Performance tips
15 essays on performance tips.
- September 23, 2026The Try-Harder Trap
Tension is a “when problem,” not a “where problem”: it fires in the instant before the hard passage, as you brace to meet it. Why trying harder backfires, how the head-and-neck habit spreads into your hands, and the Magic Pause — a two-second experiment you can rate zero to ten.
- 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.
- August 19, 2026Bow-Arm Pain? The Cause Isn’t Where You Think
If your bow arm aches, you've almost certainly been looking in the wrong place. Your body is a web, not a stack of parts — tension shows up far from its cause. Here's why the spot that hurts is the last place to look, and what to do instead.
- August 19, 2026End Every Practice Session More Relaxed Than You Started
Most of us end practice more tense than we started and call it the price of the work. It isn't — it's a habit. Here's the Magic Pause: a simple method for practicing the ease you actually want to perform with.
- August 12, 2026Why Your Violin Shoulder Rest Was Never the Problem
A student laid five shoulder rests on the table and was still in pain. A rest can only fit you in one of two states — tense or relaxed — and most players fit theirs while hunching. Here's the test that shows you which one you've been buying for.
- July 25, 2026Why Your High Notes Feel Hard (They Aren’t “Up There”)
Singers brace before a high note ever arrives — the neck cranes, the throat closes, and the note feels hard. Here’s what a two-second pause, and a little bit of nothing, can do about it.
- July 15, 2026The Tension That Starts Before You Play
The trigger for a musician’s tension often fires before you play a single note — sometimes it’s just a thought. Here’s how to find your “critical moment” and interrupt the pattern at its source.
- July 6, 2026Stop Holding Your Breath When You Play
If you play an instrument, there’s a good chance you hold your breath at the hard parts — and the usual fix (take a deep breath) doesn’t work. Here’s what actually does.
- May 28, 2021Why Singers Don't Actually Need Vocal Rest...
It's the end of your semester and you've been losing your voice more and more frequently. You're trying to take it easy in rehearsals, and even though you've been massaging your jaw…
- May 20, 2021What Every Musician Should Know About Stretching
You're practicing and you feel tight in your muscles - so you stretch, right? But after 5 more minutes of practicing, the pain and tension is back, and maybe even worse than…
- 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…