The present study evaluates attentional training and behaviour rehearsal in treating musical performance anxiety and in modifying self-talk and perceptions of self-efficacy. Pianists who experienced extreme anxiety in. performing situations were randomly assigned to the following conditions: (l) attentional training (n = 19), (2) behaviour rehearsal (n = 16), (3) waiting list control (n = 18). Three therapy sessions were conducted over a three-week period with subjects in the first two conditions meeting in small groups for one and one-half to two hours. Subjects in the attentional training program were taught to become aware of their negative thoughts before, during, and after their performances and to substitute these negative thoughts with positive task-relevant self-statements. Cognitive recall from videotaped performances and cognitive-modeling slide-tape sequences facilitated this process. Subjects in the behaviour rehearsal program were given a rationale for the effectiveness of repeated performance before a small supportive audience in reducing performance anxiety. Both treatments required performances during therapy sessions and in home assignments. A multivariate analysis of covariance revealed no difference among the three groups at post-treatment on self-report, behavioural, or physiological measures. At a five-week follow-up, however, attentional training and behaviour rehearsal were more effective than the waiting list control condition in reducing visual signs of anxiety and improving the quality of playing. Attentional training was superior to behaviour rehearsal in reducing visual signs of anxiety. Two scales were developed to measure the cognitive mediational variables of self-talk and self-efficacy. At follow-up, both treatments were superior to no treatment in increasing positive and decreasing negative thinking surrounding performances. Attentional training was superior to the other two conditions in enhancing expectations of personal efficacy. Behaviour rehearsal did not surpass the attentional training treatment on any of the six dependent measures, at follow-up. These findings were discussed in relation to previous research on attentional training and behaviour rehearsal, and to the cognitive mediational processes common to both therapies. Issues such as modeling effects, expectancy effects, follow-up, home assignments, subject attrition, and implications for the musical community were also discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

High school band members (N=13) and their teacher were observed during six rehearsals of two contrasting band compositions over a six-week period. The contrasting compositions were selected by means of a detailed process between me (the researcher) and the teacher (the conductor). One 60-second excerpt of each composition was selected, during the performance of which, the students were observed. Three video tapings of each composition was done in order to capture occasions when the students would look up from their music. Using a technique adapted from Ekman (1997), the band members and teacher were then interviewed in order to reveal the reasons they recalled for looking up from their music. The results showed that the band members looked up in places where the teacher expected eye contact, that the frequency of eye contact changed little from one rehearsal to the next, and that the frequency of eye contact changed little between the two contrasting compositions. In all cases, the band members were able to recall the reasons for looking up from their music, a fact which led to a detailed analysis about the students' own thoughts while they were engaged in playing as an ensemble. The results are discussed in terms of strategies for teaching practice and implications for future research.

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While large performance spaces fulfill important cultural, civic, architectural and artistic needs, few performing artists begin their careers playing in large halls. As in professional sports, the “minor leagues” play a critical role for professional performing artists by allowing them to both reach out to new audiences and hone their performance skills. Niche and emerging performing artists, therefore, rely on small performance spaces as their principal means exercising their craft. In addition to size, one important difference between large and small performance spaces is the criticality of the social experience. Small performance spaces are often informal, with entertainment being secondary to social functions - as in the case of the neighborhood coffee house, bar or restaurant that offers periodic performances in addition to their standard fare. The hybridization of social and performance functions offers a “ready-made” audience for niche and emerging performing artists, engendering the new and random audience-performer connections that are so critical to nurturing performing artists and the performing arts in general. The disparate social and attentive programmatic functions of these hybrid spaces offer a challenge to architects and designers. Providing a hybrid social/performance space that is optimized for niche and emerging performing artists is the central design problem that this thesis seeks to address.

Although the present revival of interest in the lute and its music began in the late nineteenth century, it was not until the early 1970s that the historical method of lute playing in the Renaissance are paintings, woodcuts, old lutes, and lute books.

The troubling negative effects of music performance anxiety (MPA) have remained less investigated under ensemble settings and with undergraduate non-music majors than under solo settings with music majors and professional musicians. This study examined the experience and prevalence of music performance anxiety in ensemble rehearsal and concert settings in 166 undergraduate non-music majors, 108 undergraduate music majors, 4 undeclared undergraduates, 9 graduate non-music majors, and 14 graduate music majors. The participants (instrumentalists and vocalists) were drawn from 10 Mid-Atlantic colleges and universities. The Kenny Music Performance Anxiety Inventory Revised (K-MPAI-R; Kenny, 2009) was administered within the last six weeks of the semester. Students reported the full range of cognitive, somatic, affective, and behavioral symptoms of MPA, with cognitive symptoms most frequently reported. The factor structure of the K-MPAI-R was found to be stable with those factor structures previously established by Kenny using elite professional musicians and tertiary-level music students. The results of a standard multiple regression conducted to identify unique predictors of MPA indicated that although depression, being an instrumentalist, being female, and having had a music performance breakdown, all made significant contributions to K-MPAI-R scores, and depression made the strongest unique contribution (beta = .42, p < 0.001). Greater self-efficacy (as indicated by higher scores on confidence statements in the K-MPAI-R) was correlated with lower MPA under both concert (r = .49, p < 0.0005) and rehearsal settings (r = .52, p < 0.0005). Students with higher depression indicator scores exhibited higher MPA than students with lower depression indicator scores (WT = 31.40, p < 0.001). Music performance breakdowns occurred more often during solos than ensemble performances and memory lapse (16.3% of all students) was cited as the leading cause of music performance breakdowns. Overall, MPA and depression indicator scores for the sample were high compared with other groups that had been previously evaluated with the K-MPAI-R and the same depression screen. Instructors should therefore be sensitive to the possibility that ensemble musicians may experience significant negative effects of MPA during both concerts and rehearsals, and apprise themselves of evidence-based treatment options and coping strategies available for MPA.

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This is a musical score written in completion for a master of music.

Performance anxiety affects individuals across many fields, from sports to medicine to music. Research in the area of Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) has been of particular importance to instrumental and vocal soloists and ensemble members for several decades. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many musicians have been required to change the format and location of their performances. These adjustments, as well as musicians' existing unique characteristics and life experiences, may have impacted their experience of MPA. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors on MPA. Participants (N = 251) were recruited online via the Prolific platform, and completed an online survey containing demographic questions, a COVID impacts survey, and measures of individual characteristics (TIPI, NCS-18), mentorship experience (MFQ-9), retrospective state MPA in both 2020 and 2022 (CSAI-2R), and trait MPA (K-MPAI-R). A hierarchical regression was performed to explore if gender, age, musical experience (i.e., number of genres and instruments performed), extraversion, COVID impacts (general and musical), mentorship experience, and cognitive style predicted severity of trait MPA. Age, number of musical instruments performed, and extraversion were found to be significant predictors of trait MPA. Ultimately, this research has aimed to contextualize MPA within a national landscape significantly transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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