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‘Pouring everything that you are’: musicians’ experiences of optimal performances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2020

Jessica L. Ford ,
Justine Vosloo  and
Monna Arvinen-Barrow
Jessica L. Ford*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Sport Psychology and Performance Excellence, Department of Kinesiology – Integrative Health Care & Performance Unit, College of Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, PO Box 413, Milwaukee, WI53211-0413, USA
Justine Vosloo
Affiliation:
Department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY, USA
Monna Arvinen-Barrow
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Sport Psychology and Performance Excellence, Department of Kinesiology – Integrative Health Care & Performance Unit, College of Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, PO Box 413, Milwaukee, WI53211-0413, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: fordjl@uwm.edu
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to document the lived experiences of flow during an optimal music performance. Fifteen undergraduate musicians (Mage = 19, 53% male) participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews, where they were asked to describe an optimal performance experience. Results from an inductive qualitative analysis revealed three main themes: environmental context, emotional connectedness and interpersonal relationships, which synthesised the optimal performance experience. The results also suggest that flow among musicians appears to be a common emotional state and similar to that conceptualised in sport. The ways a musician experiences flow are important, as these can help music educators gain a better understanding of the conceptualisation of flow within music performance. However, given the nuanced differences in the sociocultural environment of a flow experience typical in a sport or music performance, additional research into the divergences of domains may be warranted.

Keywords

Flow theoryoptimal performance experiencesmusiciansqualitative researchperformance psychology
Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 141 - 153
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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