Impacts of Burnout in Musicians’ Daily Life

Burnout in society is a heavily researched subject. People experience burnout all the time.

Most people feel burnt out from school, while others feel burnt out from work. In fact, in some

countries, burnout has been classified as a medical diagnosis (Nápoles, 2022). For this reason,

there is countless research that shows the average person how to get past it and move on.

However, what about burnout specifically in the field of music? This area is not as heavily

studied and still needs to be brought into the light. How do musicians get affected by burnout?

And most importantly, how do they overcome it? The average person will take a break from

work when they are feeling overworked and underappreciated, but what about music educators,

or performers. Are they just expected to let their students down by not showing up to class? Or to

cancel a performance that people bought tickets to see just because they do not feel well? It is not

as easy as picking up the phone and asking your boss for a day off. So, if the standard research

will not serve a musician justice, what will? In this project I will be researching burnout in

musicians and how it affects their daily life.

Before I go on to explain how burnout affects music majors differently than others, I have

to explain what burnout is. The term was coined by psychiatrist Herbert Freudenberger in 1974-

1975 and supported by Christina Maslach in 1976. So, what is it exactly? It was believed to be a

symptom of those in positions of caregiving and service, however as researched progressed the

concept was extended to any position where people often feel overlooked, underpaid, and

undervalued (Nápoles, 2022.) Burnout is a state of mental and physical exhaustion, usually

brought upon by prolonged periods of stress. Teasley (2016) stated that there are numerous

symptoms associated with burnout. Some of which include insomnia, headaches, back pain,

ulcers, alcoholism, suicide, and if left untreated, a person can also face psychological
repercussions later in life. “Someone suffering from burnout may notice changes in behavior,

including increased risk taking, irritability, helplessness, frustration, and depression” (p. 43).

Feeling burned out is a serious illness between members of society so it is important to mention

that being in this grave situation is critical no matter what it is that the person does. However,

this research is not based on the average member of society. So let us see how burnout affects

music majors in a field that isn’t as recognized.

In this section we will be looking at how burnout can manifest differently in other

subgroups of music. When people think of music, they think of grammy award winning artists

going to the met gala, or maybe they think of hundred-year-old composers and classical music.

However, especially in this era, music has become a much broader subject. Nowadays there are

many paths you can choose from aside from just performing. I will be specifically looking

closely at Music Therapy. Going back to the early definitions of burnout, we can see that those in

caregiving positions were more likely than others to experience the phenomenon (Gooding

2019). This is incredibly insightful seeing as Music Therapy is in its core a musical profession

with its closest link being healthcare. However, unlike any other healthcare profession, music

therapy lacks one key thing, awareness. Gooding (2019) states, “Lack of understanding,

disrespect from colleagues, and the need for constant advocacy and education can also contribute

to burnout among music therapists (Ferrer, 2017)…” When we as people think of the medical

professions we think of doctors, nurses, and first responders. But rarely does anybody ever think

about therapists. This exact scenario happens every day for music therapists.
(Major Point III: In this point I will be talking about how burnout affects people in the music

field specifically and how it affects their day to day. I will be using (Nápoles, 2023) as my source

to back up my point.)

Nápoles- Daily Life

Now that we know what burnout is and what some of the effects are we can begin to

isolate how these symptoms could and do affect the daily life of musicians.

Major Point IV: Here I will be talking about how musicians could prevent and overcome being

burnt out. I will be using (Allsup, 2005) and/or (Bernhard, 2021) as it pertains to the prevention

of burnout in music.

Allsup & Bernhard- Preventing Burnout

Conclusion: In this paragraph I want to wrap up all my main ideas into one. Saying something

along the lines of how burnout in music is incomparable to burnout in other majors. To

conclude, burnout in the field of music is not something that should be taken lightly, nor should

it be compared to burnout in any other setting, etc.

 Work Cited

Allsup, Randall Everett. “Stress and the Music Teacher: Preventing Burnout.(Professional

Notes).” Teaching Music 12.5 (2005): 50-. Print.

Bernhard, H. Christian. Managing Stress in Music Education : Routes to Wellness and Vitality.

New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. Print.

Gooding, Lori F. “Burnout among Music Therapists: An Integrative Review.” Nordic journal

of music therapy 28.5 (2019): 426–440. Web.

Nápoles, Jessica. “Burnout: A Review of the Literature.” Update : applications of research in

music education 40.2 (2022): 19–26. Web.

Nápoles, Jessica et al. “Burnout and Impostor Phenomenon Among Undergraduate Music

Education Majors.” Journal of research in music education (2023): n. pag. Web.

Teasley, Marilee L., and Erin M. Buchanan. “When Music Goes Up in Flames: The Impact of

Advising on Music Major Burnout.” NACADA journal 36.1 (2016): 43–53. Web.