Performance Centre

I had my exam concert last week and I wanted to let you know that the second session was particularly useful. I applied some of the aspects that we talked about, such as making eye contact with the audience and I did not focus so much on the technical aspects, but on the musical aspects and what I wanted to convey to the audience. I felt better about myself and generally I was happy with how I played.

I am very pleased with how I performed at the evaluation. I was able to express musical ideas and not just survive the situation. At the beginning I was shaky, but I knew it would pass so I didn't get hung up on it. I think just talking about the shaking has made me more relaxed when it happens, which releases some of the physical tension. A positive circle! It's still not completely gone, the fear of uncontrollable shaking is still there, but I definitely feel I'm heading in the right direction. I found the positive feedback you and Simon gave me really encouraging. I also found the strategy of planning, what to think about when performing, very useful.

Overall, this course has given me structure to frame my own process of performance anxiety. There was also a lot of space to think and ask questions. I am very grateful!

It is important for us young musicians to talk and discuss how we feel before, during and after a performance. This is something that is not often addressed in individual instrument lessons. But in order for what we learn in our instrument lessons to work at all in a performance, we should develop strategies to cope with the mental pressure on the one hand, and to control (or perhaps rather accept) the physical ‘changes’ that occur in connection with a performance.

I think the course gave me the tools to develop these strategies, but perhaps most importantly, it gave me perspective on the fact that I am not alone in having major problems before, during and after a performance. It has been great to discuss this with my fellow students.

During an individual session with Francisca Skoogh and Simon Granér, I got to discuss my thoughts about my playing and my performance on stage and how I see my own performance both during the performance itself but also afterwards. What I took away from that 'masterclass' was to challenge my habitual behaviours before a performance, to accept that I am not so good at evaluating myself and how I can get better at evaluating ‘fairly’.

I think there needs to be more discussion on the subject of ‘performance psychology’ at Malmö Music Academy, it is certainly something I want to continue to discuss and learn more about.

I attended the course because I had had bad experiences in audition situations. Several times I have become super nervous in different audition situations or in masterclasses, my thoughts have been negative, my hands start shaking and it becomes almost impossible to continue playing. My biggest problem has been my thoughts about having a bad finger technique.

During the first year, I learnt a lot about performance anxiety which helped me understand why I was getting so nervous and why my thoughts were affecting my performance so much. It was important to understand psychologically why my hands became shaky and why I thought I was so bad at playing specific parts (self-efficacy). I also learnt that it is possible to practice this skill, get better at it and that there are many ways to get there. Thank you for the course! This has been a very important step for me towards becoming a happier musician.