Thesis (M.S.)--Springfield College, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Psych.Sport.&Ex.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

abstract: Students afflicted with music performance anxiety (MPA) can greatly benefit from guidance and mentorship from a music teacher with whom they have established trust, however there exists a knowledge gap between the development and manifestations of MPA, and how it can be overcome in order to prepare the student for success as a performer. It is my purpose with this guide to inform musicians, including students and teachers, about MPA, common coping methods, and outside resources where pedagogues, students, and even professionals can find further guidance. This document is designed to aid music students and teachers in their individual research on the topic. The first section provides necessary background information on MPA and concepts of gender, identity, and personality. A discussion of the results of an experimental protocol that surveyed double reed musicians about their experiences with performance anxiety comprises the second section. An annotated bibliography, listing other resources including self-help books, personal accounts, and scientific studies, is contained in the final section of this guide. Because of the relative absence of research done on the correlation between MPA and specific identity traits including personality, self-image, and gender, it was necessary to incorporate more generalized sources relating to the topic. The annotations offer a more comprehensive approach to understanding and overcoming MPA. This work is not meant to be all-inclusive; rather, its purpose is to act as a basic guide. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2014

The primary purpose of this research paper was to study performance anxiety among middle school students during a sight-reading audition. Furthermore, this sutdy asks whether the manner in which directions are presented by the sight-reading adjudicator during the course of an audition has significant impact on the performance outcome. Participants (n=75) were middle school students attending a highly rated band program in the Miami-Dade County (Miami, FL) area. By use of investigator-derived surveys, levels of trait and state anxiety were determined before and after the sight-reading performance. Means and standard deviations were calculated for perceived anxiety and for the resulting scores of the performance. A t-testcompared the control and experimental groups perceived level of anxiety, where statistically significant results were found at the pp

Abstract Performance anxiety is a term that many in school, work and sports can relate to or have heard about. Football is claimed to be the world's largest sport in terms of the number of participants. It could mean that football has many active players with performance anxiety. But how does it really look like in football at lower levels? The purpose of this study is to investigate whether performance anxiety occurs more among football players at the semi-professional level than at the amateur level. A quantitative study was done using surveys to collect data from the sample group. A total of 71 people from six football teams chose to participate in the study. The distribution between female and male football players was 29 women and 42 men. Four teams from Värmland and two teams from Uppland participated. The results showed that performance anxiety does not occur more among players at semi-professional levels than at amateur levels when it comes to men. When it comes to women, performance anxiety is more prevalent at the semi-professional level compared to the amateur level. The results also showed that age affects the degree of perceived performance anxiety. The conclusion of the study is that the performance anxiety of a football player does not necessarily have to be linked to games or divisions at a higher level where the pressure is greater, instead it can also depend on the individual's gender, age and ability to handle stress.

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Student musicians were recruited to participate in an experimental repeated measures research design study to identify effects of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback training and emotional self-regulation techniques, as recommended by HeartMath® Institute, on music performance anxiety (MPA) and music performance. Fourteen students were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group following a 5 minute unaccompanied baseline performance. Treatment group participants received 4-5 HRV training sessions of 30-50 minutes each. Training included bibliotherapy, using the computerized Freeze-Framer® 2.0 interactive training software, instruction in the Freeze-Frame® and Quick Coherence® techniques of emotional regulation, and also use of an emWave® portable heart rate variability training device for home training. Measures included the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Performance Anxiety Inventory (PAI), Flow State Scale (FSS), average heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV). Quade's rank transformed ANCOVA was used to evaluate treatment and no-treatment group comparisons. Combined MPA scores showed statistical significance at p=.05 level with large effect size of eta2=.320. Individual measurements of trait anxiety showed a small effect size of eta2=.001. State anxiety measurement showed statistical significance at the p=.10 level with a large effect size eta2=.291. FSS showed no statistical or effect size difference. PAI showed no statistical significance and a large effect size eta2=.149. HR showed no statistical significance and a large effect size eta2=.143. HRV showed statistical significance at p=.000 level and a large effect size eta2=.698. This study demonstrated practical/clinical significance of a relatively quick and inexpensive biofeedback training that had large effect at decreasing mental, emotional, and physiological symptoms of MPA for university students.

Ämnet för studien var improvisation och improvisationsundervisning i relation till begreppet Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) samt tänkbara kopplingar däremellan. MPA beskrivs enklast som ångestkänslor i samband med musikutövande. Syftet med studien var att utforska Music Performance Anxiety utifrån en jazzmusikers perspektiv. Är det möjligt att känna prestationsångest i en kontext där det egentligen inte går att ”spela fel”? Jämförelser med konstmusiken blir därför relevant. Ett vidare syfte var att finna verktyg för att kunna uppmärksamma och hjälpa elever med MPA inom ensembleundervisning med fokus på improvisation. Vilka metoder och material använder pedagogerna? I studien valdes en kvalitativ metod, baserat på forskningsintervjuer med tre olika musiker och pedagoger inom improvisation. Det kompletterades genom att utforska befintlig litteratur inom improvisation och MPA. Studiens resultat påvisar att samtliga informanter hade stora erfarenheter och personliga upplevelser av både improvisation och MPA samt kopplingar däremellan och att MPA är ett förekommande fenomen inte bara inom konstmusik utan även bland jazzmusiker. Resultaten påvisar även att MPA framställs som något mindre vanligt bland jazzmusiker än hos klassiska musiker. Det finns inom jazzkulturen en reservation mot att visa tecken på svagheter som nervositet och prestationsångest. Förhoppningvis kan studien bidra till att lyfta ämnet MPA inom jazz och populärmusik, då det tidigare inte varit så beforskat inom dessa genrer. En vidare aspiration är att uppmärksamma musikpedagoger på hur de kan hjälpa elever som upplever svårigheter i improvisationsundervisning. / The subject of the study was improvisation and improvisational teaching in relation to the concept of Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) and possible connections between them. MPA is most easily described as feelings of anxiety in connection with playing music. The purpose of the study was to explore Music Performance Anxiety from a jazz musician's perspective. Is it possible to feel performance anxiety in a context where it is not really possible to "play wrong"? Comparisons with classical music therefore become relevant. A further purpose was to find tools to be able to draw attention to and help students with MPA in ensemble teaching with a focus on improvisation. What methods and materials do the educators use? In the study, a qualitative method was chosen, based on research interviews with three different musicians and educators in improvisation. It was supplemented by exploring existing literature in improvisation and MPA. The results of the study show that all informants had great experiences and personal experiences of both improvisation and MPA as well as connections between them and that MPA is a common phenomenon not only in art music but also among jazz musicians. The results also show that MPA is presented as somewhat less common among jazz musicians than among classical musicians. There is a reservation in jazz culture against showing signs of weaknesses such as nervousness and performance anxiety. Hopefully, the study can help to raise the topic of MPA in jazz and popular music, as it has not previously been so researched in these genres. A further aspiration is to draw the attention of music educators to how they can help students who experience difficulties in improvisational teaching.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur musiklärare inom musikskola, gymnasiet och högskola ser på och arbetar med nervositet och scenskräck i undervisning. Studiens teoretiska grund utgörs av diskurspsykologi. Fokusgrupper har tillämpats som datainsamlingsmetod vilket inneburit två olika gruppsamtal där lärare diskuterat om ämnet scenskräck och nervositet. Samtalen spelades in, transkriberades och analyserades utifrån en diskurspsykologisk synvinkel i ett sökande efter tolkningsrepertoarer. Resultatet presenteras utifrån tolkningsrepertoarer om hur lärarna formulerade sin syn på nervositet. Två motstridiga repertoarer framkom i resultatet: nervositet som plötsligt angripande och nervositet som kan bemästras där nervositet konstruerades som både ett störningsmoment och som något önskvärt. Ålder, mognad och musikalisk utveckling formulerades påverka nervositet genom tolkningsrepertoaren nervositet ur ett mognadsperspektiv. Vidare formulerade respondenterna sitt arbete med nervositet och scenskräck i undervisning vilket synliggjorde tolkningsrepertoaren genre och arbete med nervositet. I denna tolkningsrepertoar lyftes genre som påverkande för arbetet med nervositet. I repertoaren läraren som terapeut konstruerade lärarna sig som inkännande utifrån samtal som metod. Repertoaren mental träning som fenomen formulerade ett förebyggande arbete som något värdefullt men tidskrävande, vilket kan ställas emot repertoaren nervositet som tidskrävande arbete där lärarna formulerade en tidsbrist och en känsla av otillräcklighet i arbetet med nervositet. Diskussionen lyfter resultatet i förhållande till tidigare forskning och litteratur där fyra områden diskuteras: Lärares syn på nervositet och elevpåverkan, hantera nervositet genom samtal, arbetet med nervositet i förhållande till tidsamt syn på nervositet och genrers påverkan. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how music teachers in music school, upper secondary school and music college view and work with nervousness and stage fright in teaching. The theoretical framework of the study is discourse psychology. Focus groups have been used as a data collection method, which has involved two different group discussions where teachers discussed the topic of stage fright and nervousness. The conversations were recorded, transcribed and analyzed from a discourse psychological point of view, in search of interpretative repertoires or small discourses. The result is presented through different interpretive repertoires on how teachers formulated their views on nervousness and stage fright. There, two contradictory repertoires emerged: nervousness as suddenly attacking and nervousness that can be mastered, where nervousness was constructed as both a disturbing moment and as something desirable. Age, maturity and musical development were formulated to influence nervousness through the interpretative repertoire nervousness from a maturity perspective. Furthermore, the respondents formulated their work with nervousness and stage fright in teaching, which made visible the interpretation repertoire genre and work with nervousness. There, the genre was emphasized as influencing the work on nervousness. In the repertoire teacher as a therapist, teachers constructed themselves as empathetic through conversation as a method. The repertoire mental training as a phenomenon formulated a preventive work as something valuable but time-consuming, which can be put opposite the repertoire nervousness as time-consuming work, where the teachers formulated a lack of time and a feeling of insufficiency. The discussion lifts the result in relation to previous research and literature where four areas are discussed: Teacher’s view on nervousness and student influence, dealing with nervousness through conversations, work with nervousness in relation to time and views on nervousness and the influence of genres.

This research investigates how pupils perceive performance anxiety and where this trait may originate. Based on the findings from the interviews, it was factors such as lack of studying technique, expectations of a high grade, and pressure from home as well as classmates that were the main reasons to why their performance anxiety arose from the very beginning. In relation to this, the study aims at discussing how rhetoric as a subject in school may reduce performance anxiety amongst pupils. A qualitative method was used to investigate the research question of this essay. The interviews have been done through semi-structured interviews as a primary source. Through these interviews, the work aims to examine performance anxiety amongst students and exploring how public speaking skills and performance anxiety may be influenced by preparation and rhetorical knowledge. Although this study cannot conclusively argue that the teaching of rhetoric would reduce performance anxiety, the results of the interviews suggest that better rhetorical skills would enhance students public speaking skills.”