Unnerved
close menu
Bookswagon
search
My Account
Home > Art, Film & Photography > General > Music > Techniques of music / music tutorials > Unnerved: The Performer's Guide to Managing Anxiety
Unnerved: The Performer's Guide to Managing Anxiety

Unnerved: The Performer's Guide to Managing Anxiety


     0     
5
4
3
2
1



International Edition


X
About the Book

A relatable and practical roadmap for combating each performer’s unique brand of performance anxiety by discovering and managing root emotional drivers—this resource is designed to uncover what makes each individual performer “tick.”

Melissa M. Plamann provides an engaging and humorous book, chock-full of data, for anyone who experiences performance anxiety in any performing arts discipline at any age. After defining “performance anxiety” and exploring the fight-flight-freeze response, she examines treatment options, including medication and several types of therapy. Utilizing the Enneagram system as a tool to define personal drivers for anxiety, she examines fear, shame, and anger, and then suggests how performers can address and manage their unique brand of performance anxiety based on these emotional reflexes. Chapters deal with myriad other elements impacting performance anxiety, including the mind-body connection, suggesting that emotional turmoil and stress cause physical ailments and exacerbate the somatic expressions of anxiety. Also addressed are miscellaneous issues that predispose performers to increased anxiety: educational settings, hierarchical relationships, hormonal shifts, gender, and even the pandemic. Finally, she offers practice and performance strategies designed to prevent and interrupt performance anxiety when it attacks.

This book offers practical advice and insight for performers, gleaned from the author’s lifetime of personal performance as well as hundreds of interactions with students navigating their own performance anxiety.



Table of Contents:

Prologue. It’s Complicated
1. The Problem: Anatomy of Performance Anxiety
2. Help: Medication, Therapy, and Other Options
3. Solid Ground: The Enneagram
4. Shame: The Feeling Triad (Helpers, Achievers, and Individualists)
5. Fear: The Thinking Triad (Investigators, Loyalists, and Enthusiasts)
6. Anger: The Doing Triad (Reformers, Challengers, and Peacemakers)
7. Nine Lives: Performance Anxiety and The Enneagram
8. Letting Go: The Mind-Body Connection
9. Why Me?: Cultural Baggage Impacting Anxiety
10. Assembling the Toolkit: Preparation and Performance
Epilogue. It’s Still Complicated.
Acknowledgements
References
Index



About the Author :
Melissa Plamann is the Wanda L. Bass Chair of Organ and Professor of Music at Oklahoma City University, USA. She is an avid performer and lifelong sufferer of performance anxiety. Through nearly two decades of coaching collegiate musicians, she has developed a system to help performers identify the root emotional driver of their anxiety and learn to manage it effectively.

Review :
Unnerved is the book every performer, educator, and artistic soul has been waiting for. With rare honesty and generous insight, Melissa M. Plamann replaces shame with understanding, and fear with practical, compassionate tools. This isn’t just a guide – it’s a lifeline. Plamann has written the most human, intelligent, and genuinely helpful book I’ve read on performance anxiety. This book might not only help you reclaim your voice – it may restore your relationship with the art you love. Public speaking. Boardroom pitches. Center stage. If the thought of all eyes on you makes your stomach flip, Unnerved is the performance anxiety manual you didn’t know you needed. Melissa M. Plamann writes with humor, heart, and zero tolerance for shame – helping musicians, sure, but also leaders, speakers, and anyone-with-a-pulse own their moment.


Best Sellers


Product Details
  • ISBN-13: 9798216366331
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
  • Publisher Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
  • Height: 229 mm
  • No of Pages: 176
  • Width: 152 mm
  • ISBN-10: 8216366337
  • Publisher Date: 19 Mar 2026
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Language: English
  • Sub Title: The Performer's Guide to Managing Anxiety


Similar Products

Add Photo
Add Photo

Customer Reviews

REVIEWS      0     
Click Here To Be The First to Review this Product
Unnerved: The Performer's Guide to Managing Anxiety
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC -
Unnerved: The Performer's Guide to Managing Anxiety
Writing guidlines
We want to publish your review, so please:
  • keep your review on the product. Review's that defame author's character will be rejected.
  • Keep your review focused on the product.
  • Avoid writing about customer service. contact us instead if you have issue requiring immediate attention.
  • Refrain from mentioning competitors or the specific price you paid for the product.
  • Do not include any personally identifiable information, such as full names.

Unnerved: The Performer's Guide to Managing Anxiety

Required fields are marked with *

Review Title*
Review
    Add Photo Add up to 6 photos
    Would you recommend this product to a friend?
    Tag this Book Read more
    Does your review contain spoilers?
    What type of reader best describes you?
    I agree to the terms & conditions
    You may receive emails regarding this submission. Any emails will include the ability to opt-out of future communications.

    CUSTOMER RATINGS AND REVIEWS AND QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TERMS OF USE

    These Terms of Use govern your conduct associated with the Customer Ratings and Reviews and/or Questions and Answers service offered by Bookswagon (the "CRR Service").


    By submitting any content to Bookswagon, you guarantee that:
    • You are the sole author and owner of the intellectual property rights in the content;
    • All "moral rights" that you may have in such content have been voluntarily waived by you;
    • All content that you post is accurate;
    • You are at least 13 years old;
    • Use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity.
    You further agree that you may not submit any content:
    • That is known by you to be false, inaccurate or misleading;
    • That infringes any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy;
    • That violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising);
    • That is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any individual, partnership or corporation;
    • For which you were compensated or granted any consideration by any unapproved third party;
    • That includes any information that references other websites, addresses, email addresses, contact information or phone numbers;
    • That contains any computer viruses, worms or other potentially damaging computer programs or files.
    You agree to indemnify and hold Bookswagon (and its officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures, employees and third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.), harmless from all claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of a breach of your representations and warranties set forth above, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.


    For any content that you submit, you grant Bookswagon a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell, transfer, and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. Additionally,  Bookswagon may transfer or share any personal information that you submit with its third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc. in accordance with  Privacy Policy


    All content that you submit may be used at Bookswagon's sole discretion. Bookswagon reserves the right to change, condense, withhold publication, remove or delete any content on Bookswagon's website that Bookswagon deems, in its sole discretion, to violate the content guidelines or any other provision of these Terms of Use.  Bookswagon does not guarantee that you will have any recourse through Bookswagon to edit or delete any content you have submitted. Ratings and written comments are generally posted within two to four business days. However, Bookswagon reserves the right to remove or to refuse to post any submission to the extent authorized by law. You acknowledge that you, not Bookswagon, are responsible for the contents of your submission. None of the content that you submit shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on the part of Bookswagon, its agents, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners or third party service providers (including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.)and their respective directors, officers and employees.

    Accept

    Fresh on the Shelf


    Inspired by your browsing history


    Your review has been submitted!

    You've already reviewed this product!
    Your IP: 216.73.216.220 IN