Beyond Practise: The Key to Confidence in Musical Performance

When embarking on a new learning journey—whether it’s mastering an instrument or improving your singing—we often wonder how long it will take to become proficient.

The answer varies. It depends on your performance goals, the complexity of the instrument, and the time and resources you can dedicate to the process.

But you already knew that.

You know that developing technique is a process.

Now, if you’re someone who gets nervous when performing in front of an audience, you might be looking to build confidence and enhance your stage presence.

Many of my clients are surprised to learn that stage confidence cannot be mastered the day before—or on the day of—a performance.

And here’s where it gets a little tricky: you may need to practise mental technique alongside your instrument technique.

Yes, you read that right.

Not as something to address at the very end of your preparation and rehearsal process, but as an integral part of your learning—because as your body undergoes motor and somatic learning, your mind is learning too.

Why does this matter? Because it’s possible to train fear into your system by associating a particular thought with the music you are learning to play or sing.

For instance, imagine you’re preparing for an audition. Instead of focusing on musicality, you find yourself dwelling on past auditions where you weren’t selected. You become fixated on avoiding mistakes at all costs. The moment you slip up, you panic. One difficult section starts to feel like an insurmountable obstacle. Instead of working through it, you obsess over it.

Sound familiar?

If you’re prone to performance anxiety, post-performance rumination, or excessive worry, rather than resorting to frantic over-practising and hoping for the best, perhaps it’s time to start addressing those inner thought-bullies.

Which brings us back to the question: how long does it take to develop mental technique?

Research studies on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Acceptance and Commitment Coaching (ACC) show that it takes anywhere between six to eight weeks of coaching to start seeing behavioural changes. Even more interestingly, these changes continue to strengthen over the following months and become even more ingrained after a year!

Pretty cool, right? It is not that long before you begin to see changes. The important thing would be to start learning these strategies well ahead of your performance.

Because musical technique and mental performance technique are, essentially, two sides of the same coin.