How I overcame my stage fright (Operation: We are The Open Mic)

20 % of the payout for this post will go directly to @openmic as a part of the initiative "Operation: We are The Open Mic" by @meno

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Hey.

You might not believe me when I’m telling you this, but it wasn’t long ago I was suffering from such a terrible stage fright that I had a hard time playing my songs in front of my own wife.

Sure, I had several times played for my friends at parties and so on, but always with at least 4-5 drinks supporting my, at that time, quite bad self-esteem.

But, in October 2016 when I decided I wanted to make a living as a musician, I also realized that I also need to get out of my comfort zone and start playing in front of people, even without the support of intoxication.

I also thought doing a gig online would be a good first step so I didn’t have to actually face real people, and said and done, April 14th 2017 I made my first Facebook Live concert via my Facebook-page. Recorded with my phone and in general quite shaky quality, but it was a great experience and gave me the confidence I needed to keep going.

And the 19th of May I made my premiere at a live stage, at the pub Southside in Stockholm. And damn I was nervous, but well at the stage (blended by the spotlights) I forgot all about being nervous and it felt like I had done it 100s of times before.

And one thing led to another, two more gigs in Stockholm in a few weeks and then I went so far outside my own comfort zone as to the other side of the Northern Sea and spent one week in August in the UK traveling around, meeting people I only chatted with on Facebook or Twitter and playing no less than six gigs at various locations. (Read all about the UK tour here)

So, in conclusion, I was able to overcome my stage fright even though it took me 31 years. I won’t say it was easy, because it wasn’t. But really the only way to overcome it is to get up on that stage and hopefully you will fall in love with it as much as I did.

However at the moment, with a little kid in the house, going away to play gigs is a bit too time consuming. But that’s why I love the new technology with live streaming. Since my first concert I became a much more skilled performer but also upgraded my studio to be able to actually offer a really decent sound and video quality.

And this Friday I’m doing a live streamed concert on my Facebook Page to celebrate the release of my new EP “Acoustic Dreams” and it’s going to be a lot of fun. So check out the event and attend it so you don’t risk missing out. 7 pm (UTC+2) Swedish Time I’ll go on “stage”.

And until tonight the 30th of May you still have the chance to pre-order your digital copy of the EP and get your name in the booklet, so no time to loose, check it out right now in my store.

Take care and hopefully see you Friday!


Follow Jon Magnusson on


Eclectic Indie Rock/Folk musician from Sweden

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Great work you are doing over there weldon

Thank you very much :)

Hello @jonmagnusson, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!

Thank you very much folks!

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