'Pouring Everything That You Are': Musicians' Experiences of Optimal Performances

The purpose of this study was to document the lived experiences of flow during an optimal music performance. Fifteen undergraduate musicians (M[subscript age] = 19, 53% male) participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews, where they were asked to describe an optimal performance experience. Re...

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Veröffentlicht in:British journal of music education 2020-07, Vol.37 (2), p.141-153
Hauptverfasser: Ford, Jessica L, Vosloo, Justine, Arvinen-Barrow, Monna
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:The purpose of this study was to document the lived experiences of flow during an optimal music performance. Fifteen undergraduate musicians (M[subscript age] = 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.
ISSN:0265-0517
1469-2104
DOI:10.1017/S0265051720000078