Show Notes
🤯 GET THE FREE MASTERING STAGE FRIGHT MIND MAP
😱 READ THE ARTICLE: THE UNITED STATES OF STAGE FRIGHT
🧐 Research Articles are listed after the transcription.
Transcription
Hey, everyone.
I'm Veronica Start, your holistic vocal coach.
In this podcast series, I'm exploring the seven Psychological foundations that I believe should shape your singing, helping you sing with real soul.
In previous episodes, we discussed emotions, identity, mentors, core power, and messaging.
Since we're building layers of understanding throughout this series, I recommend checking out those episodes first.
Today, we're going to demystify the mob by tapping into the psychology of the audience.
Before we perform for an audience, we're faced with two questions.
One, what do these people expect from us?
And two, can we meet their expectations?
Let's start with the expectations of others, which is all about the group rules, which we covered in my last podcast on messaging.
When I was in a dance music cover band in the 90s, our agent booked us at a resort where they were usually rock bands playing.
In the audience, we had two good old boys right in front, drinking beer, heckling us while we were singing dance songs from Ace of Base, Robin S, and Blackbox.
Well, they got a little rowdy, and soon they were yelling, Play Led Zeppelin, Play Led Zeppelin!
So the guitar player started the riff from a Whole Lotta Love and then I laid into them with, "You need coolin! Baby, I'm not foolin”.
The drummer and the keyboard player tried to come in, but it all fell apart pretty quickly.
And we all had a good laugh.
Despite the train wreck, the audience broke out into applause.
Then we went back to our regular set.
And sure enough, those same two guys were up dancing to Haddaway and 2Unlimited.
We survived another tough gig. Yay - But let's talk about what happened there on a psychological level.
That venue and that group were playing by a set of rules that our booking agent didn't tell us about.
We were billed as dance music, and those guys made it obvious that we weren't welcome into their classic rock group.
That is, until we showed them that, yes, we knew what rock was, but that wasn't the show we had planned.
But because we made an effort to relate to them by giving them a taste of music they were already comfortable with, their brains and nervous system relaxed, and they were open to receiving new information.
This learning conversion can happen very quickly with music because music is the most powerful gateway to influencing others.
And this is because music provides a whole-brain experience, which then opens the listener's mind to new possibilities.
Why?
Because learning and influence occur when all neural circuits are engaged at once.
In other words, music promotes neuroplasticity.
If you've ever been on stage and you ask the audience to clap their hands with you, neuroplasticity is occurring in that entire group at the very same time.
And again, the strongest learning in humans occurs when a wide range of our brain circuits are all being used at once.
So you can educate and influence people with your message more easily with music than when public speaking.
We simply can't underestimate the power of music.
If music has this awesome power, imagine the power of being a singer.
In my view, the role of the lead singer is learning how to manage this amazing level of responsibility and leadership.
It's a position of power.
Not everyone can play the drums, play the guitar or bass, but trust me, every single person in that audience has a voice and they wish they could use it like you do.
Don't let any musician tell you that being a lead singer is secondary to anything.
Yes, of course, you need to work with your bandmates.
You are a part of a team where each person is important, but you also need to understand, with humility, how power dynamics work.
Let's bring this down to a smaller scale and talk about the power of a singer.
We should know that each member of the band represents an important contribution, which is critical to the success of any song, any gig, or any recording.
We know that the engineer, the sound man, the producer, are all very important as well.
But no matter what your lead guitarist or band leader tells you, the lead singer, the front person, is perceived and seen by that room as the leader of what is happening right now on that stage.
This power you've been given as a singer isn't an excuse to inflate your ego.
It comes with a lot of responsibility because of the level of influence you hold with that microphone.
Your musical performance isn't just a good time for everyone.
It's an experience maker.
It's a memory maker.
It's a teacher.
It's a community maker.
Now, this information isn't meant to scare you or intimidate you.
On the contrary, I want to inspire you towards a healthy perspective of reverence, humility, and connection.
Of course, there's a dark side to this dynamic.
Social contagion can be a good thing in crowds and social networks, but it can also be used for bad intentions.
Musical frequencies and lyrics can also have the potential to incite prejudice, denigration of people, and general aggression and violence in crowds.
Every sword has two edges, and music is no different.
If you are a talented musician, you're in possession of having great influence over people, and those who have monetary power over you can leverage your power of music for their own gain….and their reasons may have nothing to do with art or any considerations of you whatsoever as a person.
Not everyone in the music business is evil, but you do need to be very aware and grounded in your values when you are dealing with such power.
So, how do we stop from being pulled into the collective consciousness and being negatively influenced?
Hopefully, this diagram will look familiar to you from the last podcast on messaging.
In performance, this is what Healthy Power Exchange looks like.
When your soul is informed by your source, it means that your inner compass is strong and solid in your values and intent.
Remember, we can also look at Source as breath, using breath to connect us to that which is greater than us, and because our connection is more pure and grounded, it will be a much more potent force permeating outward.
Yes, we are human, and we are all influenced by the groups in our lives, but when we are truly grounded, group influence is more of a conscious choice.
And we make those choices because some influences are actually very good for us.
Overall, the influence of others and the ability to choose wisely will be filtered with the strength relative to the strength of those values that we live and personify…and we gain that strength through our connection to Source, which needs to be cultivated and nurtured every day.
There are many ways to develop and nurture this connection, such as Tai Chi, yoga, religious practices, meditation, and for some, just going for walks in nature is their way to reconnect with spirit.
This is the same for everyone, and more so for people in leadership positions.
Those people who need to be strong to stand alone.
In other words, singers like you.
Remember, being a lead singer is a leadership role.
And often eagles fly alone.
Now, flying alone is a scary thing, and this is a great segue to talk about performance fears.
Stage fright and pre-show nerves is where our worries can get the best of all of us, because we do develop patterns that are literally wired into our brains.
And fear isn't something that you can think your way through.
And it's not something to be ashamed of either
Let's have a look at these fearful states through the lens of polyvagal theory.
Simply put, we have four main fear states: fight, flight, freeze, and shut down.
Each involves different nervous systems; sometimes they're teaming up.
Fight or flight is the sympathetic nervous system that revs you up and makes you ready to escape or confront the danger.
The freeze state is where the sympathetic and dorsal vagal systems combine to make muscles rigid and totally still.
The shut-down state is the dorsal vagal, which powers you down when you're overwhelmed.
It's like playing dead when you're fighting against a bear.
Normally, that system needs digestion and a sense of calm.
So how do we move from these fearful states when we need to perform?
The ventral vagal pathway is the system of safety, and generally, the way to tone and exercise this system is to learn the actions that create a state of safety and to do them every day.
This is a huge topic, and there are so many ways to tone our ventral vagal pathway, and heal our physical and mental health.
For singers and music lovers, this is actually very easy because the act of singing every day, playing music and dancing is one of the best ways to exercise and tone the ventral vagal system.
And when our nervous system activates this safe pathway, this will serve to regulate our connection with people.
In fact, other people are co-regulating emotions with you when we talk face-to-face.
When we're dancing in a social setting with others or when we're playing with a band, it's all in neural exercise.
A sense of safety in our system also allows us to be intimate emotionally and physically with others, and that is linked to storytelling that is more authentic and heartfelt.
What the science is telling us is something we already know, that connection is what life is about.
In fact, for human beings, for your audience, connection is a physiological imperative.
It is critical to our survival and our bodies.
Your body is designed for connection.
And for this reason, we can know as a scientific fact that the audience is already on your side.
The audience does not want a negative experience.
They want to exactly what you want.
They want social engagement, they want to play, they want intimacy.
And as a singer, as an artist, you fulfil those needs.
If you show up safely, the audience will co-regulate with you and support you .
Ultimately, we can reconcile with one person to understand the whole crowd, and that person is you.
As a singer, we are not performing to a faceless mob.
We are performing for one person at a time.
We only need to find one person, one face in the audience to connect with.
The others will see that connection and bring it into their experience naturally.
And this works because, as you now know, all those single neural systems are networking with each other.
Literally and physically, this is what makes YOU a vibe.
Thanks for joining me today, everyone.
If you're feeling really science-y, please check out the show notes for some links to more research and also check out my article on stage fright and my free Stage Fright Mind Map.
I hope you can join me for the last and final podcast of this series, where we pull all of this together to set you up for successful planning of your singing goals.
Bye for now. See you soon!
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Neuroplasticity & Whole-Brain Music Engagement
- Koelsch, S. (2014).Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(3), 170–180. DOI: 10.1038/nrn3666(fMRI evidence for multi-region activation in emotion/reward during music.)
- Zatorre, R. J., & Salimpoor, V. N. (2013).From perception to pleasure: Music and its neural substrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(Suppl 2), 10430–10437. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1301228110(Whole-brain integration of auditory-motor-reward circuits in musical pleasure.)
- Hove, M. J., & Risen, J. L. (2009).It’s all in the timing: Interpersonal synchrony increases affiliation. Social Cognition, 27(6), 949–961. DOI: 10.1521/soco.2009.27.6.949(Synchronization in music/dance boosts oxytocin and group bonding.)
- Hebb, D. O. (1949).The Organization of Behavior. Wiley. (Revisited in modern contexts like Herholz et al., 2011, for music-induced plasticity.) (“Cells that fire together wire together”—enhanced by multi-circuit music engagement.)
Polyvagal Theory Breakdown
- Porges, S. W. (2017).The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe. W. W. Norton & Company. (Sympathetic/dorsal/ventral vagal states; music as vagal toning tool.)
- Porges, S. W. (2021). (Updates in Frontiers in Psychology and related works, e.g., on vocalization stimulating vagus via laryngeal branches.) (Singing/humming directly activates ventral vagal pathway for safety/co-regulation.)
Social Contagion & Music’s Dark Side
- Anderson, C. A., Carnagey, N. L., & Eubanks, J. (2003).Exposure to violent media: The effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(5), 960–971. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.960(Violent lyrics prime aggression via associative networks.)
- Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993).Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2(3), 96–99. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770953(Crowd emotions spread via mimicry, amplified in music/ritual settings.)
Audience Wants Connection (Physiological Imperative)
- Tarr, B., Launay, J., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2014).Music and social bonding: “Self-other” merging and neurohormonal mechanisms. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1096. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01096(Group music releases endorphins/oxytocin for bonding; evolutionary survival edge.)
- Dunbar, R. I. M. (2010).The social role of touch and physical contact in humans and primates: Behavioural function and neurobiological mechanisms. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 34(2), 260–268. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.07.001 (Extended to music in 2012/2014 works.) (Music as evolved “grooming” for large-group cohesion.)
- Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004).The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169–192. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144230(Audience mirrors performer’s emotions/actions for innate connection.)