The Ultimate performance

Floor Le Coultre,
Violin,
c011989,
31-10-13
Main subject teacher: Ilona Sie Dhian Ho
Researchcoaches: Patrick van Deurzen and Philip Curtis
Format: Research Paper

Index
- Introduction

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Ultimate performance
Definition of Music performance anxiety
Methods
Brains
Concentration in sports R. Nideffer
Circles
Performance based approach
Survey
Experiences
Conclusion
Bibliography

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p.26
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Introduction
I as a musician love music. And I love to give my emotions to the audience. But I dont like
the fact that Im sometimes distracted on stage by intern thoughts. Insecure thoughts about
my ability to perform the way are expected by me or by the audience. Sometimes Im
distracted from the music because I need my focus to control my body. There can come too
much tension in my body and all I focus on is loosen it up during the performance.
I already know for sure that Im not the only one who wishes to be more in the performance.
Listening to stories about performance experiences from my colleagues made me aware of a
general similarity.
I have experienced performances where Im totally absorbed in the music. I actually stopped
thinking and was just playing I hope by owning more information about the psychology
behind music performance, I get more tools to work on my ultimate performance.
After making contact with prof. Jane Ginsborg (contact of Philip Curtis) from the Royal
Northern College of Music in Manchester I got in touch with a PHD student of her, Anna. I
asked them about books and articles written about the psychology of the performance. There
is a huge amount of literature. Especially the last 10-20 years Music performance anxiety has
taken a great interest under psychologists. Research to help athletes or businessmen has
developed in an earlier stage already. It was also interesting to read books/articles about sport
psychology. It made me aware that the focus athletes need to perform is very comparable to
the focus musicians need on stage.
The articles and books have given me very valuable information. I have now a much better
overview to show other musicians what distractions (from being in the music) there can be
and how on stage you can learn to control these distractions to get back into the music (or to
get into the flow of the music).
In this research I first would like to discuss the ultimate performance. My research question
is: How to obtain the ultimate performance?
But what is the ultimate performance? For me its the flow of the music that makes me stop
thinking about anything. Its described by the American/Hungarian psychologist
Csikszentmihalyi1 as being in the flow state. But how do my colleagues experience the
ultimate performance? And what happens to them when they are not having their ultimate
performance?
A lot of research has been done in explaining what can be the causes and consequences when
the musician feels the pressure of the expectations to perform. Psychologists have invented
many therapies to help the people who have obtained an anxiety to go on stage. Dianna
Kenny has put attention also on the performance-based approach, which I would like to use in
this research. Martine van der Loo and Liesbeth Citroen exposed also very useful tips to
master your body and mental strength before during and after a concert.
Martine van der Loo is a well-known mental coach for musicians, based in The Hague. 29th
of November I had a very nice talk with her way of working with musicians who need and
want to improve their anxiety to go on stage.
Wieke Karsten, flute teacher in the school, knows a lot about the function of the brains and
how the brain influence practicing and performing. Ive included some of her ideas as well.
Finally I will show methods by Dianna Kenny and Martine van der Loo/Citroen and
experiences from colleagues and myself by using a survey.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

The Ultimate Performance

How do I obtain the ultimate performance?
Remember the feeling of you being on stage, in total control of your instrument, feeling
the music very intensively and being able to give more and more to the audience just
you and the music Csikszentmihalyi (1985) has introduced the term flow state which he
has described as an intrinsically motivated experience or self-rewarding activity. A state
in which the individual is so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.
When an individual is in a flow state, there is a loss of awareness of time. When an
individual is in the flow state, attention is focused almost exclusively on internal thought
processes. The normal shifting of attention between external to an internal focus has been
dramatically reduced.2
To achieve a state of complete clarity and purpose, even euphoria, through the capacity to
concentrate intensely. It entails the capacity to shut out irrelevant stimuli and focus at
great depth on the task at hand, often causing a person to lose the normal sense of time
and self in which one is both actor and observer. Csikszentmihalyi believes the pleasure
deriving from the flow state has an autonomous reality that must be understood on its own
terms. Measurements of brain activity during flow states suggest that the flow may induce
a special neurological state that is associated with a decrease in cortical activity (Pruett,
1987)
To be in a flow on stage can be the ultimate performance experience for a musician.
Achieving the ultimate performance includes a capacity or intense focus on the required
motor performance that precludes distractions or intrusions, and the capacity to reproduce
a maximal level of performance consistently under a wide range of environmental
contingencies, for example, from practice to a competitive event. Milton (American
psychiatrist) and his colleagues found a significant decrease in the overall volume of brain
activation accompanied by a relative increase in the intensity of activation of specific
brain regions necessary for the execution of the task by experts. The quality of
performance was due to the level of organization of neural networks during motor
planning.3
Besides the focus to the required motor performance, it is necessary to have the right
amount of arousal. Too little causes lack of interest and therefor the difficulty to put
effort. Too much arousal gives you a strong physiological reaction. This will draw away
your attention that needs to be put in the music. Its necessary to reach the right amount of
arousal. This is called facilitating performance anxiety.4
If the organization in the brain is interrupted by intern or extern distractions, your focus
on the execution of the task diminishes. Reasons for interruptions of your focus can be
the pressure to give the perfect performance.

2 Getting into the optimal Performance state by Robert m. Nideffer ph.D

3 The psychology of music performance anxiety by Dianna Kenny (2011)
4 Podiumangst by Citroen/Van Der Loo p.28

This can result in the explicit monitoring theory or the distraction theory
Explicit monitoring theory postulates that with pressure, the performer focuses attention
on the step-by-step processes in an attempt to execute the task correctly (Baumeister,
1984; Masters, 1992). While such explicit focus of attention is necessary in the initial
stages of learning (Anderson, 1982), once the skill becomes proceduralized, a musician
cannot consciously attend to all notes and finger positions when performing in real time.
Attempts to monitor these processes may disrupt the automaticity of task performance.5
According to the Distraction theory (Wine, 1971; Eysenck, 1979, 1992) performance
degradation is a result of attentional shifts to task-irrelevant information. In music
performance, examples of task-irrelevant information include: fear of forgetting the notes
when playing from memory, fear of not being able to play a difficult passage, or fear of
public failure and subsequent shame. Task-irrelevant information is said to reduce the
amount of working memory available for task performance. Thats why playing by
memory is more likely to be affected by pressure than tasks that are performed more
intuitively or automatically (Maddox & Ashby, 2004)26
These two theories give information to realize what can hinder you from obtaining your
ultimate performance.
Recently (past 10/20 years) more research had been done to music performance anxiety.
Dianna Kenny wrote a very extensively book about music performance anxiety. Dianna
Kenny draws on a range of disciplines including psychology, philosophy,
phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and performance theory in order to explain the many
facets of music performance anxiety that have emerged in the empirical and clinical
literature.
Music performance anxiety needs to be explained, since the term music performance
anxiety is quite extensive. For my research it is important to understand the difference
between the severe form of music performance anxiety and nervousness what I believe to
be very normal and even necessary for musicians.

5 Performance degration under pressure in music: an examination of attentional processes:
catherine y.wan and gail f. Huon (2005)

6 The psychology of music performance anxiety by Dianna Kenny (2011)

Music Performance Anxiety

The experience of anxiety is no stranger to the majority of people whose brief is to
perform in front of others. In many ways, as Shakespeare asserts, life itself is a
performance- all the worlds a stage, and all the men and women merely playersbut for some, center stage or center court is a threatening and frightening place to be, and
playing ones part is made difficult by the experience of unwanted emotions, thoughts
and behaviors.(Dianna Kenny)
There are several features that are typical of people who express their anxiety. First, there
is catastrophic thinking (one mistake means the end of the world), then post-performance
rumination (it takes a long time or never? to recover from a performance with which the
performer was not happy); next, unrealistic goal-setting and extreme perfectionism;
finally, an inability to take please or comfort in the positive aspects of the performance.7
The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) does not attempt to
differentiate between performance anxiety, stage fright and shyness in social situations.
Mild music performance anxiety does not need to interfere negatively with performance.
Many musicians even think they need a little anxiety to facilitate their performance
(Kirchner, 2003).
Wolfe (1989) noted that music performance anxiety can have both positive and negative
effects on performance. He identified two adaptive and two maladaptive components of
music performance anxiety. The adaptive components are arousal/intensity and
confidence/competence. The maladaptive components are nervousness/apprehension
(fear) and self-consciousness/distractibility.
The articles Ive explored are mainly focused on the performance anxiety which is
described by Salmon (1990) as:
The experience of persisting, distressful apprehension about and/or actual impairment of,
performance skills in a public context, to a degree unwarranted given the individuals
aptitude, training, and level of preparation.8
Dianna Kenny doesnt agree with this definition. She thinks this definition lacks
precision concerning to a degree unwarranted given the individuals aptitude, training,
and level of preparation. Research shows that musicians of all ages, levels of aptitude,
training, experience, and preparation report music performance anxiety. (Kenny, p.49).
She writes:
Music performance anxiety is the experience of marked and persistent anxious
apprehension related to musical performance that has arisen through underlying
biological and/or psychological vulnerabilities and/or specific anxiety-conditioning
experiences. It is manifested through combinations of affective, cognitive, somatic, and
behavioral symptoms. It may occur in a range of performance settings, but is usually
more severe in settings involving high ego investment, evaluative threat (audience), and
fear of failure. It may be focal (which means, focused only on music performance), or
occur comorbidly with other anxiety disorders, in particular social phobia. It affects
musicians across the lifespan and is at least partially independent of years of training,

7 The psychology of music performance anxiety by Dianna Kenny (2011)
8 Psychological treatment of musical performance anxiety: current status and future
directions by Anne M. McGinnis and Leonard S. Milling

practice, and level of musical accomplishment. It may or may not impair the quality of
the musical performance (Kenny, 2009, )9
In this definition music performance anxiety can be seen as a definition that can be
applied to nervousness, which has a positive effect on the performance, and the severe
anxiety that leads to total blocking and horrible experiences on stage.
The book Podiumangst by Van Der Loo and Citroen states that the difference between
music performance anxiety and nervousness is the period when there is the anxiety. Its
resp. before and especially on stage or just the moments before you go on stage10

9 The psychology of music performance anxiety by Dianna Kenny p.61
10 Podiumangst by Citroen/Van Der Loo p.24

Methods
Many researches have been done in developing treatments for the pressure that causes
Music Performance Anxiety.
Recently there has been a significant increase in research involving the treatment of music
performance anxiety. Music performance anxiety is considered to need a different kind of
approach in comparison to social phobia. 11 The treatments can be grouped into seven
areas according to the type of treatment approaches:
1) Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic Therapies
2) Behavior, cognitive, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
3) New wave cognitive behavioral therapies
4) Multimodal therapies
5) Other interventions for music performance anxiety
6) Emotion-based therapies
7) Pharmacotherapy for anxiety disorders
As I stated in the chapter about music performance anxiety, there are different forms in which
a musician is affected by music performance anxiety. As for this research my goal is to find a
way to the ultimate performance. The treatments described above are very intense and
psychological. Its very personal to choose which treatment fits your needs to your personal
goal.
For me its essential to pay attention to the performers key goal: the quality of there
performance.
Several methods are performance based and ideal for the performer to work on by him/herself
or with a teacher/coach.

11 Psychological treatment of musical performance anxiety: Curent status and future
directions by Anne M.McGinnis and Leonard S. Milling (2005)

Brains
Before I start with giving an overview of the performance based-approach, I would like first
to show the function of the brains and two theories about the focus necessary to give the
ultimate performance. Ill describe the model by sport psychologist Robert Nideffer in his
book: psyched to win. Secondly the circles invented by H.Eberspcher and adapted by
Wieke Karsten.
The brain can be split into three areas. 1.) the instinctive 2) the emotional 3) the cognitive
brain.

1) The first area in the brain is called the brainstem. It controls your instincts, reflexes,
and elementary brain functions (like breathing and heart-rate).
2) The second part of the brain is called limbic system. It creates our emotions like: joy,
sadness, anger, enjoyment, jealousy etc. Emotional experiences that happen frequently
are stored in this area. Having a great experience on stage will be remembered. Also
the repeated bad experiences
3) The third area is called the cerebral cortex and allows people to develop self reflexion
and the possibility to choose appropriate behavior. It coordinates the activity in the
emotional part and makes sure we can separate our emotions and thoughts.
Consciousness is part of this area.
There is continuously interaction between the three parts. However it isnt always harmonious
interplay. Every part can take over control.
Control of the first area: we react instinctively, without overseeing the consequences.
Control of the second area: we react impulsive and led by emotions, without knowing the
influences from our emotions.

Control of the third area: possibility to control our emotions. We can get stuck in the
windmills of our mind.
Every experience will be stored temporarily. A core in the second area (amygdala) connects
every experience to an emotion. If the first area senses danger, cortisol (an hormone) will
encourage amygdala to connect this danger to a very strong emotion so it will be stored
forever. 12
Going on stage is linked to a dangerous situation. Our body will react very strong. Increased
Heart rate, sweaty hands, cold hands etc. This reaction is called FFF (fight, flight, fright). 13
To deal with this reaction is a key to the ultimate performance.

12 Podiumangst by Citroen/van der Loo p. 162
13 gewoon spannend: column by wieke karsten www.wiekekarsten.nl

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Model of R. Nideffer:
Robert Nideffer is a sport psychologist who developed a model (1976) for athletes to control
the focus to create a peak performance.
Its been shown that optimal performance can be facilitated through focus and concentration.
What does it mean to be focused? Concentration is the ability to direct ones full attention to
appropriate cues and stay focused on task in the present instead of being controlled by
irrelevant external (i.e. crowd, game conditions, etc.) or internal (i.e. thoughts, emotions,
physiological activity, etc.) stimuli. During any given competition there are numerous
irrelevant cues that surround players and directing their attention through their own efforts
will enable them to perform to their potential.

The four types of attentional focus

Broad-internal focus (left bottom)

Think, plan and analyze
Broad-external focus (left top)
Balance the situation
Narrow- internal focus (right bottom)
Rehearse a performance before you actually engage in it.
Narrow-external focus (right top)
The Focus when you attempt to perform.

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In addition to maintaining focus, athletes must effectively shift attention during performance.
There are four different types of attentional focus to shift from: broad-external, broad-internal,
narrow-external, and narrow-internal. A broad attentional focus allows a person to perceive
several occurrences simultaneously while a narrow attentional focus occurs when you respond
to only one or two cues. In addition, an external focus directs attention outward to an object
while internal attentional focus is directed inward to thoughts and feelings. Athletes go
through each of these four attentional styles multiple times in executing a golf shot for
example. However, under stress and pressure, we tend to skip some of these styles leading to
poor performance. In summary, an athlete can benefit from increased awareness regarding
focus and concentration in every aspect of their performance whether its pre-, during-, or
post-game.14
Mental sport coaches are experienced to help the athletes to be aware which focus they need
at what time.
For musicians its the same. We need to know what our focus is at which part in the music.
Practicing, help from our teachers or even a mental coach like Martine van der Loo can help
us.

14 Psyche to win by R. Nideffer

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Circles:
Hans Eberspcher is a German sport psychologist (1943). He invented the Circles which
explain where the focus goes at the time they have to perform.
If the focus is on the task, the athlete will perform his best.

1= me and my task (to observe, decide, execution)

2= direct distractions (temperature, colleagues, circumstances)
3= is-supposed to be (comparison)
4= to succeed/to fail
5= consequences from succeeding/failing
6= live question (what am I doing here?)
Wieke Karsten has translated this model for athletes to musicians.15
1= To be in the moment. You listen, feel, hear, experience and action: No talking in the mind.
2= Having small thoughts: relax thumb, wider vibrato, and music-focused thoughts.
3= Thoughts that start judging: oh no, wrong note, oh god difficult passage, stupid!
4= Circumstances interrupt our focus: oh no, they are looking at me! They look bored! They
think Im bad!
5= Occupied by past and future: God this piece is very simple, I should be playing much
harder repertoire, Im already in my 4th year! Ill never get a job.
6= I wish I was not here on stage.
When you practice its very important to realize in which circle you are. Effective practice
should exclude circle 3 and further. Circle 2 is necessary during practice but doing this you
have to keep your instrument down for 3 seconds.16

15 Wieke Karsten: column Circel 1 www.wiekekarsten.nl

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Performance based approach

After having gained some more information about the brains and needed focus for a great
performance, I would like to discuss the approach discussed by Dianne Kenny and
Liesbeth/Citroen that can help the musician to obtain a nicer performance experience.
Behavioral model of performance enhancement
The goal is to transfer the skills learnt during preparation to the actual performance.
Suinns proposed techniques are packaged into an Anxiety Management Training
(AMT).
Resource is to learn the use of relaxation under conditions of arousal in conjunction
with cognitive restructuring to deal with problematic thoughts. This approach
addresses at the same time skill acquisition and anxiety. This approach has a maximal
effect on the transfer from the practice room to the stage, because not only are the
skills learnt to automaticity, but the emotional responses attached to those skills are
embedded in the skill itself (Kenny 2005)
Example
Once youre anxious, it actually affects the tension in your muscles. A lot of my
training has been in learning how to reverse the muscle response to anxiety. If Im
playing some very complex work, the audience often says: Oh you looked so
relaxed. The reason is that Im consciously jelly fishing my muscles in order to do
it, because it makes it so much easier to do itif my focus cuts out, the tendency is to
panic so the muscles seize up but mine dont tend to for more than a micro second
because my natural response to release the muscle kicks in. So in fact, when Im more
anxious, Im constantly jelly fishing because thats what Ive trained myself to do;
because thats the easiest way to get back my focus and calm.
Individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model
Excitement is some kind of anxiety that is expressed positively. Anxiety supplies essential
creative energy.and that, in stead of running away from anxiety, it is wisest to move
through it, achieving a measure of self-realization in the process (Reubart, 1985).
Hanin (2000) has developed a model, IZOF, and an IZOF emotion-profiling assessment
protocol that personalizes the application of the model. The goal of this process is to assist
athletes (musicians) to identify 1) their individual relevant emotions during performance
2) which emotions are most associated with their best and worst performances 3) the
relative intensity of these emotions as they affect performance. For example if anxiety is
found to be intense during worst performances, a program to address anxiety is devised
that covers skills such as attentional control, cognitive restructuring, deep breathing,
relaxation, and the use of energizing verbal cues.
Goal setting:
Goal setting theory states that the setting of specific challenging goals enhances
performance. Two key factors include the nature of the goal chosen and the persons selfefficacy or confidence that the goal can be attained.

16 Wieke Karsetn: column 3 seconden www.wiekekarsten.nl

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The trichomotomous theory (Lacaille, Whipple and Koestner 2005) is the only goal
setting theory applied to athletes and musicians. The theory proposes two main types of
goals:
1) Mastery goals
2) Performance goals.
Mastery goals are about the development of the skills needed for the task.
Performance goals are in 2 types
a) Performance approach goals, which are directed toward the attainment of success
b) Performance avoidance goals, whose aims are to avoid failure.
Lacaille (2005) hypothesized that a focus on performance goals might not be helpful to
musicians because of the high prevalence and frequency of performance anxiety in that
profession. They speculated that non-achievement goals such as the intrinsic enjoyment of
the music and being absorbed by the musical experience might be more helpful to
musicians.
Practice
It is very important to have your goals very clear in your head when you practice. Performers
need to imagine how they would like the work to sound in the acoustic of the performance
venue and for the particular audience for whom it will be performed (Fortune 2007). There is
an evident link between inadequate practice and music performance anxiety.

Martine van der Loo developed Task Concentration Training.
The goal is to break the excessive attention brought to your physical reactions, negative
thoughts and fearful feelings by stressful situations, like a concert. During a concert your
concentration should be focused on the task. Very often the focus is drawn to intern
thoughts and feelings or to extern thoughts like whats going on in the concert hall. Both
are unwanted distractions.
To be able to control your thoughts its necessary to know what you focus on during
playing.
1. Start with analysing your thoughts while practising. Try to figure out a certain
patron that apparently fits your concentration habit.
2. Does the environment quickly distract you? Or are you more distracted by
internal thoughts and feelings?
3. Train to focus to the task by choosing a musical aspect you need to follow like:
phrases, vibrato, your fellow-musicians, your breath, rhythm etc.
4. To train the focus to the task, its best to choose a different focus of attention
every 5 minutes.
5. You will have to notice when your focus flows away. You will have to train to
refocus.
6. Finally you will play the whole piece with a wider focus. Youll notice which
points will need more attention.
7. Finally on stage youve to let go. Have faith and stay focused to whats happening
in the moment.
8. If this isnt possible because of fear: focus your attention to one aspect. For
example- make contact with your fellow musicians.

Unifying model of psychological preparations for peak performance
What do we, as musicians need to be aware of before a performance?
Hardy, Jones and Gould (1996) developed a model with five components:

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1) Fundamental: confidence, motivation and aspiration, goal orientation (the task

versus your ego)
2) Psychological skills and strategies: goal setting, imagery and pre-performance
routines
3) Adversity coping skills and strategies: realistic appraisal, social support, recovery
strategies, refocusing
4) Ideal performance state: finding the optimal levels for emotions, cognitions and
arousal
5) Environment: physical, social, organizational, situational
Examples:
1) Make sure your goal is positive: To make music. Feel confident about how you feel
the music and trust yourself that you can give this to the audience. This is your
motivation and ambition. Dont be ego focused by for example focusing on playing
perfect.
2) Lets say: your goal is to make music: Imagine every emotion with every passage in
the music. Know what you feel and what the audience should feel. Practice this.
3) Know that no one is perfect. Realize that you will make mistakes. This is oke! Know
that not every performance is the same. Accept it!
4) Practice your attitude when playing the piece. Every passage has its own character
and feeling, Remember it.
5) Physical: health and fitness, properly warmth up, properly rested
Social: social support
Organizational: quality of practice,
Situational: concert hall, audience, accommodation, time zones
Pre-performance routines
As stated in the unifying model; its necessary to be mentally prepared in every possible
way.
To be mentally strong you have to be confident with yourself. This is a game played in the
mind. Negative self-talk occurs many times when arousal appears.
Negative self-talk should be interrupted by you. Teach yourself to turn the negative
thoughts in something more positive. Make the negative thoughts more useful!17
On stage a musician is always influenced by the environment and there own movements
to aid their performance. Once arousal or somatic (body) / cognitive(psychological)
anxiety increases, the range of cues to which one can attend reduces (Eastbrook, 1959).
Reduction in the use of appropriate cues will result in deterioration in performance
quality. This process is called perceptual narrowing (Kahneman, 1973). High cognitive
anxiety can result in irrelevant thoughts (negative self-talk, focus on audience reactions).
These thoughts interfere with the attention needed to meet the challenges of the task.
Visiting the venue and practicing in the performance setting may be helpful to performers.
Integrating performance-setting cues into performance preparation reduces the demands
on attention on the day of the performance.
Stepahnie McCallum, an eminent Australian pianist, described the elements required for
the preparation and lead-up to a major solo recital.

17 Podiumangst by Citroen/van der Loo p. 151

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..The tightrope that is a full-length memorized recital. Thats a tightrope for any-one, it
doesnt matter if youre Richter, or Pavarotti and youve done it 5.000 times. It is a very
big outpouring of concentrated intellectual and creative energy. It Takes a build-up of
preparation, much like a sporting event, you have to peak at the right time. And you have
to arrive on the stage in a condition where youre able to shed the physical symptoms of
the adrenaline rush, but have the residue of concentration, very unusual high levels of
concentration, which make you feel as though you are in a flow state where youre carried
along by your brain. So its partially a physical re-enactment of learned positions
controlled by a creative impulse, which is held hostage to absolute concentration. If your
concentration goes, the creative impulse is destroyed because the panic of retaining the
physical movements then becomes the major project. So ones goal is to reach a state of
preparation where, when youre in this state of concentration, you dont have cut-outs that is, a serious loss of concentration. Its a mental state of focus, which is like sitting
someone down and youre going to tell them a story, and you have the story in your head.
You know what it is you want to talk about. Youre creating the story as you say it by the
sentences that you construct and so on. Youre trying to make an impression on the other
person with the story, so youre emphasizing some things; youre considering the order in
which the things come. Its a bit like that except that it is an infinitely more complex task
than that because youre regurgitating an existing phenomenon, anothers creation.
Stephanie emphasizes to
1) Prepare the physical movements combined with your creative impulse
2) Focus on this-> this will prevent your concentration drop, which in all cases need to
be avoided; Its hard to get back to this focus. The new focus will be
artificial(retaining the physical movements without the creative impulse)
The role of imagery in performance preparation/mental practice
In music performance, motor imagery associated with simultaneous technical and
emotional input can help to embed information securely in the memory. Introducing a
more imaginative approach into performance practice has potential benefits for both
motivation and memory retention (Holmes, 2005). Imagery may also assist less confident
performers achieve heightened mental focus and a clearer perception of the perfect
performance, which may facilitate enhanced performance (Hall, 1995;Moritz et al.,
1996). Imagery may also enhance emotional connection with the music in performance
(Peterson, 2000) or the auditory, visual and proprioceptive sense required for optimum
technical function (Dunbar-Wells, 1999).
Pre-performance imagery may assist in focusing the mind on a thought or sensation that
the performer associates with confidence. Others focus on the breath to calm anxiety and
reduce automatic stress-related responses. These strategies serve simultaneously to
distract the performer from the inner monologue of self-doubting and catastrophizing
thoughts that can impair a performance (Liston et al., 2003; Zinn, McCain, & Zinn, 2000).
In sports mental preparation already is an important part of their routine. They use:
competition simulation, mental practice, goal setting, emotion control, behavioral
routines, specific technical strategies, attentional strategies, reaction to mistakes, and postcompetition self-assessment (Bertollo, Salterelli, & Robazza, 2009).
If I would translate this to mental preparation for musicians it would be:

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Concert try-out, mental practice, goal setting (for example: playing the piece with the
emotions that for you fit the piece), emotion control ( keep your head cool), behavioral
routines ( know what your body language will give to the audience, practice it), know
your motor skills, know what to focus during playing, know that mistakes always happen,
evaluate your performance afterwards with a positive attitude (dont call yourself ever the
worst musician. Remember some mistakes to work on. Remember also the good parts of
the performance).
Martine van der loo and Liesbeth Citroen developed some very useful exercises to train
your imagery practice. Ill explain 3 exercises that I found very useful.
1. Visualization
If you visualize a concert, there are 2 possibilities:
- Extern visualizations: You see yourself from the audience playing
- Intern visualization: Youre standing on stage and experience your playing
Athletes use visualization training all the time. Before they actually run the race, they
already experienced every movement and emotion a hundred times.
With extern visualization you can correct more easily your skills, since you take
distance from your emotions.
With the intern visualization you pay more attention to your physical sensations and
feelings that come with your skills.
2. Pretend to be someone else
- What can make you mentally stronger is to give you the sensation of being someone
who you think to be the best.
- Imagine this person playing the piece, you have to play
- Visualize and Analyze this person extern (youre sitting in the hall)
- Visualize that its you playing. What are the sensations? How does it feel to be this
person? Whats changing?
- Sometimes you can also take yourself as model from a concert you had an ultimate
performance experience.
3. Choose the key
When youre very nervous on stage and you know its necessary to get your brains focused to
the music you can choose a thought that brings you back to a more confident feeling that you
recognize from your practice.
-
-

-
-

Choose the key (it can be something physical, or something mental. For example:
focus your attention to your right shoulder to relax it. Or focus your attention to an
image of someone you love.
Choose the condition you need (very confident). You can recognize this feeling by
thinking about your model, or to take the attitude from someone with a lot of
confidence, or by saying something powerful to yourself like: Go! Here I am! Dont
mind!
Every time you make this key movement or think about your loved one, youll
connect it automatically to the condition you need.
Practice this when youre confident and relaxed. Its the best way to program it into
your system.
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Survey:
Since Ive realized myself that my focus on stage is not always in the music like I want to,
I was wondering what my colleagues experience when they are on stage and before stage.
Ive asked 50 colleagues the following questions:

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Whats going on in your thoughts when youre performing on stage?

Are you thinking about more than one thing?
Where is your focus when you have a good performance?
Where is your focus when youre not having a good performance?
What do you think about the hour before you go on stage?
What does your body feel like before you go on stage?
Is there a relation between your pre/feeling and thoughts and a good/bad
performance?
- What do you do when your focus on stage is not where it should be?
If I would answer these questions myself:
- It depends, some parts during the concert Im feeling the music and being able to react
to what I hear. Other parts I start thinking about if the audience heard the notes that
were out of tune or I think that Im feeling tired.
- Yes, my concentrations shifts quite a lot from internal to external thoughts
- Music
- Audience, or the things that could have gone better
- Im making myself ready for enjoyment
- A snake turning in my stomach, high heart-rate
- Yes definitely. It has a lot to do with confidence
- I sing the music.
If I compare my answers to my colleagues I have to say that Ive seen very similar answers.
-

-
-
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-

This varies a bit. Some colleagues are able to just follow the music, but many are also
thinking about what the teacher said, or about stupid things like the lights in the hall,
or about mistakes, audience some dont think about anything: they play automatically,
which is not in the music. Some give themselves comments all the time: relax your
body, follow the phrase, and think ahead.
Yes people shift with their thoughts during the performance, which probably is normal
since the brain cant focus intensively for a very long time. The main goal is to refocus
and to skip the irrelevant thoughts.
Following the music, in the sound, phrasing, self confidence, listening to the sound in
the hall
Thinking about the opinion of the audience, thinking you want to leave, failing,
panicking about phrases that are about to come
Some are very relaxed and visualize the concert, keeping up the positive mood, others
are stressed and easily distracted, most of them dont play too much before the
performance, but try to stay calm.

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-
-

It depends very much. It doesnt seem to always be the same on stage, so bad thinking
before doesnt always imply a bad performance
Some people stay negative and want to leave the stage; others are able to refocus to
the music by listening to other musicians.

Reading the answers from my colleagues somehow gave me the confirmation I already knew.
It is difficult to control our focus and our thoughts. Im glad to see that some of my colleagues
are aware and being able to deal with it.

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Experiences

In my research I have shown exercises and descriptions of methods to help a musician
become stronger on stage, but are these exercises and methods really working?

Behavioral model of performance enhancement (with coach)
Individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model (with coach)
Goal setting
Practice/ Task Concentration Technique
Unifying model of psychological preparations for peak performance/ Preperformance routine
Imagery
First Ive practiced these exercises myself, to see if I could improve my focus on stage with
having the exercises in my preparation and on stage.
Secondly I will show the methods that I havent mentioned in my research to show the choice
Ive made and to explain why Ive made this choice.
Finally I have discussed these exercises with my colleagues during the master circle at the
royal conservatoire of The Hague.
Behavioral model of performance enhancement + individual zones of optimal
functioning (IZOF) model.
Since I started my performance based-approach with explaining the methods of the
behavioural model and IZOF model I want to add now that these exercises are not for
individual use. With a coach you have to analyse yourself and the coach, who is trained,
develops a schedule to address the best solutions. I mentioned these models since they
make logical sense to me.

Diary of my performances.

- 1e try-out competition program.
Exercise: Goal setting and task concentration training.

My goal was: prove that I studied well and playing the pieces in tune and perfect.
Like a cd recording.

Result: I was very nervous. When I was in the hall I recognised people who I knew were
very critical. Consequence: No attention to music, very stressed playing, automatic
playing. Halfway the try-out I could refocus by forcing myself to listen to myself in the
hall. It was the task concentration training that saved me.conclusion: choosing the
right goal is incredibly important.

I want to add that when I practice the tct, I found it difficult in the beginning to keep one
focus for 5 minutes. Its quite long. I think its better to start with 1 min. If it goes well,
you can try longer and build your focus like this.


- 2nd try-out for competition:

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Exercise: Goal setting and choose the key (imagery)

My goal was: make from every note something special

After my last experience I knew it was important to choose a different goal.
The day before I didnt practice very much. I was all the time playing through the pieces
in my mind and I knew exactly which emotion I wanted to play with every passage. Just
before going on stage I told myself: Be proud, youre very musical just give emotions!
Dont think just do it!
The first page of the very first piece I had to fight a little bit in myself to be able to feel
and give the music: I realised that the concert had started and had to get used to the
knowledge that this was the moment. Then I realised the goal I made myself and I had a
wonderful time on stage. At some points I had to refocus, because there were technically
demanding passages, which I was afraid of. I was able to refocus by using the physical
key: relaxing the stomach and feel the space in the lower back (I got this from my
teacher Pavel Vernikov). During practising Ive always used this movement in
combination with a very confident and powerful feeling. On stage this feeling came back
right after Ive made my physical movement. Maybe this physical movement works for
me because it reminds me of Pavel Vernikov who gives me always a very confident
feeling.

- Exam orchestra excerpts.
Exercise: visualization (imagery), pretend to be someone else (imagery)

I had a very good preparation the morning and evening in advance: taking rest, mental
preparation: I was visualizing myself first external and after internal.
External: I pretended I was sitting in the hall and seeing somebody else on stage
(another student I really admire) playing my pieces. This inspired me because I could
hear and see how I wanted it to be! After I visualized myself on stage, but I used the
internal visualization. It was harder for me to see myself external, because I started right
away with playing through all the pieces in my mind and analysing what my body feels
like in every passage and knowing what to follow musically... So for me its better to take
the model for external visualization and copying the model after from the inside.
Doing this gave me the feeling of total control and relaxation. Even though I was nervous
before going on stage: I knew what to do. I played very well.

So I have used, goal setting theory, task concentration training and imagery
(visualization, pretend to be someone else, and choose the key).

What is left to be experienced is:

Unifying model of psychological preparations for peak performance

1) Fundamental: confidence, motivation and aspiration, goal orientation (the task versus
your ego)
2) Psychological skills and strategies: goal setting, imagery and pre-performance routines
3) Adversity coping skills and strategies: realistic appraisal, social support, recovery
strategies, refocusing

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4) Ideal performance state: finding the optimal levels for emotions, cognitions and
arousal
5) Environment: physical, social, organizational, situational
These 5 points need to be built during time and with help from others. Confidence is the
hardest to achieve by yourself. Im quite lucky that Ive always had people around me
who have told me I have something special and its worth going for it. Ive met some
colleagues who were not lucky and didnt have social support around them. They never
won competitions and their teachers didnt give this personal input which I consider to
be extremely important for the mental preparation. If you would know yourself exactly
what is your strong point and why you want to make music and the environment
supports you then its just you who needs to deal with the psychological skills and the
concert circumstances and finding the optimal level of arousal.
The psychological skills can be solved with the exercises. The concert circumstances and
finding the optimal level of arousal are linked to the psychological skills. Mental
preparation can prepare you.

Exercises I didnt choose:

Alexander Technique
Alexander Technique is a method that focuses on the right body posture concerning the
head, neck and the back. Results might be that physically the musician experiences a
relaxed feeling in the body and it can work as a distraction technique: the musician is
able to distract the fearful thoughts by focusing on the right posture..
I have had one year of alexander technique. Privately and in the conservatory during my
bachelor. I tried to create the right posture but the problem for me was that the teachers
were not musicians. So they expected you to have the posture with minimal movement.
Being a musician means to be in the music. For me its easier to be in the music with all
my body. Keeping my body relaxed and quiet resulted in playing very distant for me it
didnt work to be put in the right position. A relaxed body of course is very important
but for me a relaxed body doesnt mean to stand like a robot.

Beta-blockers
A Beta-blocker is a medicine that controls your body in a very stressful situation. The
symptoms like trembling, sweaty hands and getting a dry mouth disappear. If youre a
confident musician who only suffers extremely from these body reactions when arousal
appears, it might feel like a good solution. Results have shown that musicians
experiencing psychological effects; such as a low self-esteem have no benefit from the
beta-blockers.
I tried once a beta-blocker. The result was that I felt extremely slow and calm and
emotionless. I played very boring.
I dont want to advise musicians to take beta-blockers since I believe in the power of
music. If a musician needs to control his body during a performance I believe that focus
on music should be the medicine.


Jacobson
The method of Jacobson learns to relax the muscles, which is necessary when arousal
appears.. Very systematically they teach you all your different groups of muscles. The

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method takes 20-25 minutes. You have to do these exercises every day. With the
assistance of a cd you hear a voice very slowly telling you to which muscle you need to
pay attention to and what to experience. They use text like: make sure you sit
comfortable.. Let go all the muscles. Now lift your eyebrow, more and more. Relax now
and make the wrinkles disappear. Experience the wrinkles disappearing from your
forehead when you relax.. now furrow your forehead etc
I believe that for some people this might be useful. But you need to have a lot of patience
and you need to be able to believe the voice you hear on the cd. Its comparable with
yoga. I used to go to yoga every week but I had the same problem as with the cd:
The level of dramatic input in the way they ask you to experience your body. It sounds
too vague for me.


Eastern philosophies
Some relaxation techniques use ideas from the eastern philosophies. To relieve
tension and create relaxed muscles they use exercises with hypnotic symptoms.
Eastern philosophies are very close to the spiritiual believe. Believe that your spirit is
independent and can be liberated from the body, which improves your performance.
You need an extremely quiet area to get hypnotised and after you feel very lazy For
me its not the solution to feel like youre in a different place and having not a clear
control over yourself. Its too vague and I prefer to stay with 2 feet on the ground.


Discussion with my colleagues:

In the beginning of January Ive had a discussion during the master circle. I had shared
the exercises that were useful for me. But are they useful for everyone?

Imagery, pretend to be someone else, goal setting theory, task concentration training
and choose the key.

Pretend to be someone else and choose the key didnt seem to be appreciated.
To pretend to be someone else seemed to underestimate your own talent and capacity.
Why not believing in yourself? For others it seemed to be useful since they dont feel
confident themselves and with pretending to be a powerful confident talented person it
could help them to feel better.
Choosing the key is something that needs good practice. The most students thought it
was difficult to choose a key which is strong enough to go back to the confident feeling
you have in your practise room. How do you choose this key?
We discussed about it and the conclusion is that for everyone confidence gives a certain
physical association. For some student it was the feet strongly on the ground. For
another it is opening the chest. Actually no one wanted to use an image to use as key. Its
because it mostly isnt linked to a confidant feeling. And a picture of your loved one,
might even be distracting

For some colleagues if you start to speak about meditations as part of imagery they
associate it with spiritual work, which is not suitable for every person. As I mentioned
before, to stay with 2 feet on the ground can create for some people more confidence.

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Meditation as part of imagery means that you take your time to really experience the
concert thats coming. Its very concrete since you have to decide what to focus on and
how to use your body.

The goal setting theory and task concentration training (tct) are very concrete and clear
to use. Only one colleague thought about the tct that it might be difficult to practice it
since you have to be very strict with yourself. If you choose a focus for 5 min. you really
have to make sure youre not thinking about anything else. Only then you are able to
improve your concentration.

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Conclusion:
I started this research to obtain the ultimate performance.
First of course I needed to clarify what is the ultimate performance. Psychologist
Csikszentmihalyi helped me realize its this being absorbed by music, loss of time
awareness that he calls the flow state that every musician wishes to experience.
To create a flow is something very difficult to do. Its something that needs to happen.
Its interesting to see that even though on stage youre still nervous, by practicing to think
about the right things, you can manage to enjoy your sound and feel the music yourself.
For me this is in a concert a wonderful thing to hold on to. You may still think about your
focus and your needs to refocus when your attention draws away to irrelevant thoughts,
but at least the enjoyment becomes a big part of your performance.
After reading through my research Ive realised Ive gained so much more awareness how
to create a nice experience for myself on stage. Recently Ive given quite some recitals. I
enjoyed it.
There were moments my concentration went internal or external, but I was able to refocus.
The performance-based approach taught me how to prepare mentally.
Visualisation, determining the right goal, self-confidence by giving me the keywords
before going on stage (you can do it! Here I am! Dont mind), pretending to be someone
else.
Refocusing by putting attention to for example relaxing my stomach.
People around me who have followed me the past years separately told me my way of
playing has grown much more expressively and more free.
Besides the exercises Ive been able to use during practice and on stage, I gained more
awareness about the function and consequences of the brain when arousal was activated.
By this awareness you realize its something natural and nothing extraordinary. The FFF
reaction is something pure instinctive, which is impossible to deny.
I want to thank Martine van der Loo and Wieke Karsten for the time they reserved for me
to talk about my research. Also of course my coaches Philip Curtis and Patrick van
Deurzen and Kathryn Cok.

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Bibliography
Articles:
Getting into the optimal performance state by R. Nideffer
Psychological treatment of musical performance anxiety: Curent status and future directions
by Anne M.McGinnis and Leonard S. Milling (2005)
Performance degration under pressure in music: an examination of attentional processes:
catherine y.wan and gail f. Huon (2005)
columns: Wieke Karsten www.wiekekarsten.nl : Circel 1/3 seconden/gewoon spannend
Books:
Performance of music performance anxiety by Dianne Kenny
Podiumangst by Liesbeth Citroen en Martine van der Loo
Psyche to win by Robert Nideffer
Website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

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