Lot's of great ideas here - speaking as one who will get up in front of festival crowds in a little over a month from now for a bunch of stage sets, 'n haven't been in front of a large crowd since last year's festival, 'n most of that material will be stuff I havn't done in a year... have to try the bannanas.. Will try to start practicing again this weekend... Gotta say that even when we were on stage a lot, we all got some stage fright (or just dumb-struck stupid at times!)'n screwed up, some nights several times.. The secret is certainly to ignore it.. unless it's too outrageous or funny (most are not, even if you feel they are).

Then you stop 'n usually mannage to say something silly about it, get a laugh or two, 'n re-start - or say we're going to do a different song. I also think ya gotta be ok w/the idea that ya might look foolish in front of a crowd. Sometime after we think we broke the Guinness Record for screwing up a stage set is when we get the largest group of folks coming up afterward expressing - very warmly - their appreciation, asking where we play regularly (we don't) & for tapes or CD's, etc.

I can be tired if I've practiced enough, maybe.. but I really think it helps to be as rested as practical.. Eat, but not too heavily or too soon before performing. If at all possible, particularly when you are new or perform only rarely, do the songs you both love best & feel good about in terms of skill level & have practiced; after a few songs, when you've loosened up a bit & feel (more nearly) relaxed, 'n the audience is responding well, try the tricker stuff. If at all possible, I try to start w/something easily strummed on guitar, or with simple flat-picking, rather than a finger-picking song or one I need to play Mandolin for.

About potassium & beta-blockers, etc... Most of the people I put on the usual spectrum of BP meds (including beta blockers) thank me for it.. Young dr's, particularly, are prone to take beta-blockers to calm themselves down before speaking in front of an audience of August Proffessors, (typical stage fright) as, for very many folks, they are extremely good for calming nerves & are sometimes excellent for people w/nervous disorders and some kinds of head aches, and yes they could be a problem for someone who needs an ablation procedure, but their overall benefit for folks who've had a heart attack is well shown by many many studies & that's why cardiologists are usually very assertive about reccomending at least a low dose of beta blocker for such patients.

Sometimes the dose is very critical.. Also for stage fright.. a dr friend at a meeting this week-end shared w/me abt a resident who took too much beta blocker accidently before a talk & kept falling down at the podium as though he was drunk. He's never lived it down & is still kidded abt it by friends, years later...

Gotta go practice for the festival - esp the mandolin & banjo - which I otherwise almost never play... (So why do I keep drooling over the many beautiful "F-style" mando's I see in musical instrument stores?? I already have several mandolins & play a perfectly nice soild-top Washburn.. Answer: I have the expanded version of "GAS" - guitar aquisition syndrome - to include Mandolins..)

Cheers, BK