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Stage fright, is it curable?


Karol

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Hello,

As far as I remember I've been always a bedroom-DJ. I'm pretty content with my skills. Recently I have got my shit together and started practising everyday. Been rather obsessed with scratching since a couple of weeks. I can come back home from work and practise for like 3 hours then do some other stuff and practise for an additional hour. There's a scratch session coming in 2 weeks around my place so I thought I would have an opportunity to show off, but yeah, this stage fright dude! I just can't scratch when somebody watches me. Well I can scratch but not like I'm on my own. The other thing is that I'm used to scratching with my mixer and a good old crossfader. I visited a friend of mine the other day, couldn't do a shit I sounded like a begineer. Basically, didn't see any difference in the record motion and simple scratches such as chirps stabs and tearz but when I wanted to do some more advanced clicks... you know the rest :d

Those of you who often scratch with people. How much does it take for you to adapt your fader hand to a completely different fader from yours?

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Karol im not an expert on these matters and im not a scratch dj but i was a gigging musician for quite a few years

in my experience there are several factors involved that can help you to alleviate your nervousness

 

1. Preperation-if you're properly prepared and know exactly what you need to do this will help you immensely

 

2. Practice like its the real thing-

 

when your on your own and your practicing try to stick to dedicated routines

a bit of forward planning and a structure to what you want to convey to others will also be a big help in my opinion,its a bit of a cliche but imagine the room is full of people and youve got a one shot chance to impress them ,sometimes just by pushing yourself into that kind of mindset you will be suprised at how focused you can become

 

3.learning to relax and enjoying it

 

At the end of the day it should be FUN

its not life and death remember ? its music so learn to enjoy it for what it really is,and remember why you enjoy it so much in the first place man and you should be just fine..

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Two things I'd say about stage fright of any kind: First, you will slowly get it less and less the more experience you have in front of people. Regardless of if it's public speaking, acting, DJing, sports, etc. Secondly, I'd say it never fully goes (or I hope not), but that's kinda whats fun about performing, right? They thrill. The butterflies.

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Thats some very good advice from eric there..

 

alternatively only ever dj at kids parties in the first place, and by doing it that way

the kids will never know the difference and they wont have a clue what you're doing anyway so in their eyes you will be the greatest dj ever and as a bonus you get to smash up and destroy lots of One Direction & Pharrell Williams records afterwards which cant be a bad thing at all IMO

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Getting to a scratch jam is a good start. Stage fright will disappear when you start to develop confidence and you can only do that by facing your fears and then assessing the thing you need to do to address those fears. Afriad of making mistakes in front of people - get in fornt of people that understand your situation and wont condem you for it. Afraid of using different mixers - use as many different mixers as you can, understand what it is that makes it different and how you should adjust to be more flexible. The more time you dedicate to face your fears, understand them and come up with techniques to cope in these situations the more the nerves will go.

 

I really felt this when i entered the scratch battle in chicago, the format was a bit like a QnA so i closed my eyes, told myself its just like being at a jam and totally used that experience from a different scenario to my benefit. Some of the guys entering the battle against peers and in front of others had never had an experience outside of their bedroom and so unsurprisingly felt overwhelmed - they hadnt thought about how their narrow experience factored in to their performance.

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It's definitely something that gets better with experience and as your confidence in your own ability improves. I find doing long deep breaths before you start helps too.

 

 

Good call. Supposedly "supermanning" helps with confidence and should be done before a gig or even when you get out of bed in the morning to set the tone of the day.

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Getting to a scratch jam is a good start. Stage fright will disappear when you start to develop confidence and you can only do that by facing your fears and then assessing the thing you need to do to address those fears. Afriad of making mistakes in front of people - get in fornt of people that understand your situation and wont condem you for it. Afraid of using different mixers - use as many different mixers as you can, understand what it is that makes it different and how you should adjust to be more flexible. The more time you dedicate to face your fears, understand them and come up with techniques to cope in these situations the more the nerves will go.

 

I really felt this when i entered the scratch battle in chicago, the format was a bit like a QnA so i closed my eyes, told myself its just like being at a jam and totally used that experience from a different scenario to my benefit. Some of the guys entering the battle against peers and in front of others had never had an experience outside of their bedroom and so unsurprisingly felt overwhelmed - they hadnt thought about how their narrow experience factored in to their performance.

.

.

.

So spot on. I shat myself at SSS

So many crazy scratchers...

 

But I was pushed on (damn, I want a scratchbox) and it was amazing.

I'm not the best, in fact I can safely say I was the worst in that room - but no one made me feel crap.

In fact, after that first 8 bars, I was bitten by the bug... And was pulling off things (fnar fnar) I'd never tried before.

That adrenalin of fear is powerful.

 

I'm looking forward to SS Sunday so much - I'll be the worst again, and I'll shit myself again, but I don't care.. I feel alive when it's time for my 8 and if I fuck it up, who cares? I'll laugh and nobody died...

Edited by GNOD
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What you're describing is sort of like learning the rules to a language and then being dropped into country where everyone speaks it fluently without even thinking. This is what scratching is.

 

Part of the anxiety comes from knowing what you "lack" (ie. technique). The bigger part of it comes from performance anxiety. This is something you learn to deal with through repetition.

 

Scratch sessions should be fun and you should be vibing off of people, not challenging them. Most people in the room already know who has the most amount of experience, that person knows this as well and has nothing to prove.

As soon as you start having fun, all of that fear disappears.

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practice a lot so you can fall back on that when you get nervous.. but also its good to think of mistakes as things that make you look more human, less robotic and easier to relate to so actually try to make a few intentional mistakes at the beginning. Smile while doing this and look around at the audience. they will mostly not give a fuck. That should make you less afraid and more willing to take risks, which tends to make for more interesting freestyles, mistakes and all. If you're afraid of mistakes you're going to stick rigidly to what you know and that will be boring as fuck for you and eventually people pick up on that. Also if your cutting with friends remember they're your peers, not your competition. It's childish to think otherwise. Bit of friendly competition is ok, but if you're trying to dominate everyone you're just damaging your own practice time by defaulting to the shit you already know just to try to impress people.

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Don't worry - it's not a battle! I have only been to a few scratch sessions but here's my advice (quite similar to what others said already): Don't enter with the mind set to impress anyone with your technical skills. It's about having fun in the first place, so maybe try to pick up the last phrase the guy before you has used and build on it. If you scratch in a musical way and show that you want to build on the overall vibe people will it enjoy scratching with you. There's always different levels of skills! Then if you feel loose enough you might want to try busting out those crazy fast watch-me-now-combos you've been practicing at home but if you're like me, you will mess them up at first. Laugh it off and just continue. :)

Also, you might feel more at ease if you talk with some of the guys first who aren't scratching at the moment - chances are, they also don't feel at ease and can help you to relax a bit more.

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Couple things that always helped me with being in front of people in general.

 

If you are in front of a crowd and plan on looking out into the crowd instead of looking at them look just over their heads at an object in the back of the room. It will feel to them that you are making eye contact but you will have all the control and not freeze up as a result.

 

Make sure your stance is as wide as your shoulders and your feet actually planted in the ground. If you can't get the feel of what I'm talking about try it without shoes first. Your feet should always press down into the earth. Slight bend at the knee (don't lock). That's general good advice but is extra important in front of people. Pull up through the head like string is pulling up from the tip of your skull and engage your core (flex your stomach muscles). Proper posture is important to control a situation.

 

Remember in performance, just like in negotiation, silence always wins. Slow down. And when you think you've done so slow down further. Open it up. Let everything breathe.

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I used to get mad stage fright when I first started playing out. Hands shaking, the sweats - especially when something would go wrong. That soon fades the more, and more, and more you do gigs. Your skills improve as you become more confident. It's kinda win/win.

 

You get to know your audience and what people respond to, make some connections with promoters, and generally have a good time with it!

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It's definitely something that gets better with experience and as your confidence in your own ability improves. I find doing long deep breaths before you start helps too.

Top advice from Jon. Try and fill your lungs up as far as they'll go then let it out slow. After about three of them your cool.

 

Also helpful if u ever get in a scuffle and find little brown turtles breakdancing in ya shreddies, or other stressful situations like a driving test or telling your lass you give her chlamydia.

 

And her sister.

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  • 9 months later...

Some very good points, if none of these work for you.

Perhaps you should try some good olde fashioned Cocaine?
It might make you a little sloppy to everyone else, but damn, to you, it will feel like your a *burning Phoenex, tearing the world apart while zappin' lighting bolts from your eyes.

 

 

(*There is a possibility this might not happen and you just break a styli).

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My gran offered to lend me her beta blockers before I did DMC but my dad vetoed it. Probably just as well! I ended up having a nice big glug of cognac just before I hit the stage, courtesy of Mr Whut! Apparently fencers do this to steady their hand.

 

Another thing you can do, if possible, is to walk around the room you're going to be performing in and look at the stage, from the audience perspective. Just to psyche yourself up a bit.

 

Also, imagine you can control the amount of adrenaline you give yourself. As soon as you feel it kicking in, say to yourself "OK, that's enough for the minute", like you meant to do it and intend on doing it again later.

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Curing stage fright is a piece of cake..Just mime instead.. :p

http://m.goliath.com/music/10-musicians-who-suffer-from-extreme-stage-fright/7/

there's actually some suprising names on the list here who you probably wouldnt associate with suffering from bad cases of stage fright.

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