Music is the Language of Emotions. It can touch us, inspire us, and transport us into a world beyond words. For musicians, emotions are an essential part of their work. But what happens when a musician is highly sensitive? How does high sensitivity affect the way they experience and express music?
What is a Highly Sensitive Person?
Approximately 15-20% of the population are highly sensitive individuals. High sensitivity is not a disorder but a personality trait (HSP, Highly Sensitive Person) and describes an above-average depth of sensitivity to environmental stimuli. Highly sensitive people perceive stimuli more intensely than others, which can include sounds, smells, visual impressions, or emotional vibrations. Being highly sensitive can be a great gift for musicians, but it can also be a challenge that one must learn to manage. It is not known how common high sensitivity is among musicians. However, in my experience, it is likely to be more prevalent because the arts tend to attract highly sensitive individuals.
Characteristics of a Highly Sensitive Person
Common Traits of Highly Sensitive People:
Strong Reactions to Stimuli: Highly sensitive individuals often react more sensitively to strong stimuli such as high noise levels, physical touches, visual stimuli, or specific foods (e.g., coffee, alcohol, sugar, additives) and medications. The degree of sensitivity can vary greatly from person to person.
Overstimulation: Due to their intense perception, highly sensitive people can become overstimulated more easily. This means that loud noises, large crowds, or intense conversations can quickly exhaust them.
Intensive Perception: Highly sensitive individuals notice subtle details that others might overlook. They appreciate nuances in music, art, and nature that hold a special beauty for them.
High Empathy: They tend to be extremely empathetic and compassionate. They can strongly sense the emotions of others and easily put themselves in someone else's shoes.
Deep Processing: They often think deeply about things, analyzing and reflecting. This can lead to creativity and wisdom but may also result in strong self-doubt and perfectionism.
High Sensitivity in Musicians
High Sensitivity as a Strength and Gift
Musical Interpretation: Highly sensitive musicians often excel as storytellers in music. They have a unique ability to grasp and convey emotions and narratives within a piece of music, comprehending it in its full depth.
Subtle Nuances & Timbres: They recognize the finest nuances in sound and melody. This skill enables them to create exceptionally beautiful timbres and allows them to physically translate their artistic vision effectively.
Creativity and Expressiveness: Highly sensitive musicians possess deeply rooted creativity. They often have an interest in other art forms, think in interconnected ways, and draw analogies. They can express their emotions through music and frequently create unique works that deeply resonate with others.
Strong Emotional Connection: Whether playing, composing, or simply listening, music can profoundly touch highly sensitive musicians on a personal level. Artistic activities often hold intrinsic, and sometimes therapeutic, value for them.
Connection with the Audience: They can generate a unique emotional depth in their music, establishing profound connections with their audience. Highly sensitive musicians keenly sense the connection with the audience and fellow performers on stage.
High Sensitivity as a Challenge
Susceptibility to Stage Fright: On stage, highly sensitive individuals not only perceive the audience's and fellow performers' moods more intensely but also find it harder to block them out. The same goes for their own physiological stress symptoms. Due to their high empathy, they are also more concerned about how they come across to others, leading to increased tension on stage.
Heightened Stress Response: The nervous system of highly sensitive individuals reacts earlier and more quickly to stressors. Not only do substances like coffee or alcohol often have a stronger effect on them, but external stressors (such as performances, travel stress, chronic stress) also lead to a stronger physical and psychological reaction.
Low Self-Esteem: Highly sensitive musicians often react sensitively to criticism from a young age and may struggle to distance themselves from it as adults. Due to their high empathy, they also pick up on subtle nuances in language. They often need hours or days to cope with negative emotions triggered by interactions with others.
Strong Emotions: They are quickly overwhelmed by their own emotions or the emotions of others (emotional contagion).
Sensory Overload: Highly sensitive people require ample time alone and in a quiet environment to recover from the sensory overload of everyday life.
Dealing with High Sensitivity
Sensory Management
People who are highly sensitive can learn to cope with their unique abilities. Self-care, relaxation techniques, and the establishment of healthy boundaries are essential tools. This means, for example, withdrawing before a concert instead of being in a room where fellow orchestra members are rehearsing simultaneously. It's also crucial to incorporate enough breaks in daily life to avoid excessive stress and to avoid foods to which one has a particularly strong reaction. Noise-canceling headphones can be helpful for travel.
Stage Fright and Chronic Stress
Meditation and regular relaxation training, along with healthy, consistent sleep patterns, are effective long-term strategies for preventing stress and for handling stage anxiety and sensory overload more calmly. Short-term measures to combat stage anxiety can be particularly effective for highly sensitive individuals (see also Stage Fright - Immediate Psychological, Physical, and Sensory Strategies). Relaxing activities such as a warm bath with soothing essential oils (e.g., lavender) or teas (e.g., lavender, valerian, hops) can provide short-term and long-term relief as well.
Emotions and Self-Esteem
To effectively manage one's own emotions and feelings, such as acute anger, sadness, hurt, or low self-esteem, it's important to practice regularly. Techniques from positive psychology (see also: Positive Psychology - 10 Tips for Musicians), maintaining an emotion journal, and especially emotional boundaries (e.g., reducing consumption of negative media, newspapers, news, critiques, and particularly social media) can be helpful. Emotional exchange with trusted individuals and the support of friends are also particularly important to them.
Sources and further reading:
Aron, E. N., Aron, A., & Jagiellowicz, J. (2012). Sensory processing sensitivity: A review in the light of the evolution of biological responsivity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 16(3), 262-282.
Aron, E. N., & Aron, A. (1997). Sensory-processing sensitivity and its relation to introversion and emotionality. Journal of personality and social psychology, 73(2), 345.
Aron, E. N. (2013). The highly sensitive person: How to thrive when the world overwhelms you. Kensington Publishing Corp..
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