Emotion regulation and stage anxiety management in Ruan students: Psychological interventions in performance education

Resumo

The musical and personal growth of musicians is severely hampered by performance anxiety, yet there aren't many culturally relevant psychological programs available for students learning traditional Chinese instruments like the ruan. In order to lessen stage anxiety and improve emotion regulation, this study assessed an eight-week organized psychological program that included ruan-specific training with mindfulness exercises and cognitive behavioral strategies. Thirty-six Ruan students from four top Chinese conservatories were divided into two groups at random: the experimental group had weekly 90-minute sessions integrated into their performance curriculum, while the control group received only traditional training. Standardized surveys, performance self-ratings, expert jury assessments of standardized extracts, semi-structured interviews, and acoustic analysis were used to evaluate the results. The experimental group demonstrated significant psychological improvement in comparison to the controls: general anxiety scores decreased from 62.0 to 54.0, adaptive reappraisal increased from 21.9 to 28.0, maladaptive cognitive regulation decreased from 56.0 to 46.5, and music performance anxiety scores decreased from 112.0 at baseline to 95.8 at follow-up. Jury scores improved in every musical dimension (for instance, phrasing went from 3.2 to 4.4 on a five-point scale), and self-efficacy and visual analogue performance assessments also increased constant with these expert assessments, acoustic measurements showed more constant timing and pitch. Interview themes emphasized the importance of graduated exposure employing ruan-specific tremolo passages, pluck sequences, and recital walk-ons, and described increased poise, attention, and confidence on stage.