A new study into cellists’ behaviour has identified two
different reactions to performing on stage. Researchers at the
University of Birmingham found that the musicians could be
categorised as either ‘thrivers’ or ‘crumplers’ when placed in a
performance environment.
In the study, 24 cellists had their left arms dotted with tiny
reflective discs, so that motion-capture cameras could monitor the
angles of their left elbows as they played. At the same time, their
heart rate was monitored using special ear-clips, to record changes
in their adrenaline level.
The results showed that all 24 cellists had much higher heart rates
when performing in public compared with when performing alone. But
when comparing the position of the left arms, the research team
found that non-anxious cellists played with more open elbows, which
generally helped them them to reach the high notes in the music
they were playing. The more anxious players performed with a more
closed elbow position. The team characterised these two groups as
adrenaline ‘thrivers’ and ‘crumplers’ respectively.
The research also found that in the presence of an audience, the
cellists tended to become less variable in their left-arm shifting
movements, and played more closely to the metronome beat.
The report concluded that a change in adrenaline levels is not
necessarily an indication of stage fright, and in fact can be
beneficial to a player. The authors also suggested that symptoms
such as a racing heart and sweaty palms should be termed
‘performance arousal’.
Cellist Adrian Bradbury, a tutor at London’s Royal Academy of Music
and co-author of the paper, said, ‘We would be interested to see if
these behavioural findings are replicated in other disciplines, for
example sport. And it would be fascinating to judge performance
anxiety therapies by testing their success rates using this
motion-capture technology.’
'This short video (without sound) is a representation of data collected during the performance of one of the participants. The ball in the top left represents sweat levels (galvanic skin response) – the redder the ball, the more sweat on the cellist's fingers. The red box in the top right represents the participant’s heart rate. The skeleton is a reconstruction of the cellist’s movements as detected by the motion-capture technology. The music the participant was playing is shown in the bottom right' – Adrian Bradbury
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