Backstage nerves: how to quieten negative chatter

For some years now, the idea that the mental skills required by musicians are similar to those needed by athletes has started to become an accepted point of view and has developed as an area of research in performance science. For example just like athletes, it’s essential for musicians to be able to maintain total focus and concentration throughout a concert. A missed entrance or a wrong note could potentially derail a whole performance or make the difference in a crucial audition, just as one slip in concentration could see a catch dropped and a match lost for a cricketer, or a forward sneak through for a winning try in rugby.

Being able to cope with, or block out, distractions is an important skill for musicians and athletes. Whether it’s a ringing mobile phone in a concert hall or a jeering crowd in a stadium, being able to ignore and move on from these things is a vital skill crucial to a performer’s toolbox. And it’s not just those moments on the pitch or in performance where comparative skills are needed. Maintaining a sense of self-belief is crucial if a performer or an athlete is going to be able to give their best performance on a regular basis whilst resilience is vital to be able to cope with injury or a quiet patch in work. This list is by no means comprehensive either.

In terms of training, the situation is different. For athletes, mental training, often working with psychologists, is a fundamental part of coaching from the earliest stages. For musicians however, mental skills training is still mostly seen as an extra; a non-essential add-on to the core training centred around technique and achieving the best possible performance.

Gradually this is beginning to change, with conservatoires starting to build in training in psychology within the curriculum (the Royal Northern College of Music was the first conservatoire to hire a dedicated lecturer in musicians’ health and wellbeing back in 2018), and more research projects being done in this area. For example Dr Terry Clark from the Royal College of Music ran and evaluated a Mental Skills Training programme in 2011. He found evidence to suggest that a nine-week programme training students in the areas of ‘motivation and effective practice’, ‘relaxation and arousal control’ and ‘performance preparation and enhancement’ led to participants feeling more confident in themselves and their performance ability. They also had a greater sense of control over their anxiety levels. While this is a positive sign for those musicians still in training, the question remains as to what you can do if you are a practising musician beyond the years of conservatoire training.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s vital to remember that mental skills and mental strength are something that can be learnt and improved on. They are not something you either have or don’t have; they are something that can be learnt and developed. The pillars of psychological skills training, as used in sports psychology, are a good entry point into ways you can improve your own mental skills in musical performance.

Self-talk describes the things we say to ourselves when practising and performing. Generally there are three different forms of self-talk: positive, instructional, and negative. While the first two types, used correctly, can be beneficial to performance helping focus the mind and keep on task, the latter can prove to be distracting and have a detrimental impact. Thinking of ways of rephrasing negative thoughts into more positive and encouraging statements can be helpful and lead to an improvement in performance.

Mental rehearsal: The idea of mental rehearsal is that you mentally take yourself through a piece or a performance, using your imagination and all your senses to create the impression of what it would be like but without physically doing it. This has been shown in research to help improve confidence and memory as the body and brain learn what is expected of them without physically going through the motions (Weinberg & Gould, 2011). As long as this is done with focus, this is something that can be done anywhere; helpful if you’re recovering from injury or find yourself with time to spare on a long plane journey! However it does work best when in combination with physical practice.

Concentration and focus: Learning to enhance your concentration and take control of your focus can be very beneficial to performance. Throughout a piece or concert, performers regularly have to switch their focus between different things – conductor, music, audience – and therefore doing exercises to help your brain develop the ability to do this quickly and sharply can be very helpful. For example you could practise shifting your attention from the view from a window (an external point of focus) to the feel of the chair you’re sitting on (an internal focus) and then back again. The more this is done, the quicker your brain adapts.

Goal setting, as the name suggests, is about taking the time to think about what want you to develop. It starts with assessing where you currently are, then working out where you want to be. Next you set specific goals and make a plan to help you reach them. Finally you then enact the plan, checking along the way as to how it’s going and whether any adjustments need to be made. This approach can help keep you focused on what you want to achieve and can be a useful motivator.

Relaxation: Finally, learning to relax both physically and mentally is a very helpful mental skill. Not only will it have the benefit of making you feel calmer and more rested, it will also allow you to deepen your awareness of your own physical and mental state and help you identify those times when you are particularly tense and need to do something about it. With all these psychological skills, while there are examples of training exercises mentioned, working with a coach can often be the most effective way of implementing new skills into a performance. In all cases practice is also essential if you want to make a long term difference. The British Association of Performing Arts Medicine has a register of trained performance coaches available on its website.

Overall the key thing to remember is that mental skills, just like physical and technical skills, should be an important part of a musician’s toolkit and spending time working on and developing them should be a basic part of any performer’s routine.