Page 102 - How to Shine on Stage

are quicker to lose motivation and more likely to feel unsuccessful. The
desire for the best results will cause them to rather abandon an activi-
ty than to underperform compared to others while improving their own
knowledge/skills. In contrast, people with growth mindset use failure
as a tool for growth. They learn from their own mistakes and use their
failures to their advantage, as they further motivate them to improve.
They often feel successful because they experience success every time
they make progress (Dweck, 2007).
100 In music, growth and fixed mindset have been studied with regard

to music education and not directly to performance. The results have re-
vealed that students with growth mindset believe that hard work and
practice can produce improvement, which in turn can speed up their
How to Shine on Stage lence, and are driven by a desire to learn and gradually improve (Da-
progress. They are also free of the need to endlessly prove their excel-

vis, 2016).
In music, our mindset about experiencing musical performance suc-
cess is strongly related to our attitudes towards mistakes (Davis, 2016).
There is an unwritten rule that musical performance should always be
perfect, without mistakes. This fundamentally suggests a fixed mindset,
as the focus is on the result: not just any result, but the perfect result. A
fixed mindset in music, especially in classical music, collides with an-
ything that is not perfect, even in terms of mental skills. So being vul-
nerable is not an option, one has to be perfect. This also implies the
demand of flawlessness in all performance aspects: technical, expressive,
and mental. This is unrealistic and unfeasible. Like elsewhere, the goal
in music should be continual progress, not some unattainable ideal of
perfection.

2.2.4.2 Attention, Concentration and Mindfulness
Attention and concentration are two of the most important cognitive
skills impacting performance. Young musicians often report that they
find the most challenging of all psychological skills to be the sustenta-
tion of optimal attention and concentration in performance. Self-doubt
and concern about possible mistakes and unforeseen circumstances are
common before performance. They are accompanied by an increased,
pre-performance anxiety, which diverts attention. These factors shift the
focus away from the musical performance, making it essential for the
performer to attempt to calm their thoughts and concentrate on the per-
formance. At the end of this chapter, we will also address mindfulness,
which is the conscious presence that enables optimal attention.