Mindfulness and Music: A Promising Subject of an Unmapped Field (original) (raw)
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Music performing usually binds intense psychological experiences, from which music performance anxiety (MPA) is amongst the most damaging and pervasive ones. Alongside, some constructs seem to be associated with MPA, like negative affect and self-consciousness. In the interaction between these three elements, mindfulness seems to be an effective tool to cope with MPA by altering the relationships between it and self-consciousness or negative affect. In this study, a structural model is proposed following a cross-sectional design with a total of 151 spanish-speaking music performers. Results from a structural equation model seems to support the proposed model, making dispositional mindfulness an effective mechanism to alter the way MPA interacts with self-consciousness and negative affect. More specifically, dispositional mindfulness seems to inversely mediate the relationship between negative affect and MPA, while also inversely moderating the relationship between self-consciousness...
Music stimuli in mindfulness meditation: Comparison of musician and non-musician responses
Psychology of Music, 2020
The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of and preference for different auditory stimuli on mindfulness meditation in musicians. A second purpose was to compare musician responses with non-musician responses from a previous study. A repeated-measures design exposed participants to four auditory stimuli of increased complexity. Participants ( N = 49) were undergraduate musicians with limited mindfulness experience. Data included absorption in music, mindfulness, and preference and usefulness of auditory stimuli. A repeated-measures analysis of covariance, with absorption of music as a covariate, found no significant differences between stimuli on mindfulness meditation according to musicians. Friedman’s analyses of variance indicated that musician rankings of usefulness and preference were significantly different among conditions. Both musicians and non-musicians ranked Melody and Harmony conditions as most preferred and most useful for mindfulness meditation. A mi...
Musicae Scientiae
Mindfulness courses are beneficial in clinical domains for anxiety and depression and are becoming more prevalent as interventions in education. However, little is known about what effects mindfulness might have on musicians. In an exploratory study, 25 music students, who completed one of four 8-week MBSR/MBCT mindfulness courses adapted for musicians at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, completed the validated Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and a bespoke Mindfulness for Musicians questionnaire pre- and post-intervention. Twenty-one music students also took part in a post-intervention one-to-one semi-structured interview. Post-intervention mindfulness scores for both questionnaires increased significantly in comparison to pre-intervention scores. In interviews, participants were reportedly more aware and focused in instrumental lessons, were less self-critical, and developed increased body awareness, which improved their learning of instrumental technique. Participants...
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Students are arriving in higher education more stressed and anxious than previously, so there is a clear benefit for institutions to provide evidence-based health and well-being interventions. Mindfulness is a widely available popular intervention, and its efficacy has been demonstrated in the clinical field and increasingly in the educational field. However, the potential benefits of teaching mindfulness to music students have not yet been explored sufficiently. This thesis reports the effects of teaching targeted 8-week mindfulness courses to singers and instrumentalists in two studies run over two years at two conservatoires and a university. Both studies used a predominantly qualitative mixed methods approach. Levels of mindfulness were measured using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ: Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006), and a specially designed Mindfulness for Musicians questionnaire. The instrumentalists’ quantitative study was quasi-experimental; t...
Music and mindfulness meditation: Comparing four music stimuli composed under similar principles
Psychology of Music, 2020
Mindfulness meditation has frequently used sound and music as an important component. However, research on effective music stimuli is scarce. After a series of studies evaluating the most effective, useful, and preferred auditory stimuli, we were interested in exploring whether these effective musical features were transferred to new music. In this study, we evaluate our original music stimuli with three new stimuli composed under similar principles. Non-musician and musician participants ( N = 114) in a multisite study evaluated their mindfulness state after listening to four music stimuli, and rated their usefulness and preference. Results from a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) at each site indicated no significant difference in mindfulness effectiveness. Friedman’s ANOVAs for the usefulness of the music stimuli showed similar non-significant results in both sites. A mixed model among sites did not show significant differences among groups. Preference rankings were ...
Comparison of music stimuli to support mindfulness meditation
Psychology of Music, 2019
The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of and preference for different auditory stimuli in supporting mindfulness meditation. Undergraduate non-musicians ( N = 57) listened to four different auditory stimuli guiding them in a mindfulness meditation: script only (i.e., Script), steady beat (i.e., Beat), beat and harmonic progression (i.e., Harmony), and beat, harmony, and melody (i.e., Melody). This study used a within-subjects repeated-measures design with the four conditions counterbalanced and randomized across participants. Participants rated responses using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), completed the Absorption in Music Scale (AIMS), and ranked auditory stimuli according to preference and usefulness for mindfulness meditation. A repeated-measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) on the MAAS scores, using the AIMS as a covariate, indicated no statistically significant difference between auditory stimuli. However, with the AIMS removed, the analy...