by Brynn Hagenbart
I had practiced for hours on end for this moment. I wanted it to go perfectly, I wanted to be able to remember it forever (I definitely would, but not in the way that I wanted). I was 13 years old and excited for my first performance with a solo in my school gym (where we held concerts). I got on stage and felt ready to take on the world, but, as soon as my moment came, it was shattered. I couldn’t believe it.
I messed up.
I had practiced for so long; I knew that I could play it perfectly, yet that didn’t seem to matter. My first ever violin solo ended as a total screw-up. I couldn’t even comprehend what went wrong; all I knew was that my hands got shaky, and it felt hard to even think straight. This was due to performance anxiety.
There are many different forms of performance anxiety, whether it be musical, public speaking, sports, school, work, etc. All of these anxieties come with the fear of messing up, which in many cases can cause a complete disaster with the task at hand. Any kind of performer may be able to do something flawlessly while practicing, but as soon as the setting is in front of a crowd, it’s as if the task being performed becomes foreign to them. People struggle with this every day without even realizing it, and not many people know what it is or how to fix it. Working through performance anxiety is not something that comes easily, but there are many different ways in which to combat it.
Understanding Performance Anxiety
Performance anxiety of any kind refers to an individual getting so anxious that all they can imagine is themselves messing up. This type of anxiety causes many people to do poorly with something simple they are able to do. When I’m practicing at home, I find that I am able to play songs with ease and total concentration. When put in front of a crowd, however, that sense of comfort quickly vanishes. Some simple ways to identify this feeling when performing is if the performer freezes up, has a feeling of dread, isn’t able to concentrate on the task, or if the performer has a sense that they will mess up whatever it is they have to perform (Putwain and Aveyard 65).
There are many ways performance anxiety can arise, most of which come from how a specific performer prepares for the event that causes the anxiety. These include what is going to be involved in the performing environment, as well as how prepared the individual performer is (Papageorgi, et al. 83). I know this is true from personal experience. When I am more prepared for a musical performance, that causes me to feel less anxious. It’s awful to go on stage while not feeling prepared for what is about to happen. It causes everything to fall apart, as well as causing a bad memory for the performer and the audience that is watching. Being prepared is a crucial part of the performance.
Skill level is another factor that comes into play when looking into the amount of anxiety that comes with performing in front of others. Fullagar et al. explain that if a performer is more skilled at a task, they are less likely to become anxious while performing. The same goes for if they are less skilled with the specific task, being less skilled will cause a performer to feel more anxious because they are less experienced with what they are doing (Fullagar, et al. 254). I have also experienced this personally. When I was younger, just playing the violin was very challenging, let alone in front of other people. Now that I am more experienced, I have found that it is much easier playing in front of others.
Just as the performer’s experience level affects the amount of anxiety one will feel, the state of flow the performer is in also impacts their anxiety. This concept of performance anxiety is called the flow theory, where “flow” means that the person performing is fully engaged in what they are doing and can move through the performance or tasks smoothly—like a river flowing. When a performer has more “flow,” they are less likely to feel anxious, but if they have barely any “flow” (meaning disruptions in focus or the task), this will cause more anxiety (Fullagar, et al. 239-240).
Commonness of Performance Anxiety
Performance anxiety is very common among adolescents, and it needs to be better addressed in order to help most kids in overcoming a fear that they probably know little to nothing about. Anxiety can happen in many ways, whether it be good or bad. According to Beilock et al., anything nerve-racking that causes an increase in heart rate is causing some sort of anxiety. This can either be because a person is scared, or because a person is so excited their heart begins to speed up. These researchers also explain that little things such as having to communicate with people day-to-day, getting assignments done for school, and even just having to count money at a day-to-day job can all be things that cause anxiety. There are also activities that may cause an increase in someone’s heart rate due to pure excitement, such as a skier or snowboarder waiting to go down a huge hill. Anything similar to these events can cause anxiety, which shows how common anxiety is—even if people might not realize it (Beilock et al. 157). Having to perform anything socially can cause anyone to have anxiety, even a simple public performance can cause fear of being judged negatively by others. This fear of being judged by others has been scientifically proven to be an extremely vigorous stressor across many studies (Beilock et al. 161).
Having any kind of performance go well can feel very relieving for everyone, and being able to manage the anxiety coupled with a performance is the biggest step toward things going well, especially for students. According to music educators Robertson and Eisensmith, a lot of the time when people experience something such as shaky hands, sweating, or even not being able to move when performing, they believe there is something wrong with them, or with something they’re doing. However, the shaking, sweating, and inability to move are all the result of performance anxiety, which is very common among younger performers and even professionals! Robertson and Eisensmith suggest that a great first step to combatting this problem is realizing that performance anxiety is not a one-way street, and that everyone goes through this (31).
I conducted an interview with my violin teacher to ask her a few questions about performance anxiety from what she has seen/experienced throughout her years of playing. Julie Piper has been playing violin since 4th grade and has been teaching for about 20 years. She has since majored in music and performed with many different orchestras. Piper explains that a lot of the time anxiety will vary between students. It truly depends on how well they’re prepared, and how much experience they have with performing in front of people. If she has an older student who plays solos regularly and has had success with them, then they will not experience as much anxiety as someone who is playing a solo for an audience for the first time.
Another interesting thing Piper points out is that younger students, mainly her middle schoolers, don’t seem to care as much as one might think. Since they are so young, and not taking their performance as seriously, they don’t seem to get as anxious. In contrast, someone who is a freshman or sophomore in high school and preparing for a solo will likely start taking their music more seriously, and consequently will become a lot more anxious when giving the performance (Piper).
There are also many circumstances, musically speaking, that can arouse this anxiety, some being worse than others. Piper points out that when she plays for children or something such as a wedding, she feels little to no anxiety while performing. This is because she has a lot of experience with these kinds of performances, and she isn’t being judged as heavily in these scenarios. Now if something such as an audition or a performance for peers is put into the equation, this will cause a lot more anxiety. This is because now the people who are watching know what they are looking at and are able to judge what is happening. An audition is especially troubling for her when the outcome is very important, such as an audition to get into a good orchestra or a better seat placement.
My conductor, Levi Comstock, also mentioned how common performance anxiety is. He has been playing since he was 8 years old and has come to major in music performance as well as play with the St. Olaf Orchestra throughout his college years. Ever since graduating, Comstock has been conducting various orchestras. Comstock points out that he used to get very nervous when he was younger, almost to the point of not being able to play something at all, but now, as he’s gotten more experience, he rarely feels this sense of anxiety. It’s all about connecting the mind to the performance and not thinking about it quite so harshly. If this is accomplished then there will be a greater sense of peace in one’s mind, allowing for some of that performance anxiety to disappear (Comstock).
Comstock also mentions, along with Piper, that the greater the circumstance, the more anxiety it will cause. For example, playing in front of his students causes almost no anxiety compared to something such as a recital, which will cause a lot more anxiety. Comstock also points out that he sees a lot of performance anxiety in his various students. “I’ve had students throw stands, drop their instruments, or run right out of the door just to get out of playing a solo” (Comstock). He says that he sees a lot less performance anxiety among his senior students versus his freshman students. He thinks this is because people just become more comfortable with performing as they gain more experience. There are still some circumstances where his seniors are very nervous when playing for him, or in front of the class, but overall most of his seniors grow out of this nervousness.
Affect on Performance
“Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a sometimes debilitating condition affecting many young musicians as they perform in testing or concert settings” (Sieger 35). I think that this perfectly describes what performance anxiety is, especially in music. This book is about a case study done on teacher perspectives with their students and how their anxiety is affecting their performances. The introduction to this writing shows a picture of a performer about to play a concerto on stage. She has played this particular piece countless times since her younger years as an adolescent. She now has two degrees in music performance and endless experience in this field. Nevertheless, she is still experiencing shaky hands, holds a mindset of only failure, and pretty much can only think of what could go wrong (Sieger 35). This example further shows that no matter how much experience someone may have in something, performance anxiety is most likely going to affect the performance in some way. Even though performance anxiety gets better as the performer gains more experience, there will still be a little bit of that nervousness that comes up in certain settings, especially ones that particularly trigger this anxiety for the performer.
Julie Piper has had a lot of experience in her years of playing. She knows the ups and downs of performance anxiety and is able to speak on them with a true perspective on what it’s like. She even thinks that a little anxiety is good for a performer, saying that it helps to know that at least one is feeling something for their performance. However, she still has had many negative effects on her performances due to performance anxiety. She will be able to perform something perfectly when she practices by herself in her own home, but when she’s placed in front of an audience that is either judging her or are people that she is working with, she isn’t able to play as well as she normally can. This is because she experiences shaky hands, the feeling that only bad things are going to happen from the performance, or messing up simple things in the piece (Piper).
Levi Comstock is able to speak on the same terms. Comstock has been playing since the 4th grade, and up until about college, he has experienced performance anxiety at its worst. He claims the biggest problems for him when he was younger were muscle tension, shaky hands, and just freezing up when the actual performance started. These aspects had huge impacts on his performances when he was younger, making the music not get to its full potential because he was not able to be as expressive or create as beautiful of a tone when he would play in front of others. As he grew up, a lot of this anxiety simmered down, especially with good experiences. The more prepared Comstock was for a performance, the less anxious he would feel. He also mentions that a lot of the physical anxiety that is felt is greatly controlled by one’s mind. For Comstock, just focusing on his mentality while performing really helped his control over performance anxiety.
Performing poorly due to anxiety can affect cognitive as well as perceptual-motor performances. Cognitive performances include things such as singing in front of others, taking an important exam, playing a sport in front of a crowd, and so forth; whereas, perceptual-motor performances are more generic things such as kicking a ball, picking up a cup, throwing something, and so on (Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans 747). Having these performance issues happen in everyday life can very negatively affect a lot of people. No one really thinks that performance anxiety could affect something as simple as picking up a cup or throwing a frisbee for a dog, but those are activities are perceptual-motor performances and could become a setting for performance anxiety. Performance anxiety can occur within many different activities or present itself in unique ways; some of which are harder to seek out and notice.
Psychologists Beilock, et al. suggest that it is known for performance anxiety to start in the stages of early childhood and often be linked to a decrease in performance in a variety of school subjects. From many different hypotheses within their research, Beilock, et al. have concluded that performance anxiety is able to affect anyone with any type of ability or skill level, whether it be high or low (158). However, just because an individual is experiencing performance anxiety does not mean they have a low ability in the task that is being done. Research was done on students who needed to figure out a certain arithmetic math equation. Their task was to figure out if the equation had been solved correctly. The students’ anxiety varied from a very high level of anxiety to none at all. All of these participants were able to figure out if the equation had been solved correctly, showing that performance anxiety doesn’t always directly relate to the amount of ability a performer has (Beilock, et al. 158).
Overcoming Performance Anxiety
Overcoming performance anxiety isn’t easy and is something that takes a lot of time and skill, but there are many ways to take control of it. Professor Zhukov, a Juilliard graduate, explains that music performance anxiety is an area of study that affects many people in many different ways. MPA has a lot of little factors that all add up to the amount of anxiety someone will feel during a live performance. One of Zhukov’s works explains the best ways for teachers, students, and professional musicians to help overcome MPA, and his claims are backed up by extensive research. “Treatment of MPA includes mindfulness-based approaches, physiological/physically-based therapies, cognitive/behavioural [sic] therapies, prescribed medication, music therapy, and psychotherapy” (Zhukov 53). Throughout this research, the most popular ways to help overcome MPA that have been found are deep-breathing exercises, yoga, and meditation.
Along with these positive ways to try to overcome one’s MPA, there are also negative approaches when trying to overcome this anxiety. Professor Zhukov mentions that examples of negative approaches when trying to overcome MPA would be when performers try to perfect everything they do, or when they begin to handicap what they’re doing. Trying to be perfect is something a lot of performers struggle with and is something that shouldn’t be heavily pushed onto anyone as it can create a bad mindset while performing. When behavioral techniques and cognitive therapy strategies are combined it makes for the most promising way to intervene with MPA and reduce it overall (Zhukov 53).
One very effective way to reduce performance anxiety (that has been proven in a study done by researchers Joanne Chang, et al.) is meditation. It is shown in Chang, et al.’s research that one of the main reasons students experience performance anxiety is because of the fear of being embarrassed in front of a large group. Chang, et al. states that meditation has been found to reduce the stress that is felt in situations such as a musical performance, as well as ones similar to it like public speaking, sports games, academic tests, and so forth. Another reason why it is so useful to use meditation to reduce performance anxiety is because it is able to reduce anxiety for a wide range of ages. Reduction in anxiety from meditation ranges from early childhood to late adult life. This proves to be very useful whether someone is trying to help young kids, or college students with their performance anxiety (Chang, et al. 126). To become a successful performer, one not only needs to reduce their anxiety to an optimal level, but also enhance other techniques to bring their playing to its greatest potential. It is shown throughout Chang, et al.’s research that meditation is not only able to reduce anxiety, but also potentially bring out other aspects of a performer's playing.
Another great intervention to performance anxiety that psychologists have been working on is focusing more on the anxiety, rather than the actual task itself. According to researchers Beilock, et al. these types of interventions provide more of a target for the underlying cognitive responses to anxiety. Although focusing on just the anxiety has proven to be effective while trying to lower one’s nervousness, it is not being said that skills/ability do not matter. It is obvious that both of these things play crucial roles in performance anxiety, but focusing solely on the anxiety portion can give us a different perspective than simply trying to improve skill level (Beilock, et al. 164).
Julie Piper also had very good examples on how to reduce performance anxiety. Meditation was one of her examples that she gave, saying that from her experience in using meditation it has helped to reduce her anxiety. One of the best ways to reduce performance anxiety that is very simple, and can be easily done by anyone, is deep breathing. This is such a simple task, yet it helps so much more than one might think. I know this from experience because right before big performances, I will take a couple of deep breaths and it always calms me down. Another way to reduce performance anxiety that Piper lists is being in the right mindset. By this she means that the performer should always tell themselves that they know what they’re doing, and that they’re ready for the performance. Sometimes, students tend to get in their own heads, which can be the greatest factor to them messing up. If a performer is well prepared, they should tell themselves that they are prepared rather than tell themselves to not mess up (Piper).
Levi Comstock also had some very effective tips on how to reduce performance anxiety. Focusing on expression and musicality during a performance is something not a lot of people would think to help their own performance anxiety. Being present during the performance to highlight those moments of musicality means that one is solely thinking about the music at hand, rather than the people who are watching. This is very helpful in reducing that nervous feeling people have when in front of others (Comstock). Comstock speaks from experience when he says this because he had a very hard time growing and trying to play in front of others. As he got older, he realized that being more aware of what the mind is doing during a performance is something that really helps performers get out of their own anxieties. Since realizing this, he has been helping students understand their minds during any kind of performance because that will drastically help the anxiety a performer might be feeling. Moreover, this performance anxiety will continue to get better as the performer gains more experience (Comstock).
Conclusion
I have had some highs and lows with my performance anxiety. The worst of it was from my story at the beginning of the essay, and ever since it has slowly just gotten better. Experience is key when it comes to performance anxiety, sometimes it will just take time for people to get over having to perform in front of others. I still get performance anxiety to this day, but after learning about all the different ways on how to control it over the years, it has drastically improved, and will only get better as I continue my musical career. It is important to remember that performance anxiety is completely normal, and not something to be worried about.
Performance anxiety is something most performers go through no matter what the task may be. Whether it’s playing a musical instrument, speaking in front of an audience, playing a sport, or even just performing day-to-day tasks, there may be performance anxiety attached to the activity which affects people of all ages. Although this type of anxiety is something that is hard to deal with, it is something that can be helped. There are so many different techniques that can be used to help someone perform better, even natural occurrences such as simply gaining experience along the way. No matter how hard it may seem, there is always something to try that could be a solution to the anxiety one might be feeling while performing.
Works Cited
Beilock, Sian L., et al. “Chapter 9: Understanding and Addressing Performance Anxiety.” Handbook of Competence and Motivation: Theory and Application, edited by Andrew J. Elliot, Carol S. Dweck, and David S. Yeager, 2nd ed., Mar. 2017, pp. 155-172.
Chang, Joanne C., et al. "Effects of meditation on music performance anxiety." Medical Problems of Performing Artists, vol. 18, no. 3, Sept. 2003, pp. 126+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A173187334/AONE?u=anon~ef80526b&sid=googleScholar&xid=d675d856. Accessed 14 Oct. 2021.
Comstock, Levi. Personal Interview. 26 Oct. 2021.
Fullagar, Clive J., et al. “Challenge/Skill Balance, Flow, and Performance Anxiety.” Applied Psychology, vol. 62, no. 2, 2013, pp. 236-259.
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Piper, Julie. Personal Interview. 18 Oct. 2021
Putwain, David W., and Ben Aveyard. “Is Perceived Control a Critical Factor in Understanding the Negative Relationship between Cognitive Test Anxiety and Examination Performance?” School Psychology Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 1, Mar. 2018, pp. 65–74. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/spq0000183.
Robertson, Donald U., and Kevin E. Eisensmith. “Teaching Students about Performance Anxiety: The Scratch Pad Pop-Up Model.” Music Educators Journal, vol. 97, no. 2, Sage Publications, Inc., and MENC: The National Association for Music Education, 2010, pp. 31–35. Academic Search Premiere, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40960200.
Sieger, Crystal. “Music Performance Anxiety in Instrumental Music Students: A Multiple Case Study of Teacher Perspectives.” Contributions to Music Education, vol. 42, Ohio Music Education Association, 2017, pp. 35–52. Academic Search Premiere, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26367435.
Zhukov, Katie. “Current Approaches for Management of Music Performance Anxiety: An Introductory Overview.” Medical Problems of Performing Artists, vol. 34, no. 1, 2019, pp. 53-60. Academic Search Premiere, doi:10.21091/mppa.2019.1008