What is Music Psychology?

 What is Music Psychology? Think Sports Psychology for Musicians

Music psychology is an academic research field with roots in music perception and music cognition originating in the 1950s. Sports medicine and sports psychology are well-paid professions, helped by the wide cultural understanding that athletes need both medical and mental support to perform at their best level. Organized major sports teams have long employed sports psychologists and sports medicine doctors. Athletes are highly trained, subject to rigorous mental and physical labor. Musicians are no different. Musicians are also highly trained accomplished career professionals who perform under strenuous circumstances, often for much less pay. So wouldn’t it follow that top-performing musicians in world-class orchestras would need a music psychologist on staff? The expectations and working conditions of music professionals are the same as athletes: be the top performer in your field, work with a team of 60+ individuals year round on contract to perform and produce spectacular live events, with immense performance pressure and competition spanning one’s career. Oh, but - without the celebrity, security, or glamorous pay - because the US devalues art and culture and honors those who succeed in a mixed-market system (ticket sales and influence).

Sadly, in the United States, zero major symphonic orchestras employ a single music psychologist to support their organization of 60 or more professionals. However, all major sports teams and the sporting industry (NBA, NFL, MBA) employ multiple doctors and sports psychologists per team. But for professional musicians, audiences expect the highest quality performances of these professionals, contributing to the mental health issues and anxiety related disorders of performers, including performance anxiety (a social phobia). Even for the top accomplished world-class professionals in the world, value and stability is still an issue in the United States - as evidenced by the Metropolitan Opera, who laid off their orchestral players during the Covid-19 pandemic, only to later outsource other players for less money at the cry of the laid-off workers whose employment contracts and healthcare benefits were slashed overnight. These professionals, like all Broadway musicians, freelance musicians, and performing artists - suddenly had no ability to work anywhere. The Met acted unconscionably and without apology in its financial interests, no emergency bubble for its employees.

So, music psychology is the field of research that informs music therapy, and studies music therapy efforts to understand how we benefit socially, physically, and medically from music in our daily lives and in music therapy treatments. My degree in music psychology is a research degree, adjacent to psychology, and employing social science research methods.