Recent research on musical practice has focused on metacognition and the strategies that musicians adopt in their preparations for performance. This study explored the development of metacognition and performance planning strategies in musicians from novice to professional level. 22 professional musicians and 55 novices were interviewed about their practising. The novices were also tape recorded learning and performing a short piece. The professional musicians demonstrated extensive metacognition in relation to their preparations for performance encompassing technical matters, interpretation, and issues relating to learning itself, e.g. concentration, planning, monitoring and evaluation. Although there were similarities in the strategies adopted there was considerable variation because of individual need. In the novice musicians, there was a complex relationship between the development of expertise and the use of planning strategies.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0265051701000122

The development of metacognition in musicians: Implications for education

This article explores motivation to participate in music making activities It examines historical and current theories of motivation and sets out a model describing the way that the characteristics of the individual including, personality, self-concept and personal goals interact with the environment to influence motivation and subsequent behaviour The environment may include culture and sub-cultures, society, time, place, institutions, family and peers and the rewards and punishments that these offer The article then explores research relating to motivation to actively participate in music This supports the notion that musical motivation is determined by complex interactions between the individual and the environment within which they find themselves The article concludes with a consideration of directions for future research

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Musical Motivation: Towards a model synthesising the research

Starting from Hargreaves’ (1986a) review of the relationship between developmental psychology and music education, we characterise the mid-1980s as a point at which the different main strands of music psychology – cognitive, developmental, and social – began to unfold. We move to the present day and beyond, suggesting that a major change has been the incorporation of a social perspective: it may now make more sense to talk about the developmental social psychology of music and music education. Four levels of social influence are distinguished – the individual ,t heinterpersonal ,t heinstitutional, and the cultural –a nd we suggest that the concept of identity may enable explanations of social influence at the individual level. We review some research on musical style sensitivity as an exemplar of this general approach, and conclude by applying the social– cultural perspective to current developments in music education. This gives rise to two new conceptual models: of the opportunities that are offered by music education in the twenty-first century, and the outcomes that might be derived from it. Music education is changing very rapidly in the UK, as in many other countries, as a result of rapid social and technological change. What should be taught and learnt at school? What is taught and learnt out of school? How much attention should be paid to instrumental tuition? How much of music is self-taught rather than learnt from others? What are the modern-day roles of conservatoires, universities, and community organisations in music learning? What constitutes being a musician in the digital era? All of these are questions to which the answers are changing very rapidly. If this is true of music education itself, it is hardly surprising that music education research is also changing rapidly. One obvious feature is that it has become increasingly interdisciplinary, drawing on theory and methods from various other specialisms – and so the publication of this special issue is very timely. This paper looks at theory and practice in music education from the point of view of psychology, and takes as its starting point ap aper that one of us wrote well over a decade ago on ‘developmental psychology and music education’ (Hargreaves, 1986a). This paper argued that developmental psychology had a great deal to contribute to music education, and came soon after the publication of The Developmental Psychology of Music (Hargreaves, 1986b), which represented a first attempt to set out what the main features of this field of study might be. Th ep resent paper is in four main parts. We start in the mid-1980s, characterising the state of play when the original article was written as a point at which the different main strands of music psychology – cognitive, developmental, and social – began to unfold.

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Music education in the twenty-first century:: a psychological perspective

Most research on musical performance anxiety has considered this in relation to the internal characteristics of the performer, the extent of their preparedness for the performance, and factors in the immediate performing environment The approach to its alleviation has generally been clinical in nature Little research has been situated within an explicit overarching conceptual framework This article proposes a theoretical framework that portrays anxiety within a musical performance context as a process that has an explicit time dimension (pre-, during- and postperformance) The model illustrates the likely processes that occur once a performer agrees to participate in a particular performance and explains how these might give rise to either maladaptive or adaptive forms of performance anxiety The potential longer-term effects on the performer are also discussed A detailed description of the model and the theories behind its development is followed by a consideration of model’s implications and potential usefulness for both research and education

A conceptual framework for understanding musical performance anxiety

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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Gwyn Parry-Jones

Papers

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