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Musical Performance Anxiety
Do you ever get nervous before a recital? You’ve practiced for it, you’re prepared, you’ve done well during rehearsals, and, then, come performance time, you freeze.
Causes Of Music Performance Anxiety
These can include learning problems, reading problems, processing problems, Attention Deficit Disorder (the new term is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Inattentive Type), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and distractibility (such as a family problem like divorce, or worrying about someone’s health).
The Basics
It’s important that you see your primary care clinician to make sure you rule out any vision, hearing or physical issues that might be making it difficult for you or your student to perform. You probably already know this, and, sadly, I see patients like this.
You need to rule out other conditions, such as generalized anxiety, depression, and other psychological and psychiatric conditions. Distraction can be a major problem. Performers may be thinking about school, their grades, family issues, or illness of a loved one.
Musicians’ Performance Anxiety Symptoms
These are real and physical, similar to what one might feel when encountering a bear or another real, physical threat. You may have heard of the “flight or fight phenomenon.” This causes our heart rate and blood pressure to increase, our breathing rate to increase, our mouths to become dry, and we may have the sensation of “butterflies in our stomachs.” We feel tense.
In contrast, when we are calm, our heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure are lower. This may occur while we’re relaxing, listening to music, or lying on the beach. Of course, the ultimate calm is when we’re sleeping!
Michael Yapko, PhD, is an expert on depression and hypnosis. He has published numerous books and articles, made some wonderful self-help CD's, and lectures both nationally and internationally.
Dr. Yapko teaches us that anxiety has two driving forces:
- The student overestimates the risk or challenge.
- The student underestimates his/her resources.
Dr. Yapko also stresses that anxiety is future-oriented. He has quipped that if anxiety were a commercial product, its slogan would be, “What if…?” For example, “What if I can’t remember anything?” “What if I hit a wrong note or miss a line?”
For more information on Dr. Yapko, please visit his website
It’s About Perception
The key is that there is nothing in the external situation that is different than when the student is working at home or in the library. The problem is the student’s PERCEPTION of the situation.
With musical performance anxiety, the mind and body act in the same way as if there were a grizzly bear threatening the student. The difference is that there is no real threat to the person, only a perceived threat.
One thing to consider is that some degree of anxiety or intensity can be good and helpful for a singer about to perform. When you get “amped up”, you are more highly focused. But only to a point. Once this stress escalates past a certain point, the singer starts to doubt his/her ability to succeed, starts to worry, and performance declines. Thus, performers must find what we call their Zone of Optimal Performance. Same thing in sports. Take a look at the section on Sports Performance Anxietyon this website.
Of course, people have a strong mind-body connection. Increased anxiety leads to decreased performance and this leads to decrease in fun, and this becomes a vicious circle.
How To Reduce Music Anxiety
Once you’ve ruled out physical, learning, and family problems, you need to make sure that the musician has the basic skills and knowledge that he/she needs. The bottom line is the musician can’t perform well unless he or she knows the material. So step 1, which hopefully is already being done, involves studying, learning and practicing.
Overcoming Musicians’ Performance Anxiety
Once the material is mastered, a simple method to try is diaphragmatic breathing. In addition, performance anxiety strategies can include self-hypnosis. This is the same thing as visualization, guided imagery, or mental imagery. One can actually visualize oneself going into the performance situation and performing confidently. Of course, there are many skills involved in learning this technique. Dr. Lazarus is able to help you or your child with this, usually with significant improvement after only 2 or 3 visits.
To contact Dr. Lazarus, you may phone him at: 650-322-5333. Or, email him a brief form.
