Exploring Music Performance Anxiety within Different Contexts and Emotional Experiences

Abstract

Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a common issue faced by musicians. Musicians may deal with MPA in a variety of contexts, including: (1) group rehearsal, (2) group performance, (3) solo rehearsal, and (4) solo performance. The act of music performance can also lead to someone feeling a variety of positive and/or negative emotions that may be interacting with MPA. Although we typically think of anxiety as being debilitative, there are times where anxiety can facilitate better performance. In this study we aim to gain a greater understanding of how MPA, emotions, and context, influence the music performance experience and how these variables may contribute to a musician perceiving their anxiety as facilitating or debilitating. Our sample (n = 114) consisted of musicians that had experience in one or more of the four performance contexts. Participants took a web survey where they filled out measures of MPA and PANAS regarding each context they had experience with and indicated whether they felt their MPA made their performance better or worse. 2x2 ANOVAs found that MPA was significantly higher in solo performance compared to group performance, as well as significantly higher in group rehearsal compared to group performance. A correlational analysis found that participants who reported higher MPA within every context also reported higher negative emotions and lower positive emotions. T-tests revealed that participants that reported higher MPA were also significantly more likely to deem their MPA as being debilitative across all the contexts. Based on these results, it appears that facilitative and debilitative MPA, emotions, and context may work together to create unique emotion schemas that are not easily measured or defined.