Yes. You can start small and work your way up or just jump right in.

Offer to play for a friend or family member (or event). Having friends over for dinner? Play a tune. Over at a friend's house for dinner? Play a tune or two. These are low stakes, low pressure environments, generally speaking.

But, some people get nervous around friends and family and not nervous around strangers. Open mic events are good if this describes you.

The key is to try and find out what works for you, and keep going.

3 things that worked very well for me:
- Only do songs in a gig that you can fake your way out of a mistake: that is the basis for a relaxed performance (same as on a group context: you can get away with just about anything as long as the other guys continue playing - and the reason why classical music is harder: everyone knows the damn piece! )
- keep working on harder repertoire each day: the moment you get one of those new songs ready to play alone, you realize the previous hard ones are your new “fallback easy repertoire”
- during spring and summer take your instrument into a public place, turn your back on the passers by and play thru your repertoire. Do this as often as possible. In a few weeks the difference is colossal.

All of this hacks are designed for you to improve your entertainment skills and ease with public situations. Music comes right after that.


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Rick Danko from The Band addressed stage fright.
https://youtu.be/NZMfZe7OFFk?si=jwixt5c-EokreCXw

I think we also need to address off-stage fright.
My wife terrifies me