每個歌手都懂那種一刻，就在深吸第一口氣前，心跳突然加速，舌頭變得笨重，嘴巴乾澀，腦袋的噪音蓋過了音樂。聲音終於出來了，或許穩穩的，或許微微發抖。有些人感受到的更強烈：聲音搖晃，熟悉的歌詞瞬間忘光，心臟狂跳到以為要停擺，一堆身體和情緒的感覺攪在一起，讓表演出不來味兒。很多人馬上想，「我沒準備好、不夠格、該更勇敢點」，但其實抖的往往不是技巧，而是生理反應、情感真實，以及在眾人面前赤裸裸做自己的必然。
音樂表演焦慮是甚麼？
音樂表演焦慮（MPA）不是害羞或多想，更不是無能，而是生物、記憶、呼吸、自我認同和害怕被評判的交會點。身體進入高度警戒，卻得保持開放、精準表達，尤其是歌手，樂器就是自己的身體——呼吸、喉部、舌頭、心率全得同步，沒法分開。器樂手還能躲在琴後，歌手卻完全暴露，沒邊界可藏。
社會常期待表演者特別是男人天生自信，「真男人不會抖」；女人則得優雅從容，情感有但不能失控。這些刻板印象讓焦慮變成個人失敗，但其實誰都可能中招，很多人暗想「這樣我就夠格了」，可焦慮本來就不講道理。
焦慮可能讓腦袋空白、眼神閃躲、手腳不安，還帶來心跳亂竄、呼吸卡住、出汗等生理變化。身體加速狂奔，腦子想逃，聲音卻得穩住，這悖論讓「放輕鬆」聽來不只沒用，還挺殘忍。更實在的問題是：怎麼應對，還能好好表演？
工作室的真實觀察
過去十年在亞洲教聲樂，包括香港演藝學院，看到排練無敵的歌手上台變細聲，還有外表無畏卻內心煎熬的。英國聲樂教育碩士期間的研究顯示，焦慮不跟技巧成正比，多練不一定減恐，身體訓練無法根治，但能改變影響——姿勢和專注讓內心焦慮不那麼明顯。
轉變心態的方式
別問「怎麼擺脫」，問「怎麼帶著它表演」。專注故事而非自己，給觀眾情感；用擴張姿勢當容器，讓焦慮少露痕迹；設小目標如準確第一句、第一個母音；模擬真實狀態排練，讓聲音習慣腎上腺素。這不治本，但讓你功能正常地上台。腎上腺素不是敵人，是讓現場獨一無二的燃料，問題在你怎麼跟它相處。
聲音抖時，記住：你沒壞掉，不孤單，這是人性證明，你活在關鍵時刻裡。
---
When the Heart Makes the Voice Shake: What We Get Wrong About Performance Anxiety
Your voice doesn’t tremble because you are weak. It trembles because you are human.
There is a moment every singer knows.
A second before the first breath: the heartbeat jumps, the tongue feels thicker, the mouth drier, the mind suddenly louder than the music. And then the sound comes out. Maybe steady. Maybe trembling.
For some, this moment is more intense than for others. Their voice shakes, they forget lyrics they know perfectly well, their heart races so fast they fear it might “stop”: a storm of sensations that can feel physical, emotional, or both. Maybe someone faces all these sensations. Maybe only one. Either way, something is interfering with performance.
When the heart makes the voice shake, most of us assume something is wrong:
I’m not ready.
I’m not good enough.
I should be braver by now.
But often, what is shaking is not technique.
It is physiology.
It is emotion.
It is the unavoidable reality of being a body in front of other bodies.
This is Music Performance Anxiety (MPA), a real condition that can be described, assessed, and studied. The good news? Research is growing, and so are the strategies to manage it.
------------------------------------------------------------
What Music Performance Anxiety actually is
Music Performance Anxiety is where biology, memory, breath, identity, and fear of judgment intersect.
It is not “shyness”. It is not simply “overthinking”. And it is definitely not incompetence.
At its core, MPA is the body entering a high-alert state while the performer is expected to remain open, expressive, and precise.
For singers this is even more intense, because the instrument is not external. The instrument is the body.
Breath, larynx, tongue coordination, heart rate: everything performs at once.
There is no real border between singer and sound.
Instrumentalists can sometimes hide behind their instrument. Singers never can.
------------------------------------------------------------
A toxic idea we need to let go
There is a cultural expectation that performers, especially men, should be “naturally confident”.
Toxic masculinity does not always shout. Sometimes it whispers:
“Real men don’t shake.”
“If you were strong, your voice would stay still.”
Women face a different expectation: to be effortlessly composed, emotional but never overwhelmed; expressive but never unstable; powerful but never “too much”.
Both narratives are false.
And both can make performers feel like anxiety is a personal failure.
In reality, anyone can experience MPA.
And almost everyone, at some point, thinks:
“If I feel like this, it means I’m not good enough.”
But that is not how anxiety works.
------------------------------------------------------------
How it shows up
MPA can manifest cognitively (blanking, losing the thread), behaviorally (averting gaze, fidgeting), and physiologically (heart rate instability, breath issues, sweating). It creates a paradox:
• The body accelerates
• The mind tries to slow down or escape
• The voice is asked to stay steady, and sometimes it simply cannot
The nervous system signals danger, while the stage demands emotional availability.
This is why “just relax” is not just unhelpful; it can feel cruel.
A more useful question is:
How can I cope with this and still perform?
------------------------------------------------------------
What I have seen in the studio
Over the last decade teaching voice across Asia, including at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), I have met singers who sounded unstoppable in rehearsal, and then fell to a whisper in performance.
And perhaps even more revealing, I have met performers who looked fearless on stage, and later confessed that they were “dying inside” the entire time.
While studying in the Master of Arts in Voice Pedagogy (UWTSD, UK), I conducted a study on MPA in singers of different genres. It was a mind-opening project that helped me clarify some key points and dismantle several misconceptions:
• Anxiety did not always match skill level
• More training did not always reduce fear
• The body sometimes managed anxiety better than the mind
• Physical training (acting, movement, posture) did not “cure” MPA, but it often changed its impact on stage
Even when the internal storm was intense, posture and focus strategies helped some performers look and sound more grounded.
That matters, because MPA is not only felt. It is seen and heard.
And while not everyone can “cure” it, many can learn to work with it, or at least make it less visible.
------------------------------------------------------------
The biggest misunderstanding
When their voice trembles, many singers think:
“I didn’t prepare enough.”
“I shouldn’t be here.”
“Everyone will notice.”
“It’s only me.”
All four are often wrong.
Preparation cannot erase adrenaline.
And adrenaline is not the enemy; it is fuel.
It is the electricity that makes live music unrepeatable.
The problem is not the adrenaline.
It is the relationship with it.
------------------------------------------------------------
A more compassionate way to understand the shake
Instead of asking:
“How do I get rid of this?”
Try:
“How do I perform with this?”
Some starting points:
Serve the story, not the self
Performing is a mission. The mission to tell a story and give emotions to the audience.
Do not perform yourself. Perform the message.
Shift the focus from how you feel to what you want the audience to feel.
Posture as a container
Research has identified low power (contractive) and high power (expansive) postures, and shows they can influence emotional state and how visible symptoms appear.
Posture will not erase MPA, but it can change how visible it is. Sometimes the anxiety stays, but the audience sees less of it.
Use expansive posture: open your body, take space. Not to fake confidence, but to give the nervous system a new reference.
Give yourself something to do: micro-goals
Not “sing this perfectly”.
Not “everyone will see that I am a failure.”
But: “Place the first phrase. Paint the first vowel. Breathe on time.”
Focus on what you need to do, not on how you feel.
Rehearse the state, not just the song
Rehearse the conditions: lights, shoes, space, recording.
Let the voice learn what adrenaline feels like.
None of this fixes MPA.
But it can make you functional in its presence.
------------------------------------------------------------
If your voice shakes, here is what you need to know
You are not broken.
You are not alone.
Your voice is not betraying you: it is reporting your humanity, which is the most precious gift for a performer.
The heart and the voice are connected.
Not metaphorically. Physically.
When the heart makes the voice shake, it is not always a sign to stop.
Sometimes, it is proof that you are alive in the moment that matters.
------------------------------------------------------------
Acknowledgments
My understanding of MPA has been profoundly shaped by the work of Dr. David Juncos and Debbie Winter, whose research, teaching, and generosity have guided me more than they know.
About the author
Adjunct Professor in Performing Arts Medicine (Università Niccolò Cusano) and EMCI–TPSD (Estill Mentor & Course Instructor, Testing Privileges and Service Distinction), Francesco works at the intersection of vocal science, pedagogy, and performance psychology. He has trained performers from Tokyo to New York, coached artists from Broadway to K-pop, and teaches Estill Voice Training in seven languages. Appointed by Estill Voice International as the Chairman of the 2027 Estill World Voice Symposium in Hong Kong, the first to be hosted in Asia, he is shaping a new chapter in global voice education.
資料來源：men'reads
本文由《men'reads》授權報導，未經同意禁止轉載。
音樂表演焦慮是甚麼？
音樂表演焦慮（MPA）不是害羞或多想，更不是無能，而是生物、記憶、呼吸、自我認同和害怕被評判的交會點。身體進入高度警戒，卻得保持開放、精準表達，尤其是歌手，樂器就是自己的身體——呼吸、喉部、舌頭、心率全得同步，沒法分開。器樂手還能躲在琴後，歌手卻完全暴露，沒邊界可藏。
社會常期待表演者特別是男人天生自信，「真男人不會抖」；女人則得優雅從容，情感有但不能失控。這些刻板印象讓焦慮變成個人失敗，但其實誰都可能中招，很多人暗想「這樣我就夠格了」，可焦慮本來就不講道理。
焦慮可能讓腦袋空白、眼神閃躲、手腳不安，還帶來心跳亂竄、呼吸卡住、出汗等生理變化。身體加速狂奔，腦子想逃，聲音卻得穩住，這悖論讓「放輕鬆」聽來不只沒用，還挺殘忍。更實在的問題是：怎麼應對，還能好好表演？
工作室的真實觀察
過去十年在亞洲教聲樂，包括香港演藝學院，看到排練無敵的歌手上台變細聲，還有外表無畏卻內心煎熬的。英國聲樂教育碩士期間的研究顯示，焦慮不跟技巧成正比，多練不一定減恐，身體訓練無法根治，但能改變影響——姿勢和專注讓內心焦慮不那麼明顯。
轉變心態的方式
別問「怎麼擺脫」，問「怎麼帶著它表演」。專注故事而非自己，給觀眾情感；用擴張姿勢當容器，讓焦慮少露痕迹；設小目標如準確第一句、第一個母音；模擬真實狀態排練，讓聲音習慣腎上腺素。這不治本，但讓你功能正常地上台。腎上腺素不是敵人，是讓現場獨一無二的燃料，問題在你怎麼跟它相處。
聲音抖時，記住：你沒壞掉，不孤單，這是人性證明，你活在關鍵時刻裡。
---
When the Heart Makes the Voice Shake: What We Get Wrong About Performance Anxiety
Your voice doesn’t tremble because you are weak. It trembles because you are human.
There is a moment every singer knows.
A second before the first breath: the heartbeat jumps, the tongue feels thicker, the mouth drier, the mind suddenly louder than the music. And then the sound comes out. Maybe steady. Maybe trembling.
For some, this moment is more intense than for others. Their voice shakes, they forget lyrics they know perfectly well, their heart races so fast they fear it might “stop”: a storm of sensations that can feel physical, emotional, or both. Maybe someone faces all these sensations. Maybe only one. Either way, something is interfering with performance.
When the heart makes the voice shake, most of us assume something is wrong:
I’m not ready.
I’m not good enough.
I should be braver by now.
But often, what is shaking is not technique.
It is physiology.
It is emotion.
It is the unavoidable reality of being a body in front of other bodies.
This is Music Performance Anxiety (MPA), a real condition that can be described, assessed, and studied. The good news? Research is growing, and so are the strategies to manage it.
------------------------------------------------------------
What Music Performance Anxiety actually is
Music Performance Anxiety is where biology, memory, breath, identity, and fear of judgment intersect.
It is not “shyness”. It is not simply “overthinking”. And it is definitely not incompetence.
At its core, MPA is the body entering a high-alert state while the performer is expected to remain open, expressive, and precise.
For singers this is even more intense, because the instrument is not external. The instrument is the body.
Breath, larynx, tongue coordination, heart rate: everything performs at once.
There is no real border between singer and sound.
Instrumentalists can sometimes hide behind their instrument. Singers never can.
------------------------------------------------------------
A toxic idea we need to let go
There is a cultural expectation that performers, especially men, should be “naturally confident”.
Toxic masculinity does not always shout. Sometimes it whispers:
“Real men don’t shake.”
“If you were strong, your voice would stay still.”
Women face a different expectation: to be effortlessly composed, emotional but never overwhelmed; expressive but never unstable; powerful but never “too much”.
Both narratives are false.
And both can make performers feel like anxiety is a personal failure.
In reality, anyone can experience MPA.
And almost everyone, at some point, thinks:
“If I feel like this, it means I’m not good enough.”
But that is not how anxiety works.
------------------------------------------------------------
How it shows up
MPA can manifest cognitively (blanking, losing the thread), behaviorally (averting gaze, fidgeting), and physiologically (heart rate instability, breath issues, sweating). It creates a paradox:
• The body accelerates
• The mind tries to slow down or escape
• The voice is asked to stay steady, and sometimes it simply cannot
The nervous system signals danger, while the stage demands emotional availability.
This is why “just relax” is not just unhelpful; it can feel cruel.
A more useful question is:
How can I cope with this and still perform?
------------------------------------------------------------
What I have seen in the studio
Over the last decade teaching voice across Asia, including at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), I have met singers who sounded unstoppable in rehearsal, and then fell to a whisper in performance.
And perhaps even more revealing, I have met performers who looked fearless on stage, and later confessed that they were “dying inside” the entire time.
While studying in the Master of Arts in Voice Pedagogy (UWTSD, UK), I conducted a study on MPA in singers of different genres. It was a mind-opening project that helped me clarify some key points and dismantle several misconceptions:
• Anxiety did not always match skill level
• More training did not always reduce fear
• The body sometimes managed anxiety better than the mind
• Physical training (acting, movement, posture) did not “cure” MPA, but it often changed its impact on stage
Even when the internal storm was intense, posture and focus strategies helped some performers look and sound more grounded.
That matters, because MPA is not only felt. It is seen and heard.
And while not everyone can “cure” it, many can learn to work with it, or at least make it less visible.
------------------------------------------------------------
The biggest misunderstanding
When their voice trembles, many singers think:
“I didn’t prepare enough.”
“I shouldn’t be here.”
“Everyone will notice.”
“It’s only me.”
All four are often wrong.
Preparation cannot erase adrenaline.
And adrenaline is not the enemy; it is fuel.
It is the electricity that makes live music unrepeatable.
The problem is not the adrenaline.
It is the relationship with it.
------------------------------------------------------------
A more compassionate way to understand the shake
Instead of asking:
“How do I get rid of this?”
Try:
“How do I perform with this?”
Some starting points:
Serve the story, not the self
Performing is a mission. The mission to tell a story and give emotions to the audience.
Do not perform yourself. Perform the message.
Shift the focus from how you feel to what you want the audience to feel.
Posture as a container
Research has identified low power (contractive) and high power (expansive) postures, and shows they can influence emotional state and how visible symptoms appear.
Posture will not erase MPA, but it can change how visible it is. Sometimes the anxiety stays, but the audience sees less of it.
Use expansive posture: open your body, take space. Not to fake confidence, but to give the nervous system a new reference.
Give yourself something to do: micro-goals
Not “sing this perfectly”.
Not “everyone will see that I am a failure.”
But: “Place the first phrase. Paint the first vowel. Breathe on time.”
Focus on what you need to do, not on how you feel.
Rehearse the state, not just the song
Rehearse the conditions: lights, shoes, space, recording.
Let the voice learn what adrenaline feels like.
None of this fixes MPA.
But it can make you functional in its presence.
------------------------------------------------------------
If your voice shakes, here is what you need to know
You are not broken.
You are not alone.
Your voice is not betraying you: it is reporting your humanity, which is the most precious gift for a performer.
The heart and the voice are connected.
Not metaphorically. Physically.
When the heart makes the voice shake, it is not always a sign to stop.
Sometimes, it is proof that you are alive in the moment that matters.
------------------------------------------------------------
Acknowledgments
My understanding of MPA has been profoundly shaped by the work of Dr. David Juncos and Debbie Winter, whose research, teaching, and generosity have guided me more than they know.
About the author
Adjunct Professor in Performing Arts Medicine (Università Niccolò Cusano) and EMCI–TPSD (Estill Mentor & Course Instructor, Testing Privileges and Service Distinction), Francesco works at the intersection of vocal science, pedagogy, and performance psychology. He has trained performers from Tokyo to New York, coached artists from Broadway to K-pop, and teaches Estill Voice Training in seven languages. Appointed by Estill Voice International as the Chairman of the 2027 Estill World Voice Symposium in Hong Kong, the first to be hosted in Asia, he is shaping a new chapter in global voice education.
資料來源：men'reads
本文由《men'reads》授權報導，未經同意禁止轉載。
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