Education for all.

*Keith Swanwick, Routledge, London, 1988. ISBN 0‐415‐1478‐6 (hard), ISBN 0‐415 01479‐4 (soft).

Music, Mind, and Education*

This study is an investigation of the role of some key characteristics of teachers in the development of students' musical ability. Interviewing 257 children who differed in the extent of their instrumental mastery, we discovered that the most successful learners regarded their teachers differently from those children who ceased music study. The more successful learners rated their first teacher higher than did other learners on personal dimensions such as friendliness, and rated their current teacher higher than did other learners on task-oriented professional dimensions such as pushiness. Additionally, the highly successful learners studied, on average, with more teachers than did the other learners; these learners also generally received more individual instruction than did the children who eventually ceased lessons. These findings confirm the importance of matching teacher characteristics to the changing requirements of learners in enabling the development of high levels of musical expertise.

Characteristics of music teachers and the progress of young instrumentalists (Education, psychology)

Most research on musical performance anxiety has focused on musicians coming from a classical background, and performance anxiety experiences of musicians outside the western classical genre remain under-researched. The aim of this study was to investigate perceived performance anxiety experiences in undergraduate and professional musicians and to explore whether musical genre specialization (Western classical, jazz, popular, Scottish traditional) affected musicians' performance anxiety experiences. The study addressed questions exploring the perceived intensity of performance anxiety, the perceived contributing factors, changes in perceived anxiety levels as performances approached (one hour before, immediately before and during performance) and the perceived impact of performance on the quality of performance. Participants were 244 musicians, 170 undergraduates and 74 portfolio career musicians. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey. Findings suggested that performance anxiety was of concern for a significant majority of undergraduate and professional musicians. Musicians from all participating musical genres shared similar perceptions and concerns. Anxiety appeared to have negative connotations, although it was also reported as beneficial. Solo performance generated more anxiety compared to group performance. Overall, the impact of anxiety on performance was related to its perceived severity during performance, and was mediated by musicians' performance experience and their general susceptibility to anxiety. The musical genre in which participants specialized affected their perceived anxiety levels. Western classical musicians were generally found to report higher levels of performance anxiety. This study has provided indications that musicians specializing in different musical genres may experience performance anxiety in quantitatively and qualitatively different ways. Further research would benefit from investigating factors contributing to these variations.

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Perceived performance anxiety in advanced musicians specializing in different musical genres

Instrumental Teaching: a Practical Guide to Better Teaching and Learning by Susan Hallam. Oxford: Heinemann Educational, 1998. 350 pp. £13.75.

Over the past 25 years there has been an increasing and worldwide research interest in music education, embracing a range of disciplines and perspectives. As well as particular research foci on the...

Gerry Farrell

Papers

Mapping Music Education Research in the UK