Rethinking Mental Training for Musicians: Performance Competence, Mental Strength, and Schema Coaching in Interview
- Dr. Teresa Wenhart
- Jun 12
- 8 min read
For her Matura thesis in Switzerland, student Olivia Angst conducted an interview with me on the topic of mental training for musicians and performance competence in the field of music. The focus is not only on managing stage fright or performance anxiety, but also on the broader question of mental strength and performance under pressure while making music.
The conversation explores the role that mental processes play in music-making, why technical preparation alone is often insufficient, and how musical performance can be influenced through targeted training of attention, self-awareness, and inner patterns. Alongside classic approaches from sports psychology, music-physiological and neuropsychological perspectives are also examined. A particular emphasis is placed on a schema therapy-oriented coaching approach that incorporates inner patterns, self-worth issues, and personal development processes into the work with musicians.
Performance Competence in Music: Why Technique Alone Is Not Enough
1. Why do you believe that training the piece of music — including rhythm and phrasing — along with the muscles and playing technique, is not sufficient on its own?
Training only the technical aspects of music-making is not enough because musical performances are frequently delivered in front of an audience or evaluating individuals. In such situations, many musicians find themselves preoccupied with questions like "Am I good enough?" or "What do others think of me?" As a result, they may fail to fully access their actual capabilities.
Mental training helps in dealing with such thoughts and emotions. It complements the technical work on the instrument by addressing aspects such as performance competence, attention, and relaxation.
At the same time, mental training cannot be entirely separated from physical processes. Those who learn to regulate themselves mentally often also influence muscle tension, movement patterns, and sound quality. At a professional level, these aspects are therefore a natural part of musical training.
The Effects and Limits of Mental Training
2. To what extent does mental training improve musical/athletic performance (efficiency)?
The term "efficiency" is more easily applied in sport than in music. While athletic performance is often objectively measurable, musical performance is considerably more complex.
Mental training improves primarily not musical quality itself, but rather the ability to reliably access existing skills under pressure. Technical progress comes above all through practice, instruction, feedback, and broad musical experience.
I would therefore say that mental training supports the application of existing skills, rather than directly enhancing musical performance.
Read also: The Neuropsychology of Music and Sports
3. Based on your experience, can you say how much time and effort it takes before a positive improvement in musical performance becomes visible in musicians?
That depends greatly on the goal of the work.
Short-term strategies for focus and performance preparation can often take effect relatively quickly. Lasting changes require considerably more time, particularly when it comes to deeply rooted beliefs, perfectionism, self-worth issues, or other long-term patterns.
Also crucial are the motivation of the individual as well as the quality and confidentiality of the working relationship. For this reason, no universally applicable statement can be made about the timeframe in which improvements become visible.
4. What prerequisites are required for exercises such as reducing disruptive thoughts through autosuggestion to have the desired effect? What do you do when mental training makes musicians' performance worse rather than better?
The term autosuggestion already refers to a very specific method. In my own work, autosuggestion does not play a central role.
If what is meant are techniques in which one says phrases to oneself such as "I can do this" or "I am well prepared," then such affirmations alone are usually not sufficient. People often have inner critical voices and deeply rooted beliefs. When positive statements are simply repeated without feeling internally credible, the effect tends to remain limited.
The decisive prerequisite is therefore that the person can genuinely believe the statements they choose. An important part of the work involves finding out together which beliefs are sustainable and how these can be anchored in a lasting way. This requires a trusting working relationship and usually calls for a longer process.
I have not yet experienced mental training making musicians' performance worse. For this reason, I cannot report any practical experience on this point.
5. What are the possible negative consequences (reverse effects) of mental training?
To my knowledge, classical mental training does not demonstrably cause people to feel persistently worse or perform less well than before.From therapeutic contexts, however, one is familiar with the phenomenon known as initial deterioration. Here, intensive engagement with distressing topics can initially lead to anxieties, insecurities, or other symptoms being perceived more strongly for a time. This often arises because attention becomes more strongly directed toward these issues.In classical mental training, I have not yet encountered such experiences. At most, it can happen that certain methods prove to be of little effectiveness for a particular person.In my own work, alongside classical mental techniques, I also use approaches from neuropsychology as well as schema coaching, which is based on concepts from schema therapy. There it can occur that changes initially trigger irritation in a person's social environment.If, for example, a person has previously been very accommodating and has learned to please everyone, the development of greater independence or assertiveness may initially meet with resistance. Those around them are often accustomed to their previous behaviour and react with surprise to changes. I regard such reactions more as possible side effects of developmental processes than as negative consequences of mental training itself.
Methods in Mental Training and Psychological Counselling for Musicians
6. What is particular to mental training in music that does not occur in that of sport?
Many methods of mental training in music originally come from sports psychology. Techniques such as attention control, mental preparation, visualization, and managing performance pressure are used in both fields.
Music, however, brings with it additional demands. These include fine motor skills, memorisation, complex movement sequences, musical interpretation, and specific learning and practice processes. For this reason, music-physiological and neuropsychological content plays a considerably greater role in the musical field.
Furthermore, my own approach differs from many classical mental training offerings. While numerous music coaches predominantly use sports psychology methods and sometimes combine these with music-physiological content, I additionally work with neuropsychological and schema therapy-oriented coaching approaches. An overview of the various approaches can be found in the information box.
Different Approaches in Working with Musicians
The term mental training often encompasses a wide variety of methods:
Sports psychology approaches: work with attention control, concentration, goal setting, managing pressure and nervousness, imagery exercises (mental rehearsal of sequences), and routines for competition or performance preparation.
Music-physiological approaches: engagement with body awareness, movement economy, stage fright, fine motor skills, practice strategies, and musician-specific physical demands.
Many music coaches work primarily with sports psychology strategies, sometimes supplementing these with music-physiological content. In my own work, neuropsychological as well as schema therapy-oriented coaching approaches are additionally employed.
Neuropsychological approaches: memory, attention, memorisation, learning processes, and the neurocognitive foundations of music-making.
Schema coaching / schema therapy-oriented approaches: work with inner patterns, beliefs, self-worth, perfectionism, performance pressure, and various personality parts. Methods from schema therapy are used alongside experiential activation techniques that are partly rooted in Gestalt therapy, such as imagery exercises or chair dialogues.
This is concerned not only with optimising performances, but also with long-term changes in patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaviour that influence music-making.
In addition, I have purposefully transferred schema therapy concepts to work with musicians and further developed them for this field. This has given rise to musician-specific models and exercises such as the "Inner Orchestra" or the "Inner Conductor," which transpose the work with inner parts and personality patterns onto the particular demands of the music profession.
Own research — Schema Coaching for Musicians:
Wenhart, T. & Hildebrandt, H. (2025). Music Students' Psychological Profiles: Unveiling Three Coping Clusters Using Schema Mode Inventory. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1673100.
Wenhart, T. & Hildebrandt, H (2026). Front & Backstage - Schema Mode Patterns, Coping Profiles, and Resilience in Music Students. 12. Symposium der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Musik und Medizin
Wenhart, T. (2026). Beyond Nervousness: Towards an Integrative, Holistic Understanding of Performance Anxiety through Schema Mode Models – Three Case Studies. 12. Symposium der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Musik und Medizin
Wenhart, T. (2024). Mental Stark, Psychisch Gesund - Konzeption von Schema-Workshops für Musiker:innen und Musiklehrkräfte. 22. Symposium der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Musikphysiologie und Musikermedizin
My focus lies not only on optimising performances, but also on working with long-term patterns such as perfectionism, self-worth issues, procrastination, or excessive performance pressure. In addition, I have purposefully further developed schema therapy concepts for work with musicians and adapted them to the particular demands of the music profession. These include models such as the "Inner Orchestra" or the "Inner Conductor."
Exercises in Mental Training with a Schema Therapy-Oriented Approach
7. Name three typical foundational exercises that you use in your innovative training.
As I work in a highly individualised way, there are no fixed standard exercises that are applied uniformly across all clients. Furthermore, many of these methods cannot be meaningfully described in the form of a brief instruction, as their effectiveness depends greatly on professional guidance and verbal direction.
In general terms, however, three central areas can be identified:
Resource-oriented exercises
These exercises serve to bring personal strengths, competencies, and resources into greater conscious awareness. Many musicians tend to focus primarily on what is not yet good enough. Resource-oriented work helps to develop a more realistic view of one's own abilities and to build greater stability and self-confidence.
Imagery exercises
These include, for example, exercises for building a secure inner place or methods for dealing with inner critical voices. Work is carried out with inner images, body awareness, and emotional experience.
An important component is the verbal guidance provided by the coach. The aim is, for example, to develop a new way of relating to distressing thoughts or inner critics. Such exercises frequently have their roots in Gestalt therapy and were later integrated into schema therapy.
Working with Inner Parts
A further focus of my work is working with various personality parts, for example inner critics, vulnerable parts, or different protective and coping strategies.
Methods such as chair dialogues are used here, among others. Through these, various inner parts are made visible and brought into relationship with one another. The aim is to understand why certain patterns have developed, what function they originally served, and how a more helpful way of relating to them can be developed.
This work can be emotionally activating and may touch on feelings such as fear, shame, sadness, or loneliness. For precisely this reason, however, it frequently leads to lasting changes — not only in music-making, but also in other areas of life.
Since many musicians come not only because of performance-related issues, but also, for example, with questions about their career, self-organisation, perfectionism, or interpersonal challenges, the exercises are adapted individually to each person's particular concern.
Read also:
8. Which of your exercises is most well-received by musicians and most effective? Please describe it briefly.
There is no single most effective exercise, as the choice of method always depends on the individual concern.
Particularly effective are frequently methods that activate emotional processes and work on the underlying patterns. In doing so, feelings such as fear, shame, sadness, or loneliness are consciously perceived and addressed. This often enables lasting changes, because not only the behaviour itself is taken into account, but also the underlying emotional causes behind it.
Most well-received by many musicians are exercises for dealing with inner critics. Self-criticism is a widespread topic in the field of music. Many clients experience, even within a short period of time, that their relationship to distressing thoughts begins to change. They gain a new access to their thoughts, feelings, and physical reactions, and through this frequently experience a noticeable sense of relief.
The concrete implementation of such exercises cannot, however, be meaningfully described in a few sentences, as their effectiveness depends essentially on professional guidance and individual adaptation to the particular person. For this reason, they are less suited as a self-help technique and are generally carried out within the framework of coaching or therapeutic support.
Conclusion — Performance Competence as Part of Musical Professionalism
The interview demonstrates that performance competence in the field of music extends far beyond classical preparation or mental training alone. Alongside sports psychology and music-physiological approaches, neuropsychological and schema therapy-oriented perspectives also play an important role. The aim is not only the optimisation of individual performances, but a lasting strengthening of mental patterns and musical performance capacity.
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