Effect of Audience On Music Performance Anxiety

Effect of Audience on Music Performance Anxiety
Author(s): Albert LeBlanc, Young Chang Jin, Mary Obert and Carolyn Siivola
Source: Journal of Research in Music Education , Autumn, 1997, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Autumn,
1997), pp. 480-496
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of MENC: The National Association for
Music Education
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3345541
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480 JRME 1997, VOLUME 45, NUMBER 3, PAGES 480-496
We tested 27 male and female high school band members performing solos under three
levels of audience presence. Participants performed alone in a practice room, in a prac-
tice room with one researcher present, and in the rehearsal room with all researchers, a
peer group, and a tape recording being made. Dependent measures were an analog scale
self-report of perceived anxiety, heart rate recorded during performance, judges' rating of
the final performance, and an exit interview. Self-reported anxiety rose with each suc-
ceeding performance condition, and each reported increase was significant. Heart rate
was steady across the first two performance conditions, but rose significantly at the third.
Female participants presented better performances, reported significantly higher anxiety
levels than did males in the third performance condition, and attained significantly
higher heart rates than did males in the first and third conditions. Gender emerged as a
significant predictor of heart rate during performance, with femaleperformers attaining
higher heart rates.
Albert LeBlanc, Michigan State University
Young Chang Jin, Michigan State University
Mary Obert, Lansing, Michigan
Carolyn Siivola, Michigan State University
Effect of Audience on Music
Performance Anxiet
Performance anxiety is a problem that has long hindered s
musicians from reaching their full potentials as performers. Affl
performers as disparate as concert pianist Vladimir Horowitz and
singer Carly Simon, performance anxiety has also caused discomfo
generations of music students, their teachers, and their parents. I
been documented that musicians as successful as Leopold Godo
(Nicholas, 1989), Enrico Caruso (Greenfeld, 1983), Pablo Casals (Kirk,
1974), and Maria Callas (Stassinopoulos, 1981) had to cope with nota-
We thank the students, parents, teachers, and administrators of the Okemos,

Michigan, School District for their assistance in this study. We thankJames Barry, Director
of Bands, Okemos High School, for his advice and support. Albert LeBlanc is a professor
of music in the School of Music, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1043.
Young Chang Jin is a doctoral candidate in the School of Music, Michigan State
University. Mary Obert is a private music teacher and can be contacted at 2428 Kuerbitz
Road, Fowlerville, MI 48836. Carolyn Siivola is an instructor in the evening college,
Michigan State University, and can be reached at 5756 Lowe Road, Fowlerville, MI 48836.
Copyright @ 1997 by Music Educators National Conference.

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JRME 481
ble problems of performance anxiety in building their careers.

One of the most memorable stories of performance anxiety in music
is related by Schonberg (1963) concerning the 19th-century pianist
Adolf Henselt:
When playing with an orchestra he would hide in the wings until the opening tutti
was over, rush out and literally pounce on the piano. On one occasion he forgot
to put aside the cigar he was nervously chomping-this was in Russia-and played
the concerto cigar in mouth, smoking away, much to the amusement of the Czar.
The mere thought of giving a concert made him physically ill. He gave very few
throughout his career-far fewer than any of the great pianists, including Alkan-
and in the last thirty-three years of his life apparently gave no more than three. (p.
199)
LeBlanc (1994) has advanced a formal theory that attempts to

define, explain, and chart some possible interactions of variables that
influence the level of performance anxiety an individual may exper
ence while preparing and presenting a music performance that he o
she considers important. LeBlanc's theory cites the presence and
behavior of audience, authorities, educators, family, media, and pee
group as important elements of the performing environment and a
variables that can influence music performance anxiety. In this study,
we sought to examine the effect of audience on the performance anx-
iety of high school band members as they played brief solo selections.
We presented the effect of audience in a way that used authorities, edu-
cators, media, and peer group (each of these is a variable in the
LeBlanc theory), and we designed the study so that the intensity of th
audience experience would escalate across three solo performances. A
secondary objective of our study was to explore possible gender differ-
ences in the response to an increasingly intense audience experience
Some of the published studies of music performance anxiety hav
had limitations in their sample of participants, for example, working
with males only, college students only, or college music majors only
This in turn limits the generalizability of these studies. In this study, w
explored the effect of audience with male and female high school stu-
dents, and we made a strong effort to recruit a true cross section o
high school band members in the school in which we worked, rathe
than working only with the subset of highly motivated students that ha
already volunteered to enter solo festival.
Alvin Wardle's 1969 dissertation, completed at Florida State Univer-
sity, is the earliest experimental study we have found dealing with musi
performance anxiety. Although Wardle used a small audience of peers,
observers, and researchers as part of his procedure, he did not manip-
ulate the audience as one of his experimental variables. His focus wa
on different methods of treating performance anxiety.
In a nonmusic study, Cox (1968) found that the presence of an audi-
ence of fathers, male teachers, or male peers while fifth-grade boy
were performing a challenging motor task was associated with bette
performance by low test-anxious boys but worse performance by high
test-anxious boys.

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482 LEBLANC/JIN/OBERT/SIIVOLA
Lund (1972) conducted the only study we found in which music per-
formance anxiety with subjects younger than college age was examined.
Lund's study was much like Wardle's, in which a small audience was
used as part of the procedure, but the experimental focus was on con-
trasting methods of treating performance anxiety. Unlike Wardle,
Lund took no physiological data.
Leglar (1978) worked with 30 organists who ranged in experience
from undergraduate organ majors to postgraduate professionals. Her
participants performed alone, in the presence of a critic, and in the
presence of a critic and an audience of about 15 peers. Participant
heart rates increased in the presence of a critic and again in the pres-
ence of a critic and a peer-group audience.
Abrams and Manstead (1981) studied 80 college students (40 men
and 40 women) who performed under four conditions: alone, with two
people present in an adjacent room, in front of a mirror, and for a tape
recorder (with the tape to be evaluated later by a professor). Female
participants made fewer performance errors, reported significantly
more anxiety than did male participants, and attained significantly
higher pulse rates than did the male subjects. Hamann (1982) worked
with 90 (42 male and 48 female) college-level music majors who played
alone with a tape recorder as a reduced-anxiety condition and for a
peer-group and instructor audience as an enhanced-anxiety condition.
Those performing for the peer-group and instructor audience report-
ed significantly greater anxiety, and those with more years of formal
study were judged to have presented better performances.
Hamann and Sobaje (1983) worked with 60 (25 male and 35 female)
college music students who performed under conditions of enhanced
anxiety (jury) and reduced anxiety (no jury). Participants reported sig-
nificantly higher anxiety under jury conditions, and those with more
years of formal study were judged to have presented better perfor-
mances.
Abel and Larkin (1990) studied 22 (8 male and

music students who were observed in a baseline l
again shortly before ajury performance. The hear
sure of both genders was significantly higher be
mance than during baseline. Both genders had a s
self-reported anxiety shortly before the jury, bu
increase was significantly greater than that of t
one-item report of self-confidence, there was a sig
gender and time of assessment, with male subject
fidence in the baseline session and female subjects
fidence shortly before the jury.
Tartalone (1992) studied the physiological ar
state anxiety of 39 college music majors (27 men
were preparing for brass jury recitals. The resear
four weeks before the jury, through dress rehear
mance. Blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration
tinct rise at the time of dress rehearsal and again
mance. The increases in blood pressure and heart r

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JRME 483
Self-reported anxiety increased significantly at dress rehearsal and on

the morning of the jury, but not at the actual time of the jury perfor-
mance. Participants with less jury playing experience generally showed
a greater range of increase on all measures, and their rates were usual-
ly higher than those of the more experienced group immediately
before the jury performance.
Brotons (1994) worked with 64 (32 males and 32 females) college
music students who were measured practicing alone in a studio and
again in either an open or a double-blind jury condition. The open jury
was the regular jury condition. In the double-blind condition, subjects
performed for an open jury and were also tape-recorded for later judg-
ing by external judges. Both heart rate and self-reported anxiety were
significantly higher in the jury condition. There was no significant dif-
ference between the two types of jury condition.
This review of literature discloses a very consistent effect of audi-
ence, in which the presence of an audience is usually associated with
significant increases in physiological arousal and self-reported anxiety
in music performers. The role of gender in this response mechanism is
somewhat less clear, and we found only one study done with music per-
formers younger than college age.
METHOD
Participants
We worked with a sample of 27 male and female volunteer partici-

pants who were members of a local high school band. Grades 9 through
12 were represented, with 8 participants from Grade 9, 7 from Grade
10, 7 from Grade 11, and 5 from Grade 12. Sixteen participants were
boys, and 11 were girls. Instruments represented in the sample includ-
ed flute, oboe, clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone sax-
ophone, trumpet, French horn, trombone, euphonium, tuba, snare
drum, and orchestra bells.
Taking the band director's advice, we scheduled our study to begin
a little more than 6 weeks before the date of district solo and ensemble
festival. We hoped this would make participation in our study attracti
to those who intended to perform a solo in the coming festival by off
ing them the opportunity to play for a music teacher who was unfam
iar to them and to play for an audience of their peers and several mus
teachers while a recording of their performance was being made. Th
latter experience would take place shortly before the date of the fes
val and would give participants an audience experience that would
probably be more intense than that of the festival itself. We hoped th
students would consider participation in our study to be a good way
prepare for festival. We were concerned, however, that tailoring
study to the needs of solo festival participants might result in our g
ting a self-selected and atypical sample: only those students who wer
good performers and who were most strongly motivated to enter a v
unteer competition.

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Materials
The band director had advised us that lack of a solo would be one of
the main obstacles to participation in our study by students who did n
already intend to enter the solo and ensemble festival. We therefore
decided to furnish solos for participants who did not already have one
and we searched for a published collection of wind instrument solos
that would be relatively easy and available for a wide variety of instru
ments. We had earlier considered standardizing the music to be per-
formed by requiring a single selection to be played by all participant
in the study, but we rejected this idea because we thought it would b
unattractive to our participants, and it would require the peer-group
audience to listen to the same selection many times.
After examining a number of possibilities, we selected a collection o
songs from the musical The Sound of Music (Rodgers & Hammerstein
1959) and identified a number of songs of highly comparable difficu
ty that we would allow participants to select if they did not already ha
a solo they wished to perform in our study. These songs were of a rel
tively easy difficulty level, and the band director assured us that they
were within the reach of any student in the band. We bought enoug
copies of the collection so that every participant had printed music t
take home and practice.
We designed an analog self-report scale, the Personal Performance
Anxiety Report, which participants used immediately after each per-
formance to tell us how much performance anxiety they had felt in th
performance just completed. Instructions were printed on the scale,
which was drawn in the shape of a mercury thermometer. By using th
"thermometer," participants reported their perceived anxiety on a sca
of 0 to 10, with higher numbers associated with greater anxiety.
We used two Polar Vantage XL heart-rate monitors to sample an
accumulate each participant's heart rate during performance. Thi
instrument is widely available in stores that cater to athletes and is pr
marily marketed as a device to facilitate the monitoring of exercise an
athletic training programs. Its predecessor, the CIC Heartwatch, was
field-tested by LeBlanc, Campbell, and Codding (1993) and found
be well accepted by participants in music research. The Polar Vantage
XL was recently used in major studies of music performance anxiety b
Brotons (1994) and Tartalone (1992). We recorded student perfor-
mances on a Sony TC-FX6C stereo cassette recorder using Realistic 33
992 microphones.
Procedure
In our first visit to the band to explain the study, we described the
heart-rate monitor that we would use to record participant heart rates.
We also described this instrument in the letter requesting informed
consent that we sent home to parents so participants had little appre-
hension about the monitor when it was time to begin the study.
Participants were allowed to select their own music to perform. The

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JRME 485
band director verified that no solo being used was too difficult for the
ability level of the student performing it. Participants who did not have
their own solos were allowed to select one of the songs we had
approved from The Sound of Music. We noted that the participants
who supplied their own music generally selected more difficult music.
We made every effort to ensure that participants prepared their solos
in conditions that were ordinary for them. The band director made
himself available to help any student who desired his help. Students
were free to devote as much or as little practice to the solos as they
wished. No student was required to perform from memory, and no stu-
dent chose to do so.
All testing was done during band rehearsal in the choral rehe
room adjoining the band room. Although normal clothing could
worn over it, it was necessary for the sensor belt of the heart rate
itor to directly contact the skin of a participant's chest in ord
record an accurate heart rate. To protect the personal privacy o
participants, we arranged for them to use a private and windo
room to put on the sensor belt. We commissioned a professional gr
ic artist to draw illustrations showing correct wearing of the mon
sensor belt and transmitter unit, and a copy of these illustra
together with a simplified set of instructions was provided to part
pants as they entered the dressing room. Participants had no diffi
putting on the sensor belt correctly.
The receiver unit of the Polar Vantage XL looks like a large w
watch, and it is normally worn on the wrist, but we needed to touch
controls of the receiver to enter an event marker immediately bef
each participant began to play, and we were afraid this would creat
distraction if the unit were strapped to the participant's wrist. We t
fore bought two military-style adjustable belts and hung a receiver
from each belt. Participants wore the belts and it was easy for one o
researchers to check the monitor and enter event signals without d
turbing the participant, who would have both hands on the instru
in playing position at the time the signal needed to be entered
field-tested this procedure before the actual study to verify that t
receiver would still be within practical range of the transmitter u
mounted on the sensor belt.
In our first performance condition, participants wore the heart-
monitor while performing the first 2 minutes of their solos alone
practice room. In this and in every performance condition, the mo
tor was set to sample and record heart rate at 5-second intervals. T
yielded 24 measurements of each participant's heart rate under
performance condition. Immediately after the 2-minute performan
each participant was brought to an adjoining practice room whe
or she filled out a Personal Performance Anxiety Report. This p
dure was repeated in every performance condition.
Our second performance condition required participants to play t
first 2 minutes of their solo in a practice room with one of t
researchers present. This performance took place 2 weeks after the f
one.

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Our third performance condition required participants to play the

first 2 minutes of their solo in the choral rehearsal room with the four
researchers and a small peer-group audience present. The peer-group
audience ranged in size from 9 to 16 members and was entirely made
up of other participants in the study. This performance was also tape-
recorded by the researchers. Immediately after completing their solo
and Personal Performance Anxiety Report, participants were brought
into another room for a brief exit interview, conducted by a university
student who had not been involved in the study up to this point. In the
exit interview, participants were asked to identify which performance
condition had been the most stressful and the second most stressful for
them, and they were invited to make any comments they might wish to
make.
Participants presented their third performance 2 weeks after their

second one. Recordings of the participants' third performances were
later judged by the four researchers, who assigned each performance a
score ranging from 1 to 10, with a higher number indicating a better
performance.
RESULTS
Reliability
Reliability of an earlier version of our heart rate monitor was

assessed by Leger and Thivierge (1988), who obtained correlations of
.95, .95, and .97 between the monitor and a simultaneously recorded
electrocardiogram taken during step-test, treadmill, and bicycle-
ergometer exercise, respectively. We measured the reliability of our
music performance scores by computing coefficient alpha across the
four judges. We obtained an alpha of .96 and considered it satisfactory.
Personal Performance Anxiety Report
Table 1 presents results of the anxiety self-report and heart-rate mon-

itor for combined genders. The anxiety self-report shows a steady climb
toward higher levels of anxiety in each succeeding performance condi-
tion, with self-reported anxiety highest in the third condition, in which
participants played for all the researchers and a peer-group audience.
Figure 1 presents the means of the anxiety self-report as a line graph.
We conducted a repeated measures analysis of variance using SPSS
Subprogram MANOVA to test for significant differences in anxiety self-
report scores across the three performance conditions, computing
orthogonal difference contrasts. We used an alpha level of .05 for all
significance tests. The first contrast compared the means of the first
and second performance conditions, and was significant, F (1, 26) =
12.87, p = .0014. The second contrast compared the mean of the first
and second conditions with the mean of the third condition, and was
significant, F (1, 26) = 31.94, p = .00001. The effect of audience as rep-
resented by the three performance conditions was highly significant, as

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JRME 487
Table 1
Mean Scores on Personal Performance Anxiety Report and Heart-Rate Monitor
Performing condition Mean SD
1 2.04 1.60
2 3.33 1.80
3 5.11 2.33
Heart-rate monitor
1 109.19 21.34
2 109.04 18.95
3 116.72 22.15
Note. There were 27 par

heart rate.
reflected in the Personal Performance Anxiety Report (see Table 2).
Heart-Rate Monitor
The mean heart rate of our participants was virtually identical in the
first two performance conditions, but there was a distinct rise in heart
rate in the third condition, as shown in Table 1 and Figure 2. Again, we
computed orthogonal difference contrasts. The contrast between the
first two performance conditions was not significant, F (1, 26) = .0029,
p = .9575. The second contrast, comparing the mean of the first and
second conditions with the mean of the third condition, was signifi
Table 2
Orthogonal Contrasts for Personal Performance Anxiety Report
First contrast Second contrast
Hypothesis SS 22.68 105.93

Error SS 45.82 86.24
Hypothesis MS 22.68 105.93
Error MS 1.76 3.32
F 12.87 31.94
p .001 .000
Eta squared .33 .55
Note. The first contrast compared t

The second contrast compared the m
the mean of the third performance

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2
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0 0
LM
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F mCa
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Performance 1 Performance 2 Perfor
Performance Conditions
Figure 1. Mean Personal Performance Anxiety Report in three per

122.200.7.176 on Tue, 06 Oct 2020 02:40:25 UTC
140
o.
12_e0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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00
0
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20
Performance 1 Performance 2 Perfor
Performance Conditions
Figure 2. Mean heart rate in three performanc

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490 LEBLANC/JIN/OBERT/SIIVOIA
Table 3
Orthogonal Contrasts for Heart-Rate Monitor
First contrast Second contrast
Hypothesis SS 0.31 1041.71

Error SS 2763.37 6038.52
Hypothesis MS 0.31 1041.71
Error MS 106.28 232.25
F 0.00 4.48
p .957 .044
Eta squared .00 .15
Note. The first contrast compared th

The second contrast compared the m
the mean of the third performance
cant, F (1,26) = 4.48, p = .043

audience was significant on
the peer group and the rese
Exit Interview
In the exit interview, 17 students (63% of the group) said that play-
ing for the researchers and the peer group was the most stressful per-
formance condition, while 8 (30%) said playing for one researcher in
a practice room was most stressful, and 2 (7%) said playing alone in a
practice room was most stressful.
At the conclusion of the exit interview, participants were asked if
they had any general comments to offer. The most prominent com-
ment, made by 5 participants (18% of the group), was that they were
most anxious when playing for a group of classmates and friends. One
said "It is nerve-racking to play for your friends, but if you can play for
your friends, you can play for anybody." Three (11%) said they were
not worried because the music was easy, three said it was fun to partici-
pate, two (7%) said they would be more nervous if their band director
were present, and two said they did not realize they were being record-
ed in the third performance condition. One said he was not nervous
because he was not playing for a festival rating, and another said he was
not nervous playing for his classmates because it was the third time he
was playing his solo for this study.
Results by Gender
A secondary purpose of our study was to investigate the effect of

audience on music performance anxiety by gender to see if the genders
might have different patterns of response to different levels of audi-
ence effect. Table 4 presents the results of the anxiety self-report, the

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JRME 491
Table 4
Mean Scores on Personal Performance Anxiety Report, Heart-Rate Monitor and Performance
Rating by Gender
Performing condition Gender Mean SD

1 M 2.19 1.56
1 F 1.82 1.72
2 M 3.25 1.92
2 F 3.45 1.70
3* M 4.31 2.02
3* F 6.27 2.33
Heart-rate monitor
1** M 99.83 18.50
1** F 122.81 18.06
2 M 103.84 14.61
2 F 116.60 22.52
3* M 109.32 21.56
3* F 127.50 19.04
Performance rating
3** M 5.70 2.46
3** F 8.20 1.07
Note. There were 16 m

higher scores indicate
from 1 to 10, with a hi
ing condition in which
S* for alpha = .01.
heart-rate monito
noted that 16 of
Responses by th
Performance An
when female part
ference was signif
p = .0283. We use
nificance tests be
Female participan
performance con
10.25, p= .0037. F
dition, but this d
p = .0854. Female
formance conditi
Female participan
rating than did
mance ratings wa

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492 LEBLANC/JIN/OBERT/SIIVOIA
Table 5
Simple and Partial Correlations
Variable(s) controlled Variables correlated
Music selection and performance quality
.58**
Gender .47**
Grade .56**
Gender and grade .45*
Gender and performance qualit
.53**
Grade .53**
Music selection .39*
Grade and music selection .41*
Grade and performance qual
.35
Gender .36
Music selection .31
Gender and music selection .33
Note. Asterisks indicate significant correlations: * for alpha
mance rating for females was significant,

However, we have reason to believe that the
gled with the effect of music selection (usi
ticipant's own music) in this study. Among
used their own music while 2 (18%) used
pants, 5 (31%) used their own music whi
This inclination of females to use their own music and of males to use
our music was statistically significant beyond the .01 level, chi-square =
7.22, df= 3.
Correlation Analysis
Table 5 presents simple and partial correlations involving gender,

grade, music selection, and performance quality. The correlation be-
tween music selection and performance quality remained strong and
statistically significant no matter which of the other variables was statis-
tically controlled. Those who used their own music presented the bet-
ter performances. Gender had a strong and statistically significant rela-
tionship to performance quality, but it fell from .53 to .39 when the

122.200.7.176 on Tue, 06 Oct 2020 02:40:25 UTC
JRME 493
effect of music selection was controlled. Female participants presented

the better performances. The effect of grade (.35) had a comparative-
ly strong relationship to performance quality, though it did not attain
significance. It was reduced only slightly by the statistical control of
other variables. Participants in higher grades presented the better per-
formances.
Regression Analysis
We pooled the heart rate scores from all three performance condi-
tions and entered music selection, participant grade, participant ge
der, and performance score into a simultaneous multiple-regressio
equation to predict heart rate. A squared multiple correlation of .
indicated that these four predictors accounted for 27% of heart-ra
variance. Of these four predictors, gender was by far the strongest, wit
a beta weight of .53, and it was the only significant predictor, t (22)
2.41, p = .0249 (see Table 6). If performance anxiety is operationaliz
as obtained heart rate, gender was the best predictor, with female par
ticipants attaining higher heart rates during performance. To further
check the effect of music selection on heart rate, we entered it as the
lone predictor of heart rate in a regression equation. Music selection
accounted for less than 1% of the variance in heart rate, attained a beta
weight of .09, and was not a significant predictor, t (25) = 0.45, p =
.6550.
We pooled the scores on the Personal Performance Anxiety Report
across all three performances and entered performance score, heart
rate, participant grade, music selection, and participant gender into a
simultaneous multiple-regression equation to predict the anxiety score.
These variables accounted for 24% of the variance in the anxiety
scores, and heart rate emerged as the strongest predictor with a beta
weight of .39 (see Table 7). However, it failed to attain significance,
t (21) = 1.76, p = .0933. The fact that obtained heart rate was the
strongest predictor of the Personal Performance Anxiety Report speaks
Table 6
Summary of Simultaneous Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Heart Rate (N = 27)
Variable B SE B Beta
Gender 18.89 7.85 .53*

Grade -.15 3.17 -.01
Performance score .66 1.98 .09
Music selection -6.12 7.98 -.17
*p > .05.
Note. B = partial regression coefficient; SE B = standard error of the partial coefficient; Beta =
standardized beta coefficient.

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Table 7
Summary of Simultaneous Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Personal Performance
Anxiety Report (N = 27)
Variable B SE B Beta
Music selection .59 .67 .21

Heart rate .03 .02 .39
Gender -.04 .74 -.01
Grade -.34 .26 -.27
Performance score -.04 .16 -.07
Note. B = partial regression coefficient; SE B

standardized beta coefficient.
well for the validity of the self-report measure. We removed heart rate
from the regression equation to evaluate the predictive power of the
remaining variables and noted that the remaining variables accounted
for only 12% of the variance in the anxiety score. Grade emerged as the
strongest predictor with a beta weight of -.27. It was not significant, t
(22) = -1.25, p = .2234. The negative beta weight indicated that partic-
ipants in higher grades reported lower anxiety.
DISCUSSION
This study tended to confirm the findings of earlier work don

older participants. The presence of an audience was associate
greater performance anxiety, as it had been in studies by Leglar
Hamann (1982), Hamann and Sobaje (1983), Abel and Larkin
Tartalone (1992), and Brotons (1994). Female participants ex
enced greater anxiety, as they had in studies by Abrams and M
(1981) and Abel and Larkin (1990), and they presented perform
that were musically better, as they had in the 1981 study by Abr
Manstead.
We were surprised by the fact that participants reported anxiety over
the task of playing alone in a practice room. It might seem incongru-
ous that playing alone could have been viewed as the most stressful con
dition, but it should be noted that this was the first time that partici-
pants wore the heart-rate monitor, all the practice rooms had glass
walls, and access to the practice rooms could be had only from a nar-
row balcony, so the researchers and several other participants remained
close by on the balcony waiting for the next available practice room
while participants were playing their solos. This situation made the first
performance condition more of an audience experience than we had
expected it to be when planning the study.
We were also surprised that the effect of music selection was so pow-
erfully associated with performance quality. Seeking to explain thi
effect, we hypothesized that those who used their own music were more

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JRME 495
likely to have been taking private music lessons and to have been plan-
ning to enter solo festival. This would have made them more motivat-
ed to excel, and it also would have made their performances in our
study more important to them.
Implications for Music Education
This study suggests the following implications for music education:

1. The audience, even a small peer group, was associated here with a
significant increase in the anxiety of high school musicians who per-
formed for it. Music teachers should be aware of the potential for stress
in performing for an audience, and they should try to prepare their stu-
dents for the audience experience in a way that will minimize student
anxiety.
2. There is reason to believe that the two genders may respond dif-
ferently to stressful conditions of performance. In our study, female
participants reported significantly higher anxiety levels in the third per-
formance condition, and they attained significantly higher levels of
heart rate in the first and third performance conditions. Music teach-
ers should be particularly sensitive to the needs of female students
when they are exposed to potentially stressful performance conditions.
The LeBlanc (1994) theory of music performance anxiety may be help-
ful to music teachers in structuring an environment in which excessive
anxiety can be prevented or controlled.
Suggestions for Future Research
It would be desirable to focus specifically upon the responses of the

two genders to stressful performance conditions. Researchers who con-
duct such studies should attempt to enroll equal numbers of partici-
pants from the two genders and to control for variables such as diffi-
culty of music, level of participant motivation, and years of formal
music study. They should also plan their studies to give participants a
generous time allowance for trying out any physiological measuring
equipment while they are playing their solo. No physiological data
should be taken during the trial period. The present study was limited
by its comparatively small number of participants, and it would be desir-
able to work with larger numbers in future research in this area.
REFERENCES
Abel, J. L., & Larkin, K. T. (1990). Anticipation of performance among

cians: Physiological arousal, confidence, and state anxiety. Psycho
Music, 18, 171-182.
Abrams, D., & Manstead, A. S. (1981). A test of theories of social facilitation
using a musical task. British Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 271-278.
Brotons, M. (1994). Effects of performing conditions on music performance
anxiety and performance quality. Journal of Music Therapy, 31, 63-81.
Cox, F. N. (1968). Some relationships between test anxiety, presence or absence
of male persons, and boys' performance on a repetitive motor task. Journal

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496 JRME
of Experimental Child Psychology, 6, 1-12.

Greenfeld, H. (1983). Caruso. New York: Putnam.
Hamann, D. L. (1982). An assessment of anxiety in instrumental and vocal per-
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Hamann, D. L., & Sobaje, M. (1983). Anxiety and the college musician: A study
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Kirk, H. L. (1974). Pablo Casals. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
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LeBlanc, A., Campbell, P. S., & Codding, P. (1993). Suitability of a personal
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Leglar, M. A. (1978). Measurement of indicators of anxiety levels under varying
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Lund, D. R. (1972). A comparative study of three therapeutic techniques in the
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Submitted October 25, 1995; accepted June 25, 1996.

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Effect of Audience On Music Performance Anxiety

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Albert LeBlanc, Michigan State University

Young Chang Jin, Michigan State University

Mary Obert, Lansing, Michigan

Carolyn Siivola, Michigan State University