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The role of practice in the development of performing musicians
Abstract
Examined the role of practice in the development of 257 performing musicians (aged 8–18 yrs). Ss who had undertaken individual instrument tuition were interviewed about their performing history from the start of the playing and were divided into 5 groups, reflecting different levels of musical competence. 94 Ss also kept a practice diary for a 42-wk period. A strong relationship was found between musical achievement and the amount of formal practice undertaken. Weaker relationships were found between achievement and the amount of informal playing. There was no evidence that high achievers were able to gain a given level of examination success on less practice than low achievers. High achievers tended to be more consistent in their pattern of practice from week to week and tended to concentrate on technical practices in the morning. It is concluded that formal effortful practice is a principal determinant of musical achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Informal practice involves a more meandering exploration of selfselected, pleasurable activities, such as learning favorite pieces, playing by ear, and improvising; and these activities have been linked to personal enjoyment in musical skill acquisition and the development of musical expressivity (McPherson et al., 2012;McPherson & McCormick, 2006;Sloboda, 1994). Drawing these distinct forms of practice together, Sloboda et al. (1996) found that high achieving students engage in both formal and informal practice, which suggests their success can, in part, be attributed to multiple approaches to skill development. ...
Practice is essential to the acquisition and development of musical skills, requiring musicians’ time, investment, application, motivation, metacognitive strategies, and ability to self-regulate. Research in children’s music practice indicates the type, quality, and duration of practice, along with adult support, contributes to fluency in musical development; and when progress occurs, children invest in further practice. However, nuances in children’s lived experiences of musical practice that influence these critical factors are largely unknown. To understand the complex issues in children’s practice, this study employed a unique pairing of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Participatory Action Research to investigate 14 seven-year-old beginner cellists’ practice during early learning and explored how their thoughts and experiences evolved over the first 18 months of lessons. Providing rare insight into children’s perceptions of musical development and the vital role of parents and teachers in nurturing engagement, three superordinate themes emerged: (a) four approaches to practice, characterized by practice structure, learner behavior, and family support, (b) a three-phase practice process, and (c) perfection ideation. Positive experiences, including creative activities, within these thematic contexts fostered children’s enjoyment in early musical development, supported productive learning interactions, and sustained engagement. Together, the findings have meaningful pedagogical implications for instrumental music teaching practice.
... This project was initiated because a piano teacher (first author) found that her students were struggling with regularly completing their independent piano practice between weekly lessons. Reasons included a lack of motivation (Sloboda et al., 1996) and a feeling of being overwhelmed by the number of technical exercises that require mastery (Cooper, 2001;McPherson & McCormick, 2006). The participants included music students, ages 11 through 17, who were taking piano lessons, and who were interested in being part of designing a mobile application to support them in their independent practice. ...
Many approaches have been employed in the creation of educational technologies. One of the lesser explored approaches is that of participatory design when it includes children as direct contributors. In such cases, specific strategies for supporting the effective participation of software developers and children are necessary. This article discusses a participatory design project that was initiated to support the learning of music students, aged 11 through 17, as they practiced the piano. To design this educational technology, these students worked with a team of piano teachers, their parents, researchers, and software developers over a two-year period. This paper describes challenges that arose as the developers and students worked together to create a new application that supported student learning. The findings include practical strategies that were adopted throughout the design process for building trust, balancing power, and aligning values. Implementation of these strategies is discussed as a way to provide effective support for software developers to empower them to work successfully as part of a participatory design team that includes children. The implemented strategies and suggestions should help others to integrate children and developers as active contributors to the design of educational technologies.
Musicians practice to gain technical proficiency, learn new repertoire, develop musical interpretation, memorize music, and prepare for performances. Achieving high levels of musical expertise requires considerable practice; attainment simply increases with practice and, consequently, the accumulated practice time can directly predict achievement, increase the chance of success and reduce performance anxiety. The amount of practice is important for increasing the academic performance of students in performance program but, the efficiency of practice is vital in this process. Unfortunately, performance students usually don’t receive specific education for increasing practice efficiency and choosing appropriate strategies of practice. This study investigates the correlation between hours of practice and performance anxiety, and academic achievement among Western classical music performance students of University of Art. In this correlational-descriptive study, 102 performance students enrolled in second to eighth semesters were selected in December 2016. The sample includes 46 female and 56 male (mean age = 21.6 years, SD=4) students. They had musical instruction for mean (SD) time of 9.29 (3.9) years. Demographic data were collected via self-reported component questionnaires. Furthermore, validated Osborne-Kenny music performance anxiety inventory questionnaires (15 questions) were used in order to assess the quantity of student’s performance anxiety. Then, the data were supported by validated Spielberg state-trait anxiety inventory (40 questions). Calculated Cronbach’s alpha showed high internal consistency reliability of both inventories (α= 0.9). Finally, academic achievement calculated by overall means of the performance scores in ensemble, instrumental lesson, orchestra and principles of performance in the past semesters. The data were analyzed by SPSS-22 software, using Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t- test and multiple linear regression with significance level 0.05. The results showed, the mean (SD) of student’s performance anxiety scores were assessed 47.8 (15.09) and state and trait anxiety scores were calculated in order 44.07 (14.4) and 43.2 (11.8). The mean (SD) of academic achievement scores was 15.7 (1.9), and students had 20.6 (8.6) hours of practice per week. Among students, 66 persons had daily practice and 36 students did not practice every day. There was no statically significant relationship between amount of practice time and performance anxiety. In addition, the statically significant relationship between weekly hours of practice and state-trait anxiety was not found. Furthermore, statically significant relationship was not found between weekly hours of practice and academic performance. The independent t-test revealed that there were no significant differences between students who have daily practice and other students in academic performance, performance anxiety and state-trait anxiety scores. Multiple linear regression showed the demographic characteristics such as age, gender, years of musical instruction, and hours of practice were not statically significant variables for predicting academic achievement. However, among these variables, years of musical instruction was marginally significant (P=0.06). With a deductive overview, results showed students’ hours of practice were not considerably effective on increasing academic achievement and decreasing performance anxiety. According to the above mentioned, learning strategies for deliberate practice may be beneficial. Hence, adding a course with the purpose of instructing deliberate practice and learning true practice strategies in the curriculum of Western classical music performance was recommended.
This article closely examines two violinists’ first notes—two beginnings animated by contrasting American conceptions of music and musicality. Each beginning occurs in a lesson: one follows Japanese pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki's assertion that music is like language, universally accessible and collectively enjoyed; another exemplifies a more “traditional” approach embracing individuality and differing aptitudes. Through a detailed ethnographic analysis of the events before, during, and after these first notes, this project (1) theorizes musical “beginning,” (2) demonstrates the benefits of video-based microethnography for ethnomusicology, and (3) argues that conceptions of “talent” profoundly influence musicians’ achievements, even and especially in the beginning.
Comparison of Piano Practicing Habits and Attitude Levels of Vocal
Students
The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Performance Psychology includes the latest research and applied perspectives from leaders in the field of performance psychology, presenting sport and performance psychology from myriad perspectives. It looks at individual psychological processes in performance such as attention, imagery, superior performance intelligence, motivation, anxiety, confidence, cognition, and emotion. Articles also consider the social psychological processes in performance including leadership, teamwork, coaching, relationships, moral behavior, and gender and cultural issues. The book further examines human development issues in performance, such as the development of talent and expertise, positive youth development, the role of the family, the end of involvement transitions, and both youth and masters-level sport and physical activity programs. Finally, the text looks at interventions in sport and performance psychology and counseling of performers in distress including such important issues for all performers as: appearance- and performance-enhancing drug use, injuries, managing pain, eating and weight issues, burnout, and the role of physical activity in maintaining health. The articles collected here also cover the history of sport and performance psychology; the scope and nature of the field; ethical issues in sport and performance psychology; performance psychology in the performing arts and other non-sporting fields; perfectionism and performance; the role of the performance coach and of the sport psychologist with a coach and team; supervision; and a look ahead to the future of the field.
This book was the first handbook where the world's foremost 'experts on expertise' reviewed our scientific knowledge on expertise and expert performance and how experts may differ from non-experts in terms of their development, training, reasoning, knowledge, social support, and innate talent. Methods are described for the study of experts' knowledge and their performance of representative tasks from their domain of expertise. The development of expertise is also studied by retrospective interviews and the daily lives of experts are studied with diaries. In 15 major domains of expertise, the leading researchers summarize our knowledge on the structure and acquisition of expert skill and knowledge and discuss future prospects. General issues that cut across most domains are reviewed in chapters on various aspects of expertise such as general and practical intelligence, differences in brain activity, self-regulated learning, deliberate practice, aging, knowledge management, and creativity.
RESUMO______As I Jornadas em Estudos da Criança, realizadas em julho de 2016, inauguraram um espaço de partilha e reflexão dos investigadores em Estudos da Criança, especialmente de investigadores juniores, que se encontram a desenvolver trabalhos de investigação no âmbito do Doutoramento em Estudos da Criança. Os estudos da criança são, por definição, uma área multidisciplinar, e em certos casos interdisciplinar, que assume como pressuposto principal compreender a criança enquanto sujeito de análise e a partir da qual se pode construir conhecimento acerca do grupo social que integra – a infância. São também pressupostos fundamentais desta área, promover processos de pesquisa nos quais os pesquisadores desenvolvam competências para recolher e analisar informação relevante, sendo a mobilização de técnicas de pesquisa que permitam a recolha da voz e a participação das crianças uma dimensão central. ______ABSTRACT______
The I Conference in Child Studies, held in July 2016, inaugurated a space for sharing and reflection of researchers in Child Studies, especially junior researchers, who are developing research work within the scope of the PhD in Child Studies. Child Studies is, by definition, a multidisciplinary, and in some cases interdisciplinary area, which assumes as main assumption to understand the child as the subject of analysis and from which knowledge can be built about the social group he/she integrates - childhood. It is also a fundamental assumption of this area to promote research processes in which researchers develop skills to collect and analyze relevant information, with the mobilization of research techniques that allow the voice and participation of children being as a central dimension.
The purpose of this descriptive research study was to examine collegiate instrumentalists’ applications of practice strategies and their motivation orientations to practice. Respondents ( N = 128) were music majors who enrolled in concert band or orchestra. Results indicated that pianists spent more time in practice followed by percussionists, brass, other instrumentalists (e.g., organ), woodwind, and string players. Collegiate instrumentalists used systematic practice strategies most frequently, followed by error correction techniques, using a metronome and listening to recordings, concentration control, analytic strategies, and the organization of practice sessions. In addition, collegiate instrumentalists were more motivated by intrinsic factors than extrinsic factors. Weekly practice hours were negatively correlated with Extrinsic Motivation: Avoid Failure, but positively correlated with Intrinsic Motivation: Growth. Implications for instrumental teaching and learning are discussed.
Bu çalışmada; piyano eğitimindeki yetişkin öğrencilerin özellikleri dikkate alınarak; mesleki anlamda başlangıç piyano eğitiminin yöntemsel olarak teorik temellerinin, yetişkin öğrencilerin psikolojik özelliklerinin, pedagojik sorunlarının ve yetişkin öğrencilerin karşılaşmış oldukları problemlerin belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Nitel veri analizi tekniklerinin kullanıldığı bu araştırma betimsel türdedir. Veriler çeşitli dokümanların incelenmesi yöntemiyle toplanmıştır. Yetişkin öğrencilere piyano öğretmek, yüksek yaratıcı sonuçlara ulaşmayı amaçlayan belirli teknikleri ve yöntemleri kullanarak eğitim sürecinin özel bir organizasyonunu öngörür. Yetişkin öğrencilerin psikofizyolojik özelliklerinin incelenmesi, çalışılan pedagojik süreç ile ilgili çocukların eğitimi arasındaki temel farkları belirlemeyi mümkün kılmıştır. Yetişkin öğrenciler için başlangıç piyano eğitiminin amaçlarının, hedeflerinin ve özelliklerinin analiziyle, bu sürecin kapsamlı bir şekilde organize edilmesinin, teorik ve metodolojik desteğin geliştirilmesinin önemli olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır.
This article reports further qualitative findings of an interview study involving 42 students ( aged 10–18 ) attending a specialist music school, and parents of half of them. The students were encouraged to talk about events and experiences that influenced their progress in learning musical instruments. Observations by the children and their parents concerning perceptions of instrumental teachers, various aspects of practising activities, and attitudes towards performing. These insights complement previous quantitative and qualitative findings ( Sloboda and Howe, 1991; Howe and Sloboda, 1991 ) and contribute descriptive knowledge of the precursors of musical accomplishments.
Memory for skill Applied Problems in Developing Talent in Young People Studies on the telegraphic language. The acquisition of a hierarchy of habits
- J Annett
Annett, J. (1979). Memory for skill. In M. M. Gruneberg & P. E. Morris (Eds), Applied Problems in Bloom, B. S. (Ed.) (1985). Developing Talent in Young People. New York: Ballantine. Bryan, W. L. & Harter, N. (1899). Studies on the telegraphic language. The acquisition of a hierarchy of habits. Pycbological Review, 6, 345-375.