Performance Anxiety is a form of anxiety people can get in any situation where you feel you can be judged for something you do. This doesn’t even have to be while playing music, it can also happen when you have to present a speech for a group or even when you meet someone new for the first time and you have a conversation with them.
When do musicians feel anxiety and does everyone experience it?
Music Performance anxiety (MPA) can happen at any given moment in time during a musicians career. Sometimes people struggle with it from the beginning, as soon as they started playing their instruments. Others don’t experience it until they decide they want to have a professional career and others start experiencing it years after they’ve already had a professional career already, seemingly for no particular reason.
In the last few years there has been a lot more attention for this subject and this is a very good thing. We see more people becoming performance coaches, people where you can go to too really focus on your own specific issues you have during your performances. In my opinion we can talk about it even more.
In a study done in 2018 by the LUMC (Leidens University Medical Centre) at the Conservatory of Amsterdam it showed that 1 in 3 students have considerably more anxiety during a performance then they have in daily life. Some of the results from heart rate monitors that where used during the research showed that of the students’ heart rates during the performances where comparable to that of a professional athlete during a sports competition.
The research also concludes that indeed, some level of stress is normal. As a lot of musicians can confirm( I can too), it can be very beneficial to your performance to feel some level of pressure before a performance or a playing test if your still a student. But as soon as stress surpasses a certain level it is no longer beneficial and negatively impact your body but can also have negative psychological impact. Not only is a high level of stress inconvenient for a short term moment like a concert but musicians have to give concerts sometimes several times a week for years in a row. If there is a constant high level it can have a really bad influence on you long-term health.
In what ways does performance anxiety manifest in musicians?
I did a lot of asking around in within ArtEZ and when asking about the symptoms of MPA, this are the ones that came forward for multiple people:
- Sweaty or very cold hands.
- Shaking hands/arms/knees.
- Nausea/vomiting.
- Blurry vision.
- Dry mouth/feeling of throat closing.
- Increasing heart rate and shallow breathing.
All of these symptoms are things that can really negatively affect a musician in their performance. As a saxophonist, if I have shaky or sweaty hands, it can be very difficult to play my fast passages in a smooth way. Also if, as a wind instrument player, I have severe nausea it makes it difficult to keep my breath support steady because it can feel very uncomfortable. This is in turn very distracting and makes it that I can’t focus on what is important; my music.
Like said before, everyone experiences different symptoms of performance anxiety and everyone has them on a different level. But how can we fix this? This is where my research into stage awareness began.
The study from LUMC was from 2018, and in this paper it says that MPA is something that is still a big taboo to talk about. Now, 6 years later, it is getting better. But so many people still struggle with it, so why not do more research about in and most importantly; talk about it! My hope is that by reading this blog the conversation about MPA will start up again and we can this with our fellow musicians. If you have any questions or comments on this topic, I hope to hear from you in the comment section down below!
More on how to handle stage fright in the next blog post..
