I don’t know why sometimes I get frightened!

This series draws on peer-reviewed research in music psychology and music education. Full references are listed at the foot of each post. Where findings from my own doctoral research are shared, this will be clearly indicated.

Not all nerves are created equal

There’s a version of pre-performance feeling that belongs in the room — the quickened pulse, the heightened awareness, the sense that something real is about to happen. Athletes call it being in the zone. Performers call it presence. Physiologically, it’s your body doing exactly what it’s designed to do: mobilising energy, sharpening focus, preparing for something that matters.

For many singers, that feeling becomes part of the craft. It’s the thing that makes a live performance different from a rehearsal — the aliveness of it, the stakes. Over time, experienced performers often learn to recognise that feeling as a signal that they’re ready, rather than a warning that something is wrong.

But for others — and for many young singers in particular — something different happens.

The nerves don’t sharpen focus. They cloud it. The body doesn’t feel ready; it feels like it’s working against the performer. The mind, instead of settling into the music, starts running a very unhelpful commentary. What if I forget the words? Everyone is watching. What if my voice cracks? What if they laugh at me? What if I let everyone down?

This is the point where useful nervousness becomes something else entirely.

What music performance anxiety actually is

Music performance anxiety — MPA — is understood by researchers as a persistent and recurring experience of apprehension, dread, and worry about performance, occurring across cognitive, affective, somatic, and behavioural dimensions in the context of musical performance. Dianna Kenny’s definitive 2011 text, The Psychology of Music Performance Anxiety, remains the field’s foundational reference, and it is from her work that much of the language we use to understand MPA in young musicians is drawn.

What Kenny’s work makes clear is that MPA is characterised by a perceived threat to the performer’s sense of self — arising particularly when performance is subject to evaluation by others — and that it can manifest whether or not that threat corresponds to the performer’s actual level of preparation or ability.

Performance anxiety isn’t a reflection on how well a student has prepared, how talented they are, or how much they love music. It’s an experience that can exist largely independently of ability — and that’s precisely why it can be so confusing and discouraging for young performers.

A child can know their repertoire deeply, have rehearsed with courage and consistency, and still find that in performance, something gets in the way. The voice tightens. The breath becomes shallow. The connection to the music — that sense of artistry and flow that was so present in the lesson — feels suddenly out of reach.

Four dimensions worth understanding

Diana Kenny's research describes MPA as having four dimensions that tend to show up together — and recognising all four makes it much easier to understand what a young singer is actually experiencing.

The first is cognitive — the thoughts. The internal narrative that predicts catastrophe, magnifies mistakes, and compares this performance to an imagined ideal it can never quite reach. In children, this often sounds like "I'm going to mess up" or "everyone will laugh" or simply "I can't."

The second is affective — the emotional experience underneath the thoughts. Dread. Shame. A fear of being judged and found wanting. This is distinct from what the body is doing; it's what the performer feels about what might happen. In young musicians, this dimension matters especially because it can attach itself to a child's developing sense of who they are as a singer — and that's a tender thing.

The third is somatic — the body's response. Racing heart, shallow breath, shaking hands, a tight or unreliable voice. These are real physiological responses, not imagined ones, and they can genuinely interfere with vocal production in ways that feel alarming and confusing to a young singer who simply cannot understand why their voice won't do what it did in the practice room.

The fourth is behavioural — what the performer does as a result. Most commonly: avoidance. Finding reasons not to perform. Withdrawing from opportunities. Becoming reluctant to try new repertoire or put their hand up for a challenge. Over time, this quiet narrowing can limit not just a child's growth as a musician but their confidence as a person — a pattern Osborne and Kenny's research with young musicians documents with particular care.

Why it looks different in children

Much of what we know about MPA has come from research on adult musicians — conservatoire students, orchestral players, professional performers. That research is genuinely valuable, but it doesn't map perfectly onto the experience of a developing child. Children are still forming their musical identities and their sense of self more broadly. They're navigating what researcher Susan Hallam describes as a critical period in the development of musical self-concept — a period during which repeated negative experiences in performance can leave a lasting mark on a child's relationship with music, and with themselves as a musician.

Young singers often don't have the language for what they're experiencing. They know something feels wrong, but they may not connect it to the performance context — or worse, they may interpret it as evidence that they're simply not good enough. They're also, developmentally, highly attuned to the responses of the people around them. How parents and teachers react when anxiety becomes visible — whether with reassurance or frustration, with curiosity or dismissal — has real influence on whether that anxiety deepens or softens over time.

This is both a responsibility and an opportunity.

What this means for the people who support them

Parents and teachers don’t need to become therapists to make a meaningful difference. What matters most, the research suggests, is creating conditions where young singers feel genuinely safe — safe enough to feel nervous, safe enough to make mistakes, safe enough to ask for help.

That begins with naming what's happening, calmly and without alarm. With separating the experience of anxiety from the identity of the child. With making it clear that performance nerves are not a sign that something is wrong with them — they're a sign that this matters to them. And that mattering is, in itself, something to honour.

In the posts ahead, we'll explore the particular world of child voice students, why singing carries its own distinct pressures, and what the emerging research — including my own — is beginning to reveal about how peer connection and community might play a meaningful role in supporting young performers through anxiety toward artistry.

Because every child who loves music deserves the chance to find out what they're truly capable of.

The title of this post comes from lyrics from the song I Got You by Split Enz

Part of the Little Voices, Big Feelings series — an evidence-informed exploration of music performance anxiety in child singers, written for parents, teachers, and music educators. Published weekly.

References and Further Reading

References

Barlow, D. H. (2000). Unraveling the mysteries of anxiety and its disorders from the perspective of emotion theory. American Psychologist, 55(11), 1247–1263.

Kenny, D. T. (2011). The psychology of music performance anxiety. Oxford University Press.

Osborne, M. S., & Kenny, D. T. (2008). The role of sensitizing experiences in music performance anxiety in adolescent musicians. Psychology of Music, 36(4), 447–462.

Wilson, G. D., & Roland, D. (2002). Performance anxiety. In R. Parncutt & G. E. McPherson (Eds.), The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning (pp. 47–61). Oxford University Press.

Further Reading

Csikszentmihalyi, M., Rathunde, K., & Whalen, S. (1993). Talented teenagers: The roots of success and failure. Cambridge University Press.

Davidson, J. W. (1999). The role of the body in the production and perception of solo vocal performance. Musicae Scientiae, 3(2), 235–256.

McPherson, G. E. (Ed.). (2006). The child as musician: A handbook of musical development. Oxford University Press.

Osborne, M. S., & Kenny, D. T. (2006). Music performance anxiety in adolescent musicians: A link between negative affect and negative cognitive appraisal. Psychology of Music, 34(3), 299–323.

Williamon, A. (Ed.). (2004). Musical excellence: Strategies and techniques to enhance performance. Oxford University Press.