Cool jazz: music performance anxiety in jazz performance students

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to explore music performance anxiety (MPA) and trait anxiety as experienced by jazz music students at the post-secondary level. MPA has been conceptualised as a painful apprehension of music performance manifesting through affective, somatic, cognitive and behavioural symptoms. Although MPA has been studied extensively with classical musicians, almost no research has investigated MPA among jazz musicians. Participants were 73 jazz music students who completed an online questionnaire assessing MPA and trait anxiety. Results suggest that jazz music students suffered from a significant level of MPA and that this was strongly related to trait anxiety. Performance settings and perceptions of the nature of stressful situations did not appear to have a significant effect on the level of MPA that was experienced. These findings indicate that MPA within the context of jazz performance is a phenomenon that needs to be addressed by future research, with a view to understanding how the experience of MPA may influence engagement with jazz studies, and how higher education jazz programmes could support students in coping with MPA.

KEYWORDS:

• Music performance anxiety
• jazz education
• jazz performance
• trait anxiety

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Gabriel Martin-Gagnon is a candidate for the Master in Music Education at Laval University. His work focuses primarly on the music performance anxiety of jazz students.

Dr Andrea Creech is Professor of Didactique Instrumentale at the Faculty of Music, Université Laval, where she holds a Canada Research Chair in music in community. She has published widely on topics concerned with lifelong musical development, learning and participation.