Working with Students with Performance Anxiety

As teachers, we see students coping with varying degress of stress levels. Some students may be perfectly comfortable all the time but other students may have performance anxieities. This can be caused by a few possibilities:

• They are a new student and are still adjusting to being in a new setting with a new teacher
• They generally don't like playing guitar infront of people
• Some students don't like playing infront of teachers/more experienced players for fear of making a mistake
• They are generally anxious or their anxieties are linked to something outside of the lessons

Now, as teachers, we can't possibly provide the correct guidance for dealing with anxiety but we can learn to help and work with students to easy any feelings they may have. Sometimes anxiety can manifest itself as an obivous thing with the student dealing with heavy breathing, feeling shaky, sweating or feeling emotional over small things. Some symptoms however are invisible. Some people prefer to interalize their problems and not talk about them so on the outside they may seem ok but inside they are fighting.

So, what can we do as teachers?

If I ever have a student with performance anxiety, or any other form of the condition, I often ask some unobtrusive questions to figure out if the root of the feeling is based in the lesson/playing infront of me. Usually when this is the case, I find it's because the student wants to impress and not be seen to make mistakes. But I always reiterate that mistakes are just a part of learning. I actually go one step further and intentionally point out to students when I make a mistake with anything. If I play a note wrong, I will say "See, that was wrong!". I find this often makes the student feel a little more at ease when they see me laugh it off. It shows that although as teachers we are a pillar of knowledge, we are also human beings and humans often get things wrong.

If you have any students dealing with these issues, spend time reassuring them that it's ok to make mistakes. It doesn't matter what instrument your student learns or what level they are at, these feelings can still be present. Doesn't matter if it's drum lessons, cello lessons or kazoo lessons. Take time to make them feel good about what they can do. Show them how many mistake you make in a lesson and overall, teach them to laugh it off. Mistakes don't make the musician.