The Definition of Music Performance Anxiety
Have you ever sat down to reflect on your thoughts and feelings when it comes to performing? Is playing on stage something you find nerve-wracking, stressful, and a real struggle? Are you unsure as to why you get nervous for performances, and the various factors that come into play?
If so, then this article will cover the most up-to-date definition of Music Performance Anxiety (known as MPA), look at the major risk factors, and hopefully shed some light on the difficulties it poses for those who experience it.
My own experience with performance anxiety goes back decades, and is something that continues to be part of every performance I am involved with. From playing in an orchestra, to public speaking gigs, there isn’t a performance situation where I don’t feel the nervous excitement and anticipation for what is about to come. This feeling has become incredibly familiar to me, and one I experience on a regular basis.
When I speak at schools or organisations, the very first question I ask the audience is: “Who of you gets nervous or anxious before a performance?” And guess what? 99% of the time EVERYONE puts their hand up, including me – no surprises there!
But the reason I ask this question is to highlight that we are ALL in this together. Getting nervous or anxious is a completely normal part of performing, and a normal part of being human. If we can learn and support one another through our shared experience, then this can be the first step towards greater fulfilment, and enjoyment on stage.
In 2015, the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) conducted a Musician’s Health Survey of 447 musicians. The results came back that 98% of the musicians had experienced performance anxiety “at one time or another” in their career.
While this result might come as no surprise, the fact that so many musicians suffer in silence about their struggles with MPA is a worrying trend that needs to drastically change. This is the main reason why I started Performance Under Pressure, to help musicians practice and perform effectively, by using the latest psychological and neuroscientific research, as well as open up the conversation about MPA and the effect it has on the music community.
The work of Dianna Kenny
World-leading researcher and psychologist Dianna Kenny has studied the effects and treatment of MPA over many years. Her extensive research has covered a broad range of performers in various genres, and her definition of MPA is considered the one of the most accurate, in-depth, and well-informed. It combines all of her own research, plus additional research from other academics around the world to clearly articulate what performers experience on a regular basis.
Kenny’s definition states:
“Music performance anxiety is the experience of marked and persistent anxious apprehension related to musical performance that has arisen through underlying biological and/or psychological vulnerabilities and/or specific anxiety-conditioning experiences. It is manifested through combinations of affective [moods, feelings, emotions], cognitive [thoughts], somatic [physical sensations], and behavioural symptoms [learned responses under performance circumstances]. It may occur in a range of performance settings, but is usually more severe in settings involving high ego investment, evaluative threat (audience), and fear of failure. It may be focal (i.e. focused only on music performance), or comorbidly [in combination] with other anxiety disorders, in particular social phobia. It affects musicians across the lifespan and is at least partially independent of years of training, practice, and level of musical accomplishment. It may or may not impair the quality of the musical performance.” (Kenny, 2009b, p. 433)
-Dianna Kenny PhD, former Professor of Psychology and Music, University of Sydney
I know this is a paragraph chock-full of detail, so don’t worry if a lot of that went over your head! Let’s start off by looking at this step by step:
“Music performance anxiety is the experience of marked and persistent anxious apprehension related to musical performance…”
Firstly, what is anxiety?
Anxiety is the body and mind’s response in anticipation of a perceived threatening situation in the future. It acts as a shock absorber for the fear response, by getting you ready and alert in advance, so that you can respond quickly and effectively when a threat actually arrives. This response is part of the reason why the human race has been able to survive for millennia, as anticipating future threats is pretty important in knowing how to keep out of harm’s way, and how to react as fast as possible when danger is present.
The threat response, also known as the Fight-Flight-Freeze response, is when you react to a real or perceived threat in the present moment. Evolutionarily speaking, you can think of a caveman scouring the countryside looking for food, and stumbling across a hungry sabre-toothed tiger. If the caveman didn’t react to this threat quickly, then he would have been devoured in seconds. In order to survive he developed a response system to either fight the tiger, run away (flight) from the danger, or freeze completely still to avoid detection.
Artwork: David Waldie
Whilst the threat response is designed to mobilise the caveman immediately for survival, anxious apprehension is a less intense state that puts him in readiness for when a tiger might be lurking in the bushes nearby. This could be minutes, hours, or days beforehand, in preparation for the hunt ahead.
You can probably see why anxious apprehension would be useful when dealing with hungry tigers, however it may become an issue when you’re leading up to a performance, or about to walk on stage. This is because your brain can’t tell the difference between an actual threat (tiger), or a perceived threat (social judgement). It simply registers a nearby threat, and your body and mind kick into gear for survival.
Fortunately, these days we don’t need to worry too much about tigers coming to attack us (unless you are working in a zoo, or are continuing the legacy of Siegfried & Roy), but today we have more social threats that still make us respond in the same way. This is especially the case in situations where we are being critically evaluated, such as in exams, recitals, important concerts, competitions, and auditions (more on this later!)
“…that has arisen through underlying biological and/or psychological vulnerabilities and/or specific anxiety-conditioning experiences.”
Now we look at the underlying conditions that contribute to making someone more prone to experiencing MPA.
Underlying biological vulnerability
This category involves a person’s genetic makeup, which makes them more likely to inherit anxious behaviours. You can thank your parents for contributing to this part of your MPA, as anxious parents often create anxious children! If you have the tendency to be “highly strung” or neurotic, are introverted or shy, regularly experience negative mood states, or experience nervousness or distress in new situations, then you may have an underlying biological vulnerability that could impact your MPA.
Psychological vulnerability
Another factor that can influence your MPA is your psychological vulnerability, which is closely tied in with your childhood upbringing. How you were treated as a child, either by your parents, teachers, or others around you, has had a significant influence on your view of the world today.
Were your parents supportive of your musical interests? Did they push you too hard or not enough? How did they respond when you were feeling nervous or under pressure? What did they teach you about performing? Did your early musical experiences cultivate a healthy sense of enjoyment, creativity, and identity formation?
All of these situations unconsciously influence your own current performance experience. Developing an unhealthy relationship with performing may induce feelings of excessive worry, perfectionism, low self-esteem, fear of failure, and fear of negative evaluation.
Specific anxiety conditioning experience
Have you ever had an unpleasant performance experience that has stuck with you for weeks, months, or years? Can you still recall the event in great detail, just like it happened yesterday?
One of the reasons why many musicians struggle to perform with confidence and freedom is because of specific moments in the past when things haven’t gone as planned. These significant moments can leave a lasting impression on one’s confidence and self-belief, and continue to sabotage performances well after the fact.
These experiences are called “conditioning experiences”, whereby a stressful, upsetting, unfortunate, or difficult circumstance causes you to experience an anxiety response in anticipation of the same thing happening again. This can happen directly to you, such as in a performance where you played poorly or received harsh criticism. Or you might observe someone performing under difficult circumstances and subsequently become apprehensive to perform under such similar circumstances yourself.
Although these experiences often occur in childhood, it is not uncommon to have them happen in adulthood as well. One of the most prominent examples was by singer Barbra Streisand in a concert in Central Park in 1967. In this performance she forgot the words to one of her songs, and found it so shockingly humiliating that she refused to perform live for the next 27 years, due to debilitating stage fright. Fortunately, she was able to return to the stage in 1994 (albeit with a teleprompter to help her with the words), and has been able to perform regularly since.
If you find it difficult to move past distressing performances, then here’s an article from The Bulletproof Musician that you can check out.
“It is manifested through combinations of affective [moods, feelings, emotions], cognitive [thoughts], somatic [physical sensations], and behavioural symptoms [learned responses under performance circumstances].”
Here we have the 4 different areas in which MPA presents itself, either before, during, and/or after performance. They include:
Affective symptoms – i.e. moods, feelings and emotions, such as:
Fear
Anxiety
Worry
Panic
Stress
Dread
Shame
Guilt
Disappointment
Sadness
Loss of confidence
Feeling exposed etc.
Cognitive symptoms – i.e. thoughts, such as worrying about:
Failure
Making mistakes
Negative evaluation by the audience/panel/your teacher etc.
Repercussions eg. disappointing your teacher, not winning the job, not achieving the necessary marks
Experiencing MPA symptoms, and having them get in the way i.e. worrying about worrying about your MPA
Other cognitive symptoms include memory slips, cloudy/unclear thinking, problem staying focused, and post-performance rumination.
Somatic symptoms – i.e. physical sensations, such as:
Muscle tension
Shaking
Cold extremities eg. hands, feet, nose, ears etc.
Pounding heartbeat
Increased blood pressure
Sweating
Shallow breathing
Butterflies in your stomach
Dry mouth (one of mine)
Nausea
Tunnel vision
Urge to go to the bathroom more often (another one of mine for sure!)
Behavioural symptoms
Behavioural symptoms are generally divided up into two areas, avoidant behaviours, and anxious behaviours.
Avoidant behaviours involve reducing or completely stopping exposure to situations that might cause MPA symptoms to occur. You might recognise some of these symptoms that you are unconsciously doing yourself, or you could see these in other performers or students. Some of the more obvious signs of this might be:
• Strong reluctance to “put yourself out there” by signing up for performances, solos, competitions or auditions
• Skipping rehearsals and performances
• Dropping out of ensembles or performance classes
• Quitting music altogether
Some of the less obvious signs might be:
• Choosing easy repertoire
• Avoiding practice i.e. procrastination
• Avoiding eye contact with teacher, audience, or panel members
• Avoiding being vulnerable and expressing yourself openly on stage
• Avoiding moving around freely on stage
• Closed body language, or shying away from the audience
Other behavioural symptoms include anxious behaviours that you or other performers might be displaying. They are generally grouped into 3 areas – physical, verbal, and facial.
Physical
Fidgeting, shaking, wringing hands, nail biting, hands in pockets etc.
Verbal
Talking faster or louder, stuttering, nervously laughing, asking more questions, talking a lot etc.
Facial
Blinking often, squinting, wincing, widely opening the eyes, lip biting, frowning, moving your jaw back & forth, avoiding eye contact, eyes darting about from side to side etc.
“It may occur in a range of performance settings, but is usually more severe in settings involving high ego investment, evaluative threat (audience), and fear of failure.”
Now we get to the types of performance settings where MPA can present itself. Although we usually associate debilitating nervousness and anxiety with big and important occasions, this is not always the case. Even smaller, more intimate performance settings can induce high levels of MPA, due to a combination of the 3 factors mentioned:
High ego investment
Evaluative threat (audience)
Fear of failure
So what role do each of these factors play?
High ego investment
Musicians have to invest significant amounts of time, effort, energy, and money into pursuing a love of music. This means that any time you get up on stage, you are strongly invested in what you are about to do. You care about the result, and want to do a good job. This is a positive thing, and shows that you are doing something that you value, and is clearly important and worthwhile.
However, if your identity and ego are too closely linked with the outcome of the performance, then this can create a distorted sense of self i.e. “I am a good person when I play well, but when I make a mistake it shows that I am a flawed and lesser person.” This is often a difficult association to untangle for many musicians, as one spends so much time alone with your instrument, often from a very young age, with the dream of one day becoming successful. Therefore, the instrument can sometimes be viewed an extension of the body (especially for singers, as their instrument actually IS part of the body), with the concept of musician and person fused together as one. This means that any mistake, criticism, or failure is taken personally, damaging one’s ego, sense of self-worth, confidence, and overall enjoyment of music.
But in reality, being a musician is only one part of who you are as a person (perhaps a large part, but nevertheless a part.) No-one will ever be 100% musician (yes, there are other things to life outside of music!), so gaining a healthier, balanced, and broader perspective is something that all musicians can ultimately strive for.
Evaluative threat (audience)
This part is pretty self-explanatory – another element that triggers MPA is the presence of an audience. This could be an auditorium of regular concert-goers, or could be a group of important or well-respected individuals that may have some significance in your musical career. This might include teachers, panel members for a competition or audition, colleagues, or close friends and family. It is not necessarily the threat from these people per se that would trigger MPA, but the threat of negative evaluation, which could then have significant impact on a performer’s status, career, and ego (as mentioned above.)
Fear of failure
Having a fear of failure is something incredibly common in musicians, yet strangely, mistakes and failure are something that we experience a lot of. Generally, a fear of failure means that there’s something riding on the performance outcome. This might mean that your reputation, abilities, or status are put under the microscope. You might feel like you could disappoint yourself or others, you might fear embarrassing yourself or looking silly, or you might worry about falling short of the desired outcome, which could affect your career trajectory. All of these things can, in-turn, damage ego and create greater anxiety for future performances.
In the previously mentioned ICSOM Musician’s Health Survey, the highest anxiety provoking situations for participants were auditions, solo performances/concertos, competitions, and recitals. All of these situations have quite a clear evaluative element (as mentioned above.) However, the evaluation and success of a performance, especially for auditions, competitions, and assessed recitals, is more well-defined in these circumstances i.e. there are clear winners and losers, or you get the marks you wanted, or you don’t. Although the definition of success for solo performances and concertos might be less clear-cut, there still contains a strong evaluative element eg. from music critics assessing the performance, from colleagues, your teacher, or the conductor. This can make these situations just as anxiety-provoking.
Whilst nobody enjoys failure, learning to develop a healthy relationship with it is key for ongoing growth and development. There is so much to gain from failure if you are willing to stretch outside your comfort zone, and accept that things won’t always go as planned. If you can view failure as something that is helpful and necessary for your progress, then it becomes something that you seek out, rather than shy away from. Then it begins to lose its negative power, and helps you to improve further.
Here’s another blog post I wrote on the advantages of failure.
How do you react to mistakes and failure? Do you take your mistakes personally, and hold onto them long after the performance is done? Which audiences make you more nervous and anxious? Try to think about the various performance circumstances that you experience, and think deeper about when and why you react how you do. This way you can learn to prepare accordingly, and be ready and more confident each time you go on stage!
“It may be focal (i.e. focused only on music performance), or comorbidly [in combination] with other anxiety disorders, in particular social phobia.”
Do you only get anxious in musical settings, or do you have other anxieties that arise outside of performing?
For some people, MPA may only occur in music performance settings. However, for others it can be found in combination with other anxiety disorders. Conditions such as generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), specific phobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and depression all share commonalities with MPA.
However, social phobia (social anxiety disorder or SAD) is seen as the most closely associated condition. This is when someone experiences a fear of negative evaluation and embarrassment in social settings. This close connection probably comes as no surprise, seeing as music performance involves standing on a stage with a group of people staring at you, judging your playing. Therefore, the possibility of negative evaluation and embarrassment could be quite high!
Another reason why MPA is so closely related to social phobia is perhaps because musicians spend a lot of time alone in a practice room from a young age. This may mean that less time has been spend developing social skills and interacting with others. Because many social cues and skills are learned directly in social settings, these circumstances can sometimes be tricky to handle for musicians, and can understandably cause heightened anxiety.
**Note: If you have been diagnosed with any of the disorders mentioned above, then it may be worthwhile to speak to your mental health professional about options to assist you further**
“It affects musicians across the lifespan and is at least partially independent of years of training, practice, and level of musical accomplishment.”
MPA can strike at any point in a musician’s career. It affects musicians of all levels and all ages, and can occur suddenly, or slowly develop over time. There is, however, a greater incidence of MPA in performers under the age of 30, with more reported prevalence in students as opposed to professionals. This is probably due to the intense period of study in this age-group – from upper high school, through to university and postgraduate degrees. This, combined with other life stressors (moving out of home, increased financial responsibility, creating and maintaining social networks, overall work/life balance etc.) may contribute to increased stress levels and trigger MPA.
This period is also a classic “make-it-or-break-it” time in any hopeful musician’s career. Performance, competition, and audition success provide indications as to whether a performer “has what it takes” to be successful, in what is an incredibly cutthroat industry. I can certainly relate to this, and have seen first-hand the effects of MPA on many other young musicians throughout my career.
However, MPA can also affect more experienced, accomplished, and older musicians at any stage of their career, due to a number of factors. Injury, age-related deterioration of physical and mental capabilities, other personal issues (eg. family, work, and life stress etc.) can all contribute to the development of MPA throughout a musician’s career.
Because MPA can affect musicians at any time in their career, this makes it essential to have some form of mental skills training as part of your regular practice routine. For more information, please refer to my blog posts, or additional resources, or get in touch with me directly for assistance.
The last part of Kenny’s definition is:
“It may or may not impair the quality of the musical performance.”
This is definitely a factor that a lot of performers fall victim to – the idea that being nervous is going to make you perform worse. However, the research has shown that this is not necessarily the case.
This is where the performer can learn to recognise and understand their own manifestations of MPA, and develop skills to respond to this in beneficial ways. By using the additional energy produced in performance, and transferring it into the music, then this creates an even more exciting and engaging performance for the audience to listen to.
In addition to her definition of MPA, Kenny also found several other factors that could increase the risk of experiencing MPA, including:
Gender – Research has shown greater prevalence of anxiety disorders in females than in males. One theory behind this from Dianna Kenny’s book is that “…in evolutionary terms: males must protect the nest, and to do that they must remain calm.” (p. 22)
Age of onset – This is the age when children start experiencing MPA for the first time. Children who begin their musical training before the age of 8 experienced lower levels of MPA than children who started when they were 9 or 10. This is due to the natural changes in a child’s development, when strong associations with performing in front of an audience are established. If a healthy association with performing can be developed early, (before the child starts to recognise external judgement from their peers, as well as identify possible negative consequences to their actions), then this has shown to reduce the severity of MPA later in a musician’s career.
Perfectionism – Musicians who have inflexibly high standards, a strong fear of failure, and the quality of their performance closely linked with their self-worth are generally more adversely affected than those who had a more realistic, broader perspective i.e. “If I perform poorly, then that means I am a bad musician/person.” vs “If I perform poorly, then that just means that I performed poorly!”
Type of music - Being a classical musician is considered higher risk for MPA than other genres of music. This is perhaps due to the formal nature of performances, the greater technical and musical constraints for the musicians, higher reported levels of perfectionism, as well as many other factors.
So there we have it – MPA in a nutshell! I hope this article has helped you gain a better understanding of this condition, so you can now take some concrete actions to improve your performances in the future.
If you want to explore MPA in much greater detail, then I suggest you check out Dianna Kenny’s amazing book The Psychology of Music Performance Anxiety (Oxford University Press).
However, if you are experiencing distressing, upsetting, or debilitating thoughts or sensations in relation to performing, or with everyday experiences, then please seek help from your doctor, psychologist, or trained mental health professional. Musicians are at a significantly higher risk of developing serious conditions such as anxiety and depression, so if you are finding things tough, then please don’t hesitate in getting help.
Here are some links to mental health organisations in Australia, the US, and the UK, where you can learn more:
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/anxiety/types-of-anxiety
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/anxiety-disorders (Australia)
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml (US)
https://mentalhealth-uk.org/help-and-information/conditions/anxiety-disorders/types/ (UK)
All the best on your journey with MPA, and I hope to see you on stage soon!