Toward effective treatment for music performance anxiety.

Contends that strategies for dealing with free-floating or phobic anxieties are blunt instruments if applied indiscriminately to the delicate process of musical performance. Current remedies sometimes aim at physical relaxation or tranquilization without altering the trying-too-hard effect created by the anxiety. Successful procedures include cognitive desensitization, redirection of attention from task-irrelevant worry to content and requirements, and shifting attention from catastrophized expectations, negative self-statements, and signs of nervousness toward task-relevant or performance-relevant cues. Motivational interventions render technical mistakes less aversive, give permission to work toward long-range goals even if one performance is a disaster, and wean clients away from an overly perfectionistic or defensive posture. Work with a male undergraduate piano major illustrates the suggested therapeutic approach. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)