Music Performance and ADHD: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Graduate Music Performance Students with ADHD

Abstract

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is a neuropsychological disorder that may cause learning difficulties and a variety of comorbid issues. College-aged students with ADHD are at greater risk of low academic performance, issues with time management, disorganization, likelihood of academic probation, and withdrawal from classes. At the time of this writing, there was a large quantity of research related to music learning in children with ADHD. Additionally, researchers have explored issues with ADHD in professional classical musicians. As of now, research concerning ADHD in graduate music performance students is limited. In this document, I employed a phenomenological case study approach to explore the experiences of two graduate music performance students with ADHD from major universities in the United States. In doing so, I uncovered insight into three themes: practice and teaching strategies, anxiety and musician performance anxiety (MPA), and loss of motor control. These themes were determined to have been affected by ADHD symptoms that participants encountered in studio lessons, practice sessions, rehearsals, and performances. Both participants consented to a 45 minute to 1-hour semi-structured interview. Interview responses were first organized into narratives for each participant. Second, the data was summarized into three main themes reflective of each research question topic. Of the discovered strategies, I found the most insight into how the participants utilized interest for motivation. Additional information was ascertained regarding the relationship between ADHD and MPA and in the experiences of hyperfocus suggesting the need for further research. Implications include practice and teaching strategies for graduate music performance students with ADHD along with future research concerning ADHD and MPA, hyperfocus, and motor control.