Overcoming Nerves: Why Do You Get Stage Fright?

Introduction

The lights are too bright. Your palms are sticky. Your heart seems to be beating way faster than usual. Backstage, you’re filled with dread—what if you mess up that one spot? What if you trip? What will everyone think? 

For some, the time before they go onstage is the most nerve-wracking part of performing. For others, it’s the time they spend onstage. Yet for nearly all musicians, some form of stage fright accompanies most public performances. Unfortunately, stage fright often leads to negative experiences onstage: memory slips, missed shifts, and tense stage presence are just a few examples. 

But why do you actually get stage fright? To answer this, we need to first define a few important terms:

Fear and Anxiety

Fear is “a basic, intense emotion aroused by the detection of imminent threat, involving an immediate alarm reaction that mobilizes the organism by triggering a set of physiological changes” (American Psychology Association 2024). For example, if you have a tricky shift coming up, you might feel your entire body involuntarily tense up, or your heart might start beating faster. 

Anxiety is “an emotion characterized by apprehension and somatic symptoms of tension in which an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune” (American Psychology Association 2024). For example, if you’re thinking about your performance before you go onstage, you might feel anxious about potentially messing up in front of the entire audience and embarrassing yourself. In response, you might get jittery or start sweating more than usual. 

In other words, fear is a short-term response to specific and immediate threats in your environment, while anxiety is a more general response to future threats. Both emotions lead to physical changes that affect how you feel before and during your performance, which is explained by the fight or flight response. 

The Fight or Flight Response

The fight or flight response describes your body’s immediate reaction to either fight or escape a perceived threat. The process is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, which is a part of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary bodily functions, such as blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate (Alshak & Das) Think of it as controlling our body behind the scenes—it makes sure our body can still function even when we don’t consciously think about our blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate. 

As a result, when your body perceives a threat, you begin to experience changes in your involuntary bodily functions. This entire process begins in the amygdala, or the brain’s emotion processor. Once the amygdala perceives a threat from your sensory input, it sends a signal to the hypothalamus, the brain’s “command center,” which then triggers the release of adrenaline from your brain’s adrenal glands (Cleveland Clinic, 2022). This adrenaline rush impacts your body’s involuntary response. 

Physiological Responses

For example, adrenaline binds to beta receptors on the heart, increasing the amount of positive ions flowing into pacemaker cells (BROWN, DIFRANCESCO, & NOBLE, 1979). These pacemaker cells generate electrical impulses that control your heartbeat. Therefore, increased ion flow into pacemaker cells leads to more frequent electrical impulses, causing your heart to beat faster and pump blood to muscles and vital organs.

Additionally, adrenaline binds to receptors in your lungs, which causes you to breathe faster and also more deeply (LeWine, 2024). Your airways widen, which lets you take in more air with each breath. This allows more oxygen to be sent to your brain, which increases your energy and the sharpness of your senses. 

Main Takeaways

Stage fright is rooted in our perception of performing. We often view performing as a threat because of the embarrassment, frustration, and sadness that results from an unsatisfactory performance. This mindset then triggers our fight or flight response, which then leads to a series of physiological reactions that may impact our onstage performance. 

So how can we actually overcome stage fright? Well, the answer is long and complicated, and it’s highly specific to everyone. Next blog post, I’ll be giving more detailed advice on how to overcome stage fright, which will hopefully help you improve your future performances!

References

Alshak, M. N., & Das, J. M. (2023, May 8). Neuroanatomy, Sympathetic Nervous System. Nih.gov; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542195/

APA Dictionary of Psychology. (2024). APA Dictionary of Psychology. Apa.org. https://dictionary.apa.org

BROWN, H. F., DIFRANCESCO, D., & NOBLE, S. J. (1979). How does adrenaline accelerate the heart? Nature, 280(5719), 235–236. https://doi.org/10.1038/280235a0

Cleveland Clinic. (2022). Epinephrine (Adrenaline). Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22611-epinephrine-adrenaline

LeWine, H. E. (2024, April 3). Understanding the stress response. Harvard Health; Harvard Health Publishing. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response