Article by Ken Dyers

Performing before an audience can be one of people’s greatest fears.

But fear – which is an energy – can be addressed through effective meditation. Then performance can be taken to greater heights.

below is an article on performance anxiety, produced for a recent international musical symposium. Extremely well received by the professional musicians in attendance, the article has been reproduced here for the benefit of anyone who has ever been daunted by the prospect of presenting in a public forum.

Performance anxiety – removing the evaluation

A musician can communicate something beyond words. Using sound, he or she can paint a picture, tell a story or pass on an intention that a composer may have written hundreds of years before. However, if the musician becomes nervous in performance, this communication can be lost. This occurs if a musician grants their audience the right to make an evaluation.

It is important to remember the composer has a specific intention when writing a piece: Something he/she intends to communicate. A musician must understand this in order to pass on the composer’s communication. When a musician does understand, they can rely on themselves to play the piece as it was meant to be played. They connect only to the composer for judgement. Nobody else can evaluate or make them nervous. By understanding the intention of the composer,
they know how the piece should be played, and the audience can only enjoy it.

If you are concerned with seeking approval from the audience, you will alter the intention of the piece even without being conscious of doing so. You will try to please the audience, and in the process, alter the composer’s reality. You will have changed the piece to get approval. An experienced performer does not depend on the audience for approval, so will not be negatively affected by disapproval. It is not a good idea to give the audience too much power. The power is with the performer and the composer. All a performer has to do to do is keep it simple: Duplicate the original intention of the piece and communicate this to the audience.

This doesn’t only apply to musicians – it is relevant to all areas of communication involving an audience. It is in these subtle areas of understanding and communication where the finest performances occur.

Ken Dyers – Pioneer of Energy Conversion Meditation and co-founder of Kenja Communication – is an internationally renowned researcher into the effects of subtle energy in personal communication.

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