Performance Anxiety Mark Zauss, Trumpet player, Double Board Certified Psychotherapist

Literally performing at MMC tomorrow! This is clutch, thanks!

You’re awesome man.

Lack of confidence.

Here is a good example of the effects of anxiety. While singing , forgetting the words to a song.... you wrote yourself...

First of all, it's great to see you again Mark. Hope all is well. Thank you for all these encouraging words and explanations. With my stroke history, I dealt with some of this style of anxiety before playing due to some of the damage from my first stroke. I've learned to actually rebuild and reroute neurolocal signals which has helped. That's why I appreciate this first video you have posted in a long time to be on this topic.
Thank you again and I look forward to the next one. 🎺👍🏻🎺

Welcome back! You are the best 🎺

I have choked on every solo during grading in my life

I find my general "anxiety" has gotten worse as I age - not better. I used to thrive on stress - "hitting in the clutch" was my thing when I was younger. In recent years, I have begun to suffer anxiety attacks for no good reason, except that sometimes a visceral emotional response to negative inputs can certainly trigger and prolong an episode. I now take natural supplements to try to help control it, in part by just feeling healthier in general. But "performance anxiety", specifically, has become more acute with more rapid onset, as well. It's been difficult these last two years to get enough gigs to "stay in the zone", which still seems to be the only sure-fire coping mechanism. Having so much time off between gigs just makes me feel depressed and lethargic, so I lose motivation to practice and feel like I can't do enough "chop maintenance" on my own for the kind of physically challenging playing I'm called upon to do as a Lead Trumpet player and/or soloist. It just seems to never be enough, anyway, and then I feel guilt on top of that. Worst of all is when I'm finally back on the gig, my arms and embouchure will suddenly feel like wet noodles - like there's no strength at all. I mean, it's there, but I have to tell myself it's still there because it suddenly feels like it isn't. The shaking is bad enough, but the feeling of weakness is most awful. Then it also makes me much more susceptible to passing out after an extended high note, which starts to get dangerous. I'm often standing on a stage riser, and having a sufficiently well-padded trombone player to fall on is not something I can always count on.

Thanks Mark!

I've heard of musicians taking beta blockers for performance anxiety. What are your thoughts on that?