Pre-performance routines for music students: An experimental pilot study

Studies in sport psychology show that using a pre-performance routine (PPR), a set of cognitive and behavioral elements, prior to performing, optimizes sport performance under pressure. We attempt to extend this effect to music performance, employing individually developed PPRs based on the centering technique. The hypothesis is that musicians with a PPR perform better and experience higher self-efficacy under pressure than participants with a control, goal-setting intervention. Thirty violin performance students performed an audition excerpt in a low-pressure pretest and a high-pressure posttest. Pressure was induced by the presence of an audience and a jury. Half of the students practiced their individualized PPRs during a 5-week period between performances, whereas the other half applied a goal-setting intervention to their practice. Participants’ music performance was measured by five expert jurors and self-evaluations. The results showed that both intervention techniques were perceived as equally helpful by the participants, but this did not translate into jurors’ performance evaluations. There were no significant differences between the PPR and goal-setting groups in music performance, but the PPR group had higher self-efficacy in the posttest than the goal-setting group. Future studies should include a third group without any intervention.