Ben Chan asks Hilary Hahn about nerves

YouTube Symphony member Ben Chan interviews Hilary Hahn about how she handles being nervous before concerts.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Hilary Hahn
• Ben Chan
• violin
• YouTube Symphony
• nerves
• nervousness

[pyrioni]

She's great and she's right! You need positive excitement to play well, I play better on stage than at home, coz I get excited on stage...When I was little I had negative excitement, that's called nervousness. When you don't have any excitement that is called sloppy

[charliep3]

A brother of mine,. who plays trombone says, if you can control your breathing you can control your emotions.

[cate7791]

Ms. Hahn expresses well in this short segment that the energy of nervousness can have different symptoms, in her case apparently having a kind of clarity. I might recommend "The Inner Game of Music" which discusses in greater depth a variety of techniques to learn to focus transform negative manifestations of your adrenaline into positive ones. But of course, like violin, it takes practice to transform. Good luck to all of us "nervous" people.

[Kapputschino12]

Its not nerves. Its excitement. Or panic. Or something like that. Just make a therapy or stop playing the violin.

[kurd55]

Excellent advice.

[stephanieleaster]

I have always struggled with negative thoughts and thinking that others are there to hear me fail. I grew up performing, so I grew up with the other singers being so competitive and waiting for you to mess up. I have a hard time remembering that the audience isn't that way. How do you handle the competitive atmosphere of the music career?

[stephanieleaster]

Wow, thanks Hilary for all your good advice. I've played flute for years, and before I played flute, I sang. For some reason, I have never gotten stage fright when I sing, but when I play flute (even in an orchestra), I have a terrible case of it. It is interesting because I have never thought of relaxing parts of my body to calm myself. I do this during speeches and presentations that I have to give for conferences, but I never thought about translating that for playing for others.

[WUHUNEE]

Very informative. Thanks for the video!

[Amarynthine]

the they're not there to see you fail part was really helpful

[zeagle79]

Really good, practical and timely advice for me. Thank you Hilary. I just did Schubert's Ave for a friend's funeral, and experienced the shaking bow arm. I actually did as you suggested and refocused on playing more freely and broadly, with 'some' success. The muscle focus advice though, I will work with immediately.

[vermontoise]

Having had the privilege of seeing Hilary both perform and rehearse in close quarters, I can honestly say that this woman has divine energy. I'm a professional musician (choir director) and I ALWAYS think about the sense of "self" that she infuses in her performances. She's a goddess!

[gvn933]

that's very good advise thanks so much for putting this up :D !