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Panic, Interrupted: Breathing Techniques for Lessening Performance Anxiety

By Claire Happel Ashe in collaboration with Orit K. Carpenter

We aim to support harpists in developing musical excellence and long-term well-being. We will share practical tools and information drawn from both scientific research and creative approaches that musicians and performers use today. 

Since many students are preparing for competitions this summer, we're starting the blog with a series on easy-to-implement strategies for managing performance anxiety – that gnarly feeling that shows up in our bodies and minds and leaves us feeling like our performance doesn’t match what we’re capable of in the practice room. 

Performance anxiety is widespread across many fields, including public speaking, competitive sports, and even social settings. While musicians share some of the same underlying causes of the issue in those fields, such as perfectionism, catastrophic thinking, fear of negative evaluation, impostor syndrome, and the physical symptoms of the sympathetic nervous system response,  they also face several uniquely challenging conditions:

  • A high degree of physical precision under pressure
  • Largely solitary training judged in brief moments of evaluation
  • Identity that is deeply tied to music performance due to the early onset of training
  • A highly competitive professional field
  • A culture of flawlessness, often based on edited recordings 
  • The unpredictable variables of instruments and performance venues

No wonder that between 60-80% of professional musicians report significant performance anxiety. Among music students, 21%-50% experience it – with some studies suggesting up to 96% of music undergraduates experiencing some degree of performance anxiety. 

There are many ways to work with performance anxiety. In this series, we’ll focus first on tools you can try right now – no special equipment, long-term therapy, or huge time investment needed. The goal of all of them isn’t to make anxiety vanish completely. Instead, it is to help to accept it, manage it, and be centered despite it. 


We’ll start with breathing techniques, simple practices that can shift your body’s response to stress. These practices help us learn to allow the breath to happen while observing ourselves. In addition, by noticing our breath, we become aware of moments when we’re overwhelmed–by the complexity of the music we’re playing or the impossible stakes we’re holding ourselves to–so we can choose to change our course or response.

Breathing practices have been around for thousands of years in traditions from India, Greece, and China. So, which do we start with–box breathing? 4-7-8 breathing? All can be useful for different reasons. As a starting point, we have gathered a few common, evidence-based ones you can experiment with based on recent research. 

Evidence-Based Breathing Practices

In general, when trying breathing practices: 

  • Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth or nose.
  • Instead of “grabbing” the inhale, try closing the mouth and allowing the breath to return naturally.
  • If you're practicing at home, find a position, seated or lying down, where you feel well-supported.
  • If you're practicing backstage, simply try them wherever you are – seated, standing, or lying down. The goal is not to force the anxiety to go away completely, but to see if the practices can slightly lessen the panic or soften the tendency to brace that so often comes with the anticipation of going on stage. 
  • We suggest trying them before the performance, rather than during it, so that they don’t distract from the music you are playing.

1. Diaphragmatic breathing 

Focus: Where you breathe

  • Place your hands comfortably on your abdomen, interlacing the fingers if desired.
  • Inhale slowly and allow your belly to expand.
  • Allow the breath to fill your chest as well, feeling how the ribcage expands in all directions around your trunk. 
  • Exhale slowly, emptying your belly completely.

Research & Benefits

  • This breathing focus helps the diaphragm muscle and associated breathing anatomy work in a more integrated, less held way and has been shown to aid in reducing stress and anxiety.
  • A 2019 review with a total of 880 participants found that diaphragmatic breathing helped reduce stress, as measured by improvements in psychological self-reports and biomarkers such as cortisol levels and blood pressure.

2. Slow-paced breathing 

Focus: Timing of your breath

  • Inhale for 5 seconds
  • Hold for 2 seconds
  • Exhale for 5 seconds
  • Hold for 2 seconds

*Timings can vary, so play around with the length of the inhale, exhale, and space

 in between.

Research & Benefits

  • A 2022 meta-analysis found that slow-paced breathing (5-6 breaths/minute) significantly reduced stress and anxiety in healthy populations.
  • A 2023 Stanford study confirmed that variously-proportioned versions of slow-paced breathing: box breathing (equal exhalation and inhalation), cyclic sighing (longer exhalation), and cyclic hyperventilation (longer inhalations) all helped lower anxiety.

3. Cyclic sighing 

Focus: Long exhale

  • Inhale deeply through the nose.
  • Inhale a little more.
  • Allow a long, slow exhale through the mouth.

Research & Benefits

  • The same 2023 Stanford study found cyclic sighing was an especially effective technique at improving mood among different breathing techniques.

Performance anxiety is nothing new. One of the earliest documented cases is biblical: after his encounter with God, Moses was tasked with delivering the Ten Commandments to his people, but his tongue was tied. He stuttered. Fortunately, he managed to recover! Over the centuries, performers became increasingly isolated as performance spaces evolved. Stages were elevated, auditoriums darkened, and by the 19th century,  Wagner ultimately demanded complete darkness so that the audience could focus entirely on the performers. As a result, performances have shifted from shared communal events to moments of intense scrutiny, leaving performers vulnerable to self-consciousness and disconnected from the joy of the music they have spent so many hours preparing. 

Thanks to generations of performers who have faced and overcome these challenges, though, we now have a range of tools–from both tradition and scientific research–to help us work with anxiety and find ways to express ourselves despite it. In upcoming posts, we’ll share more practical ways to manage performance anxiety, including mindset shifts, awareness practices, and performance preparation. We welcome your questions and feedback!

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1 Belén Gómez-López and Roberto Sánchez-Cabrero, “Current Trends in Music Performance Anxiety Intervention,” Behavioral Sciences 13, no. 9 (Aug 29, 2023): 720. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13090720.

2 A. A. De Lima, R.C. Cavalcanti Ximenes, and S.L. de Souza, “Factors Associated with Music Performance Anxiety in Adolescents: A Systematic Review,” Children and Youth Services Review 164 (September 2024), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107860.

3 J.B. Zakaria., H.B. Musib, and S.M. Shariff, “Overcoming Performance Anxiety among Music Undergraduates,” Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 90 (2013): 226-234, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.07.086.

4 “Can Breathing Really Help Reduce Anxiety? Or Is It Just a Cliché?” Bulletproof Musician, accessed April 28, 2025, https://bulletproofmusician.com/does-just-breathe-really-help-us-lower-anxiety-or-is-it-just-a-total-cliche/.

5 S.I. Hopper, S.L. Murray, L.R. Ferrara, and J.K. Singleton, “Effectiveness of Diaphragmatic Breathing for Reducing Physiological and Psychological Stress in Adults: a Quantitative Systematic Review,” JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports 17, no. 9 (2019): 1855-1876. https://doi.org/10.11124/JBISRIR-2017-003848, Accessed Apr 28, 2025.

6 G. W. Fincham, C. Strauss, J. Montero-Marin, and K. Cavanaugh. “Effect of Breathwork on Stress and Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis of Randomised-Controlled Trials.” Scientific Reports 13, no. 432 (2023),  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-27247-y.

7 Melis Yilmaz Balban, Eric Neri, Manuela M. Kogon, et al., "Brief Structured Respiration Practices Enhance Mood and Reduce Physiological Arousal," Cell Reports Medicine 4, no. 1 (January 17, 2023): 100895, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895.

8 Melis Yilman Balban et al, “Brief Structured Respiration Practices,” 100895.



Last Modified: May 15th, 2025