Stage Fright: its Causes and Cures, with Special Reference to Violin Playing

Kato Havas was a child prodigy on the violin and played in front of Kodaly and Bartok at the age of fourteen - she therefore knows a lot about stage fright! This book addresses the causes of stage fright and tackles them with a series of exercises.

"Dear Kato Havas:
I would like to write you a second fan letter, as I believe I have already done so some years ago, to congratulate you on your book 'Stage Fright'. It is the most realistic and practical approach imaginable. It stresses the real reasons and not the false ones, and gives in the most honest and lucid form the essential requirements of violin technique, violin playing and music making. It is a book that should be worth its weight in gold to every student and many a performer."
(Yehudi Menuhin)

CONTENIDO:

Introduction

I. A general survey
1. The shame attached to stage fright
2. The symptoms of stage fright
-What is anxiety?
3. Artist-audience relationship

II. The Hungarian Gypsy violinist

III. The physical aspects of stage fright
1. The fear of dropping the violin
-Causes and cures
-Exercises
2. The fear of the trembling bowing arm
-Causes and cures
-Exercises
-The strokes: Exercises
3. The fear of being out of tune
-Causes and cures
-Exercises
-The fourth finger: Exercises
4. The fear of high positions and shifts
-Causes and cures
-High positions: Exercises
-Shifts: Exercises

IV. The mental aspects of stage fright
1. The fear of not being loud enough
-Causes and cures
-Hearing: Exercises
-Listening: Exercises
2. The fear of not being fast enough
-Causes and cures
-Exercises
3. The fear of memory lapse
-Causes and cures
-Exercises
4. The power of words
5. The power of imagination

V. The social aspects of stage fright
1. The fear of not being good enogh
-Causes and cures

VI. Conclusion
1. The art of practising
2. Suggestions for examinations, auditions, competitions, performances
3. The salient points in practising