Experiences in Music Performance Anxiety: Exploration of Pedagogical Instruction Among Professional Musicians

Abstract

Music performance anxiety (MPA) often occurs in performing musicians with each episode of anxiety specific to past and current life experiences. This study sought to gain a deeper understanding of a few individual experiences with MPA by, first, assessing musician specific MPA experiences and, second, exploring whether or not these musicians previously had received any pedagogical assistance in managing the MPA they experienced. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyze the participants’ experiences leading to the development of the Four Systems Model (4SM) of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis for Music Performance Anxiety (4SM of IPA for MPA). Within this model four distinct reoccurring themes in the experiences of MPA were identified: (1) initial onset; (2) rehearsed anxiety; (3) physical, psychological, and emotional manifestations of MPA; and (4) a lack of helpful pedagogical assistance. The results exposed two significant observations. First, individual experiences of MPA vary widely despite similar explanatory themes, and, second, evidence suggested a lack of pedagogical intervention for MPA during early music education. The implications from the research indicated that understanding personal experiences of MPA should be customized to the specific musician and that further research aimed at developing pedagogical resources for MPA intervention should be conducted.