This study addresses a possible method for coping with musical performance anxiety (MPA) in teenage musicians. The method involved conducting workshops that provided regular performance opportunities and incorporated expressive writing using a performance journal. The aim was to help students manage their anxiety before, during, and after each performance. I found it important to do the intervention in Portugal because students rarely get to play in performance classes and discuss their experiences.

Over the course of the workshops, all students noticed an improvement in their performance experience. The consistent exposure to performance helped them manage their anxiety levels before playing, their general comfort on stage, and their ability to look at mistakes as a tool for growth. Mistake acceptance was shown to be the most challenging aspect of the students performing experience, although there was definitely a shift into a more accepting mindset regarding it.

Interestingly, the students with a low baseline level of anxiety were the ones to experience the least amount of progress. Students that self-reported bigger anxiety levels (for example, student R) engaged more deeply with the journaling process, which appeared to enhance their self-reflection and helped them develop better anxiety management strategies. Contrastingly, C seemed to benefit more from watching back her recordings, rather than writing about the experience.

A big limitation of this study was the small and inconsistent sample size. Results would be clearer if the students managed to be present in all the workshops. Furthermore, the workshops had tobe shortened to two weeks, which may have reduced student engagement. Some students reported that they would have liked to have more workshops to track progress over a higher amount of time.

Future research could benefit from a larger sample size, with weekly workshops happening over a longer period of time to better assess the long-term effects of expressive writing. This model of workshop could serve as an example of how a performance class could be designed and introduced in conservatories in Portugal for young musicians. If weekly workshops were to be added to the school's curriculum, students could truly benefit from the full scope of expressive writing, and it would provide them with a safe environment for experimentation and reflection.

This research highlights the importance of providing guidance to young musicians regardingpublic performance, as it is still an extremely common problem. Despite some limitations, the findings indicate that a combination of performance exposure and reflection had a substantially positive impact on anxiety management and performance quality. The study underlines the need for more research to investigate the most efficient strategies for different kinds of performers and presents an encouraging method to handle MPA in young musicians.