John Beder is among the 98 percent of professional classical musicians who suffer from performance anxiety. The orchestral percussionist had it so bad he stopped playing, but exploring the fear factor for his new documentary Composed buoyed him into making music once more.
For the film, Beder talked to top-ranking musicians, conductors and students in music courses in the US and UK about how their fear manifests, how they cope with it and what can be done to support musicians.
Beder found performance anxiety was driven by the desire for perfection, competitive attitudes from fellow musicians and the pressure to put technical accuracy ahead of artistic creation.
“[We are] creating musical construction workers,” Beder says. “It’s scary to see how many places are obsessed with technical aspects. [It’s about] perfection. No missed notes. Mistakes are bad.
“We need a cultural shift. We are doing this because we love it.”
He presented his findings to a room full of American orchestra players. Many came up to him afterwards suggesting 98 percent was inaccurate and that in fact, all musicians suffer from some form of performance anxiety.
Professional players at this level are “the elite athletes of the music world”, Beder says, and they should be given more support.
Film maker John Beder and Zoe George Photo: Supplied
To keep their nerves under control for auditions, rehearsals and performances, seventy percent of the musicians he surveyed use Beta Blockers - a medication used to treat abnormal heart rhythms and high blood pressure which can help reduce the stress hormone which causes anxiety.
For many, Beta Blockers are a “performance enabler" rather than a performance enhancer, he says.
Despite the widespread use of these drugs today, Beder was told the issue is almost never openly discussed by professional musicians.
He discovered a similar study from the late '80s which found only a quarter of professional orchestral musicians were using the blood pressure medication to cope with stress.
“How are we not talking about this … if three-quarters of us are trying it?”
Composed documentary poster Photo: Facebook - John Beder
Instead of focusing on self-medication, Beder believes questions should be asked about “why” musicians feel the need to use drugs in the first place.
Better education and open communication is the key to reducing the stigma attached to mental health, he says.
Most of the time coping with stress is not even discussed in tertiary-level music courses which are supposedly preparing students for the real world and striving for perfection rather than artistry is creating an unrealistic image of the industry.
Recordings of professional orchestras playing classical pieces to “perfection” gives a false sense of what this type of music should sound like, he says, and that has a flow-on effect.
Choosing the wrong repertoire, being forced into playing something too difficult or placing too much emphasis on technique are problems that start at the lower levels of music.
An open and frank conversation is needed to ensure the tendency to be overly anxious is addressed, Beder says.
“Wouldn’t be it great if we all say we experience this … and start to change the conversation, People feel braver when they reach out or see someone and say 'I experience this too'.”
Composed screened at the recent University of Auckland Music Festival.
