Experiences of musical performance anxiety in final-year undergraduate music students: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Musical performance anxiety (MPA) is a common problem for musicians. However, the majority of work in this area is quantitative in nature, meaning that analyses of musicians’ individual experiences are lacking. This study therefore explored the subjective experiences of performance anxiety in undergraduate music students through the use of semi-structured interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the experiences of four undergraduate music students, including how MPA feels, how it is dealt with, and what causes it. Three themes emerged from the analysis: the psychological impact of the audience, issues of trust, and the musical identity. These results are compatible with several quantitative studies and contribute an original idiographic perspective on how music students experience and understand MPA. This has implications for both amateur and professional musicians: If the underlying mechanisms are better understood, it may be possible to introduce interventions to help musicians cope with their anxiety.