Confidence building
6 essays on confidence building.
- September 16, 2026Why Your Bow Shakes When You’re Nervous (and What Actually Helps)
A shaking bow has two sources — one from trying too hard, one from adrenaline — and what fixes one does nothing for the other. How to tell them apart, and the one in-the-moment move (a pause, placed before the hard thing) that keeps stage nerves from becoming a train wreck.
- September 9, 2026Beta Blockers for Performance Anxiety: What They Fix, and What They Don’t
Beta blockers work — the tremor never arrives. But they only mask the symptom, never the meaning that set off the alarm. What they fix, what they don’t, and a two-minute polarity meditation that clears the fear at its root.
- September 2, 2026Why Trying to Relax Makes You More Tense on Stage
A fiddle player who plays at fifty percent on stage taught me why commanding yourself to relax backfires: you aim the same tight, narrow attention at your tension. The way out isn't more focus — it's spacious awareness. Try the needle experiment.
- May 7, 2021How to develop *unshakeable* confidence, on-stage and off!
Many of the musicians we talk to describe their biggest challenge as a musician as "not having enough confidence." And when we dig into this lack of confidence, we often find stories…
- July 26, 2019Relieving Performance Anxiety - Part 2
In this video I present a self-compassion exercise aimed at relieving anxiety created by researcher Kristen Neff, as well as talk about the importance of having intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations in performance,…
- July 15, 2019Relieving Performance Anxiety - Part 1
"Relieving Performance Anxiety - Part 1" In this video I give information on the causes and relief of performance anxiety. Included are tools from the Alexander Technique, Open Focus, mindfulness meditation, lessons…