The Study of Success in Music: Applying Methods Developed by Sports Psychology towards Achieving Peak Performance

This document is intended to serve as a supplemental guide for musicians, outlining the advantageous mental and physical practice techniques and methods which have been revealed through research in sports psychology. Additionally, this work draws on research in music psychology to investigate the numerous psychological obstacles and challenges musicians must overcome in order to develop a consistently high level of performance.;Case studies from the field of music psychology are discussed, as this document seeks to expose some of the common triggers for performance anxiety and stage fright. This document further discusses those principles of sports psychology which are applicable to a musician's daily practice and which pave the way for better control over the physical and psychological symptoms known to negatively impact peak performance in situations of extreme pressure. Applying these principles also helps in the development of increased control of muscular and mental functions, accuracy, precision, discipline, mental awareness and overall coordination.;With this information, I hope to educate musicians about the existing relationship between mental process and physical execution and the impact one has on the other. This document reveals how successful performance should be viewed as a process with its roots in developments that occur even before picking up the instrument.;Finally, this paper hinges on the idea that, through the efficient application of sports psychology principles, musicians can learn how to feel `as one' with the instrument, a feeling of one-ness that sports psychology refers to as the `zone'.