Performance anxiety: anxiety before, during, and after public performances

As a musician, I know how hard it can be to perform at your best when it matters most — whether it’s in a class, an audition, an exam, or a recording session. Even after preparing thoroughly, it’s common to feel that you’re not performing at your best in the “moment of truth.”

But the reality is that performance anxiety doesn’t only affect how we play in front of an audience. It can also appear in other situations of exposure — for example, when you have to submit a written exam or present a project that will be evaluated. Over time, this kind of anxiety can become a serious obstacle, affecting your confidence and, in extreme cases, leading to physical problems like pain or injuries — or even to giving up your career.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to ignore or suppress the emotions that come with anxiety, but that usually doesn’t help. The key lies in how you handle the thoughts that trigger those emotions. By paying attention to your thoughts and feelings instead of avoiding them, you can learn to use them to improve your musical performance.

In this article, we’ll talk about performance anxiety in its three most common forms: before, during, and after a performance. Understanding how anxiety shows up in these different moments will help you recognize its symptoms and find ways to manage it — and even use it to your advantage to strengthen your practice and stage performance.

Anxiety before the performance: the fear that grows over time

Performance anxiety often begins long before you walk on stage. Days or even weeks in advance, you might start to feel that the date is approaching too quickly, along with the pressure that comes with it. You may feel that time is slipping away, that you won’t be ready enough, or that you won’t have enough time to practice — and all of that brings a great deal of stress.

The worries start to build up. Slowly, and almost without noticing, anxiety can lead you to make irrational decisions. For example, you might end up practicing obsessively for hours and hours, hoping that if you “prepare well enough,” those thoughts and feelings will eventually go away.

Or the opposite can happen — you can’t manage to organize your practice schedule, and negative thoughts begin to take over: fear of making mistakes, fear of getting a bad grade, fear of not being recognized, of failing, or of being rejected.

Other symptoms of pre-performance anxiety can include:

• Constant worry about your performance

• Insomnia or trouble resting

• Loss of appetite or changes in eating habits

• Irritability or unnecessary stress

• Irrational fears, such as getting sick or injured right before performing

Very often, these fears can make you stop doing things you enjoy — like playing sports, going out with friends, or spending time on activities you love — because you feel that you’re “wasting time you should be using to practice.”

Anxiety during the performance: fear at its highest point

When the moment finally comes to perform, it’s common for musicians to feel a wave of panic that can be paralyzing. The symptoms of anxiety during a performance can be divided into two main types:

Cognitive and emotional symptoms:

• Fear of making mistakes

• Lack of concentration

• Negative or self-critical thoughts

• Panic or generalized anxiety

• Irritability or nervousness

Physical symptoms:

• Cold or trembling hands

• Rapid heartbeat

• Excessive sweating

• Flushed face

• Shallow or fast breathing

• Muscle tension

Anxiety tends to intensify when you’re facing an audience — even if it’s just one person — or when recording your performance, or even when presenting a written exam. The fear of making a mistake or forgetting what you’ve prepared can cloud your mind right before going on stage. In those moments, irrational thoughts take over, and all the relaxation techniques you’ve practiced can suddenly feel useless. Time seems to stretch endlessly, and it feels like the moment to start playing will never come.

However, once you’re on stage and start playing, those emotions and the anxiety often begin to fade. You might still make some mistakes, but your training allows you to keep going, and soon time seems to fly by. Before you know it, the performance is over.

It’s important to remember that even though anxiety usually decreases during the performance, the idea that it will completely disappear over time or with experience is a common misconception. This belief can lead musicians to ignore persistent anxiety, which over time can cause physical and mental health problems.

Post-performance anxiety: the inner critic that never stops

Few people talk about the anxiety that appears after a performance, but it’s more common than it seems. Even if the audience congratulates you and everything went well, you may still feel that you didn’t meet your own expectations.

You might feel unsatisfied, thinking about everything you could have done better — that you could have prepared more, focused more, or warmed up more effectively. Even small mistakes that would normally go unnoticed can feel like a complete disaster.

This type of anxiety, although less often discussed, can be just as intense as the anxiety before or during a performance. Thoughts about what you could have done differently may follow you for days, and that dissatisfaction with your performance can make it difficult to enjoy your achievements. Even the smallest mistakes — the ones the audience probably didn’t even notice — can feel huge to you.

Common symptoms of post-performance anxiety include:

• Trouble sleeping or falling asleep because you keep thinking about the performance

• Excessive self-criticism

• Feelings of frustration or dissatisfaction

• Irrational fears about what others thought of your performance

• Difficulty accepting compliments or positive feedback

It’s always important to take a step back and not let these thoughts affect your well-being. Excessive self-criticism is counterproductive, and the best way to evaluate your performance is with objectivity. Recording your performances and waiting a couple of days before reviewing them can help you see things with greater clarity and fairness.

There are daily practices that can help you develop more objectivity when evaluating your work. It’s not something that “just happens” — being objective about our own playing is a skill that can be learned and improved with time and practice.

In conclusion

Performance anxiety is something most musicians experience at some point in their careers. Whether it happens before, during, or after a performance, recognizing how it manifests in you is the first step toward managing it.

If some of the examples or symptoms mentioned in this article felt familiar, I encourage you to take the questionnaire linked at the end of this article. It can help you identify more precisely how you experience anxiety and recognize symptoms you may not have noticed before.

Remember — anxiety doesn’t have to be an obstacle. With the right approach, you can learn to use it to your advantage and continue growing in your musical career.

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