Originally Posted by: maggiorIt's pretty funny that you bring up the test analogy - it is VERY applicable and something I thought about myself. As long as you put in the honest effort to prepare, everything will go fine. Any strategies you may have for dealing with test anxiety will apply here too![/QUOTE]
I find the same goes for Test Anxiety vs. Job Interview Anxiety, since technically, both are a kind of Performance Anxiety. May just be me, though, but this article did help me not faint before two internship-interviews at the same company.

[QUOTE=maggior]I've also experienced what you talked about with the solos. As I performed one of my improvised solos I cringed internally when I played the end of it and thought "why the hell did I just do that...rather than trying to show off with that crap at the end, I should have just left well enough alone!!". Listening to the recording, I thought "wow, that sounded really cool!".

It didn't throw me off because I had practiced that phrase and it sounded good at the time. I don't know why it didn't sound good to me on stage, but part of me knew it was good, so I went with it. It's happened to me at other times also.

A friend of mine who is a professional musician gave me this advice - "if you mess up, smile! Don't shake your head, don't frown, just look at your audience....and smile!". The original post here gives similar advice. When things went wrong for us on stage, his voice actually played in my head "smile Rich, SMILE!!!". I can actually see where my demeanor on stage changed at that moment, and it makes a difference.

Hey, even if we mess up, it doesn't matter if the audience doesn't notice. Most of the people I'll be playing for tomorrow are musically illitterate, in the sense that they can't play an instrument and have no knowledge about music theory, and besides, if I just stick to the G Major Scale for the second solo in "Knockin' On Heaven's Door (GNR Version)", which I always improvise, I should be fine. If I hit a bad note, so be it. Nobody's perfect. I'll just have to keep your advice with smiling in mind. I don't know how this thing is going to work yet. I'll find out tomorrow.