Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) - what does actually this term mean?

I decided to write my very first post on this blog about one of the most commonly reported challenges that professional musicians face – Music Performance Anxiety (MPA).

I’m going to explain if musicians can avoid this pre-performance stress. I will also provide a brief outline of MPA, giving its definitions and describing its potential sources. Finally, I will talk about factors such as personality traits and social environment which both may trigger experiencing an elevated level of MPA.

The goal of sharing this article was to broaden your perspective and highlight the multidimensionality of MPA. Today, we often encounter opinions that are strongly narrowing MAP's sources. Factors such as poor practice quality or lack of talent/ special gene are used to explain a significant majority of music performance issues.

Let's see what research says about it.

Can we completely get rid of the pre-performance anxiety?

It is not difficult to imagine that most musicians, by the very nature of our profession, will be affected by general stress and arousal related to public performance. We often try to get rid of this unpleasant state which we experience just before entering the stage, losing a lot of energy on trying to escape from it, especially when we have experienced overwhelming stress reactions in the past. But is it really possible to feel fully relaxed in the performance circumstances ? Well, firstly, studies show that it is NOT and secondly, that this is not the best idea to do not feel 'alerted' at all before performance…

This alertness is actually a normal and positive reaction of our brain and body which both give us a boost of energy and support goal-oriented actions. The Yerkes-Dodson low (Yerkes-Dodson, 1908) states that one can achieve the best performance when stress is at moderate levels – that is, when a musician is neither too relaxed nor too anxious. It is when we feel a bit scared but at the same time excited and ready to go on stage.

What about less positive scenario...?

So moderate stress is the perfect scenario, but what if the anxiety level we experience is so high that it triggers the vicious circle of negative thoughts, strongly affects our body and in consequence, leads our performance to collapse?

It is obvious that in this case, we are facing excessive levels of Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) - one of the most commonly investigated issues related to musicians’ psychological challenges. MPA has been defined as ‘the experience of marked and persistent anxious apprehension related to musical performance (…), which is manifested through combinations of affective, cognitive, somatic and behavioral symptom’ (Kenny, 2011). In simple words, MPA is a very complex phenomenon that significantly affects our concentration, memory, mood and body functioning. Another definition describes MPA as an ‘excessively intense, persistent anxiety reaction which occurs when performing in front of an audience, and which hinders satisfactory performance on stage, accompanied by specific physiological, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms’ (Cox & Kenardy, 1993; Craske & Craig, 1984).

In the field of research on musicians’ health and well-being, investigations on MPA are relatively common, which probably highlight the importance and need to understand this issue on a deeper level. Some studies show that high levels of MPA, when experienced during an excessive period of time, may negatively influence musicians' psychological and physical health.

What may cause high levels of MPA?

The latest studies considering the most frequent causes of MPA show that repertoire difficulty (57%), concerns about audience response (52%) and self-pressure (48%) pose the most significant obstacles to musicians (Osório et all., 2020). Another study similarly states that individual-related situations, particularly pressure from self and concern about audience reactions, were significantly prominent in musicians (Burin et all., 2019).

In my personal opinion, it is questionable whether the causes of MPA cited above are the real SOURCE of the problem. They seem to be rather triggers or examples of situations when the experience of MPA becomes particularly acute.

There is another trail in the research that seems to be much closer to the MPA’s source, namely the meaning of individual traits of musicians and the impact social environment.

The research show that certain personalities may be predisposed to experiencing high levels of MPA (Smith, 2004). The result from Steptoe and Fidler’s study (1987) claim that there was a significant correlation between performance anxiety and neuroticism in a group of musicians participating in the study. Kenny in her article (2006) mentioned a very interesting observation that shows the similarity between perfectionism and performance anxiety definitions. She wrote: ‘Barlow’s definition of anxiety, which incorporates a ‘sense of uncontrollability … a state of helplessness … because one is unable to obtain desired results or outcomes, has much in common with the definition of perfectionism given by Frost, Marten, Lahart and Rosenblatt that ‘excessive concern over making mistakes, high personal standards, perception of high parental expectations and high parental criticism, the doubting of the quality of one’s actions, and a preference for order and organization.’

In musical context perfectionism as a personality trait has been evaluated in the research on forty-nine professional classical musicians (Mor, Day, Flett and Hewitt). Researchers found that performers with higher personal standards of perfection (‘I must work to my full potential at all times') and social standards of perfection (‘The people around me expect me to succeed at everything I do’) experienced more debilitating anxiety than those performers who did not score highly on these items.

Further Kenny’s observations claim that in the case of young music performers who are high in trait anxiety (the expression of the generalized biological vulnerability), who come from home environments in which expectations for excellence are high but support for achieving excellence is low, exposure to early and frequent evaluations and self-evaluations of their performances may be sufficient to trigger and develop the physiological, behavioral and cognitive responses, characteristic of music performance anxiety. Moreover, these responses may be triggered by conscious and rational concerns or by cues that trigger, unconsciously, earlier anxiety-producing experiences or somatic sensations (!!). It means that there is a probability that pre-performance stress and anxiety reactions that we experience may appear automatically because our bodies and minds were taught such reactions over the years.

Summary

This broader look at the MPA phenomenon may explain the complexity of performance quality differences among musicians. Such a holistic approach to MPA considers not only the technical skills of a musician but also outlines the importance of individual traits and the impact of social environments which all play significant roles in the process of acquisition of music performance skills.

I hope that this post will inspire you to have a more comprehensive look at your performance skills and help you to find the best way to enhance them if you feel that you need so. In the list of references attached below, you will find studies that I was inspired by. I believe that they may also be useful for you :)

Thank you for reading!

All best,

Agata

List of reference

1. Ascenso & Williamon & Perkins. (2016). Understanding the wellbeing of professional musicians through the lens of Positive Psychology. Psychology of Music. 45. 65-81. 10.1177

2. Afshar & Roohafza & Sadeghi & Saadaty & Salehi (2011). Positive and negative perfectionism and their relationship with anxiety and depression in Iranian school students. Journal of research in medical sciences : the official journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, 16(1), 79–86.

3. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fifth Edition, Washington DC, London – England. 23-24

4. Brugués (2011). Music Performance Anxiety-Part 2: A Review of Treatment Options. Medical problems of performing artists. 26. 164-71.

5. Carleton & Nicholas & Turner & Krakauer & Anderson & Rosemary & Cramm & Groll & McCreary & Donald. (2019). Exposures to potentially traumatic events among public safety personnel in Canada. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science Vol 51(1), 37-52.

6. Greene, ‘Performance Success: Performing Your Best Under Pressure’, 2002, p. 91-92.

7. Kenny. (2005). A Systematic Review of Treatments for Music Performance Anxiety. Anxiety, Stress & Coping

8. Kenny, Dianna. (2006). Music performance anxiety: Origins, phenomenology, assessment and treatment.

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