“I’m a terrible musician”
“If this performance goes poorly…”
“I’m never going to be able to play in tune”
“My tuning ruined my whole recital”
“They’re just being nice”
“That mistake ruined my reputation”
“I should have played better than that”
“I’m a failure”
[toggle title=”Debilitating Performance Anxiety”]
Performance anxiety can threaten to affect, and in some cases end, some performers’ careers. Most performers feel nervous before performing, and some can thrive on it; however in some cases the anxiety can be disabling. Performers suffering from debilitating performance anxiety find this distress interferes significantly with their ability to perform at a reasonably expected level.
Many anxious thoughts may enter a musician’s mind about performance. This anxiety can produce physiological, behavioural, and cognitive reactions. (Kenny, 2011). Some performers will experience performance-threatening symptoms such as trembling hands, dry mouth, and sweaty palms. Distorted thoughts and illogical thinking can also play a destructive role in a musician’s confidence and self-esteem. Seeing yourself as a “bad” musician only consumes your mental energy and distracts you from focusing on the performance task at hand.
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[toggle title=”Current Research”]
There has been a great deal of research on the treatment of musical performance anxiety. The old pedagogy of practice, practice, practice has been supplanted by research into the affects of drugs, behavioural modification, and cognitive therapies to help musicians cope and conquer anxiety. Drugs such as beta blockers are controversial in treating musical performance anxiety because of their potential side effects and health risks if used more than occasionally or unsupervised by a doctor. Cognitive behaviour therapy continues to be explored as an effective treatment option for musicians who suffer from performance anxiety.
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[toggle title=”Photo”]All Photos sourced through Creative Commons.org
Photo by jessicahtam[/toggle]
Want to learn how to conquer them?
Being a musician, I absolutely understand the anxiety and pressures that come along with performance. You may be able to play it really well in the company of your own home or practice room, but staging and giving a show to others is quite the different experience. It’s informative and concise, I would love to know more about it in detail. Thanks for sharing Brian!
Thanks for joining the discussion, Laurel. The comparison of your own home / practice room and a concert performance is a good one. The “Other Resources” section on the last page might provide the detail you are looking for. Enjoy the exploration.
This was really constructive Brian! I’ve had to deal with performance anxiety a lot in my life. It’s something that everyone has to deal with! In one of the classes I was taking this semester, a guest speaker was brought in to talk to us about how to deal with performance anxiety. He mentioned at one point that getting anxiety and becoming stressed out before a performance is a completely NATURAL thing and that it’s all about the way you deal with it that will allow you to have a good performance. He also gave us a few examples of “motivational poses” that you could do before you perform to help deal with the anxiety. He talked about the “victory” pose (raising both of your arms above you head as if you had just won a race or competition) and how doing this pose releases a chemical in your brain that increases motivation and positivity. Since I had my final jury this semester (which I was terrified for) I figured that I should try out these poses before and see if it would actually calm me down. I must say that it absolutely did! I felt so much more focused and alert and my jury went extremely well. Overall I just think that it’s really important that people need to be aware that performance anxiety is a natural phenomenon. It’s how we deal with these types of stress that will impact how we end up performing.
It’s great to get your comment and feedback, Melissa. Your suggestions and “victory” poses are excellent tools we should all add to our toolbox to help us reach our potential. Thank you for bringing them to the discussion. Congratulations on your final jury!
The questions posed are also relevant to performance situations other than music. The suggestions for turning around negative self-talk are concrete and could help alleviate performance anxiety in music, dance, sports, etc. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a valuable alternative and/or complement to medication for anxiety and depression. I have a family member who found CBT to be more effective in dealing with mental illness. Thanks for a thoughtful and informative post.
It’s great to get your comment, Mairi. I agree completely about CBT being effective for other performance situations and mental illness in general. I’m pleased to hear your family member found it beneficial. People sharing their stories of success can help others who might be hesitant to admit challenges and therefore seek help. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for this Brian. What a fascinating and important topic. There are so many highly creative musicians who likely suffer from this. I am inspired to check out the current literature but am reminded of a fantastic book on mediation by Sharon Salzberg called “Real Happiness”. She talks about “wise attention” or mindfulness and how we often “add on” thoughts and images (and thereby feelings) that are not accurate or based on real experience. How much stress is added by unrealistic comparisons and inaccurate labels we put on ourselves?
Aside from the many books that are available on the subject of stage anxiety (ex. Stage Performance by Livingston Taylor), Sharon Salberg’s book would be my first stop. The following is quoted from her book which I highly recommend.
‘Mindfullness (also called wise attention) helps us see what we are adding to our experiences. We want to see clearly what we’re doing as we are doing it. To be able to distinguish between our direct experience from the add-ons and to know that we can choose whether to heed them or not. Only direct experience gives us the crucial information we need to what is actually happening.
A very good place to become familiar with the way mindfulness works is always close by, our own bodies. Investigating physical sensations is one of the best ways for us to learn to be present with whatever is happening in the moment and to recognize the difference between direct experience and the add-ons we bring to it.
I once witnessed a particularly good example of add-ons in action when I was teaching a retreat with my colleague, Joseph Goldstein. We were sitting drinking tea when a student in some distress came in and said, “I just had this terrible experience.” Joseph asked, “what happened” and the man said, “I was meditating and I felt all this in tension my jaw and I realized what an incredibly uptight person I am and always have been and I always will be.” “You mean you felt some tension in your jaw” Joseph said. And the man said “yes and I’ve never been able to get close to anyone and I’m going to be alone for the rest my life.” “You mean you felt tension your jaw” said Joseph. I watched the man continue barrelling down this path for some time all because of a sore jaw until finally Joseph said to him “you’re having a painful experience. Why are you adding a horrible self image to it. I’m sure you know how the man with the sore jaw felt. We’ve all had times when we’ve declared ourselves total losers or envisioned a bad end based on a fleeting sensation or thought.
The typical trip down that path goes like this. I bend down to tie my shoe and somehow I pull a muscle in my back. “This is the beginning of the end” I think. Now everything will start to go. Joseph would say “you mean you hurt your back.” Only direct experience gives us the crucial information we need, to know what is actually happening.’
Thanks for your comment, Vince. I’ll be looking into your book suggestions on meditation and exploring this idea of “add on” thoughts. I agree about the unnecessary and added stress that results. Some of us navigate these thoughts better than others while the ones who do not are often living in an unhappy and often unrealistic world. I hope this is a tool that might help them with the unrealistic comparisons and labels you mentioned. I appreciated the example you witnessed with Joseph and the student. Thanks again for sharing, Vince.
PS. I hope your back feels better and I’d also recommend slip on shoes. ☺
This is definitely a good read for people who want to improve themselves in dealing with performance anxiety. It happens to everyone, even top musicians have these problems. I know that Martha Algerich has terrible anxiety problems; she is literally all over the place before she plays, sometimes even cancels concerts. The CBT is definitely an option To in dealing with anxiety. I’ve read another book “7 habits of highly effective people” by Stephen Covet, where he discussed the idea of a “stimulus and response”. Think of the stimulus as bad things that happen to you and response
as your reaction towards it. For example, the weather is terrible, some people will feel sad or down because of it. That’s only because they chose to feel sad. We HAVE the freedom to choose how we want to react. If we could be conscious of the stimuli around us and think before giving a response, we could turn the situation around: “it is raining very hard, but I wont let it affect my mood. I choose not to have it affect my psychological well-being”.
Thank you, Michael. I appreciate your comment. I agree we have the freedom to choose how we want to react, however sometimes we allow the distortions to distort and this leads us away from seeing clearly and appropriate emotions. Often we don’t even realize this has happened. I hope knowing more about CBT will help all of us choose better reactions and feel better as a result.
Thanks for the post! I’ve definitely had a lot of those thoughts cross my head at some time or another, and it was interesting to see that I’m not the only one and to read about tackling these problems. It’s something I’ll have to look into going forwards.
We often think we are only ones with these negative thoughts. People tend not to admit to them but it’s important we do. As the blog shows, our thinking is often not accurate and the resulting turmoil prevents us from focus and improvement. I’m glad this is something you’ll look into. The resources section might be a good next step.
Great post, Brian. This is really important information. I think most musicians experience performance anxiety to some extent, and I have definitely fell victim to some of the questions at the beginning of this post. I am going to try to implement some of these ideas in preparation for my recital!
Thanks, Sarah. Enjoy the recital preparation and keep me posted if you need more information. I’d like to extend the blog to go beyond the triple-column technique and explore even more solutions. “Verbal Judo” as Burns likes to call it.
I think it’s great that you’re brining this issue to people’s attention, because it’s a conversation that needs to be had.
I just noticed above that you were mentioning meditation. I find that meditation really helps me get into a place where I can play my instrument with ease of physical motion, and love every sound that comes out.
Anybody who’s reading this might also like to check out the book “Free Play” by Stephen Nachomanovich and/or “Effortless Mastery” by Kenny Werner. They touch on some of the issues in question here, and I’ve found them to be helpful. Kenny’s book is what got me into meditation.
Keep me updated on your findings etc.
Cheers!
Thanks for your comments and book suggestions, Miles. I totally agree about the importance of finding a place to play with ease of physical motion.
There is a meditation section on the blog that a colleague wrote that you might be interested in…
http://sites.music.mcgill.ca/mpbs/the-art-of-zen-music-playing/
Also, two of the writers for the blog are also guitarists and their sections might also be of interest to you…
http://sites.music.mcgill.ca/mpbs/guidelines-for-teachers-specific-injury-prevention-methods/
http://sites.music.mcgill.ca/mpbs/2015/04/18/musicians-and-osteoarthritis-are-musicians-especially-at-risk-and-what-can-be-done-to-help-its-prevention/
Thanks again and I look forward to checking out your book suggestions. They will make excellent additions to the resources section.
Brian
Thanks for this blog Brian! It would be interesting to explore CBT techniques for musicians in further depth. It would also be interesting to study musicians who use certain therapies like the Alexander technique or Reiki treatments and see how their performance anxiety is affected directly after undergoing a therapy treatment.
Thanks for bringing Alexander technique and Reiki to the table, Daniela. We as performers should use as many supportive resources as we can to reduce anxiety, perform, and feel better. Meditation and food are addressed in another section of this blog and might interest you.
http://sites.music.mcgill.ca/mpbs/eat-well-play-well/
http://sites.music.mcgill.ca/mpbs/the-art-of-zen-music-playing/
I will also suggest to future students that they look into Alexander technique and Reiki and maybe a future blog could deal with these. A quick search is showing me that there is research. Here is a link to something that might get us started…
http://psychcentral.com/lib/reiki-healing-and-mental-health-what-the-research-shows/00013092
Having read most of Burns’ book in the past, it was great to see many of the concepts that he covers applied directly to musical situations. I think that this topic is of high importance, since I have come to realize that half the “battle” for me in improving in music is learning how to surmount negative thoughts. Also, thanks for the great links to external resources, I will look into them! Great work, Brian.
Thanks, Chris. I’m glad you’ve read the Burns’ book. It’s a great resource for “Feeling Good” as you know. The “battle” against negative thoughts is a daily one but we do get better at recognizing the distortions and faults in our thinking.
I’m going to look into how meditation and diet can add to my “tool box” for healthy living and positive thinking. You might want to check out those sections of this blog.
http://sites.music.mcgill.ca/mpbs/eat-well-play-well/
http://sites.music.mcgill.ca/mpbs/the-art-of-zen-music-playing/
I’ll be sure to check those out as well!
This blog is really going to hit hard with most musicians who have experienced anxiety. I have definitely asked almost all of the questions listed above for some performances in the past. Having read this blog and heard so many positive changes that can be made from cognitive behaviour therapy throughout the seminar, I would definitely consider it in future. Thanks for the post, Brian!
Thanks for your comment, Jesse. I’m glad you recognize CBT as an option for dealing with anxiety. As you know it isn’t an instant cure and isn’t perfect for all people and all situations. However, it might be useful in our future private or classroom teaching to understand why others are anxious. How we talk about a student’s weaknesses and needs can directly impact what they think and how they feel. If they feel positive I believe they will be much more likely to practice and embrace change. We are coaching music and also coaching how our students think about themselves and the music they make. Thanks again for your comment and for opening this new discussion.