Relationships Among Meditation, Perfectionism, Mindfulness, and Performance Anxiety Among Collegiate Music Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank M. Diaz

I examined the use of meditation practices among collegiate-level musicians ( N = 255), along with the degree to which these practices contributed to music performance anxiety (MPA) when controlling for trait perfectionism and trait mindfulness. Findings indicated that approximately 48% of the participants sampled had engaged in meditation during the past 6 months and that, holding mindfulness and perfectionist traits constant, participants who meditated at least weekly tended to report less MPA. Additionally, higher trait mindfulness predicted lower performance anxiety, whereas higher self-oriented as well as socially prescribed perfectionism predicted higher MPA scores. The type of meditation participants engaged in did not seem to significantly affect performance anxiety.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amélie J. A. A. Guyon ◽  
Regina K. Studer ◽  
Horst Hildebrandt ◽  
Antje Horsch ◽  
Urs M. Nater ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
Eric Pfeifer ◽  
Christine Stolterfoth ◽  
Claudia Spahn ◽  
Hans Ulrich Schmidt ◽  
Tonius Timmermann ◽  
...  

This article presents the results of a study which focused on the application of combined Hypnomusictherapy (HMT)/Depth Relaxation Music Therapy (DRMT) and silence in preventing music performance anxiety (MPA) in music students. Participants (n=12) were divided into two groups. Each group received either 16 minutes of HMT/DRMT followed by 6:30 minutes of silence or a 16-minute seminar consisting of a moderated group discussion on silence followed by 6:30 minutes of silence. Each of the two groups experienced the alternative condition (within-subject design) with one week in between. Focus groups were held for data gathering after each session. Qualitative content analysis according to Mayring [1,2] was applied to analyze the data. Silence following DRMT/HMT was perceived as more relaxing and longer lasting than silence following the seminar. Participants reported that their distracting or depressing thoughts decreased and their auditive perception of silence changed during the combined silence and DRMT/HMT. The results indicate that the procedure can help prevent MPA.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dianna T. Kenny ◽  
Naomi Halls

This study presents the development, administration and evaluation of two brief group interventions for music performance anxiety (MPA) aimed at reducing anxiety and improving performance quality. A cognitive behavioural therapy intervention was developed based on an existing empirically-supported treatment Chilled (Rapee et al., 2006), focusing on cognitive, physiological and behavioural symptoms. The second treatment, anxiety sensitivity reduction, targeted primarily physiological symptoms and included relaxation strategies. Interventions were administered in a workshop format over one day with four intervention sessions, preceded by a pedagogic practice skills session that functioned as a control/placebo intervention. A quasi-experimental group randomization design compared the interventions in a heterogeneous sample of community musicians. Sixty-eight participants completed measures of trait anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, depression, and MPA. Participants performed four times (pre- and post-placebo, post-treatment and follow-up) and were assessed for state anxiety and performance quality at each performance. Results indicated that both interventions offered moderately significant gains for the musicians: anxiety was reduced and performance quality improved after each intervention and changes were maintained at follow-up. Anxiety sensitivity reduction showed a trend to exceed the CBT-based interventions, but a larger, higher-powered study is needed to confirm this advantage.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariadna O Brugués

Music performance anxiety (MPA) affects many individuals regardless of age, gender, experience, and hours of practice. In order to better understand the epidemiology of MPA, a review of the literature was done. Sixteen articles, meeting EBM criteria, were identified and analyzed. Children rarely suffer from MPA, while adolescents show symptoms similar to adults. Females are generally more affected than males. There is no relation between professional experience and performance anxiety. Great musicians such as Pau Casals and Enrico Caruso suffered from MPA. Nevertheless, students affected by MPA may decide not to become professional musicians because of their inability to cope with the devastating effects of performance anxiety. Solo performances showed higher MPA scores than ensemble performances. Despite these conclusions, long-term cohort studies with larger, homogeneous groups of subjects would be desirable, according to the evidence-based medicine criteria.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santos Orejudo ◽  
Francisco Javier Zarza-Alzugaray ◽  
Oscar Casanova ◽  
César Rodríguez-Ledo ◽  
Beatriz Mazas

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is a phenomenon often encountered among professionals and students who make public appearances. This article presents the results of a study carried out on a sample of music students in superior music conservatories in Spain ( N = 434). Our goal was to analyze MPA on the basis of Barlow’s (2000) anxiety theory, supplementing it with further personality constructs such as dispositional optimism, general auto-efficacy, and sensitivity to reward and punishment. Our structural equation modeling (SEM) results reveal that several of those constructs exert their effect via the helplessness factor – the central construct in Barlow’s theory – and that they likewise exert a further series of direct effects on MPA. All in all, the variables taken into consideration account for 45.6% of variance in MPA in males and of 52.1% thereof in females. This study thus upholds Barlow’s theory of anxiety, while broadening it with further explanatory mechanisms.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raluca Matei ◽  
Jane Ginsborg

When pursued professionally, the demands of musical training and performance can interfere with musicians' well-being and health. Music performance anxiety, while energising at optimal levels, impairs performance quality when excessive. A range of interventions has been explored to address it. However, the poor methodological quality of such studies and the complexity of this issue should mobilise further research resources in this direction.


2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 126-130
Author(s):  
Joanne C Chang ◽  
Elizabeth Midlarsky ◽  
Peter Lin

This study investigated the effect of meditation on music performance anxiety. Participants were 19 students between the ages of 18 and 41 yrs, who were recruited from the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College of Music, Yale University School of Music, and State University of New York at Purchase. The experimental group received a series of eight meditation classes, and the control group received no meditation training. After the 8-week training period, all performed in a concert. Pretests and post-tests of music performance anxiety were given and post-tests of state anxiety and of performance concentration. Performance anxiety decreased among participants in the meditation group, in contrast to participants in the control group, whose performance anxiety did not decrease. Differences in regard to post-test state anxiety and performance concentration were not significant. An additional benefit of meditation was a reported increase in relaxation pleasure even in the period immediately before the performance. Results indicate that meditation may be a useful tool for aiding performers to combat performance anxiety.


2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. 557-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Studer ◽  
Brigitta Danuser ◽  
Horst Hildebrandt ◽  
Marc Arial ◽  
Patrick Gomez

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 792-805
Author(s):  
Claudia Castiglione ◽  
Alberto Rampullo ◽  
Silvia Cardullo

Individual, social and situational factors might play an important role on the experience of anxiety during musical performances. The present research focused on the relationship between self-representations, including musical self, and performance anxiety among a sample of Italian professional and amateur musicians (N = 100; age, M = 23.40, 50% females). We predicted that higher self-discrepancies (actual vs. future self) would be associated with higher performance anxiety in a musical setting (vs. a non musical one), via musical self, and only in professional musicians. The results confirmed our hypothesis. Higher discrepancies between actual and future self-representations were positively associated with higher performance anxiety levels via the musical self only in participants who play instruments at a professional level. Furthermore, musical self influenced performance anxiety levels in a music related setting (i.e., a concert) but not in a non musical one (i.e., an exam).


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