How To Beat “Red Light Syndrome” | tonebase Tips

A practical guide to overcoming recording nerves for every musician!

It is the paradox of musical life.

We spend hours each day honing our skills, mastering our fretboards, rehearsing and repeating passages until they are just right, only to walk on stage or into the studio feeling like we don’t know what we are about to play.

The fear we get when walking on stage is a known fear.

It is one that people sympathise with openly. ‘I couldn’t walk out in front of all those people’. It is something we get accustomed to. In fact, the fear of walking on stage is one that we adopt as part of the process.

In many cases we learn to rely on this heightened state of awareness. We adapt and we process, and the more good experiences we collect of ‘getting through it’ the more we feel comfortably challenged to do it again, and again, and again.

Performance is a raw element, it is an experience, here and then gone. Though we may walk on stage feeling at odds with those in front of us we end feeling united.

An hour of transitory imagination, that we have all experienced together, any hiccups are now in the past, our story has been told.

Most of the recordings that we do as musicians are in environments that we know and are relatively comfortable with, often with people around us that we know, like and trust.

We can now go back and rewrite the mistakes we make, we can choose how we want to sound, and we can spend as much time as we like getting good takes.

So why do so many of us crumble when the red light is on and how can we remedy this?

The science behind red light syndrome is simple.

In a performance we experience a rush of adrenaline which temporarily focusses our minds as a by-product of the fight or flight instinct.

Handily, this chemical rush also helps us enhance our memory in retrograde (so consolidating things we have already committed to memory) which can be used as a powerful tool for improving your memorisation skills.

In a recording scenario we do not feel the same rush of adrenaline, we are however keenly aware of the importance of the situation. This leaves us in a limbo between rationally nervous focus and a relatively normal functioning bodily state.

The key to tackling red light syndrome lies in leveling out these two states.

Either by A) harnessing the ability to set your body into an adrenaline pumping state, or B) by learning to rationalise the task and calm your mind into security, which is honestly no mean feat.

If you are the type of musician who sees musicianship as athleticism then you will most likely choose option A. If you are the type of musician who sees musicianship as exploration then you will most likely choose option B.

This is just a rough guide, I would suggest trying a combination of both of these exercises as a way of mentally leveling out, to eventually bring yourself to a mid point.

OPTION A

In order to learn the course that adrenaline takes through our bodies and simulate the positive stimulus of this experience in our recording sessions, we must find a way of reenacting this in our practice.

A way I have found that works for most people is to simulate a concert experience:

Approach your instrument physically, then without warm up, play through a piece, as if you were in a concert setting.

After playing your piece through, with no stopping or repeating problem passages, you must step away from the instrument physically.

In order to train your capacity to focus, take a blank score of your piece and note in the mistakes that you made during this small session. Try to remember every hiccup you made.

Repeat this process (with blank scores each time) 5–6 times.

Notice how you are becoming more aware with each repetition, notice how your focus is shifting, pay attention to where your focus is (with your right hand, your left hand, with physical memory of the score, with fingering shapes…).

If you are a teacher, you can help engage a student in this method easily by setting up this scenario, and acting as an audience member, staying very silent and not adding impetus to their play through or feedback until the exercise is finished.

OPTION B

This option begins from the recording process, and relies on keen observation.

When we are recording, our minds can become clouded with things that we often do not think of during our daily practice. For many of us, in video recording, this will be the sudden awareness of our facial movements and how we look.

In this option we will work back from what our focus is being drawn to during recording:

Set your camera in a place where the frame captures most of your body, the body of your instrument and your head (very important!).

Play a piece through a few times and observe the thoughts that run through your mind. Are you lost for where to look? Do you simply feel uncomfortable? Are you unsure of the notes?

You need to take the insecurities that you are feeling when you are recording back into your practice room daily.

If you are concerned about your face, observe and then adjust what you are doing in your practice.

Observing your thought patterns and taking yourself through the recording process daily, will help massively with the way you view yourself while the camera is rolling.

Once you are accustomed to the way your brain works during the process, and you adapt your practice to accommodate, you will begin to see amazing results in the time it takes you to get a good take!

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