve experienced this, you may want to try exploring your resonatory range of motion – which means to maintain relaxation throughout your articulators – and singing with more pharyngeal resonance, to reduce tension.
There are also those who don’t stop singing when they feel strain, but instead default to the head voice earlier than they need to. The head voice is often softer and has less of a tendency to hurt the vocal folds, so it can feel safer. This tendency to lighten the voice to avoid strain often pours over into real life, making it hard to be heard or express oneself confidently. In terms of singing, it often feels weak or overly gentle. If you’ve ever experienced this, you may want to explore training the mixed voice for healthy technique with more range!
RANGE
Range anxiety is directly affected by negative thoughts. If you have a thought, for example, like, “S**t, that high note is coming up.” That thought will manifest as worry or fear, which can affect breath control, create unnecessary tension in your body, and limit your ability to sing freely and easily.
Some singers feel their value as an artist is tied up in how high they can sing. Let me debunk that myth right away. There is so much more to being a good singer than how high you can sing. (Tone, timbre, musicality, improvisation, expression, passion…etc).
If you have any stress around your vocal range, I would encourage you to explore your full range throughout all the registers and make sure that you have easy and joyful access to your full range in each register!
Effects of Anxiety Responses on the Voice
PHYSICAL RESPONSE
Physical responses to anxiety can often impede easy phonation. For example, muscle tension can impact the tone and health of one’s voice. Tension around the larynx will be a direct and negative experience for the singer. Dizziness or light-headedness can make it difficult to apply technique. Trembling can occur in the body that will make it difficult of vocalize with a consistent tone.
EMOTIONAL/COGNATIVE RESPONSE
Worry, embarrassment, panic or intense fear are all common emotional responses to anxiety. This can cause self-doubt and a fear of being judged by yourself or by others. This can manifest as a negative sense-of-self and a lack of vocal or over-all confidence.
BEHAVIORAL RESPONSE
High levels of anxiety can keep some singers from performing or going on stage. For some, anxiety can even stop someone from singing at all, even though they love it!
Coping with Vocal/Performance Anxiety
Vocal lessons, singing classes and vocal technique work can be cathartic, relaxing, challenging and satisfying. It is, however, not a replacement for real therapy. If you do experience serious anxieties as a result of singing, or anxieties that are in conflict with your ability to sing, you should seek professional help when you need it.
When addressing your vocal anxieties, it helps to first identify your trigger as well as your physical, emotional, and behavioral responses. Consider your thoughts and your self-talk when you experience anxiety. If your thoughts are negative, can you shift your thinking to be more positive? Even on a superficial level, positive thinking and positive self-talk can help to change your relationship with your trigger. Being aware of your own experience of anxiety will help you cope.
Is your anxiety keeping you from singing the way you want to? Perhaps it’s what keeps you from performing? Negative thoughts like “That was awful” or “This is going to be awful” are common. See if you can turn those thoughts around to “I’m so glad I tried that” or “This is going to be exciting!” Even celebrating failed attempts at new techniques is a powerful positive spin on messing up! When you make mistakes try to tell you self things like “I’m so glad I tried that” or “I’m so happy I figured out how not to approach that particular technique!” Does changing your negative thoughts into positive ones change the way your feel or how you act? You may find that over time you become more comfortable with the idea of doing the thing that scared you in the first place!
If you deal with persistent vocal or performance anxiety, try keeping a journal in which you fill in the following blanks anytime you experience anxiety:
What was the trigger of this feeling of anxiety? _______________________________________
How are you feeling right now? ____________________________________________________
Are you having a physical response? If so what? ______________________________________
Did this experience impact your behaviour in the situation? ______________________________
What where the negative thoughts associated with your anxiety today? _____________________
What is at least one positive thought you can switch out for a negative one? _________________
Does this new positive thought change the way you’re feeling emotionally and/or physically right now? ____________________________________________________________________
When you start this exercise, you will likely answer ‘no’ to the last question. The more you do it, even if you have to force a positive thought at first, the easier and more impactful it becomes.
