How to overcome stage fright?

Question

I like to sing a lot. I sing in the shower, and at my house when my parents are away, or anywhere where I'm alone. When I sing there, I'm fine. But when someone is around, I can NOT sing barely at all.

I dont know if it's the fear, because I sing WAY too loud, and I dont want them to like yell at me.

I need to overcome my stage fright. Is there like, hypnosis? or something else I could do?

Please don't say "Just keep performing, and do exercise techniques," because I've performed in front of people since I was 7, and trust me, that isn't working.

By the way, I'm 14, if that matters.

Answer 1

Hmmm... I've never really had a problem with stage fright.

I do get semi nervous though.

I guess the only thing I can tell you is that you shouldn't care what other people think... if you love singing then just sing.

I'm 16 by the way. lolz =]

Answer 2

TIPS FOR COPING WITH STAGEFRIGHT

1. If you want to talk (or sing, act, etc.), you have to breathe. And if you want to do these things calmly, you'll need to breathe diaphragmatically. This won't always come naturally, and you'll probably need to practice. You can find everything you need to learn how to do this at DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING.

http://www.anxietycoach.com/breathing.ht...

2. Remind yourself that the audience isn’t there to see or hear you, unless you're a very famous person (or your mom is in the audience). They're just here to see the person who's talking about this topic (or playing this piece, etc.). Today that happens to be you. That's not really important to them.

3. Expect, and accept, that you will feel anxious, especially at first. That's OK. If you allow yourself to work WITH the anxiety, not against it, you'll be able to calm down and proceed. If you resist the anxiety, you'll make more trouble for yourself.

4. Establish the right focus for your task. What do I mean by focus? I mean what you pay attention to as you engage in your performance. This, unlike the other three tips above, will vary depending on what kind of performance you're engaged in.

* If you are giving a talk, your focus should be your material and the audience reaction to it, because your task is to inform or persuade them. You therefore want to be aware of how they are responding, so that you can connect with them in various ways.

*Establish contact with the audience through eye contact and talking directly to them. Ask them questions to get them involved in your talk (i.e., How many of you here have ever had this experience...?) While your natural instinct will probably be to avoid the audience as much as possible, you will actually feel LESS anxiety once you get the audience involved with you.

*If your task is a performance art, your focus will be different. It's not your job to persuade or inform the audience. You want to perform a piece for their enjoyment. In this case, you can ignore the audience, and turn your focus to your music, or your character, and leave the audience to enjoy your performance on their own.

*Where you don't want your focus to be is on yourself and your anxiety. This is why it's so useful to develop an accepting attitude toward the anxiety, to take a few steps to calm yourself a little, and then shift your focus to the task at hand.

Answer 3

I sang publicly for the first time at my grandparents' funeral, and I was a nervous wreck.  I basically just had to get to the point where I didn't give a c**p anymore how I sounded; then it came out great.  You can also pretend that you're by yourself, but not many people can pull off that kind of self-hypnosis when there's a crowd in front of them.  Also, you can think of something really funny right before you sing (not so funny that you laugh, hopefully) to take your mind off how nervous you are.

I don't know if any of that helps, but performing in front of crowds really only gets easier with experience.

Answer 4

What I do is I just imagine that I've already screwed up. I just try to think that everyone has already heard me at my worst and whatever  I do I just can't do any worse.  I knowit sounds crazy but it works trust me.