Performance Anxiety in Musicians and the Possible Ways to Treat It

At the start of my research, used the JSTOR database provided on the Ithaca College Library website to search for articles that I could use. It was somewhat difficult at first to find articles that were recent enough to be included in my paper, but after using the date range feature in the advanced search I was able to narrow my results to articles that were more recently written. I used keywords such as “music performance", “performance anxiety", “stage fright", and “musician health" to find appropriate articles for my research question.

After using JSTOR, I also used Google Scholar to search for sources. Through my search, I was able to find articles that described the level of anxiety that musicians feel based on several factors including type of performance, level of experience, and even techniques used by teachers/conductors. I also found articles that described the physical and mental effects that anxiety has on musicians and the effects that it has on performance quality, and several articles also described potential techniques to lessen the severity of performance anxiety.

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All of this information that I was able to piece together helped to paint a clearer picture of the pertinence that anxiety has in the lives of musicians, how it can negatively affect a musician's performance and health, and what can be done to stop anxiety from conflicting with the quality of performance and the musician's well- being. In the 2009 study “An Investigation into the Choral Singer's Experience of Music Performance Anxiety", which was published into the journal of Research in Music Education by Charlene Ryan and Nicholle Andrews, the researchers decided to survey members of seven semiprofessional choirs on their experiences with performance anxiety based on their performance history, their experiences with conductors, and the use of coping mechanisms or performance aids.

Their findings indicated that performance anxiety is a very common occurrence among musicians of all ages: in their study, fifty-seven percent of the participants reported feeling moderate levels of anxiety during at least half of their performances, and fifteen percent said that they experience anxiety frequently, with seven percent experiencing a high level of severity.

Certain factors had a significant effect on feelings of anxiety, and in particular solo performances were often rated as being more anxiety-inducing than ensemble performances. Levels of anxiety were typically only moderate rather than severe but that did not stop participants from feeling negatively towards the performance anxiety they had experienced; when asked whether anxiety had their life and possible music career in a negative way, twenty—six percent responded yes. From here I decided to direct my research to discover more specifically the effects that performance anxiety has on the performer. In the 2010 study, “Music performance anxiety in opera singers” by Claudia Spahn et al which was published in the journal Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, Spahn et al looked at the effect that music performance anxiety has on a performer's heart rate and blood pressure.

The participants of the study were seven opera singers and two instrumentalists, and their heart rates and blood pressure were measured using the Somnoscreen, which consists of a small box that is wire around the musician‘s waist and a measuring electrode and cable that are attached to the participants finger. The subjects also were given a questionnaire regarding their anxiety before and after their performance. In all the musicians, the heart rate and blood pressure were at its highest during the performance, and all who took the questionnaire reported higher anxiety levels before the performance than after. At this point, I wanted to learn more about what treatments and approaches are available to lessen performance anxiety. In the article ”Reducing Anxiety: Studio Strategies for Performing Salvation" which was published by Jessica M. Riley in the Music Educators Journal, Riley provides music educators with suggestions to help decrease performance anxiety in their students.

According to Riley, the relationship between student and music teacher is very important and has a large impact on a student‘s comfort during performances, and that fostering a comforting and non-judgmental environment in the studio can be extremely beneficial to students who suffer from anxiety. She suggests the use of positive reinforcement and by educators, the elimination of negative thinking in the student is essential to raising a student’s self-worth and confidence in performing. Self-affirmations can be used to plant the subconscious mind with positive thoughts and the development of “triggers”, or mind images, to use to immediately stop negative thinking have also been shown to be helpful (the article uses a big red stop light as an example).

Riley also mentions that a light physical warmup, such as stretching combined with some meditation can induce feelings of relaxation in both the musician‘s body and mind. These are just a few of the many ideas that have been created to combat music performance anxiety. If I were to continue researching this issue related to musicians I would most likely want to look for even more ways to possibly treat performance anxiety. Would treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy or alternative and other natural treatments for anxiety help to decrease one‘s nervousness on stage? There doesn't seem to be a large amount of studies involving treatments and their effectiveness, so I would be interested to try to discover which ones are most effective.