Performance Anxiety

Music

Understanding and Managing Stage Anxiety in Musicians: Prevalence, Predisposing Factors, and Coping Mechanisms

Stage anxiety, a form of specific social anxiety, is particularly prevalent among musicians. This condition manifests through physiological responses such as sweating, tachycardia, dry mouth, dizziness, urgency to urinate, and tremors. It can occur not only during performances but also in anticipation of and after these events. This paper explores the prevalence, predisposing factors, and maintaining factors of stage anxiety among musicians. Studies indicate that 70-80% of musicians, both students and professionals, experience this form of anxiety, with one in four students potentially abandoning their musical studies due to it. Predisposing factors include family influences, social pressure, biological vulnerability, and environmental factors. The concept of classical conditioning is also discussed as a mechanism through which anxiety responses are learned and reinforced. The paper further distinguishes between initiating and maintaining factors, emphasizing the role of negative reinforcement in perpetuating stage anxiety. Common avoidance and escape behaviors are identified, providing insight into how musicians cope with anxiety. Understanding these factors is crucial for developing effective interventions to manage and reduce stage anxiety, enabling musicians to perform at their best and enjoy their craft.

Understanding and Managing Stage Anxiety in Musicians: Prevalence, Predisposing Factors, and Coping Mechanisms Open »

Double Bass

Performance Coaching — A Tool to Enable the Sustainable Delivery of Excellence

Today many businesses operating in competitive markets offer Performance Coaching to their employees. It is an established and successful tool to enhance their performance and achieve their full potential. The same care is given to professional athletes who receive psychological support through coaching to cope with the pressure and stress of performing at an elite level. Yet, in the music world, there is very little on offer to help musicians deal with the strains and demands of their job. For over 30 years, I have worked as a section leader in world-class orchestras in the UK and abroad. This rich background of experience, paired with in-depth training and a qualification in Business and Performance Coaching, has given me an understanding of how to deal with extreme situations and achieve peak performances in a high-pressured working environment. In this article, I would like to share the knowledge I gained through my work as a performance and business coach and how I experienced the benefits of being coached. I will focus on two different aspects of our work as musicians, the individual performance as well as the performance as a collective, and how coaching can be a supportive intervention for everyone performing in the music industry.

Performance Coaching — A Tool to Enable the Sustainable Delivery of Excellence Open »

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