Stage fright is not our enemy.
It is not the number one enemy.
It's a skill deficit.
And we need the physical skills like the relaxation strategies.
We also need the mental skills to manage that as well.
To wrap up season four and show our appreciation to our listeners,
we are bringing back a remarkable guest,
Dr. John Skidmore, the renowned performance psychologist.
Many of you might remember him from our very first episode back in September 2020.
The world of performing arts has always been a very competitive arena.
But what I'm seeing is the pressure and the social media pressures,
the, in some cases, the fewer opportunities to perform to make a living in this arena.
It's creating an order in the amount of stress and pressure
that in some ways is for too many, not certainly not for everybody,
but it's crushing their talent.
It really seems to be having a negative impact on the talent
because they can't make it good enough.
They can't make it big enough.
They can't seem to succeed with it.
The other thing I've noticed,
which has been really an interesting surprise for me,
is I've referred to it as performance dread.
I've been talking to a lot of people that just like I dread is this love hate relationship with performing.
When we develop a craft, whether it's with the piano, with surgery, playing chess,
whatever our craft is, we will spend a tremendous amount of time, energy, resource
to develop that. There is no question about that.
And one of the things that we assume is that our mental ability,
our mental skills will just kind of come along the way
and we'll just be able to kind of somehow have what we need to do this.
And it's so common as I talk with people,
when we talk about where did you get a solid understanding
of the sense of stage fright, performance anxiety.
Most people go, I think somebody mentioned that in a master class like five years ago.
And so really it's the idea of developing the mental skills to support
the expression of our musical craft, our musical skills.
And it makes the journey so much more enjoyable.
Your voice is ready. Your song is ready. Are you ready?
Join us tomorrow, June 11th at 8 p.m. Eastern for the premiere of an inspiring episode of
the piano pod YouTube channel featuring Dr. John Skidmore.
Discover the captivating world of performance psychology
and delve into profound discussions on the importance of mental skills training for
musicians, understanding the cause of performance anxiety,
the correct definition of mindset from the perspective of brain science and psychology,
and learning strategies for music educators to help their students play expressively in the flow.
The audio version of this exciting conversation will be available simultaneously on your preferred
podcasting platforms alongside the YouTube premiere. Hit that subscribe button,
spread the word, and don't forget to follow the piano pod on social media.
The links are in the description. Catch you tomorrow!