Mindful Student Musicians Use Deliberate Practice Techniques and Report Lower Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms

Anxiety and depressive symptoms are elevated among musicians, including student musicians. This study examined whether trait mindfulness was associated with musicianship indicators and mental health symptoms in undergraduate instrumental musicians. Musicianship indicators included instrument category, weekly practice time, and use of deliberate practice techniques. Undergraduate instrumental musicians ( n = 128) completed self-report measures of trait mindfulness, deliberate practice, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, including the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, Deliberate Practice in Music Inventory, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Hypotheses were tested using analyses of variance and linear regressions. Sensitivity analyses examined whether primary findings remained consistent after removing the Observing facet from the mindfulness total score and after adjusting for age, years of training, and gender. Mindfulness was significantly associated with greater use of deliberate practice techniques, β = 0.29, p = 0.001. This association remained significant when Observing was removed from the mindfulness score, β = 0.22, p = 0.013. Mindfulness was also associated with lower anxiety, β = −0.49, p < 0.001, and lower depressive symptoms, β = −0.48, p < 0.001. Deliberate practice was not significantly associated with anxiety or depressive symptoms. The pattern of findings remained unchanged in covariate-adjusted sensitivity analyses. Findings suggest trait mindfulness is associated with both deliberate practice and lower mental health symptoms among undergraduate instrumental musicians. Because the study was cross-sectional, future experimental research is needed to test whether mindfulness training, deliberate-practice instruction, or combined interventions improve practice quality, well-being, or performance in student musicians. This study was not preregistered.