Music Performance Anxiety - First Embrace Your Strengths

The Music Performance (Anxiety) Workout - MPW Activity 1

and

Jun 29, 2023

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

The Musician Coach is a coaching site for musicians with weekly activities in areas such as music performance design and music performance anxiety to support you in making and meeting personal goals, regardless of what type of musician you are, or how music fits into your life. Weekly articles and activities provide a coaching mindset for cultivating bravery and encouraging the small steps that can have big impacts on your life journey.

The Music Performance (Anxiety) Workout (MPW)

Activity 1

This week we will review the Music Performance Workout (MPW) Concept 1: There are no quick fixes for music performance anxiety, and practicing for performance should be a part of the daily routine.

And take a strengths inventory as an activity for MPW Concept 3: Anxiety is individually constructed, and reducing anxiety involves working towards self-discovery (listening to your inner voice), autonomy (reducing the effects of outside noises coming at you), and presenting yourself authentically; all while continuing to hone your craft.

(See here for the introductory article with all 5 concepts)

Self-discovery for authenticity

One of my guest lecture topics is “Navigating Your Own Path in Music” which involves presenting a number of self-reflective questions to put one on the path of questioning what they want out of life in contrast to what they are told they should want. After these presentations there are always some who reach out and ask something related to the following, “But how do I do that, how do I find my path and/or discover what I am supposed to be/do?” after we have spent an hour exploring that very question.

We have come to expect quick answers for everything in life. Google answers every question we have (correctly or incorrectly), and AI instantly creates for us text, art, and even music (for better or worse) in a few seconds. Learning shortcuts are easily found for games that used to take time and patience to learn to play while developing social relationships with friends and family. We are “learning” to not seek answers through our own experiences, to not build authentic relationships, and to not have patience and persistence through difficult challenges.

At the same time, and also at a fast pace, we have constant outside messaging coming at us through our phones, other media, and institutions telling us who we are and who we should be. The students at my presentations are basically asking me to give them the answer to how they can find their purpose in life, as though I just forgot to put that part in the presentation. They want the quick, Google answer.

Finding your life’s meaning and purpose is not a goal, it is a life-long journey that can be reimagined at any age.

To begin this journey you need at least three things that are not easily achieved in our current environment:

To spend time alone, to feel and experience, in self-reflection and without distraction
To feel that you have permission to explore who you are, and permission to disregard external messaging directing how you should think, feel, and be
To have the courage for seeking and taking opportunities to explore and practice who you are and who you want to be

In a culture where our environment is constantly displaying messages of what we should think or do, it is no wonder that anxiety is rampant in our society, as success is impossible when our goal is to please others by meeting all of their expectations. In particular, if as a musician we are constantly trying to serve someone else’s ideal of a musical performance without having a sense of our own meaning and purpose, then there is no real potential for success. Music is subjective, and we can not control what others think. We can only control our own thoughts, and that is difficult enough.

The idea of finding your own voice is not new. You have probably been told to say something meaningful with your music, but possibly by someone who at the same time expected you to think and believe and play/sing just as they do. Maybe you have been in a situation where you were expected to please two people with differing and conflicting ideas, putting you in a situation with no way to be right. In such a situation your only path forward is to learn who you are, and do the best you can to stay true to your personal self. But first you need to know who you are.

Here is a first big step to managing music performance anxiety, and it is to begin seeking who you are, and your meaning and purpose in life, with the understanding that this is a life-long path. This week’s activity for self-discovery is to discover your personal strengths as measured by the VIA Classification of Character Strengths.

Identify Your Strengths Activity:

The VIA Classification of Character Strengths is a Likert-type survey that takes around 25 minutes that will give you a list of the 24 character strengths in the order that you endorse them.

This survey is free, and hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center. You will be asked to create an account, but you do not need to give any payment type or information.

Take the VIA Survey of Character Strengths here. Scroll down to find the VIA. https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/testcenter

Once you have taken your VIA inventory, save your results, take a screen shot, or write down your VIA list of Character Strengths in your journal. We will refer to your character strengths in future MPW activities. Then, answer the Week 1 Journaling Activity Question below by responding in the comments section, or write your response in a personal journal.

Here are some thoughts on reviewing your VIA results:

No psychology inventory is perfect. We are human, and therefore ever growing and changing, so taking the inventory at different times in life may result in slightly different results.
Accidentally skipping even one question can significantly change the results. If your results do not align with your expectations, take the survey again being careful to not skip any questions.
Your focus should be on your top 3-5 listed strengths, however, our human nature seems to be to go right to the end and look what we are “bad” at. The VIA inventory does not work this way. As humans we all have some level of each of these strengths that we call on at different times. It is not about lacking any particular strength, but rather which strengths help you to be your best self.
After completing your VIA, consider what “strengths” appeared in your top 5 that you most immediately identify with. How might you begin to lean into these strengths to energize your music practice and performance?

Csikszentmihalyi reminds us of the connection between developing our inner self and managing anxiety in his 2001 book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
"To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself. She has to develop the ability to find enjoyment and purpose regardless of external circumstances."

Journaling:

After completing your VIA, what strengths appeared in your top 5 that you most immediately identify with? How might you begin to lean into these strengths to energize your music practice and performance?

Share your answer by leaving a comment: