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Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists

Being “in flow” or “in the zone” is defined as an extremely focused state of consciousness which occurs during intense engagement in an activity. In general, flow has been linked to peak performances (high achievement) and feelings of intense pleasure and happiness. However, empirical research on fl...

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Autores principales: Marin, Manuela M., Bhattacharya, Joydeep
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3837225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24319434
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00853
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author Marin, Manuela M.
Bhattacharya, Joydeep
author_facet Marin, Manuela M.
Bhattacharya, Joydeep
author_sort Marin, Manuela M.
collection PubMed
description Being “in flow” or “in the zone” is defined as an extremely focused state of consciousness which occurs during intense engagement in an activity. In general, flow has been linked to peak performances (high achievement) and feelings of intense pleasure and happiness. However, empirical research on flow in music performance is scarce, although it may offer novel insights into the question of why musicians engage in musical activities for extensive periods of time. Here, we focused on individual differences in a group of 76 piano performance students and assessed their flow experience in piano performance as well as their trait emotional intelligence. Multiple regression analysis revealed that flow was predicted by the amount of daily practice and trait emotional intelligence. Other background variables (gender, age, duration of piano training and age of first piano training) were not predictive. To predict high achievement in piano performance (i.e., winning a prize in a piano competition), a seven-predictor logistic regression model was fitted to the data, and we found that the odds of winning a prize in a piano competition were predicted by the amount of daily practice and the age at which piano training began. Interestingly, a positive relationship between flow and high achievement was not supported. Further, we explored the role of musical emotions and musical styles in the induction of flow by a self-developed questionnaire. Results suggest that besides individual differences among pianists, specific structural and compositional features of musical pieces and related emotional expressions may facilitate flow experiences. Altogether, these findings highlight the role of emotion in the experience of flow during music performance and call for further experiments addressing emotion in relation to the performer and the music alike.
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spelling pubmed-38372252013-12-06 Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists Marin, Manuela M. Bhattacharya, Joydeep Front Psychol Psychology Being “in flow” or “in the zone” is defined as an extremely focused state of consciousness which occurs during intense engagement in an activity. In general, flow has been linked to peak performances (high achievement) and feelings of intense pleasure and happiness. However, empirical research on flow in music performance is scarce, although it may offer novel insights into the question of why musicians engage in musical activities for extensive periods of time. Here, we focused on individual differences in a group of 76 piano performance students and assessed their flow experience in piano performance as well as their trait emotional intelligence. Multiple regression analysis revealed that flow was predicted by the amount of daily practice and trait emotional intelligence. Other background variables (gender, age, duration of piano training and age of first piano training) were not predictive. To predict high achievement in piano performance (i.e., winning a prize in a piano competition), a seven-predictor logistic regression model was fitted to the data, and we found that the odds of winning a prize in a piano competition were predicted by the amount of daily practice and the age at which piano training began. Interestingly, a positive relationship between flow and high achievement was not supported. Further, we explored the role of musical emotions and musical styles in the induction of flow by a self-developed questionnaire. Results suggest that besides individual differences among pianists, specific structural and compositional features of musical pieces and related emotional expressions may facilitate flow experiences. Altogether, these findings highlight the role of emotion in the experience of flow during music performance and call for further experiments addressing emotion in relation to the performer and the music alike. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-11-22 /pmc/articles/PMC3837225/ /pubmed/24319434 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00853 Text en Copyright © 2013 Marin and Bhattacharya. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Marin, Manuela M.
Bhattacharya, Joydeep
Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists
title Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists
title_full Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists
title_fullStr Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists
title_full_unstemmed Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists
title_short Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists
title_sort getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3837225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24319434
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00853
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