The curious paradox of music performance anxiety

I have written about the power of music, particularly with regard to the links between music-making and wellbeing. Many argue that participation in music, which leads to a positive music self-concept, has a direct and positive impact on self-esteem. So, it is somewhat of a paradox that the very activity that can foster such positive feelings of joy, fellowship, wellbeing, and self-esteem can also function as host to feelings of terror, in the form of music performance anxiety (MPA). MPA has been defined as apprehension prior to performance, or impairment of performance, that is entirely out of kilter with what might be expected given one’s level of training and preparation.

One of my most vivid early memories is of my first violin recital. It is the terror – the anticipation of catastrophe – that has stayed with me for over 50 years. Therefore, I was particularly interested in the research investigating whether music performance anxiety may be related to the age at which musicians start learning their instruments. A group of Spanish researchers carried out a survey study with over 200 school-aged young people learning instruments, as well as a second group of over 400 conservatoire students. Amongst both groups, those who had started learning at age 7 or younger had lower levels of music performance anxiety than those who had started at age 9 or 10. The researchers explain that it is at about age 8 that children start to develop the complex cognitive mechanisms that underpin ‘mature embarrassment’ and suggest that at younger ages children are therefore in some sense protected from anxiety in performance situations. In addition, the authors highlight the importance of context, in explaining their findings. Starting an instrument at an early age can provide frequent experiences of performance within an encouraging and warm context and these repeated experiences of success can generate a positive feedback loop which evidently may have far-reaching impact. However, the adults and peers in that environment play a key role. Early performance experiences that lack personal warmth and encouragement, or that are just ‘too hard’ and therefore do not contribute to a bank of mastery experience, may lead to a negative feedback loop that can be hard to shift. A key message in this research is that an early start can provide a wonderful opportunity to build positive performance experiences that may, if experienced within supportive and safe contexts, subsequently act as a buffer in the face of MPA.

Focusing on their group of 437 conservatoire students, the same group of researchers explored the relationship between psychological vulnerabilities and MPA. The results showed that a sense of helplessness was a strong predictor of MPA, and that self-efficacy and optimism were both negatively related to MPA. Helplessness, they explain, can have its roots in early childhood, and once established can be persistent. Circling back to the discussion around links between age of starting learning and MPA, it seems ever more clear that early childhood experiences of performance must be handled with care. While these early experiences may form the building blocks of positive strategies and attitudes towards performance, they may very easily also form the foundation of helplessness, spiralling into debilitating MPA.

Finally, these recent papers concerned with MPA once again highlight troubling and persistent gender differences. In line with other research, the group of Spanish researchers reported that women experienced higher MPA than men, and that self-efficacy was higher amongst the men. This phenomenon of gender differences in anxiety under stressful performance conditions was explored in some depth by a group of Dutch researchers. Eighty-one conservatoire students described what they were thinking about when they play under pressure. It seems that while playing under pressure women are distracted by many more worries and disturbing thoughts, compared to men – 37% of the women’s thoughts were coded as worries or disturbing thoughts, compared with 18% of the men’s thoughts coded in that way. The men seemed to have strategies for remaining focused on task – 46% of the men described being focused on the music, as compared with just 25% of the women.

This brings me back to my early memory of MPA, and to the paradox. Music-making can be a joyful and enriching lifelong activity – there can be little doubt about that. But what are the facets of those early formative experiences that set our children off on a pathway of vulnerability, or alternatively resilience, with regards to MPA? And, why is it so persistently women who are the most vulnerable? Perhaps we need to be exploring in-depth our pedagogical practices in the early years, looking for the potential roots of gender differences in MPA.