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Stage fright is not our enemy.

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It is not the number one enemy.

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It's a skill deficit.

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And we need the physical skills like the relaxation strategies.

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We also need the mental skills to manage that as well.

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To wrap up season four and show our appreciation to our listeners,

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we are bringing back a remarkable guest,

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Dr. John Skidmore, the renowned performance psychologist.

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Many of you might remember him from our very first episode back in September 2020.

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The world of performing arts has always been a very competitive arena.

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But what I'm seeing is the pressure and the social media pressures,

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the, in some cases, the fewer opportunities to perform to make a living in this arena.

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It's creating an order in the amount of stress and pressure

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that in some ways is for too many, not certainly not for everybody,

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but it's crushing their talent.

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It really seems to be having a negative impact on the talent

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because they can't make it good enough.

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They can't make it big enough.

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They can't seem to succeed with it.

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The other thing I've noticed,

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which has been really an interesting surprise for me,

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is I've referred to it as performance dread.

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I've been talking to a lot of people that just like I dread is this love hate relationship with performing.

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When we develop a craft, whether it's with the piano, with surgery, playing chess,

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whatever our craft is, we will spend a tremendous amount of time, energy, resource

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to develop that. There is no question about that.

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And one of the things that we assume is that our mental ability,

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our mental skills will just kind of come along the way

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and we'll just be able to kind of somehow have what we need to do this.

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And it's so common as I talk with people,

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when we talk about where did you get a solid understanding

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of the sense of stage fright, performance anxiety.

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Most people go, I think somebody mentioned that in a master class like five years ago.

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And so really it's the idea of developing the mental skills to support

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the expression of our musical craft, our musical skills.

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And it makes the journey so much more enjoyable.

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Your voice is ready. Your song is ready. Are you ready?

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Join us tomorrow, June 11th at 8 p.m. Eastern for the premiere of an inspiring episode of

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the piano pod YouTube channel featuring Dr. John Skidmore.

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Discover the captivating world of performance psychology

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and delve into profound discussions on the importance of mental skills training for

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musicians, understanding the cause of performance anxiety,

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the correct definition of mindset from the perspective of brain science and psychology,

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and learning strategies for music educators to help their students play expressively in the flow.

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The audio version of this exciting conversation will be available simultaneously on your preferred

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podcasting platforms alongside the YouTube premiere. Hit that subscribe button,

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spread the word, and don't forget to follow the piano pod on social media.

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The links are in the description. Catch you tomorrow!