Seeker Adrenaline is essential to great performing
Indeed. I think it’s also the cause of the “shaky hands” syndrome, which I get (and which is connected but somewhat different from my original reason for setting this thread, but more on that later).
Anyway, many years ago, when I was preparing to play five pieces in a recital, I got some advice about managing adrenaline from a professional pianist (she used to post at PW but drifted away long ago). She explained that adrenaline is like a limited resource, in that you only have so much of in a day. And she also talked about how the shaky hands that come with stage fright are as much a physical reality as they are a psychological reaction. So when you’re very nervous, your body uses adrenaline to create the physical response you feel. Whether it’s butterflies in the stomach, feeling hot or cold, or in my case, crazy shaky hands that are really disruptive when playing.
So she recommended that I try to use up some of my adrenaline before performing, to blunt the physical impact of the surge of adrenaline. She recommended some kind of physical exercise, to get the heart rate up, get out of breath, on the day of the performance, maybe 20 minutes. She said that this reduces the amount of adrenaline you have (just for that day or for those few hours of course) so that your fight or flight system doesn’t kick in which as much force as it otherwise might. So I thought I would try that.
This wasn’t the only thing I did to prepare for the recital of course (as I think I mentioned above, I had been reading the Inner Game of Music and other books and doing lots of the exercises and practices recommended in them). But I also made it a point to get some aerobic exercise on the day of the recital, and really actively try to use up some of my energy a few hours before the recital. And as it happens, I did have nerves but I felt like the shaky-hands syndrome was weaker and less disruptive than it had been for past recitals. And that recital was one of my best performances ever (for my whole set of pieces, which was a pretty big deal).
Of course I had been doing all kinds of other things to prepare, so it’s hard to say what had the biggest impact. But the idea of blunting the flight or flight reaction makes a lot of sense to me, because shaking hands is a physical reality that needs energy etc…
So if you’re a professional performer, I’m sure some amount of adrenaline is important, but if you’re an amateur trying to get over stage fright, and having your hands shake makes it hard to hit the right notes, then reducing that adrenaline makes a lot of sense to me.