Why do they look confident

The Confidence Minute: Leading Up to Performance

What Makes Some Performers Look So Confident?

We all know the performer.

They walk onto the stage looking composed. They settle themselves, begin confidently and seem completely comfortable in front of an audience.

It's easy for a student watching them to think:

"They're naturally confident."

Or perhaps:

"I could never do that."

But what if the confident performer is nervous too?

One of the biggest misconceptions about performance confidence is that confident performers simply don't experience nerves. After more than 35 years of teaching and examining performances, I've seen something quite different.

Confident performers aren't necessarily the performers who feel the least nervous.

Often, they're the ones who have learned how to respond when nerves appear.

1. They expect some nerves

A confident performer isn't necessarily surprised by a racing heart, butterflies or nervous thoughts.

They understand that their body may respond when something important is about to happen.

Instead of immediately thinking, "Something's wrong," they can recognise:

"I'm nervous. That's okay. I can still perform."

That small change in interpretation can make a significant difference.

Key idea: Confidence isn't always feeling calm. Sometimes it's knowing what to do when you don't.

2. They don't need everything to be perfect

Students who believe a good performance must be mistake-free place enormous pressure on themselves.

Confident performers understand that mistakes can happen. (Even professional musicians make mistakes)!

More importantly, they've practised what to do next.

Instead of allowing one mistake to define the rest of the performance, they reconnect with the music and continue.

That's why Performance Experiments are so valuable. They give students opportunities to practise recovering rather than always stopping, correcting and starting again.

Key idea: Confidence isn't knowing that nothing will go wrong. It's knowing you can respond if something does.

3. Their attention is on the performance, not themselves

When we're nervous, our attention can turn inwards.

"Are my hands shaking?"

"Do I look nervous?"

"What is the examiner thinking?"

"Was that note wrong?"

Confident performers learn to bring their attention back to their performance intention.

What am I communicating?

What sound am I creating?

Where is this phrase going?

What does this music need from me?

The focus shifts from "How am I doing?" to "What am I doing?"

4. They've practised being a performer

Playing your repertoire and performing your repertoire aren't quite the same thing.

A student can know every note and still feel completely different when an audience, examiner or assessment is added.

Confident performers have usually had opportunities to experience that difference.

They've performed.

They've experimented.

They've made mistakes.

They've recovered.

They've discovered what happens to their thinking and their body under pressure—and they've developed strategies that help.

Performance confidence is a skill, and skills improve through practice.

5. They have something to fall back on

When nerves appear, confident performers don't have to invent a solution on the spot.

They may have a familiar way of breathing, a thought that redirects their attention, a performance intention or a routine they use before beginning.

The specific strategy matters less than having practised it before it is needed.

This is why simply telling a student to "relax" or "be confident" immediately before an exam rarely gives them what they need.

Students need practical tools—and opportunities to learn how to use them.

Could this be learned?

Absolutely.

Some students may naturally appear more comfortable in front of others, but that doesn't mean performance confidence belongs only to them.

Students can learn to recognise their thinking patterns.

They can practise performing under pressure.

They can learn to recover.

They can experiment with strategies.

And gradually they can discover what helps them perform with greater calm, clarity and enjoyment.

For teachers, that means performance confidence can become part of exam preparation rather than something we simply hope a student has developed by exam day.

Want to practise this before your performance?

With end-of-year performance exams approaching, I'm preparing live Performance Confidence workshops for students, available face-to-face and online.

Rather than simply talking about nerves, we'll work practically with some of the skills students can use before and during performance—including thinking patterns, Performance Experiments, responding when things don't go to plan and developing strategies that work for the individual performer.

Teachers, this can also be an opportunity to give your students focused preparation for the part of performance that can be difficult to reproduce in an ordinary lesson.

Because knowing the music is important.

Learning how to access what you know when you're under pressure is another skill altogether.