Music Performance Anxiety and Performance Degradation in students who study or have studied music at a collegiate level: A case study

Performance anxiety is an exaggerated fear or apprehension about performing a task in front of others due to fear of negative evaluation. It is often experienced in different areas such as public speaking, test taking, sports performance, and the performing arts (theater, dance, and music performance). The symptoms of anxiety can range from mild to severe depending on the individual. The symptoms that an individual experiences can possibly have a negative effect on the overall performance quality. The focus for this study is Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) and Performance Degradation (or choking under pressure as in sports performance) in musical performance. The purpose of this study was to focus on how MPA and performance degradation manifested in musicians performances who currently or previously studied music at the collegiate level. This study investigated MPA in 6 current/previous music majors (n=3 males, n=3 females) through interviews. These musicians described their past and current experiences with MPA. The results indicated from the study yielded two major common points: (1) the participants experience anxiety when they do not feel prepared or (2) not comfortable with their performance due to different reasons