Performance anxiety in violin playing

The purpose of this study is to identify possible causes of performance anxiety in violin playing, and to explore ways of reducing that problem. This study was derived from interviews with five undergraduate and five graduate violin performance students at the University of Illinois School of Music, and related literatures.Performance anxiety has been felt by the great majority of musicians and they have believed that performance anxiety was soley the result of inadequate preparation, and that these problems will go away with maturity and experience. But besides this traditional view of coping, there are more scientific and effective ways of coping with the problems.Analysis of questionnaire and literature revealed that the main anxiety producing factors are the competitiveness of the field and the desire to give a perfect performance, under critical observation by audience and critics, and this pressure creates excessive physical tension. In violin playing, these anxiety symptoms can be minimized with a systematic kinesthetic approach to instruction. In addition to a pedagogical approach, the disciplines of psychology and medicine are also trying to provide effective methods of coping with the problem.Research findings showed that performance anxiety is a learned condition, nonexistent in early childhood. Therefore, teachers' attitude toward students' anxiety management should play a significant role. To minimize performance anxiety, teacher should not ignore the psychology of performance in the process of developing students. The highly successful teacher has to formulate an organized kinesthetic program and a psychological awareness of a student's needs.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio