Unshakable Confidence

Hello everyone

Well here we go with the first blog to address the situations of a performer, whether you are a singer, actor, dancer, speaker or musician even sports people.

Confidence is probably the biggest issue we can face as people who perform publicly. Be it a room with a handful of people or a stadium over-packed to the brim of the public waiting for you to deliver a performance they will never forget.

I don’t know about you, but either of those scenarios goes straight to my stomach, not because I lack confidence but because of the fear of the unknown, a venture not yet explored – for every performance has a new audience, is a brand new experience for all concerned. Even though you may go out on stage and perform a particular show a hundred times you can still feel jittery until you get out there and start. A lot of people take this to mean a lack of confidence or nervousness but it is really adrenaline, and as I will explain soon, adrenaline doesn’t have to hinder your performance. In fact, in most cases, it helps.

So this feeling of nervous anticipation, only becomes an issue if YOU the performer have not done your homework.

For example:

• How well do you know your craft?
• Do you prepare properly for an audition?
• Can you handle your voice in all situations?
• Are you fit enough to be a dancer?
• Have you worked the choreography into every cell of your body?
• Have you done the same with your songs and dialogue or speeches?
• Have you studied your character?
• Did you learn your lines AND all your cues?
  

  
  

How Do You Get Confidence?

There are 2 types of confidence. The first one comes from ignorance. This is when the belief in yourself exceeds your abilities:- BEWARE OF THIS. This is to be avoided at all cost.

The second type comes from knowing your craft (knowledge) THIS is what you’re after. Many people dream of being performers or even ‘Stars’, but are you prepared to do the work?

A Great Example

A Young singer by the name of Graeme Foot who performed in a workshop version for us in our new musical “Shlobaglob” is a fantastic example of ‘what to do’. He was not happy with just being a singer in one genre so he has learned different styles. He sings OPERA (currently performing with the 10 Tenors in Europe) AND he can sing popular or musical styles with great proficiency. He also takes movement classes and acting lessons to boot.

The thing is, he recognises his weaknesses and works on them till they become strengths. This young man is in great demand. He also sees that the more he can do well, the more people will want him for different things.

If you want to meet one of the nicest people in showbiz with an air of confidence, Graeme’s the one. His confidence is not one of arrogance. I comes from being assured of what he can do.

People like Graeme are always pushing their Comfort Zones, which is basically going beyond what you know, into the world you don’t, and trying to perfect that, but I will cover that another time.

Are Nerves A Good Thing?

There are two kinds of “nerves”. The first is the result of a lack of confidence in your ability. This can be a healthy thing, as long as you focus more on what you want to achieve and where you want to go, than on what you perceive to be your shortcomings! A little humility keeps us all in check and reminds us that we can try that bit harder to do a better job and improve all the time. However, we believe that if someone has the desire to perform, then they have something to offer – somewhere, some time. For certain individuals that will be an international career. For others, it may be performing for local events. And some may just need more time to be ready. So if you’re reading this blog, it’s time to start building your confidence!

The second is ‘performance nerves’. We mentioned that feeling of being jittery before a gig, and that it is caused by adrenaline. Have you ever considered that adrenaline is just a chemical in your body. IT doesn’t know whether it’s bad or good. In fact, it is there to HELP you. So we advise people to consider this feeling as one of EXCITEMENT, rather than NERVES. In this way, you invite your mind to expect the adrenaline to be beneficial to your performance, and it will be.

There are 2 main ways to gain confidence

1. Practice
2. Experience
   

Obviously the latter one comes with time. The more we do, the more confidence in our ability, hence the better we become, BUT first must come the PRACTISE

Preparation, whether it be for an audition or a show is essential. The more we can put into this, the less of the nervousness (lack of confidence in our ability to perform the task) is reduced considerably. This may seem obvious, but in our years of performing, teaching and directing, we have noticed that many people who don’t feel confident, simply have not INTERNALISED the material they are preparing properly. We will cover this in detail in a later post. But for now, just make sure you prepare as much as possible for every performance.

Without this element there is no hope of the experience making any difference at all - and that time goes to waste.

IF you are someone who really struggles with nerves, or even stage fright, there are some wonderfully helpful techniques and therapies which you might like to explore.

Look out for these in later postings!

So! - increasing the quality of your abilities (practise) and your execution of them over time (experience) is what builds more confidence, eventually this will become

‘UNSHAKABLE’.

Visit us again soon.

Next we will discuss ‘Comfort Zones’ - why we MUST break them constantly, and how to do just that!

Till next time

See you behind the footlights

Philip & Kate

MTW Music Theatre Workshop

http://musictheatreworkshop.blogspot.com

MTW Music Theatre Workshop: Welcome to a new concept...

MTW Music Theatre Workshop: Welcome to a new concept...

Welcome to a new concept...

Music


Theatre


Workshop

Hi, this is Philip & Kate

We would like to welcome you to our blog, which we hope you will enjoy and get a lot from. We would like to impart to you, a heap of useful information and tips to help you to either have a long and successful career in 'showbiz' or gain more enjoyment from your singing acting or dancing as a hobby.

Whether you have already started and established a Pro or Ameteur carreer or you're still wondering what to do or you're just not quite there yet, there will be something that everyone will benefit from.

Q. Why would someone try and help people who they don't know?

The answer is simple, the entertainment industry is our passion and we love it.

I have been a singer, actor, dancer for over 40 years and it has allowed me to travel the world and perform. Including meeting and working with fascinating people such as Princess Di, Catherine Zeta Jones, Lisa McCune, Caroline O'Connor, Joan Collins, Author of translation for Chaucer's 'Canterbury tales' Professor Neville Coghill. I lived and worked in London for 14years which is where I met my lovely wife Kate.

Kate has been studying theatre and entertainment since she was a wee tacker. Kate's mum and dad were both performers as were mine and Kate used to help her mum and dad (later on) putting on shows around England and overseas. Kate also earned a degree from Bristol University in Music and Drama. This particular course is so difficult that only 2 persons were allocated positions. Kate then finished the final year of her degree at the London College of Music. Needless to say Kate passed with Honours.

So it is safe to say, you are in good hands. between us we have over 60years experience to offer you and it is all free. All too often advice is given in a very negative sense and can destroy a persons ablity to shine. Kate & I are all to aware of this fact, having been at the pointy end of the stick ourselves

I remember when I was in my twenties I was very keen on exploring the possibilities of doing opera. I was already well established in the Music Theatre genre in both Australia and London's West-End, but I wanted to explore further possibilities. Through a colleague, I was given the chance to audition for an excellent teacher of voice at the Guildhall in London, which is a huge establishment of music, drama and the arts.

I went along and did my lesson with this person. All the time they were smiling and looked as though they were enjoying my voice, BUT, at the end of it, all that person said to me was, "yes..well....it could do with a lot of work, it is a small voice and you would only ever be able to sing light opera at best... if that".

WOW! a punch right to the gut. From then on I thought to myself - I will never ever do opera.

A few years later, the colleague who suggested I should see her singing teacher told me that her teacher was impressed with my singing ability, that I had great potential and was wondering what had happened to me and why I had never gone back.
Now I ask you, how on earth could anyone take what was originally said to me to mean, 'yes you have great potential, come back and see me'. This is just one example of how much power these teachers have, over young impressionable people by what they say, especially if your knowledge of the subject is little.

I don't want to harp on about this, so I won't, but it should be stated that we will only give encouragement and advice that we are eligible to give and if we don't know the answer to your question we will either ask someone who does know - on your behalf OR we will not comment until we do know. Rest assured that we are here to help you become better at your craft.

Every holiday season here in Melbourne we put on special 5 day workshops covering a huge range of Singing, Acting, Dancing, script writing & multi media (video segments that are used within a show context). Recently, we held a workshop at the Box Hill Community Arts Centre for the first time at this venue with resounding success (pictures can be seen on the Box Hill Community Arts Centre site at : BHCAC

We received such comments as:

• "...how did you get my son to dance?"


• "...how did these kids learn so much in such a short time?".


• "...our son had a blast and he seems so confident"


• "...I learned a lot"


• "...they enjoyed every minute of it"

Please keep in touch and please, let us hear your concerns about your singing, your dancing or your acting.

Come back often and let's see this grow - spread it around to your friends and lets have a ball.

See you soon

Philip & Kate