Page 113 - How to Shine on Stage

load, depression, and impatience with professional progress as common
stress factors (Steptoe, 1989).
Tuula Jääskeläinen (2022) states that research on stress in music
students is still scarce, with the exception of the most commonly report-
ed stressor, performance anxiety. Bernhard (2007) observed that the
most common sources of stress in music studies are performance anx-
iety, perfectionism, and career challenges. Music students also suffer
from painful musculoskeletal conditions and other health problems re-
lated to the study of music (Ginsborg et al., 2009), but there are also re- 111
ports of differences in experienced stress, particularly between genders,
and in mood, physical tension and somatic symptoms among music
students studying under various programmes (Zetterberg et al., 1998).
A major recent stressor for the music students was the Covid-19 pan-
demic, as it caused sudden and unexpected changes in their learning
circumstances (Habe et al., 2021) and in the habits and behaviours of
music students in their daily lives (Rosset et al., 2021). In music stud-
ies, workload is often associated with negative consequences that can
be caused by difficult or unmanageable study situations. Such conse-
quences are, for example, burnout (Bernhard, 2007) and mental illness
(Koops & Kuebel, 2021).

3.2 Stress During the Various Stages of Preparation
for the Musical Performance Stress During the Various Stages of Preparation for the Musical Performance
When identifying musical performance stress, consideration is usually
focused exclusively on the actual musical performance. However, the ex-
perience of stress regarding a specific performance is a consequence of
the entire preparation for the performance. If we focus solely on the per-
formance, we can quickly lose sight of the more subtle preparatory as-
pects of performance and how they relate to stress and tension.
Performing musicians understand that even practice and prepa-
ration for performance involve physical and mental burden. An indi-
vidual’s frame of mind during practice has a profound impact on their
thoughts, emotions, and feelings on stage. Practice is not only the sharp-
ening of technical and interpretive skills: it entails the formation of be-
liefs, behavioural patterns, emotions, and certain tensions in the body
(e.g. tension in the arms, tension in the neck muscles) associated with the
music. The perception of stress therefore needs to be focused on the cir-
cumstances and manner of the performance preparation. The quantity
and quality of practice affect our performance sensations. If the strate-
gy of practice and of performance preparation cause physical and men-