On Feb. 21, the Moorpark College music department held their fourth “Sonic Series” workshop titled “Using Your Nerves to Your Advantage,” where students took a deeper dive into the causes of nervousness and learned how to use this anxiety to improve overall performance.
The workshop, led by local psychotherapist and musician Shabnam Kalbasi, focused on the psychology of nervous habits and taught how to quantify a great performance to set an impression. This interactive workshop allowed students to better understand their nerves in preparation for future auditions or shows.
Kalbasi started the workshop by analyzing a quote by author Malcolm Gladwell stating, “The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.” She then shared an example of the meaning of the quote from a performer’s perspective.
“We focus so much on taking the nerves away, eradicating it,” Kalbasi shared. “Whereas, what if we were like, ‘Okay cool, I’m nervous!’”
Kalbasi then shared how her graduate school professor taught her that being nervous only shows that you care. She explained that when you care, it would propel you forward to embrace the nerves.
“When we go on stage, we kind of judge ourselves for what we did, what was good and what was bad,” Kalbasi said.
After discussing the psychology of nervousness, students were invited to form a circle for the next activity. Kalbasi then spoke about the importance of reading the room as a performer and remaining authentic in front of the audience. She noted the significance of mindfulness and its meaning.
“So, mindfulness is essentially trying to be as much present as you can,” Kalbasi explained. “What that means is you’re not fixated on the future, and you’re not fixated on the past and if intrusive thoughts come, you let them just kind of make a pit-stop in your brain; but you don’t let them stay there forever.”
To end the workshop, Kalbasi encouraged students to perform a mock audition to challenge themselves, embrace their nerves and change their narrative in responding to their nerves.
Amit Maish, a vocal performance major at Moorpark College, performed a mock audition and didn’t particularly feel nervous as he was able to work through it with Kalbasi. He shared what he learned in the interactive workshop.
“The workshop was broken up into the practical part of the end, and because I participated in that, I learned a lot about how I personally like, I need to be very natural,” Maish explained. “I always try to be more intentional with how I move, but it makes me feel kind of unnatural, so for me personally, like I need to be more natural.”
Maish spoke about how important it is to figure out what nerves mean for people and find a way to work around the bad parts and work with the good parts.
Taylor Jones, a vocal performance major at Moorpark College, felt better after performing her mock audition, as she was able to push herself to gain criticism and feedback in a positive way. Jones noted how the workshop was her favorite and spoke about what she learned from it.
“It reinstated to have more confidence and to show more of myself when performing, Jones said. “Normally I would ignore anything about mindfulness because I don’t normally get nervous pre-performance, it’s when I’m on the stage. I think I can utilize to be more mindful on the stage as an advantage.”
More information about Moorpark College’s music department can be found on their website.
