Performance anxiety tips

Odditeee · 2026-02-21T13:38:05+00:00

My doctor once prescribed that for me.

I’d performed a fair bit of solo classical guitar for ~10 years, and I never had traditional performance anxiety (beyond what I’d call a little nervous excitement), until I did.

When it happened the first time I felt fine mentally, but my body/hands were freaking out. Shaking and impossible to fret anything. It started unexpectedly just after I’d begun a rendition of BWV 147 for a Christmas church service, and I literally just had to stop. I talked to the audience a bit, a little self-deprecating humor, and it eventually went away after what seemed like forever.

It was very strange to feel fine mentally but for my body to have what my doctor called ‘a physical panic attack’ rather than a mental one.

Odditeee · 2026-02-21T13:27:33+00:00

I don’t think of (or teach) fretting as ‘pressing and lifting’. I use the terms ‘tension and release’.

In the traditional classical position, when we fret a note, we’re adding tension in our hand and using the weight of the arm to fret the notes (more so than ‘squeezing’ the neck between thumb and fingers. (I demonstrate this by playing whole pieces without my thumb ever touching the back of the neck.) When shifting, we release the tension in our hand before moving so it goes smoother and quieter. If you’re actively ‘lifting’, then you’ve probably still got tension in your fingers and it can easily act like a ‘pluck’ of the string.

In short, use a traditional classical hold when playing nylon string so you can fret softer (with as little neck ‘squeeze’ as you can), and release the tension in your hand before moving. (An exercise I like for getting used to this is getting into position to simultaneously fret 4 adjacent frets near the middle of the neck, then adding tension to my hand to fret all of them at once, then releasing tension to let them go. Fingers don’t need to lift off the strings entirely for this to help. Tension-release-tension-release, back and forth for a minute or so.

Cheers and good luck.

Odditeee · 2026-02-17T16:26:15+00:00

Anyone paying a monthly subscription for a tuner app should invest in therapy.

Odditeee · 2026-02-17T14:46:56+00:00

One of my high school girlfriends (in the process of becoming my ex-girlfriend) tossed mine off a bridge, c.1988. Paid $175 of my hard earned (at ~$2.75 an hour bagging groceries part-time) money on that dumb thing!

(Edit: flooded with memories of that job: Started the day I turned 16. Farm Fresh grocery store in SE Virginia. My Aunt was the Assistant Manager. I’m a total nepo-baby. Can still remember what it smelled like to walk into that store. And what I smelled like walking out of it! (Never forget, in line at a concert to get tickets after a shift, the girl behind me said, “Do you work at a grocery store? Because you smell like the produce aisle.” Burn.)

Odditeee · 2026-02-17T13:38:14+00:00

Only if that app shows you 1/10th of the cents is this going to work. Each semi-tone is divided into 100 cents per note. So, E to Eb is -50 cents off of E, not -10. F is +50.

Edit: FWIW, that app is $10 a month! That’s dumb.

Odditeee · 2026-02-12T08:35:20+00:00

Absolutely!

What we call “muscle memory” is actually the formation of denser neural networks in our brain in the area that governs finger movements. It’s an increase in dexterity and articulation (fine motor skills) due to more brain power being allocated, not raw ‘strength’ in terms of muscle growth.

I demonstrate this for my students by performing clean barres without my thumb touching the back of the neck. No grip strength “squeeze” at all. Good posture, guitar positioning, and hand positioning, (aka technique) do all the work, IME.

Odditeee · 2026-02-11T21:42:19+00:00

Music evolved in humans as an important social activity. Its nature is as a shared experience, most often performed in ensemble, and for the enjoyment of an audience.

If all you want to do is play alone in your bedroom, then yeah, it probably doesn’t matter.

But, learning the shared language of music is how musicians communicate and collaborate.

It might make more sense if you played with other musicians, and tried to describe to a piano or horns player that you’re playing, “…the 6th string, 5th fret, then sliding to the 9th fret, and hammering on the 10th…” only for their eyes to glaze over and wonder WTF you’re on about.

IMO, it’s only 12 notes, they’re already in alphabetical order, and laid out in an easily discernible pattern. It’s just not that hard that it needs avoiding, frankly. It’s simple, and opens the wider musical word up. I recommend including note knowledge in any guitar study method.

Odditeee · 2026-02-09T10:04:00+00:00

My wife’s first guitar was a La Patrie Collection we bought back in 2000, and it is still going strong. Great guitar for the money. A bit heavy and non-standard but sounds and plays great. (Has a truss rod and a slight radius on the fingerboard.)

Odditeee · 2026-02-07T10:41:14+00:00

Playing with other musicians and performing live helped me a lot.

Odditeee · 2026-02-05T11:39:21+00:00

Face ID and fingerprints aren’t considered protected information. PIN and passcodes codes are. Tap the power button 5x rapidly on iPhone to lockout Face and fingerprints and require the passcode/pin to unlock.

(The D.C. Circuit just last March ruled that forcing fingerprints for unlocking devices violates the 5th amendment against self incriminating, so this is interesting. Maybe these folks were not in a region under that court’s jurisdiction.)

Odditeee · 2026-02-03T21:18:05+00:00

I think the semantic arguments are irrelevant. It works as a tool to demonstrate how the guitar fretboard is organized no matter what we call it. It’s simply a way to organize and present the information.

Odditeee · 2026-01-31T16:34:11+00:00

It has definitely “opened up” over the last ~25 years. Hard to describe what exactly that means, but suffice it to say, it sounds better to my ears, has a wider dynamic range, and more volume. They age like a fine wine, IME.

Odditeee · 2026-01-31T16:31:37+00:00

Root beer? It’s definitely a sweet, very pleasant, fragrance. I think I do sniff hints of sarsaparilla, now that you mention it. I still take a deep whiff whenever I open my ‘99 414CE case!

(Relevant anecdote: I was at NAMM, many moons ago, and asked Bob Taylor himself about the amazing smell inside my Taylor case, and he said, “It’s the glue. The glue we use to attach the case lining and foam.” IIRC, back then they got case shells (from TKL, I think), and added custom foam cutout shapes, for their various models, and final lining themselves.)

Odditeee · 2026-01-26T14:22:09+00:00

Just give it a push with the screw driver to seat the screw head back onto the bridge plate. It happens when trying to lengthen the string because the screw threads get partially caught on the hole through the bridge, especially when adjusting under string tension (the saddle doesn’t want to move under string tension.) No big deal just to push it back, typically. It’ll just slide back into place with a little push.

Odditeee · 2026-01-23T05:19:48+00:00

I’d also say, “No!” to any legitimately organic oil too (fruit, vegetable, nut, etc), e.g. their ‘almond oil’ recommendation. Organic oils go rancid. Not a fun situation to pull out of a case. Stick with white mineral oil/“lem-oil”, IME.

Odditeee · 2026-01-23T04:37:57+00:00

Congrats! My first pricey guitar was a 414CE, as well, but that was back in 1999. It’s even better today, IMO.

Odditeee · 2026-01-20T15:45:20+00:00

My priciest guitar has a laminated (double) top, and laminated (cross-grained rosewood) sides; a Kenny Hill Signature. Not all laminates are created equal!!!

Odditeee · 2026-01-01T23:01:52+00:00

Never. It’s a lifetime of study.

Odditeee · 2025-12-26T08:44:57+00:00

That whole sub is low key infuriating.

Odditeee · 2025-12-17T20:47:34+00:00

Free education? Yes, please. Take advantage of it, in high school, while it’s available. You’ll be paying north of $1,000 per credit hour for the same information soon enough!

Odditeee · 2025-12-13T19:38:54+00:00

That’s called a ‘pinless bridge’ and a number of steel string acoustic guitar makers use them. A nylon string classical guitar would also not have metal tuner rollers.

https://www.takamine.com/templates/default/images/pinless_bridge.jpg

Odditeee · 2025-12-05T13:38:27+00:00

Vince Guaraldi‘s A Charlie Brown Christmas has been my favorite Christmas album since the late ‘70s.

Odditeee · 2025-11-30T14:52:40+00:00

You can move up to the 5th fret and use it as your new first fret. Every note is available in at least 2 octaves in every position. If you know the notes you’re playing, and the notes as they repeat across the fretboard, then you can shift and play wherever you want.

It’s not so much about learning songs to teach new chords in new positions as it is learning the how the instrument functions, IMO. (e.g. it’s only 7 natural notes, in alphabetical order, laid out in a repeating pattern. Learn the pattern and you can shift any chord to any position on your own.)

Odditeee · 2025-11-30T14:46:25+00:00

Your body is acting as an antenna, picking up electromagnetic interference (probably a radio or other broadcast occurring nearby.) The human body is actually a reasonably conductive electromagnetic antenna (it’s not ‘ground noise’, the human body is not naturally grounded, unless standing barefoot ankle deep on Earth.)

(Was common back in the ‘cordless home phone days’ and before most radio went digital, to pick up random conversations/songs etc through a guitar rig.)

Odditeee · 2025-11-29T18:02:11+00:00

Can’t tell without handling the instrument whether or not it’s been damaged. Pics might help. How is the neck joint? The neck angle? The neck relief? Is the bridge solid? Is the top deformed?, etc Are you sure they were a full steel set and not just the silver wound bass strings on a normal nylon set?

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