anxiety when playing guitar

[blah27e]

I've been playing guitar for around 9 years and have been getting anxious when i think about playing or am playing. I know i can make a career out of my music but ill never be able to if this keeps happening. why do i get like this?

[northstar]

i don't know if anyone can answer this question for you, it's kind of difficult to tell from such little information. have you spoken to anyone like a counsellor or therapist about how you feel, they might be better able to guide you through why you're feeling so stressed about playing - it's worth thinking about, i found therapy very very helpful :)

[brickey1]

I can answer this question as I have been performing musci professionally for over 20yrs in front of thousands. The key here is to practice your art very carefully and fully. practise your music so much with little mistakes that you feel you can't get it wrong. Once you feel you have practised until this point - so that you're very comfotable with the music and you're not going to forget it or make silly mistakes or just break down - you'll feel musch less anxious.

[182shaun]

Hey, this is my first time on here, well ive pretty much been run down with anxiety for over a year n a half now have had therapy and a small spell on antidepressants, yet am now completely "fine" or not crippled by anxiety, im sure it will come again but so what it cant hurt me it will go again too.
Thought id reply to ur thread as i am also a guitarist playing in a successful band, my anxiety issues werent soley concentrated on playing live, however i would always have a few drinks to calm my nerves blah blah however this will never help in the long term as im sure ur well aware.
I mean so what if u make a mistake what is the wors that can happen, we played a carling acadamy sell out show last week supporting a bigger band than ourselves, we had a new song rehearsed to fuck yet we attempted it 3 times live an couldnt get through the intro our drumer had lost all tempo...... so called it quits on that song and onto the next. mistakes happen so what we dont hate our drummer for that we had a great gig hes an awsome drummer.. its funny cum to think of it. i mean the amount of times i make mistakes.... its fast pop / punk rock heavy distortion so its not so obvious u just need to stop thinking wot if i fk up.. so wot.... jus keep going the mre u fk up the less stressful it will be lol x hope ive helped in sum way