Any Guitarists that play Live, How long does it take to feel comfortable on stage?

[MaddoxDelgado]

So I started a small band with some of my friends and obviously we chose to play in our small school's talent show. The unfortunate part of going to a small school is they don't tend to do things "by the books" so we were rushed in at the very end to set up without a soundcheck and resulted in a pretty shitty performance, but it could have gone so much worse. I am honestly not disappointed with how it turned out but I feel my nervousness contributed to a bunch of mistakes. So my question to any guitarists that have more experience on stage, how long does it take for "stage fright" to go away or at least die down some?

 

[Rad Synner]

There is no real answers as it's different for everyone. I think that to an extent, even very experienced musician still get nervous before going up on stage. The key in my opinion is to first come as prepared as you can and if you're in a band, to have practised and be ready to play. Second, that's going to be the work that you don on your mind to be able to handle your nerves. In other words, to learn how to control your nervousness instead of letting it control you.

As for being rushed on stage, that's going to be something that will be more common than you think. Only thing you could ever do is be as much on the ready as possible and to know what you're doing to be the least dependent on external factor as possible. But that is a lot of work.

Good luck!

 

[Ed Seith]

To add to Radu's excellent answer, I think a high percentage of performers feel it at least a LITTLE, and it goes away after the first song or two.

Rarely, a successful performer NEVER gets over it, at all. Barbra Streisand comes to mind.

 

[Xzavier471]

Personally for me by show number 5 my band played I found myself mostly comfortable. And that's really the best way just playing live as much as you possibly can. Something that was hard for me to accept but I eventually did is mistakes happen and that's completely ok. As long as you're putting in the practice time you have nothing to be ashamed of.