Controlling Performance Anxiety

Author(s): Robert M. Nideffer and Nancy D. Hessler

Source: College Music Symposium, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring, 1978), pp. 146-153
Published by: College Music Society
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Aspects of the Profession

Controlling
Performance Anxiety
Robert M. Nideffer and Nancy D. Hessler
Eastman School of Music

performance anxiety, a few butterflies, perhaps a dry mouth, are

symptoms that seem to be almost universal to musicians. In fact, there
are many great musicians and teachers who insist they must experience pre-
performance anxiety (even to the point of nausea) or they will not perform at
their best level. These people recognize that pressure and fear can become too
great, but they often insist that it is something to be kept within workable lim-
its through extra practice and continued exposure.
There are some musicians for whom these ideas are undoubtedly true.
They find something almost comforting in the fact that they are nervous before
a performance. As confusing as it seems, their anxiety serves as a signal that all
is well and the tension level goes no higher; it stays at (for them) a workable
level and drops as the performance begins. There are a great many others, how-
ever, for whom this is not the case. For these people the initial fears seem to be
interpreted as a signal that something is wrong. Their concern then feeds upon
itself and the tensions get out of control.
It is easy to sit back and say that the only difference between these people
is their mental attitude. The naive assumption then is that if the anxious mu-
sician would simply accept the anxiety, he would be able to go on. That's com-
forting to those who are in control and seems to explain their own experience.
Unfortunately, there are some differences both in terms of personality and in
terms of actual physical responsivity to similar situations that make an attitude
change difficult, if not impossible. For the musician experiencing an excessive
amount of performance anxiety, it is often not enough to practice more or to
play more concerts. When the musician feels himself falling apart telling him-
self "you feel something else" is less than believable. Trying to convince him-
self it's "just another performance" when his total future is affected by the out-
come is equally difficult.
A great many talented musicians accept lesser positions, give up, or drop

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 CONTROLLING PERFORMANCE ANXIETY 147

out of the profession because they are unable to control their level of perform-
ance anxiety and because the exhortation to "not worry" fails to work for them.
There is often little difference between these people and the stars in their field
in terms of talent. It becomes a tragedy for the individual, for the teacher, and
for the community when these talented individuals fail to reach their ultimate
potential.
Performance situations are all potentially anxiety inducing. There are,
however, factors which make some situations more threatening than others.
The more critical and personally relevant the audience, the more we value
their opinion, and the more potential there is for anxiety to debilitate perform-
ance. Thus, some musicians could play a very large concert with relatively lit-
tle concern, yet to play in front of two or three highly valued colleagues might
be extremely threatening.
A second factor which determines the amount of anxiety experienced has
to do with the potential impact the performance can have on the person's life.
Will the performance on that day say something important about the musi-
cian's future? Will it determine position in an orchestra, salary, etc.? Clearly,
the perceived personal impact of the performance influences anxiety levels.
A third important factor is related to the amount of importance the mu-
sician places on music. In society many individuals seem to have multiple
identities. People may have an occupation but may also identify themselves as
uncles, fathers, athletes, Elks, Jews, etc. With so many identities the threat of
losing one is minimized. A great many musicians, in contrast to other members
of society, place their body and soul into their music. The more music is the
total focus of their lives, the more potential there is for a threat to that identity
to upset them to the point of impairing their ability.
For many students at the Eastman School a jury performance (a musical
examination) has all of the elements of a very stressful situation and is an ex-
cellent model to illustrate the above points.
Often the student has come to school at some sacrifice to the family. In
addition, the student may represent the potential achievement of the cultural
and social aspirations of their parents. Many have support from their home
town communities. This places pressure on them, they feel they must succeed;
they cannot let down those they love who have sacrificed so much.
If the family pressure is not enough, their own desire is added to fuel the
fire. Music is their life, and they have not yet reached the point of developing
other interests. They have one goal: to perform. Now they find that they are in
competition in a new league. Everyone in school is special and they do not
stand out as clearly anymore. They find that they must compete for the things
that they want, and they learn very quickly how critical and, at times, unsup-
porting their environment can be.
Although they have played before audiences before, never have these au-

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 148 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM

diences been so esteemed, nor so critical. They must play their jury in front of
a group of respected faculty that will decide what caliber of student they are.
This group will decide whether they are worthy of being placed in a position
to be recommended for one of the very few choice performing opportunities
that may come along. This group can decide to hold them up as an example to
other students or it can (in the student's mind and heart) turn its back and give
up on them. Their entire life as they know it depends upon this performance,
and no matter how hard they try they cannot convince themselves that it is
"just another performance."
For many students the pressure from family, self, other students, faculty,
and the jury situation becomes so great that performance actually deteriorates
to the point of confirming their worst fears. Too often they become so discour-
aged that they give up, drop out of school, or develop some physical or psycho-
logical defense mechanism that provides an excuse for avoiding future per-
formance situations.
Although a breakdown under pressure is often seen as a personal failure
there is no reason it should be. If pressure gets high enough, and if the situation
becomes critical enough, everyone will experience a breakdown in the ability
to perform. This is true even of those faculty and students we seem to remem-
ber as never being out of control. What happens when pressure becomes too
much is interesting because it provides the key to overcoming the problem.
Physically, as arousal and anxiety increase, the individual begins to ex-
perience corresponding increases in heart-rate, perspiration, respiration-rate,
and blood pressure. These changes can lead to hyperventilation and feelings of
dizziness as well as to actual heartbeat irregularities. Nausea may develop
along with cramps from increasing muscle tension. Fine motor coordination
becomes impaired and movements become clumsy and jerky. Fatigue develops
rapidly due in part to increases in tension and the fact that this tension, then,
makes the individual work harder to accomplish the same task.
Psychologically, increasing pressure is accompanied by a narrowing of at-
tention and a reduction in the ability to integrate information and to analyze
or plan ahead. It also results in decreasing contact with the environment. The
result of these changes is that the individual begins to feel overloaded and con-
fused as if things are happening too quickly. The musician may find himself
losing his tempo and finishing a piece much too quickly. Often the anxiety
results in a flood of thoughts which catch the person's attention, further reduc-
ing his ability to focus on important task-relevant cues. Instead of seeing the
conductor, the individual is caught up in thoughts like, "What if I throw up?
I think I'm going to be sick. What will people think? I might forget some notes.
I've got to get out of here. What if I make a mistake? Will I be able to play it?"
Everyone, from time to time, will find himself in situations where he
experiences these things. Usually he manages to survive intact because the

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 CONTROLLING PERFORMANCE ANXIETY 149

situation was not actually as important as had been imagined. In the case of
the jury, however, there are real casualties. The pressure and importance of
a music education, the respect of faculty and peers, and the relevance of that
performance to the future make the jury a situation that generates very real
problems for many students. Given all of the potential for upset, it's a wonder
that anyone survives. Yet most do.
Why do a number survive (some even excel) when others fall apart?
Typically, it is not because they had any more talent, practice, experience,
or dedication, though admittedly these can be important factors on some
occasions. For a variety of reasons (that differ from student to student) the
jury situation does not generate the same level of physiological and psycho-
logical disturbance. Research on anxiety has shown us that different individ-
uals have different tolerances for pressure. Some, for reasons of birth or ear-
lier learning, fall apart more easily than others. Still other students have less
pressure exerted on them during the jury because of understanding faculty,
parents, or fellow students. Those who survive are the fortunate ones, and the
question remains concerning what can be done to help those who might oth-
erwise be less fortunate.
Thanks to the cooperation and support of the administration, faculty,
and students at the Eastman School of Music, we have had the opportunity
to experiment with programs designed to help those students who might oth-
erwise be less fortunate. The remainder of this paper is devoted to these ideas
and findings.
Coincident with increases in our understanding of the effects of increas-
ing anxiety on performance has come the refinement and development of
self-control procedures. Biofeedback (feedback to the individual of various
biological processes occurring in their body), behavior modification proce-
dures, TM, Autogenic Training and Progressive Relaxation have all been
used to help individuals gain more control over anxiety. In our laboratory we
have tested individuals and then used various mixtures and modifications of
relaxation procedures to help them perform at higher levels under pressure.
The first step in the work with Eastman students consisted of some psy-
chological testing. As understanding of the effects of anxiety on performance
has increased, so has our ability to measure and predict how a given individ-
ual is likely to respond. The Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) is
a 20 minute paper and pencil test which measures those attentional processes
that are affected by increasing anxiety. This particular test has been found
to be useful in predicting both who perform poorly under pressure and what
type of mistakes they are likely to make. Some individuals react to anxiety
with withdrawal and fail through avoidance and refusal or an inability to
perform. Others react in a disorganized fashion responding almost impul-
sively to anything around them. Their feelings of becoming over-loaded and

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150 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM

confused keep them from responding in a logical, integrated way. As a result

they react, without thinking, to whatever is in front of them. Still others
become very narrowly focused in an attempt to control and reduce the ov-
erload. This excessive narrowing makes them respond in a rigid fashion, and
they tend to make the same mistakes repeatedly. They have great difficulty
seeing the problem and hearing what others are saying to them. If the other
person gets angry or frustrated and starts yelling instructions, the problem
worsens.

By pre-testing students (not for purposes of selection!) to see how they

respond, it becomes possible to anticipate problems and to prevent their de-
velopment. Teachers can take student responses into account and adjust their
own behavior accordingly. One concern at the Eastman School involved
identification of those students who react to their anxiety by quiet with-
drawal. Often these individuals drift along, performing at an acceptable
level, but not achieving their potential and not getting needed feedback from
instructors. They feel too anxious to ask for feedback and interpret the fact
that it is not given as either rejection or a lack of concern. They see other
(more demanding and vocal) students getting the time and attention. Their
anger, resentment, and anxiety build and their confidence decreases. At first
they blame others, and they may change instructors or schools. Ultimately
the blame may be directed inward, accompanied by a feeling of unworthi-
ness, and then the student may drop out entirely. In many instances the
school may be mystified as to why the student left, since from the school's
perspective, he was doing acceptable work.
By utilizing the Attentional and Interpersonal Style test results, in-
creased awareness of individual students' response style is available. Students
who may anticipate some future difficulty are extended opportunity (an in-
terested ear) and encouragement to express concerns and feelings. At least
initially, this is best accomplished in a relatively private situation on a one-
to-one basis.

Many schools plan a guidance and feedback session with students each
semester. The anxious type of student is the one who benefits least from these
sessions; the reason is, this is the one conference where a problem is not ex-
pected. The student enters up-tight by the whole evaluative process and
withdraws even more. The faculty member has seen no problem (and the
hour before was probably spent with a student who was only too vocal) during
the semester. Too quickly the student is asked a couple of questions without
really being given time to respond. (This is an individual who normally needs
a lot of time to respond.) Both of the participants are only too happy to end
the conference early. The student leaves, temporarily reducing his anxiety,
but, at the same time, reinforcing his thoughts that the evaluator or faculty
member doesn't care. If the faculty member cared, he would have spent more
time as perceived by the anxious student.

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 CONTROLLING PERFORMANCE ANXIETY 1 5 1

Pre-testing provides a warning and allows faculty and administrators to

enter into situations with these students in ways which give them ample op-
portunity to talk and to receive feedback. Pre-testing can also be useful in
helping to identify those students who might benefit from some program
designed to teach greater control over performance anxiety, to keep it within
workable bounds. At the University of Rochester we have developed several
training programs to help in those situations where additional practice and
verbal "I think I cans" are not enough. The results with Eastman students
have been promising enough in terms of performance outcome and in terms
of both the student and faculty members' response that we have listed them
in the catalogue and made them a regular offering.
The programs combine training in relaxation, and the development of
positive attitudes and images (correspondingly replacing old negative ones)
with biofeedback to provide the student with greater self-confidence and con-
trol. The feedback of actual physical processes (levels of muscle tension) dem-
onstrates the effects of anxiety to the students and provides proof to them
that their training is improving their ability to control. Through feedback,
when tension levels go down, they know it. As they see themselves doing the
right things, their confidence rises.
Although we have experimented with several programs, two of them
deserve special attention. The first is a program developed by Dr. Richard
Wolfe as a part of his Ph.D. dissertation.
What Dr. Wolfe showed was that it was possible to develop a six-session
(45-minute sessions twice a week) automated self-treatment program to help
students cope with the anxiety of playing a jury. The actual procedures were
quite simple. Students entered the biofeedback laboratory where a technician
hooked them up to a machine that measures and feeds back information
about the level of muscle tension. Tension was measured from the muscles in
the forehead because these had been found by other researchers to be the
best single muscle indicators of total arousal.
After connecting the equipment, the technician explained to the student
both how to work the equipment and what was to be the task. The student
was told that at the start of each session he was to take fifteen minutes, using
whatever procedure seemed helpful to him (some used TM, other tried pleas-
ant thoughts, etc.) to lower the click rate of the machine. He was told that
decreasing click rate indicated increasing relaxation. Following the fifteen
minutes of relaxation, a tape was played which instructed him to imagine
two different playing situations. In the first situation the student is successful,
and is relatively anxiety free. In the second situation the student imagines
that he is playing a very difficult piece, in front of the jury. He is asked to
look around and to notice the faces of hostile jury members. The student is
then asked to attend to his own increasing fear.
Measurements of tension levels under the imaging conditions across the

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 152 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM

six sessions illustrated that students were able to learn to gain some control
over their anxiety. In fact, the control reported by both student and faculty
seemed to generalize to the actual jury performances. Students reported feel-
ing better and playing better in actual jury situations.
The second program was developed out of Dr. Wolfe's research and out
of earlier research on attentional processes as they relate to anxiety. Through
work with healthy individuals in the biofeedback laboratory (Eastman stu-
dents, business executives, professional athletes) it was found that control
could be gained over tension levels very quickly, usually within two to three
sessions. Even in Dr. Wolfe's study most of the change in tension levels oc-
curred within this time period. This finding helped to develop an even more
abbreviated program which was found very useful in treating anxiety gener-
ated by a wide variety of situations including juries, tests, having to give
speeches, flying, etc.
The second program consists of four sessions. The first session involves
an interview designed to get at the history behind the problem. An attempt
is made to identify what exactly happens when things go well and what hap-
pens when they do not. These two situations are contrasted in terms of the
actual environment (who is in the audience, what is the importance of the
concert, etc.) and in terms of the physical feelings, and thoughts that occur.
This information is then used to develop a training tape for the person. The
training tape is given to them in the second session, its relevance to their
problem is discussed, and the material that is contained is gone over in detail.
The tape consists of some breathing exercises designed to give the person
some immediate control over his attentional processes (so he can direct his
concentration to positive coping activities) and his arousal. Following the
breathing exercises the two different situations that were articulated in ses-
sion 1 are presented and the individual is asked to imagine them and to make
them as real as possible. First the successful situation is presented and then
the unsuccessful one. In this first presentation the individual imagines that
he fails. The second time he imagines the two situations (on the tape), he is
stopped in the middle of the failure situation and instructed to use the
breathing exercises to regain control and to direct attention in ways which
allow him to overcome the problem. The student is told to listen to this tape
twice a day (the tape is fifteen minutes long).
Sessions 3 and 4 consist of discussion and, when needed, procedure mod-
ification, and biofeedback of tension levels during practice. The feedback
serves to emphasize the control that is developing and to instill confidence in
the procedures. Session 4 is always timed so that it occurs within 24 hours of
exposure to the actual feared situation. All four sessions usually occur within
two weeks, though the first session can be separated from the other three by
several weeks and even months.

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 CONTROLLING PERFORMANCE ANXIETY 153

Both of the procedures presented offer individuals ways of coping with

anxiety apart from simple additional practice or exposure. For some this al-
ternative is an absolute necessity, for without it the individual would not be
fortunate enough to achieve his goals.
There is one final aspect of the research programs that we have been
developing for Eastman students which deserves some comment. Up to this
point, comments have focused around ways of dealing with excessive pressure
that develops because of peer attitudes, the importance of a situation, etc.
These are cognitive factors which lead to physical and psychological changes
that interfere with performance. It is also possible to have actual physical
problems precipitate stress, to create emotional problems, and to further
complicate the initial physical précipitants.
Many musicians, because of their dedication and intense practice, ex-
perience what physicians often refer to as tendonitis, or overuse syndrome.
They develop pain and inflammation in muscles and tendons due to im-
proper or excessive use. In the past the inflammation has been treated with
medication, and individuals have been instructed to discontinue practice for
long periods of time. To a professional musician or student the thought of
having to stop practice generates a great amount of anxiety. The musician's
future depends on his being able to perform.
As a result of the anxiety, students often avoid going to physicians until
they have done some real damage. In addition, the increases in muscle ten-
sion that accompany the fears act to aggravate the condition. Thus, the phys-
ical problem created anxiety which increases muscle tension and further ag-
gravates the problem, and an ever larger negative spiral develops.
It is possible to avoid much of the problem and pain associated with
overuse problems. First, orthopedists are now grading pain and taking into
account the emotional need to play. Often it is not necessary to completely
discontinue practice. Treatments are changing too. The inflammation still
needs to be treated by a physician. In addition, however, we have been able
to use biofeedback of the muscle tension in the affected area to teach the
individual to relax and reduce the strain. Anxiety no longer aggravates the
injury and recovery is much more rapid.
We don't intend to imply that we have all of the answers for helping
people cope with excessive performance anxiety and overuse problems. We
think, however, that we do have enough awareness of individual differences
to recognize that a number of different training procedures need to be em-
ployed if we are to help students and others live up to their ultimate poten-
tial. We have suggested some of the ways in which problems of performance
anxiety can be approached. We hope that what we have said is stimulating
and serves to generate new and better ideas as well as greater empathy and
sensitivity.

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