Yes, I see what you mean, Jose. Hm, the fact is (as someone said in the beginning of the thread) that feeling pressure to do well in a performance is a good thing and shows you care. The issue arises when the stress is so high that it affects our playing negativly and when we feel so much pressure that we are not enjoying ourselves. The advice given before is really good. If you feel a lot of performance anxiety, do experiment with different ways to handle it until you find something that works for you. Regular studio/teacher recitals are the perfect and safe place to try to reduce the nerves.

By the way, I love live perfomances because it is something special about sharing music here and now. Yes, things can go wrong, but still you are sharing a moment together with the listeners (and other performers) who are there becuase they enjoy music, which really is a nice thing.

that is really well said, remember always that the audience is with you, if there is anyone in the audience that wishes you ill or hopes that you make mistakes, feel sorry for them..

I always imagine backstage is the kitchen and the audience are my dinner guests, when I walk onstage, it is much like greeting my guests..

also remember, that when you walk on stage all those people are strangers, by the end of the evening, they are your best friends

anotherrr tip would be to focus on everything positive and !****! the negative :D
if you dont think about everything that could go wrong, you are less likely to mess up

the audience is not focused on anything negative, so your comment is a good one, most of us attend concerts to have a good time, we don't go in hopes of seeing people crash and burn

oh dear. I do that
:S

does that make me a bad person?
LOL
i kid i kid
just chillax and have fun and the whole performance will be mindblowing and amazing :D

As said before, never think about something you don't want to happen.

Everyone is different and each of us has his/her own method, but it's always interesting and inspiring to hear what others do.

What I do is I empty my head, relax and slow down my brain activity. To achieve this, sit down, and start breathing deep, slow, steady breathes, and concentrate on the air molecules that you feel in your nose. Feel how the air softly flows inside your throat and how every square inch of lung tissue gently fills with oxygen.
After 30 seconds of focusing on your breath, your thoughts will most likely have tried to start wondering around again, but you might notice that your brain seems to work a lot more slowly.

Then, instead of thinking about specific spots that I really hope to play well (or to not screw up), which would lead me to stress even more, what I do is I bring a word or 2 to my thoughts : words to describe 1 or 2 general aspects of my playing that I want to 'boost'. For example, depending of the repertoire, I might think ''Flexible'' and ''Round''. I repeat these words and try to feel them. I really let these thoughts take root deep in my brain; these two words need to become my state of mind, I have to live them.
Notice that they don't directly designate anything sepcific musically or technically. However, when I start playing after this mental preparation, I have a rich, 'round' tone, and my legato and lip slurs are as smooth as it gets.

And depending on the repertoire I am going to play or the way I feel the day of the audition/performance, I use different words, for different target states of mind.

This I try to do as often as I can during the day, and I try to make it last as long as possible.

Then when making a final warm-up before going in the audition room, although it is tempting to try and play through your repertoire, remember that if you are well prepared, you don't need to. You've played through dozens of times, one more won't change anything except maybe make you panic if you miss something. Instead, try playing long, beautiful notes and focus on how good it sounds and feels. You might want to play SHORT excerpts from your repertoire, for example technically demanding stuff, but only half or less the tempo . This way your ear will listen to the succession of notes and will remember them, and when you play the thing for real, your brain will recall the correct fingering/mouth position from having played the same part minutes ago

Excellent discussin, Thanks for all of You!

I've just started playing music, and I still perform worse in front of my teacher, than at home. So I'll try to use many of You ideas, but let me also share my experience with You from other fields.

In secondary school my life was abouth math and competitions. What I can remember, that I was nervous before getting the problems, but when I started to read them, everything just left my mind and only the problems remained. Sometimes I haven't even noticed, that somebody left the room.

Then I went to a language exam, which was kind of a contest too, and I was really nervous, since I was not used to it,although I was confident with my knowledge. So I fully aggree with the advice, that perform live as much as possible, and simply get used to it.

This worked for me at the university as well. I'm a teacher and researcher, so I have to give plenty of talks. At the beginning I could not speak fluently, etc. But then I grabbed all of the occasions to present something, and now I can say, that I had some presentations, for which I've not prepared more then 10 minutes. (and they turned out very well all of the cases).

One advice that I give to my students is: Learn from word to word, what You would like to tell at the first two slides, thus You'll be able to say it even under high stress. Moreover, this two slides are enough for You to calm down, and concentrate on what You are doing. This worked me many times. I don't know how it can be translated to music, playing the first part with closed eyes or something, but the idea is maybe interesting.

And one more thing from a wise person: "Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."

I try to breathe more than usual. Try running up and down the stairs before playing a mock audition.