The negative effects of performance concern and anxiety syndrome on the ınstrument performers’ success encountered on studio recording environments

Abstract

Considering today’s music industry and its development, it is seen that instrument performers have a great importance in both album recordings and concert performances. Instrument players spend a lot of time in order to present their individual performances in the best way and to play them flawlessly. However, they cannot convey the performance that emerges at the end of this time they spend in studio environments at the desired level. The reason for these problems experienced by the instrument performers may be their own anxiety and uneasiness and these can negatively affect their performance too. This situation, which stands out as one of the biggest problems of professional or amateur performers, is generally referred to as “Performance Anxiety”. Instrument performers are expected to play the notes flawlessly, especially during the sound recording sessions in the studio environment. While this expectation puts pressure on the musicians playing the instrument, it also creates an obvious uneasiness over them. In this sense, even if the performers have a professional identity, they may face unexpected negative situations. These negative situations may be that it is the wrong note presses that occur momentarily on the album tracks recorded during the performance of a work or in the studio or the inability to cope with the urge to read the wrong note due to stress. Studio environments are generally the areas where the performers are alone with their instruments and reflects all their musical knowledge and experience with their performances. Therefore, in these areas, the musicians should feel comfortable and perform their performance without any pressure. Otherwise, when musicians who will play any instrument feel stressed and have a negative mindset, it is inevitable that they will have deficiencies in their performances in the studio. Every musician seeks an environment where he is at peace with his instrument and a stress-free space. Whenever they feel free and comfortable, the efficiency in their instrument performances is at the highest level. In this context, the performance concerns of musicians while playing the instrument should be handled behaviorally, cognitively and physiologically. Within the scope of this research, each of these cases was tried to be explained in detail. In this study, the formation processes of the concept of anxiety, when emerges by considering the mood of the instrument performers from a psychological point of view, are given in detail. Accordingly, the subject at which stages Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) occur has been revealed with their scopes. The “excitement” that arises in the loss of performance seen in musicians and especially instrument performers is sometimes perceived differently. Therefore, it is very important to distinguish the difference between excitement and anxiety. Within the scope of this study, some suggestions were made by trying to reveal the difference between the concept of excitement and anxiety. Information about correct postures, which is one of the other ways to get good results in studio performances, is also included. Muscle and joint pains caused by incorrect postures, which is one of the biggest handicaps of instrument performers, adversely affect the performance that will emerge. This effect, on the other hand, makes the musicians uneasy over time and leads them to a state of psychological warfare. The complex structures revealed by playing an instrument are examined in detail, and the anxiety problems caused by the results are also among the subjects of this research. The aim of this study is to reveal the problems that instrument performers encounter during the high level of error-free performance sessions expected from them in studio environments and to find solutions to these problems. At the same time, a survey model, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in this study in order to collect data on the subject. The data obtained as a result of the research were interpreted by using the descriptive analysis method and various suggestions were made in this context.