A practice platform for musicians who struggle with memory lapses and confidence under pressure.

RoleProduct Designer

Work

Research & Strategy

UX | UI

Brand

Stack

~5 mins. read

The Overture: Discovering the Problem.

This project started with the question: why do musicians lose confidence on stage when they need it most and how might we help them build it?

72%64%12%Use drugs to ease anxietyExperience stage frightDevelop depression from it

High level of anxiety started when she was hired by a worldwide famous theatre. The pressure of the theatre status made it almost impossible to deal with the fear of public performance

Most interviewees see memorization as a skill they want to keep improving. Several described memorization as a muscle that needs intentional training and recovery time.

Working with experienced actors inspires and motivates

The necessity to memorise texts increases the level of anxiety

Can discuss stage fright with other musicians. A friendly community helps to reduce anxiety

At his job, he’s responsible not only for himself but also for other cellists in the orchestra

You have to perform from your memory on stage

High level of anxiety started when she was hired by a worldwide famous theatre. The pressure of the theatre status made it almost impossible to deal with the fear of public performance

Most interviewees see memorization as a skill they want to keep improving. Several described memorization as a muscle that needs intentional training and recovery time.

Working with experienced actors inspires and motivates

The necessity to memorise texts increases the level of anxiety

Can discuss stage fright with other musicians. A friendly community helps to reduce anxiety

At his job, he’s responsible not only for himself but also for other cellists in the orchestra

You have to perform from your memory on stage

Common rehearsal strategies: • Speaking or singing while walking (kinesthetic reinforcement) • Writing lines/lyrics by hand • Recording and listening to self • Practicing under distraction or fatigue

Strong motivation to meet ensemble or partner expectations (e.g., not missing musical or dramatic cues).

Listening to music creates a positive mindset before performance

Sharing experience would help others to tackle stage fright

Certain mindset helps to reduce anxiety. Thoughts like “It’s the best I can do today” help you to accept yourself and stress less

“The worst moment of performance anxiety happened to me as a kid when I had to play the piano. I remember that I just froze up and couldn’t remember what to play. I couldn’t start”

The necessity to memorise texts increases the level of anxiety

Strong motivation to meet ensemble or partner expectations (e.g., not missing musical or dramatic cues).

Listening to music creates a positive mindset before performance

Sharing experience would help others to tackle stage fright

Certain mindset helps to reduce anxiety. Thoughts like “It’s the best I can do today” help you to accept yourself and stress less

“The worst moment of performance anxiety happened to me as a kid when I had to play the piano. I remember that I just froze up and couldn’t remember what to play. I couldn’t start”

The necessity to memorise texts increases the level of anxiety

No need to memorise texts is a big relief

Flubbing a line or section—even subtly—can feel like career sabotage, especially for younger performers. Memorizing well signals professionalism, preparedness, and respect for the audience and collaborators.

Memorization works fine in rehearsal but breaks down under pressure (e.g. keynotes, auditions, opening nights) Mental blocks are most likely when performers are: • Being judged (e.g. directors, critics, juries) • Performing for intimate audiences (more visible reactions) • Facing unexpected disruptions (missed cue, bad acoustics)

Adapting Memorization to Context. The approach differs based on type of performance: verbatim recall • Classical musicians rely heavily on muscle memory • Actors rehearse with full embodiment (blocking, gestures) • Opera/musical performers layer multiple modalities (music, lyrics, movement)

Treats himself with good food. The pleasure from tasty food gives him the energy to perform.

Good rest is a key to a successful performance.

One of the key factors of stage fright is the level of responsibility. If he knows that a lot depends on him in a play, his level of anxiety rises

No need to memorise texts is a big relief

Treats himself with good food. The pleasure from tasty food gives him the energy to perform.

Good rest is a key to a successful performance.

One of the key factors of stage fright is the level of responsibility. If he knows that a lot depends on him in a play, his level of anxiety rises

Competitive aspect motivates to perform at her best

Memorization is not just about accuracy; it enables emotional and expressive freedom. Many feel responsible for the flow of the scene or the emotional arc of the performance. Performers want to feel connected to their material—not trapped in a mental checklist.

Most performers break material into small chunks or 'anchor points' (e.g. mental checkpoints, visual or musical cues). Many memorize out of order or practice jumping between sections. Many use visualization techniques (e.g. imagining finger positions, stage layout, facial reactions).

Musical theatre performers and opera singers, in particular, experience mental fatigue from: • Memorizing text, music, choreography, and blocking simultaneously • Having to quickly switch between roles or styles

Most interviewees see memorization as a skill they want to keep improving. Several described memorization as a muscle that needs intentional training and recovery time.

Thoughts like “what do people think about me, what will they say” distract from the music and cause more stress

Exams and competitions when someone is judging your performance are the most stressful occasions. Usually, it triggers stage fright

Competitive aspect motivates to perform at her best

Most interviewees see memorization as a skill they want to keep improving. Several described memorization as a muscle that needs intentional training and recovery time.

Thoughts like “what do people think about me, what will they say” distract from the music and cause more stress

Exams and competitions when someone is judging your performance are the most stressful occasions. Usually, it triggers stage fright

Actors and speakers often rely on internal logic or emotional 'through-lines' to link material.

With daily performing practice acquired a feeling of anticipation of the performance rather than fear.

Friends’ and colleagues’ support boosts his self-esteem

The pressure to not fail in front of others often outweighs the fear of forgetting itself. Triggers include: • Performing in famous venues • Auditions • High-level competitions

Physical symptoms of performance anxiety: dry throat, throat spasms, sweating.

I always thought that it goes away with time cause you become more experienced and your skills get better and better. But it doesn’t go away. You only know your enemy better, but it’s still there and never goes away

Anxiety commonly disrupts memory recall, especially during transitions and cue-dependent sections. Transitions are frequent weak spots, even when beginning and end are memorized. Many struggle with how sections connect (e.g. linking verses, jumping between stories/scenes).

Actors and speakers often rely on internal logic or emotional 'through-lines' to link material.

With daily performing practice acquired a feeling of anticipation of the performance rather than fear.

Friends’ and colleagues’ support boosts his self-esteem

The pressure to not fail in front of others often outweighs the fear of forgetting itself. Triggers include: • Performing in famous venues • Auditions • High-level competitions

Physical symptoms of performance anxiety: dry throat, throat spasms, sweating.

Stage fright leads to: • Skipping lines or phrases • Blank-outs mid-performance • Repeating material accidentally (e.g. looping stories)

Sports increase productivity

Every time I perform in front of directors, conductors or colleagues who judge your performance professionally and you know that your career depends on this one performance makes me feel vulnerable

Immersing in music helps to perform well and reduce the level of anxiety

Most have recovery plans: • Scanning ahead for reentry points • Using cue cards, keyword outlines, or on-stage prompts • Emotional or physical grounding strategies (breathing, movement, humor)

Performing alongside friends makes him feel content and calm

Auditions cause the highest anxiety because you have only one chance to perform, and you must do it perfectly

Stage fright leads to: • Skipping lines or phrases • Blank-outs mid-performance • Repeating material accidentally (e.g. looping stories)

Sports increase productivity

Every time I perform in front of directors, conductors or colleagues who judge your performance professionally and you know that your career depends on this one performance makes me feel vulnerable

Immersing in music helps to perform well and reduce the level of anxiety

Most have recovery plans: • Scanning ahead for reentry points • Using cue cards, keyword outlines, or on-stage prompts • Emotional or physical grounding strategies (breathing, movement, humor)

Performing alongside friends makes him feel content and calm

Auditions cause the highest anxiety because you have only one chance to perform, and you must do it perfectly

Diving Deeper. Research.

To ground the project, I ran primary and secondary research. I discovered that performance anxiety was rarely just about fear on its own. More often, it was tied to a loss of trust in preparation — especially when artists felt unsure about memory, recall, and readiness under pressure.

Main insight

Playing from memory converts a performance into a recall task under scrutiny. That single change accounts for much of the anxiety performers report — anticipatory stress beforehand, narrowed attention and working-memory disruption on stage, and a lasting drop in self-efficacy afterward.

The Game Plan

During research, I noticed a recurring pattern in how musicians responded to memory slips: when they forgot, they usually went back to the beginning of the piece or restarted from a familiar section. Such behaviour keeps reinforcing the parts they already know best, while weaker transitions and less stable passages stay relatively untouched.

ExpositionDevelopmentRecapitulation

Product Proposition

The app shows a random bar from the piece and asks the musician to continue from that point entirely from memory. The goal of the exercise was to shift memorization away from passive repetition and closer to the reality of performance, where recall rarely arrives in a predictable order.

Design

Practice overview with the weekly progress graph

Home screen with upcoming events and reading

Giving Just Enough Help

I ran a few rounds of user testing to identify any failure points and struggles.

If a musician couldn’t recognize a single random bar, they either had to skip multiple prompts in a row or abandon the session altogether. Very quickly, the experience started to feel like failure instead of practice.

The prompt with a single bar and no way to ask for more

Show Bars:OneTwoThree

Users can now expand the prompt from one bar to two or three bars, depending on how much context they need. Instead of turning a difficult moment into a dead end, it gave users a way back in.

Taming the Monster: Making Long Pieces Manageable

For concertos, symphonies, and other multi-movement works that can take up to 100+ pages of music, this technique posed a challenge with the volume of practicing material. Practicing those pieces through fully random fragments started to feel overwhelming very quickly.

The practice screen with no way to narrow a long piece down

1, 2

To solve that, I introduced sectioning and a section selector before each practice session. Instead of approaching a long piece as one giant block of work, users can choose which section or sections they want to focus on — or practice the whole piece.

It’s easier when it’s built up gradually

In interviews, musicians didn’t describe stage fright as something that suddenly appears out of nowhere. More often, it built up during preparation. A recurring trigger was the combination of time pressure and uncertainty — not knowing if they were on track, how much work was left, or whether they have enough time for the piece to sink in the memory.

To help musicians to stay on track with their preparations, I introduced a goal-setting flow where users could assign a piece to a specific event. In testing, that worked only when someone already had a concrete event to prepare for. Otherwise, it felt too limiting.

The first iteration, which asked for an event before anything else

Yes

Not Yet

Continue

I moved toward a more flexible setup: users can choose to set a date for memorizing a piece, and then turn that deadline into a practice schedule with days, times, and optional notifications. The app also uses the timeline and piece size to recommend a realistic frequency, so scheduling becomes part of the preparation system rather than just a calendar add-on.

final screens

Session summary after finishing a practice

Memorization prompt with the bar-context control

Practice schedule with days, times and notifications

New piece with its sections identified and a date to memorize by

Upcoming events and stage-fright reading

Home screen with the recently practiced piece and quote of the day

The Next Movement: What I’d Improve Next

Growing the audience by introducing more techniques
From my research I learned that different musicians rely on different memorization techniques. Even though the technique picked for this stage was universal, the necessity to broaden the variety of techniques that would accommodate the specific needs of different kind of musicians would be a key step in growing the audience of the platform.
Differentiate the musician segment further
“Musicians” is already a much stronger focus than “all performers that experience stage fright,” but it’s still quite broad to use the same technique for all.
The next level would be narrowing the audience further — for example, instrumentalists, vocalists, or advanced students preparing for recitals. A tighter segment would make the product more specific, and stronger.
Test whether the platform feels comprehensive in practice
The overall strategy is to support stage fright indirectly through preparation, structure, and memory work.
That logic makes sense, but I’d want to validate whether users actually experience the product as one coherent support system in practice, rather than as a set of useful features living next to each other.

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