The difference? She was skating for the joy of it, not under the pressure to win.
Sports psychology and performance psychology for singers is identical. When you sing for the love of the music and for the desire to communicate you will sing your best. If you focus on "winning, by which I mean impressing people such as your colleagues, the judges, the audience, the casting director, your family, your teacher etc, before you sing as wellas during the act of singing, you will never sing your best.
By focusing on the love of singing , you will be increase your chance of “winning”.The ability to do your best is the gift you get for taking your mental focus off of yourself.
Singers and musical performers have a lot to learn from Carolina Kostner's triumph at this past Olympics, as well as the performances of the other skaters. Kim Yuna, the superstar reigning queen and gold metal winner at the last olympics was the favorite and was in the position of defending her title. She was in a position that she had little to gain but a lot to loose in terms of her legacy. She skated a safe program,lovely,but entirely lacking in excitement to maintain her position.
Along came Adelina Sotnikova a teenager who had recently been left off the Russian team and had to fight her way back. She had everything to win and she delivered a thrilling performance that won her the gold. This "underdog advantage" is what every up and coming singer has on their side, but sadly many times big ambition robs aspiring singers of this psychological advantage.
There is a story about how a then superstar Judy Garland, and a young and upcoming Barbra Streisand were speaking back stage before a live TV show when Garland confessed she had terrible stage fright. The expectations on her as the greatest singing star of the day, were not just to sing well, but to be great and this was crippling her. Streisand an unknown had no expectations on her, and could only gain from the broadcast performance. Streisand confessed to Garland that she never felt performance anxiety. Garland, recognizing Streisand's great talent and the probability of her becoming a great star told her "some day you will". Sadly, it did come to pass that after Streisand became one of the most celebrated and respected singers of her generation, she developed crippling stage fright and could not perform live for many,many years. Finally,interestingly long after her prime, when she was, in reality, no longer the singer she once was, Streisand's desire to perform overcame her anxiety and she was once again able to perform before the public.
My grad school roommate was an elite level concert pianist who had crippling performance anxiety and required beta-blocker medication in order to perform in competitions concerts, degree recitals and even for her teacher and other students in her studio class. She placed and even won in competitions but she never performed at the level she could in the practice room. Never the less, she beat out literally thousands of other young pianists when her artistry gained her an offer from a top level agent who wanted to take her on his roster. But my roommate,who happened to be an orthodox Jew, had to make the decision to not accept this position, that she had worked all her life to achieve, because it would have required her to perform on the sabbath. Although she would keep performing and working professionally as a pianist, the decision to tern down the top agent meant she would never make it big as a pianist. After she turned down this offer and nothing was "riding" on her performances, she suddenly lost all of her performance anxiety. She no longer needed medication to calm her nerves when she performed. She felt her new ability to play was a gift from g-d because she chose to keep the sabbath. I see, though, that when she had nothing to loose or gain from making a mistake, she could not be distracted from the music by her ambition, but she could have chosen to perform just for the love of it all along.
How do you, as a singer, put your head into the best place possible in order to perform? First, prepare to the best of your ability, because not being prepared is a source of very rational of performance anxiety. Then, whether you are a great star or want to be one sing ONLY for the love of singing and the desire to share the music, and you will free yourself from irrational performance anxiety.
Click the link below to watch a video about Carolina's journeyhttp://screen.yahoo.com/carolina-kostner-love-rao-141623602.html
In no way should this be interpreted as an anti-success essay, it is an essay about the kind of mind set that sets a fertile ground for achievement.
ReplyDeleteGold Medal performance by Sotnikova, shows the freedom and daring of a performer with the underdog advantage
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nbcolympics.com/video/adelina-sotnikova-gold-medal-routine?ctx=olympic
The beautiful but safe (if you can call triple jumps on ice safe) Silver Medal performance of the defending champ, who was the reigning queen of skating and a superstar in her native country.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nbcolympics.com/video/kims-spectacular-free-skate-not-enough
Kostner, who crushed by pressure, fell repeatedly at the last Olympics and left the ice in tears, decided to continue,simply because she loved to skate and therefore was able to skate to the best of her ability in a program virtually free of mistakes at this years Olympics.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nbcolympics.com/video/italys-kostner-skates-bronze
This is absolutely an issue that needs to be talked more about! FANTASTIC article! As a singer with a history of being behind my peers in ability and success, all I've ever HAD is love of the music to sing for. Criticism and extremely negative, hurtful, destructive reactions to my performing were for a time in my life a daily war (fortunately almost entirely no longer...for now...and hopefully as long as possible). The only way for me to SURVIVE or otherwise QUIT was to shut it out, zone into the music and art that has somehow captivated me so much, meditate on the beauty of classical singing that has found a permanent place in my heart, and truly commit EVERY act of music to those values. I am very proud in being so strongly successful in NOT having performance anxiety through all of that. I feel almost fortunate to have had to grow into what I've become for the simple fact that it's always forced me to hold dear to the passion and be able to guard myself from allowing future, potential performance anxiety to be influenced by it. There HAVE been times for me where there have been great expectations and standards on a performance or audition or hearing, which HAVE inspired a lot of PRE-performance anxiety. But once actually on stage, I'm so used to performing with a certain mindset approach that it's not hard to let the negativity go.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is also why teachers should always strive to guide their fledglings with nurturing, love, compassion, inspiration, and encouragement. It is a GIVEN that a teacher is measured ultimately by their ability to provide the student necessary tools and aid success (corresponding to a student's responsibility to commit and work hard), but the studio is also the original breeding ground for self-doubt and self-esteem issues. At the end of the day, almost ANY other person in a singer's artistic life is either a critic or uncritical fan. Without the support, encouragement, and ANSWERS of the teacher, a student is almost truly alone in the actual quest (even the most supportive of family not being helpful experts). These are ideals that my experiences have inspired in me. Anymore, I for one almost never, EVER openly criticize another singer unless it is in a feedback situation where I have a well-thought useful ANSWER that I feel hasn't been put on the table or offered. I do, however, never hold back in voicing legitimate compliments and positive observations! The world can be a shark tank, and there are very understandable REASONS for performance anxiety! But at the end of the day, our emotional health is ultimately our own personal responsibility: NO ONE else's.
The more we can support each other the better! Just my experience and positive reaction to a wonderful article!
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DeleteThanks for your response, Ryan. Interesting thought that other than the teacher "At the end of the day, almost ANY other person in a singer's artistic life is either a critic or uncritical fan".That certainly is true of students, but in a pro singers life, their are also gatekeepers and colleagues such as agents, casting directors,producers directors, conductors, and other singers. Your skills as a singer have an impact upon their lively hood. They have a interest in choosing singers that will make them successful, as well insuring that your performance is as good as possible because it reflects upon THEIR performance.
DeleteA teacher has a responsibility to be both honest AND positive because, unless a student is their own gate keeper (is producing shows and casting themselves) they will have to beat out stiff competition in order to work. Besides the discouraging teachers there area huge group of frauds who offer little assistance, they just go through music with singers, take their money and send them on their way. You find a lot of these outside academia.
I think that criticism directly to another singer should almost never be offered unless that singer is your student. If criticism is solicited, and sometimes when someone seems to be soliciting criticism, what they are really asking for, believe me, is reassurance, only offer a suggestion that has a clear solution. As far as spending lots of energy criticizing well-known artists, this is not usually very helpful to a performer’s mindset, I feel it causes performance anxiety. There is a type of frustrated performer that sits in the audience and simply waits for a flaws when they attend performances. When they themselves go to perform, they imagine someone doing the same exercise with them and they become distracted by fear. By in large, professional performers are positive people, giving out the same kind of positive energy they themselves need to get out there and perform. I am sorry you had to deal with negativity, and hopefully the "extremely negative, hurtful, destructive reactions" are indeed a thing of the past. Hold on to that love of the music!