full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Joe Kowan: How I beat stage fright

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So then it was my turn, and somehow, I get myself onto the stage, I srtat my song, I open my mouth to sing the first line, and this completely horrible vibrato — you know, when your voice wavers — comes siaernmtg out. And this is not the good kind of vrtbiao, like an oepra singer has, this is my whole body just convulsing with fear. I mean, it's a nrahtigme. I'm embarrassed, the audience is clearly uormnfltcobae, they're focused on my discomfort. It was so bad. But that was my first real experience as a solo singer-songwriter.

And something good did happen — I had the tiniest little glimpse of that audience connection that I was hoping for. And I wanted more. But I knew I had to get past this nervousness.

Open Cloze


So then it was my turn, and somehow, I get myself onto the stage, I _____ my song, I open my mouth to sing the first line, and this completely horrible vibrato — you know, when your voice wavers — comes _________ out. And this is not the good kind of _______, like an _____ singer has, this is my whole body just convulsing with fear. I mean, it's a _________. I'm embarrassed, the audience is clearly _____________, they're focused on my discomfort. It was so bad. But that was my first real experience as a solo singer-songwriter.

And something good did happen — I had the tiniest little glimpse of that audience connection that I was hoping for. And I wanted more. But I knew I had to get past this nervousness.

Solution


  1. vibrato
  2. start
  3. streaming
  4. opera
  5. uncomfortable
  6. nightmare

Original Text


So then it was my turn, and somehow, I get myself onto the stage, I start my song, I open my mouth to sing the first line, and this completely horrible vibrato — you know, when your voice wavers — comes streaming out. And this is not the good kind of vibrato, like an opera singer has, this is my whole body just convulsing with fear. I mean, it's a nightmare. I'm embarrassed, the audience is clearly uncomfortable, they're focused on my discomfort. It was so bad. But that was my first real experience as a solo singer-songwriter.

And something good did happen — I had the tiniest little glimpse of that audience connection that I was hoping for. And I wanted more. But I knew I had to get past this nervousness.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
stage fright 6
fright song 3
started writing 2
nervous system 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
stage fright song 3

Important Words


  1. audience
  2. bad
  3. body
  4. completely
  5. connection
  6. convulsing
  7. discomfort
  8. embarrassed
  9. experience
  10. fear
  11. focused
  12. glimpse
  13. good
  14. happen
  15. hoping
  16. horrible
  17. kind
  18. knew
  19. line
  20. mouth
  21. nervousness
  22. nightmare
  23. open
  24. opera
  25. real
  26. sing
  27. singer
  28. solo
  29. song
  30. stage
  31. start
  32. streaming
  33. tiniest
  34. turn
  35. uncomfortable
  36. vibrato
  37. voice
  38. wanted
  39. wavers