Page 48 - How to Shine on Stage

complex tasks; some people feel competent in only a few areas, while oth-
ers have a fairly generalized sense of competence.
Bandura (1986; 2002) lists four sources of self-efficacy: one’s own
direct experience, observation and imitation of a model (indirect expe-
rience), verbal encouragement from others (social persuasion), and emo-
tional factors (physiological and emotional states). With regard to direct
experience, it is success which increases self-efficacy, and repeated fail-
46 ures which decrease it, especially if they occur soon after the beginning
of the activity. Once firm feelings of self-efficacy are developed, they are
no longer harmed by occasional failures. Rather, these increase the ef-
forts. Together with indirect experience of observing and imitating the
model, one can create expectations of their own progress conditioned
How to Shine on Stage symbolic role models. As to persuading others by suggestion, it has been
by sufficient persistence. Models can be persons one observes directly or

demonstrated that the expectations arising as a result of persuasion are
usually quite weak, so it is very important to ensure initial instances of
success. With regard to emotional factors, high arousal has been found
to debilitate performance, so success cannot be expected in such circum-
stances (Bandura, 2002).
Within the context of musical performance, self-efficacy can be de-
fined as the result of one’s awareness of their own musical abilities, skills,
and competences, alongside their recognition of their own psychological
skills needed to perform. Musical abilities, skills, prowess, and person-
ality traits are of importance in the process of achieving musical suc-
cess, but it is the sense of performer’s self-efficacy which has the most
significant influence on their thinking, feeling, and behaviour when
performing (Carbonero & Merino, 2008). Obviously, competent func-
tioning requires a systematic balance between actual capacity or effec-
tiveness and the metacognitive processes that underpin one’s personal
beliefs (Zarza-Alzugaray et al., 2020). It has been found that person-
al perceptions about one’s capacity to perform a musical work in pub-
lic are more important predictors of musical performance success than
the amount of practice (McCormick & McPherson, 2003; McPherson &
McCormick, 2006).
Numerous studies have confirmed a positive relationship between
self-efficacy and achievement in music (Hendricks, 2009; 2014; McCor-
mick & McPherson, 2003; Miksza, 2015; Nielsen, 2004; Zelenak, 2011).
Recent research found that the number of public performances from
which a performer gains experience leads to higher performer self-effi-
cacy, but only in girls (Zarza-Alzugaray et al., 2020).