sing in a professional venue without puking up the butterflies in my stomach

I had a solo in a rock musical several years ago. I’m not a trained singer; I’m just a person with a good voice who loves to sing and has always nursed a Rock Star Fantasy™. I’ve got an advantage here, though, in that I’ve never suffered from stage fright when it comes to performing or singing. When I had to dance in the same rock musical where I had the solo, I was extremely self-conscious and had such a serious mental block about doing the dance (scantily clad, too) that I almost couldn’t do it. Finally I just told myself “Screw it, what’s the worst that can happen? I can choose to have fun with this number and not freak out about being the oldest of the three dancers or that I’m some horrible, fat cow (I’m not), or whatever.” Once I made the conscious choice that I was going to have fun without being obsessed with making little mistakes, I “got” the routine, I smiled, and even if I messed up it wasn’t obvious or a problem because I was having fun.

Maybe choosing to have fun can help those of you suffering from anxiety about getting on stage.

The other thing you can do is role-play. Imagine that you are a singer you admire and respect. Imagine yourself looking and moving like him or her, imagine that the words you sing will mesmerize your audience and move them to tears of joy or sorrow, inspire them to action or to salvation, or whatever you want them to do. You are the magician. The audience doesn’t control you, you control them. Imagine that your audience loves you more than anything in the world, and that you could sing “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and they’d roar for more.

And if that doesn’t work, just imagine the whole audience sitting there in boxer shorts with clown faces all over them. :-)

I sing in public, also! but, you see, I never sing in front of friends, or on stage—I guess it’s moreso the people I don’t know, while NOT being on stage.. or alone. I’m not a horrible singer, I just get the pukey butterflies.. So I’d like to improve on this somehow. I’ve heard voice lessons help, but I’m not so sure.. a little confidence in myself might be key—but I think I’m a great singer. This is silly for me.. I’d like to sing in front of people, though..

however not one addresses my problem. you see i sing in public all the time. i don’t care who hears me when i have my headphones on and i sing along. as a matter of fact i often have people come up to me and ask me if i sing professionally. i have been asked several times to sing in pro venues (once for jazz, once with friends). but… well… that whole stage thing is the killer. you see then people would expect me to sing well and in time and in harmony and in whatever way the audience expected… THE PRESSURE SCARES ME!!!! AAAAAARRRRRHHHG!!! now that it is off my chest i can wait for the ‘fail’ option to come up so i can remove this goal without feeling guilty LOL