Managing Stage Fright - Nagel

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Résumé :
Why is it that well-prepared, talented, hardworking, and intelligent performers find their performance and self-esteem undermined by the fear of memory slips, technique failures, and public humiliation? In Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers, author Julie Jaffee Nagel unravels these mysteries, taking the reader on an intensive backstage tour of the anxious performer's emotions to explain why stage fright happens and what performers can do to increase their comfort in the glare of the spotlight.

Examining the topic from her interdisciplinary educational, theoretical, clinical, and personal perspectives, Nagel uses the music teacher/student relationship as a model for understanding the performance anxiety that affects musicians and non-musicians alike. Shedding new light on how the performer's emotional life is connected to every other facet of their life, Managing Stage Fright encourages a deeper understanding of anxiety when performing. The guide offers strategies for achieving performance confidence, emphasizing the relevance of mental health in teaching and performing.

Through the practices of self-awareness outlined in the book, Nagel demonstrates that it is possible and desirable for teachers to assist students in developing the coping skills and attitudes that will allow them to not feel overwhelmed and powerless when they experience strong anxiety. Each chapter contains insights that help teachers recognize the symptoms-obvious, subtle, and puzzling-of the emotional grip of stage fright, while offering practical guidelines that empower teachers to empower their students. The psychological concepts offered, when added to pedagogical techniques, are invaluable in music performance and in a variety of life situations since, after all, music lessons are life lessons....

Biographie:
Julie Jaffee Nagel, Ph.D. is a graduate of The Juilliard School, The University of Michigan and The Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. The critically acclaimed author of Melodies of the Mind, she has drawn from over twenty years of multidisciplinary experience to shed light on performance anxiety as well as the important role of music in understanding a wide range of human emotions. She is also a regular contributor to Huffington Post and The Clavier Companion. She is in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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Sommaire:

• Figures


• Preface


• Acknowledgments


• CHAPTER 1 - STAGE FRIGHT: WHAT IS IT?


• Questions for Thought


• Some General Considerations About Stage Fright


• A Personal Reflection


• Music Teachers as Mental Health Resources


• Paradoxical Questions and Further Thoughts About Stage Fright


• Yerkes-Dodson Law (Arc of Anxiety)


• Mental Preparation: Attitudes and Aptitudes


• Talking and Listening to Students: Validating Feelings


• Implications for Music Teachers


• CHAPTER 2 - DELVING DEEPER INTO STAGE FRIGHT


• Questions for Thought


• Stage Fright: A Mind/Body Duet


• Symptoms of Performance Anxiety


• Discussing Performance Anxiety In Studio Class


• Identifying Performance Anxiety Symptoms


• Symptoms Chart


• Two Activities


• 1-Mood Ring


• 2-Chill Out: Tools for Cool Students


• Implications for Music Teachers


• CHAPTER 3 - THE A B Cs OF STAGE FRIGHT


• Questions for Thought


• An A B C Model of Anxiety


• Recap: A B C Model


• Vignette: John


• Actions for Teachers and Students


• Activity 1-Identifying Letter B Responses


• Activity 2-Letter B Cards (Supportive Self-Statements)


• Examples of Supportive Self-Statements


• Implications for Teachers


• CHAPTER 4 - SYMPTOMS VS. MANAGEMENT


• Questions for Thought


• Symptoms as Cues and Clues


• Vignette: Cindy


• Assessing Thoughts and Feelings


• Talking About Stressors


• Implications for Teachers


• CHAPTER 5 - CONFLICT - A PARADOX


• Questions for Thought


• Paradox: Identifying Emotional Conflicts


• Recognizing Conflicts


• Dealing with Memory Slips and Technique Meltdowns


• Jam Plan


• Some Childhood Antecedents of Stage Fright


• Additional Examples of Conflict


• Vignette: Robert


• Young Children (and Adults) Fill the Gaps


• Additional Considerations About Conflict


• Conflict Chart


• Symptoms Chart


• Implications for Teachers


• CHAPTER 6 - THE EMOTIONAL FUEL BEHIND STAGE FRIGHT


• Questions for Thought


• Psychodynamic Model


• Why Consider Psychodynamic Models of the Mind?


• Mental Ghosts Haunting the Teaching Studio


• The Mind Does Not Forget: the Unconscious


• A Visual Model of the Unconscious


• Figure 1 - Conceptual Diagram of the Unconscious


• Revisiting Cindy


• Transference


• Shame


• Countertransference


• Multiple Function


• Vignette: Joe


• Psychological and Practical Tips


• Imagine This.....


• Implications for Teachers


• CHAPTER 7 - DEFENDING AGAINST ANXIETY


• Questions for Thought


• Performance as a Danger Situation: Ego Defenses


• The Ego and Its Defenses Against Anxiety


• Table 1 - Typical Ego Defenses


• Vignette: Mary


• Table 2:Performance Anxiety Symptoms as Ego Defenses


• (Letter B)


• A B C Model of Anxiety


• Activity 1 - Recognizing Anxiety


• Activity 2 - Relabeling Anxiety


• Vignette: Cindy's Cold Hands as Ego Defenses


• Shame Masquerading as Resistance to Performance Anxiety


• Shame on You!


• A Fusion of Musical and Personal Identity


• Helping Students...