10 things you can do to manage music performance anxiety (Part 2)

Music performance anxiety is a common issue amongst performing musicians and can have a range of negative consequences. Despite its prevalence and damaging effects, it’s not talked about very often nor addressed enough in music education.

There is actually quite a lot of existing research on performance anxiety but sadly, this knowledge is rarely passed on to musicians. One of the aims of Psyc for Musos is to do exactly that.

This is Part 2 of the article “10 things you can do to manage music performance anxiety”. Part 1 dealt with strategies which you can utilise immediately before and during a performance, while this second article will address broader strategies you can incorporate into your performance preparation.

6. Learn relaxation techniques

The physical symptoms of performance anxiety include increased heart rate, hyperventilation, sweaty hands, tremors, and muscle tension. Relaxation techniques can combat these symptoms and allow you to have some control over them.¹ For this reason, many treatments for performance anxiety incorporate relaxation techniques to help manage these physical symptoms.²

Types of relaxation techniques which may be utilised include:^3,4

• Deep breathing
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Yoga
• Meditation
• Stretching

These can be used regularly and/or incorporated into pre-performance routines,⁴ though it is important that you practise them regularly in order to be able to use them effectively when needed.¹

7. Practise performing as much as possible, both physically and mentally

“Why can’t I perform like I play in the practice room?” is kind of a pointless question because comparing performing and playing during practice is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. There are countless differences between a practice session and a performance—here are just a few examples:³

• Presence of an audience
• How you’re dressed
• The venue: acoustics, lighting, openness/size of space
• The instrument (for pianists, organists, etc.)
• Deciding when you play (out of your control in a performance)
• Ability to start again, take breaks
• …and of course, feeling nervous!

Because of these differences, practice performances are a crucial part of preparation for a successful performance.³ Every musician knows that you need practise a piece in order to play it better…you also need to practise performing a piece in order to perform it better.

Practice performance is a commonly used strategy by professional musicians⁵ and interventions designed to help musicians with performance anxiety often incorporate practice performances in their programme.⁶ A more recent type of treatment which uses this idea is virtuality reality exposure training, where musicians undertake mock performances in a virtual reality setting. Studies which tested the efficacy of this treatment found that it decreased performance anxiety levels and improved performance quality.^7,8

Practice performances can be carried out in different forms. Simply playing through a piece as if it were a performance can be helpful. More effective ways to simulate a performance would be to perform for an audience (e.g. performing for some friends and family) and/or to play in a concert venue (ideally the same venue as your actual performance), though obviously these are not always possible to carry out.

Mental rehearsal is an effective strategy which do not have practical issues like the strategies above. This involves imagining the performance as vividly as possible, from start to end, and imagining it going exactly the way you want it to go.⁴ Through mental rehearsal, you can also practise the thoughts you will have and the aspects of the music you will be focusing on. By doing this, you can work to eliminate distracting thoughts and negative self-talk during performance.

While mental rehearsal is not a commonly taught technique in music, it is used widely by athletes to improve performance. Studies have found that there is a large neural overlap between mental imagery and actually carrying out physical movements—they display activation of similar brain areas and muscle activities.⁹

8. Aim to do your best, not be better than others

When we look at how people aim to achieve and demonstrate competence, we are talking about their achievement goals. There are several types of achievement goals, and each has different aims and mechanisms:^10–12

• Those with mastery goals focus on learning and improving oneself. These people learn for the sake of learning.
• Those with performance goals seek to demonstrate ability by comparing themselves to others. Performance goals can be further categorised into:
  • Performance-approach goals where learners aim to be better than other people
  • Performance-avoidance goals where learners aim to avoid being worse than their peers

Studies in academic learning and sport psychology have shown that those with performance avoidance goals perform worse while those with mastery goals tend to perform better.^10,13

In music, performance goals—especially performance-avoidance goals—have been linked to higher levels of performance anxiety.¹² In other words, musicians who practise their instrument to improve are less likely to experience performance anxiety than musicians who practise in order to become better than others (or avoid being worse than others). This means that musicians who are concerned about not being as good as their peers are more vulnerable to performance anxiety.

9. Do not set yourself up for a failure (self-handicapping)

Following on from the previous point, one of the ways in which performance-avoidance goals impair performance is the use of self-handicapping, where one creates or finds obstacles in order to explain poor performance.^14,15 It is a way to protect oneself from being perceived as being incapable or lacking in ability by finding other reasons for performing poorly. For musicians, this would involve finding excuses to justify a bad performance before they have even gone on stage.³ For these musicians, one bad performance is not as tragic being an incompetent musician.¹⁴

There are two main types of self-handicapping: self-reported and behavioural.¹⁰ Here are some examples self-handicapping in musicians:^3,10,14

Examples of self-reported handicapping:

• Complaining about feeling sick before a performance
• Telling everyone before a performance how you didn’t have enough time to practise
• Saying to yourself or other people that this performance isn’t that important to you, that it doesn’t really matter

Examples of behavioural handicapping:

• Procrastinating
• Delaying preparation
• Deliberately giving self not much time to practise

While self-handicapping may have some short-term positive effects (e.g. not being overly concerned about the possibility of a failure because you can ‘justify’ it), it has long-term detrimental effects. In the context of academic study, self-handicapping has been linked to lower self-esteem, negative emotions, depression, anxiety, stress levels, and lower GPA.^13,16,17

The take-home message from performance goals and self-handicapping is that fear of a failure actually prevents you from achieving your best. It is important to aim to do your best, not avoid failure.

10. Manage perfectionistic concerns

Perfectionism has been linked to performance anxiety^18–20 and is believed to be one of the cognitive components of performance anxiety.²⁰

However not all types of perfectionism lead to music performance anxiety. Perfectionism contains two major dimensions: perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns.²¹

Perfectionistic strivings are considered to be the healthy, adaptive side of perfectionism and involves the setting of high personal standards, while perfectionistic concerns are considered to be maladaptive and involves elements such as concerns over mistakes, doubts about one’s actions, and negative reactions to imperfections.²¹ Perfectionistic concerns have been linked to higher levels of music performance anxiety.^22,23

It is therefore important to strive for your very best but not be scared of making mistakes. Find out more about managing perfectionism.

In summary…

To manage performance anxiety, you can try these things:

• Learn relaxation techniques
• Practise performing (physically and mentally)
• Aim to do your best; don’t aim to be better other people
• Be aware of self-handicapping
• Learn to manage unhealthy perfectionism
• And remember, you will get better at all of these things with practice, just like playing your instrument!

And finally, some food for thought regarding perfectionism: perfection and flawless virtuosity are values which are engrained into today’s culture of classical music. These have been strengthened by development of recordings and audio editing: today it is possible to literally edit note by note if one wished to do so. Thus performers today feel that they must compete against these “perfect recordings”.²⁴ This climate cultivates concerns about mistakes, leading to performance anxiety amongst musicians. Perhaps changing some of these attitudes and values is a necessary step if we are to tackle the problem of performance anxiety on a broader level.