At Zebra Psychology we wanted to write about the challenges of performance anxiety. During COVID, performances and auditions other than self tapes were limited and so as performances have resumed and auditions are now in person we are finding an increase in anxiety around these issues.
If you are finding that you are a little more anxious than prior to COVID … you are not alone!!!
Lets discuss performance anxiety first…
Performance anxiety as a classical musician
Whether you are a classical musician required to perform in ensembles; eisteddfods; or for exams or as part of your involvement in orchestras the anxiety around performances can be crippling and has often led to very talented musicians to stop performing. In surveys and research into wellbeing among classical musicians’ anxiety has been one of the most reported issues for classical musicians…. Yet it has been one of the most ignored issues in wellbeing support. Performance anxiety can be the silent, hidden “killer” of classical musicians.
Performance anxiety among contemporary musicians.
Anxiety among contemporary musicians has been given extensive attention however the issues of performance anxiety less so. At Zebra we have seen performance anxiety in musicians as something they try to manage without recognising what it is. However, it can lead to reliance on substances to help get through the performance, while not recognising the role of anxiety. Typically, performance anxiety gets treated as general anxiety, yet it has unique musician specific traits.
In our experience at Zebra, all musicians we have seen, bring a lens/schema/belief in what schema therapy calls “Unrelenting Standards” or an unrealistic internal measurement system in which the musician judges themselves … they are never good enough for this internal judge. Alongside the internal measurement is this harsh, bullying voice that keeps demanding more and more perfection. An audience member or colleague will complement them on a performance and the bullying voice will say “but I played a bad note in …it will never be good enough”. It is these unrealistic and unrelenting standards, along with the harsh internal judgement that drives performance anxiety.
The challenge for musicians with performance anxiety is that teachers, audiences, managers, labels, critics also demand this type of perfectionism and without this perfectionism and the harsh critic .. you believe you won’t be successful and at some level this is true. A performer needs high standards to succeed.
At Zebra we teach you to maintain the high standards without the bullying, harsh voice that drives performance anxiety. We have developed a programme for students, musicians, and professionals to manage their performance anxiety while maintaining their standards.
See you at Zebra. The next blog will explore audition anxiety and performance anxiety among actors, musical theatre performers.