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The shivering pianist : Treatment strategies for music performance anxiety

The aim of this thesis was to better understand how music performance anxiety can be dealt with to not negatively affect my playing when performing solo piano music by heart in concerts. Another aim was that I would feel a lot more secure and confident on those occasions and that I would be able to focus more on the interpretation and expressing my emotions after this project. The field of MPA has been studied quite a lot but not broadly within the framework of artistic research. This thesis addresses two research questions: How might physical exercises decrease my experience of music performance anxiety? How might mental training decrease my experience of music performance anxiety? The methods used were preparing for three concerts with discovered strategies, keeping a video diary from two days before the concert until the concert day, taking video recordings of the concerts and analyzing the performance videos and video diaries using open coding and observing instimulated recall sessions. I then reflected on how the strategies helped me with the anxiety. As a result of this project, I have found a lot of strategies that help me with MPA. Physical exercises that I have found helpful are e.g., yoga, Zen meditation, deep relaxation, progressive muscle relaxation, regular aerobic exercise, short physical warm-up before the concert, focusing on breathing and releasing muscular tension when practicing and performing. The mental strategies included mental practicing, positive self-talk, identifying and eliminating catastrophic thinking, reinforcing themeaning in performing, having precise goals for the concert, practicing memorization and focusing on musical values when practicing and performing.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ltu-98770
Date January 2023
CreatorsHyväri, Tiina
PublisherLuleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik, konst och samhälle
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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