Flow is a state of optimal or peak experience, commonly associated with expert and creative performance. Musicians often experience flow during playing, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this elusive state have remained underexplored due to challenges posed by substantial artefacts in the neural data. Here, we bypassed these issues by focusing…

Classical musicians are under constant pressure to perform at near perfect levels, and are highly vulnerable to the negative effects of music performance anxiety. This study aimed to examine the mechanisms by which two types of perfectionism (personal standards and evaluative concerns) relate to music performance anxiety, and to explore the…

An extended (and probably unnecessary) parallel is drawn between engagement in mathematics and engagement in musical performance. Key facets of engagement are described and a model of how mathematics engagement plays out in task-level activities is discussed in light of new findings related to its social and emotional facets. Implications for…

Music performance requires high levels of motor control. Professional musicians use body movements not only to accomplish and help technical efficiency, but to shape expressive interpretation. Here, we recorded motion and audio data of twenty participants performing four musical fragments varying in the degree of technical difficulty to analyze…

Music self-efficacy has been acknowledged as a strong predictor of successful performance among musicians and music students, but is less researched among amateur musicians. The purpose of this study is to examine the connection between music self-efficacy and learning and playing habits of amateur musicians who had preferences for online music…

The purpose of the research is to examine the correlation between performer's personal characteristics and the features of his/her artistic activity. The authors analyze various interpretations, proving that the character and temperament influence the properties of the performed musical material, including: the nature of sound; an attitude to the…

The purpose of the current study was to examine music performance anxiety and self-reported reasons for participation among members of older adult community bands. We asked 35 New Horizons Band members aged 65+ questions about their musical experience in face-to-face interviews, after which we administered two questionnaires: the Performance…

This study explored advanced musicians' dispositions to flow in musical practice. A total of 168 classically trained musicians answered a questionnaire assessing their proneness for flow experience during musical practice and associations between flow and demographic factors, practice routines and musical instruments. Dispositions to flow in…

This paper assesses the prevalence of substance use in Spanish music students as a strategy for coping with Musical Performance Anxiety (MPA). We also assess the relation between substance use and thoughts of abandoning one's musical career in connection with the degree of self-reported MPA. We carried out this survey on a sample of 463 students…

We examined collective efficacy beliefs, including levels of within-group agreement and correlation with performance quality, of instrumental chamber ensembles (70 musicians, representing 18 ensembles). Participants were drawn from collegiate programs and intensive summer music festivals located in the northwestern and western regions of the…

This study aims to analyse differences in MPA (Musical Performance Anxiety) in students in five Spanish university-level music conservatories according to instrument type (solo or orchestra) and their academic year of enrolment (AYE). A sample of 476 students with a mean age of 22.59, enrolled in different specialties, responded to the K-MPAI…

Speech is more difficult to understand when it is presented concurrently with a distractor speech stream. One source of this difficulty is that competing speech can act as an attentional lure, requiring listeners to exert attentional control to ensure that attention does not drift away from the target. Stronger attentional control may enable…

Although music performance anxiety (MPA) is a common problem, there are only a few studies on this subject in Hungary. In this article, we investigate the underlying socio-demographic and psychological factors related to music performance anxiety. The sample consisted of musicians (N = 100; aged between 15-35 years) who were studying or had…

Most earlier studies investigating the evolution of the Stroop effect with the amount of reading practice have reported data consistent with an inverted U-shaped curve, whereby the Stroop effect appears early during reading acquisition, reaches a peak after 2 or 3 years of practice, and then continuously decreases until adulthood. The downward…

This study investigated the lives of three active music teacher performers and how their performing experience impacted pedagogy and perceived student learning in the classroom. At the time of data collection, one participant was a full-time elementary school music teacher, and the other two participants were full-time secondary school music…