The quality of the performance experience during the previous year

The performers’ emotions during practice and daily life provide a broad context within which the performance experience can be explored. The focus of the present study was

the performance experience; therefore performers were also asked to give a general evaluation of the quality of their performance experiences during the previous year, in addition to reporting the frequency with which they felt a set of discrete emotions during performance (analysed above). Performers were asked to select from four different qualities of experience – namely ‘highly enjoyable’, ‘moderately enjoyable’, ‘neutral’ or ‘stressful’ – the one that corresponded most closely to their own experience (see Figure 3.5). The timeframe given – the previous year – was specific (see Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000), but long enough to be viewed as typical of their performance experiences in general.

Figure 3.5 Assessment of the performance experience during the previous year

Forty-two per cent of performers (N = 262) evaluated their performances as being highly enjoyable. Nevertheless, nearly as many (40%; N = 249) assessed them as only moderately enjoyable. I interpreted this evaluation as referring to performances that elicit a certain amount of positive emotions, but still lack something that prevents performers from fully enjoying them. I speak about a deficiency in the experience, because enjoyment and anxiety appear not to be opposite poles of a single continuum and, as will be discussed below, performers may report their performances as highly enjoyable experiences even when these experiences included a certain amount of worry and fear. Interestingly, the percentage of performers who evaluated their performances as moderately enjoyable was the same amongst students, amateurs and professionals,

which means that this ‘something that is lacking’ is not necessarily found with training and experience. In addition to these moderately enjoyable experiences, almost one fifth of the performers seemed not to enjoy their performances, as they either assessed them as emotionally ‘neutral’ (3%; N = 16), or ‘stressful’ (15%; N = 92) (this percentage is similar to the 14 per cent of musicians who, in Fishbein et al.,’s study (1998), indicated that stage fright was a severe problem for them).

3.3.2.1 Associations between the quality of the performance experience

reported and the performers’ musical backgrounds

The results of a one-way ANOVA showed that the assessment of the performance experience was not significantly different between performers of different ages or with differing amounts of years invested in music-making. These results were consistent with previous findings on performance anxiety (see i.e. Kenny, Fortune & Ackermann, 2011). Chi-squares were run in order to investigate the associations between the quality of the performance experience and other background variables such as gender, status, role, and musical genre. As expected, the results of most of these tests were in line with those of the chi-squares run between background variables and the emotions reported during performance (see section 3.3.1.1).

Table 3.9 shows the results of chi-squares investigating the association between gender and the performers’ assessment of their performance experiences. Men’s and women’s assessments were not significantly different. These results are surprising when we take into account the significant differences between genders when reporting on their feelings of worry and fear in performance, with 24 per cent of women (N = 70)

reporting feeling fearful most of the time in performance, compared to only 9 per cent of men (N = 28) (see section 3.3.1.2).

Table 3.9 Associations between the quality of the performance experience during the

previous year and gender (N = 618)

Quality of the performance experience during the

previous year

Stressful Neutral

Moderately

enjoyable Highly enjoyable Chi-square

Men 11.8% 2.2% 39.9% 46.0%

6.47

Women 18.0% 3.0% 40.7% 38.4%

*.Chi-square is significant at the 0.05 level.

I hypothesise that this inconsistency in the findings (men and women differing much more in their reports of negative emotions than in the way they categorise their performance experiences) might be due to men having more difficulty than women in reporting their feelings of fear (I discuss the theoretical basis of this hypothesis below: see the end of section 3.3.2.2).

Table 3.10 shows that soloists, ensemble and large-group players differed in the quality of the performance experiences they reported. Soloists reported their performance as stressful more than twice as often as orchestra players, and reported fewer highly enjoyable experiences than performers playing in ensembles or in larger groups.

Table 3.10 Associations between the quality of the performance experience during the

previous year and role (N = 617)

Quality of the performance experience during the previous year Stressful Neutral Moderately enjoyable Highly enjoyable Chi-square Soloist 20% 2.70% 43.20% 34.10% 14.39* Ensemble 15,1% 1,9% 37,0% 46,0% Large group 8,6% 3,7% 42,3% 45,4%

*.Chi-square is significant at the 0.05 level.

For the following analyses, my data did not comply with the assumptions of chi-squares (and subsequent regression analysis) because the number of performers who evaluated their performances as emotionally neutral was too small (16 performers) and the expected value in each cell was in some cases less than five. Therefore, in order to further my analysis, I created a new variable in which I excluded the category ‘neutral’, and the data of the 16 performers who assessed their performances as neutral.

experience during the previous year’ only included three categories: ‘stressful’, ‘moderately enjoyable’ and ‘highly enjoyable’.

Table 3.11 Associations between the quality of the performance experience during the

previous year, status and musical genre (N = 602)

Stressful Moderately enjoyable Highly enjoyable Chi-square Status Students 26.6% 41.8% 31.6% 25.93** Amateurs 8.9% 41.1% 50.0% Professionals 12.6% 41.1% 46.3%

Musical genre Classical 17.20% 44.20% 38.70%

15.98**

Non-classical 10.50% 33.10% 56.40%

*.Chi-square is significant at the 0.05 level.

**. Chi-square is significant at the 0.01 level.

Notably, students evaluated their performances as stressful almost three times as often as amateurs and more than twice as often as professionals and, at the same time, assessed their performances as highly enjoyable much less frequently than their

counterparts. However, when I looked more closely at the differences between students and professionals in regard to highly enjoyable performances, the chi-square shows that the difference between the two groups is not due, as might be expected, to a high frequency of highly enjoyable performances amongst professionals (N = 132, a number that is not significantly different from the expected count of N = 123), but rather to the low number of students who assessed their experiences as highly enjoyable (N = 50, expected count N = 69). Surprisingly, more than half of the participating professionals appeared not to fully enjoy their performances, and appraised them as either moderately enjoyable (41%; N = 117) or as stressful (13%; N = 36). It seems paradoxical that so many professional musicians (individuals who have chosen this profession) report suboptimal performance experiences. However, these results may be biased by the fact that, in this preliminary study, my category ‘professionals’ did not make a distinction between professional musicians who mainly perform and those who mainly teach. It is possible that the former experience more rewarding performances than the latter.

Table 3.11 also shows that classical and non-classical performers differed significantly in the way they assessed their performances, in particular the frequency with which they

reported highly enjoyable experiences (non-classical performers reporting highly enjoyable experiences much more frequently than classical performers).

3.3.2.2 Identifying variables that predict the frequency of ‘stressful’,

‘moderately enjoyable’ and ‘highly enjoyable’ performances

The analysis so far shows that performers belonging to different categories (namely classical and non-classical; students, amateurs and professionals; soloists, ensemble and large-group players; and men and women) differ in the way they assess their

performance experiences. While the differences found between categories were statistically significant, these could be either real or due to confounding variables. Therefore, a Multinomial Logistic Regression was run in order to control for confounding variables and investigate which were the variables that could

independently predict the likelihood of experiencing a higher or lower frequency of stressful or highly enjoyable performance experiences. Within the regression, the dependent variable was the assessment of the performance experience during the previous year, and the demographic background independent variables were gender, status, role, age, number of public performances per year, and musical genre. Rather than looking at how these variables predicted highly enjoyable compared to stressful experiences, as the outcome variable measured values on the same dimension, I preferred to focus on how they predicted highly enjoyable or stressful experiences separately from, and in comparison to, moderately enjoyable experiences. In this way, a distinction could be made between the variables that would predict joy and those that would predict anxiety.

The regression showed that only two variables significantly predicted the quality of the performers’ experiences: role and musical genre. However, the performer’s role

predicted only the likelihood of having stressful rather than moderately enjoyable experiences (see Table 3.12), while musical genre predicted only the likelihood of having highly enjoyable rather than moderately enjoyable experiences. The fact that stressful and highly enjoyable experiences were predicted by different variables suggests that positive and negative emotions are not opposite poles of a continuum of experience, but are rather parallel systems (Cacioppo & Gardner, 1999; Cacioppo, Gardner & Berntson, 1999).

The regression analysis suggests that the association shown in Table 3.11 between status and the quality of the performance experience is due to confounding variables. For instance, the association found between being a student and a high frequency of stressful and a low frequency of highly enjoyable performance experiences might be influenced by the fact that many students were at the same time soloists (43%; N = 71) and belonged to the classical music milieu (82% were classical and only 18% non- classical performers).

Table 3.12 Multinomial logistic regression with the quality of the performance

experience during the previous year and gender, age, number of performances per year, status, role and musical genre (N = 603)

Lower Bound Upper Bound

Intercept -.90 (0.66) Age -.02 (0.01) .98 .95 1.01 Number of Performances per Year -.01 (0.01) .99 .98 1.00 Men -.05 ( 0.28) .95 .55 1.65 Women 0b Student .27 ( 0.38) 1.31 .62 2.75 Amateur -.52 ( 0.40) .59 .27 1.29 Professional 0b Soloist .85 (0.40)* 2.33 1.07 5.07 Ensemble .88 (0.40)* 2.40 1.11 5.20 Big Group 0b Non-Classical .06 (0.36) 1.07 .52 2.17 Classical 0b Intercept -.06 ( 0.40) Age .00 ( 0.01) 1.00 .99 1.02 Number of Performances per Year -.00 (0.00) 1.00 .99 1.01 Men .13 (0.20) 1.13 .77 1.67 Women 0b Student -.39 (0.28) 0.68 .39 1.17 Amateur -.30 (0.24) 0.74 .46 1.20 Professional 0b Soloist -.32 ( 0.25) 0.72 .44 1.19 Ensemble -.02 ( 0.23) 0.98 .62 1.54 Big Group 0b Non-Classical .61 (0.23)* 1.83 1.16 2.89 Classical 0b

Note: Pseudo R-Square = .09 (Cox and Snell), .11 (Nagelkerke). Model (16) χ² 52.99 p < .001 Stressful versus Moderately Enjoyable Performance Experiences

Highly Enjoyable versus Moderately Enjoyable Performance Experiences

*.Chi-square is significant at the 0.05 level.

b. This parameter is set to zero because it is redundant.

B Odds Ratio

The regression also showed that the performers’ gender did not significantly predict the quality of the performance experience. However, when within the regression the

dependent variable was the frequency with which performers reported worry and fear instead of the assessed quality of the performance experience, genre became a

significant predictor. These findings might be explained by men finding it easier to categorise their performances as stressful than to report their feelings of worry and fear. Due to gender stereotyping, men can have more difficulty than women when reporting negative emotions (Kokotsaki & Davidson, 2003). Gender stereotype may bias the comparison of women and men’s emotional experiences when these are accessed through their self-reports, as such self-reports may not reflect their actual emotional experiences (Robinson & Clore, 2002). This is something I explore in the next chapter, where I consider in more depth the way in which experiences and reports on

experiences are not one and the same thing.

In summary, neither gender nor status, but only a performer’s role, predicted the frequency of stressful performance experiences, and only musical genre predicted the frequency of highly enjoyable performance experience. However, the regression

analysis investigating background variables only explained 8 per cent of the variation in performance experiences, which suggests that other factors beside the ones investigated here shape the quality of performance experiences.