Content uploaded by Allan Hewitt
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Allan Hewitt on Nov 24, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
Strathprints Institutional Repository
Hewitt, Allan (2009) Musical styles as communities of practice: challenges for learning, teaching
and assessment of music in higher education. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 8 (3). pp.
325-333. ISSN 1474-0222
Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde.
Copyright
c
and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors
and/or other copyright owners. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any
profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://
strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or study, educational, or
not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.
Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to Strathprints administrator:
mailto:strathprints@strath.ac.uk
http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/
Hewitt, Allan (2009) Musical styles as communities of practice: challenges for learning, teaching
and assessment of music in higher education. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 8 (3).
pp. 325-333. ISSN 1474-0222
http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/8145/
This is an author produced version of a paper published in Arts and Humanities in Higher Education,
8 (3). pp. 325-333. ISSN 1474-0222. This version has been peer-reviewed but does not
include the final publisher proof corrections, published layout or pagination.
Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University
of Strathclyde. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained
by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. You may not engage in
further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial
gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) and the
content of this paper for research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes
without prior permission or charge. You may freely distribute the url
(http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) of the Strathprints website.
Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to The
Strathprints Administrator: eprints@cis.strath.ac.uk
Musical styles as communities of practice...
1
Musical styles as communities of practice: challenges
for learning, teaching and assessment of Music in
Higher Education
Musical styles as communities of practice...
2
ABSTRACT
The last three decades have been marked by significant expansion of music
education within Higher Education, the outcomes of which can be seen in the
increased numbers of students studying music and in the diversity of activity and
purpose within music courses. This paper interrogates the relationship between
stylistic diversity and music provision, specifically in relation to teaching and
assessment, and considers music styles as examples of ‘communities of practice’ into
which students may be inducted through formal and informal means.
Musical styles as communities of practice...
3
CONTEXT
The Higher Education (HE) sector in the United Kingdom has experienced
unparalleled change in scale, diversity and purpose over the past three decades.
Numbers have increased significantly, nearly doubling in one decade (Thomas,
2002). The purpose of HE has become more instrumental, driven by political
aspirations (Watson & Bowden, 1999) to increase the educational level of the
workforce to maintain economic competitiveness (Tomlinson, 2001). The ultimate
outcome of this process is the use by stakeholders of graduate employment as a key
measure of ‘quality’ in higher education (Smith, McKnight, & Naylor, 2001).
Sectoral developments have had a major impact on Music. As student numbers
have increased, so too has the range of Music degrees and the variety of focus and
content. Music programmes have become explicitly linked to graduate
employability and are sometimes named to reflect this purpose (e.g BA Applied
Music, BEd Music).
Expansion stimulated a particularly musical development, namely the diversity of
musical styles that are now studied in Music departments and conservatoires
1
.
Consideration of ‘musical style’ in the context of performance education is
complex; aspects of delineation and definition are concerned not only with the
music per se, but also with the normative practices of performance and creation
that are associated with the style. These can be described as the ‘extramusical’
aspects of a style.
MUSICAL STYLES, LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
The musical and extramusical aspects of musical styles constitute the elements of a
‘community of practice’
2
. Just as each musical style has an identifiable set of
musical features that provide its distinctive identity (for example harmony,
instruments used, formats, structures and so on) they also embody a set of practices
and behaviours in their creation, performance and consumption that are equally
distinctive and defining. Therefore, musical styles can be usefully conceptualised as
a set of culturally-situated cognitive schema involving both musical and
extramusical concepts (Shevy, 2008).
1 In this paper, the term ‘musical style’ is used in reference to the performance and creation of music
rather than its reception (e.g. through listening). Music students at university or conservatoire are
usually (though not always) engaged in the development of skills in these former areas and it is this
aspect of learning that I will consider in this paper.
2
This concept was introduced by Lave and Wenger (1991) in part to describe the phenomenon that
occurs when a newcomer attempts to join an existing community. They focus on the normative
practices that define that community, practices that newcomers must accept and adopt if they are to
be accepted within that community. These practices do not necessarily define the community (that
may be more to do with its purpose), but they are a necessary part of membership.
Musical styles as communities of practice...
4
Conceptual framework
I wish to identify three aspects of these extramusical practices that have relevance
to Music education in HE; (1) pedagogical practices, (2) performance practices and
(3) practices of transmission.
Pedagogical practices reflect how learning and teaching has occurred historically
within a particular musical style. While the classical music tradition uses the one-to-
one instrumental lesson as the basis for virtuosic development, the approach in
Scottish traditional music (Cope, 2005) and in popular music (L. Green, 2008) has
been one of informal, shared teaching. Therefore, the manner in which the
newcomer develops skill and knowledge itself becomes part of the community of
practice. It is possible to become expert (in a technical sense) in other ways;
however, it is the normative practice within the style, reflective of the historical
traditions and social context in which learning has occurred (Kamin, Richards, &
Collins, 2007).
Each musical style embodies a broader set of performance practices. Some utilise a
formal approach to public performance while others are much more informal.
Contrast the normative practices of classical music (e.g conductor entry) with the
way that a rock band enters the stage. Audience response appropriate for one style
(for example,in a Jazz concert, applauding in the middle of a piece) may be
inappropriate in another. This has little to do with the audience themselves; they
may attend both types of concert and conduct themselves in very different, but
stylistically appropriate, ways. Each style has an associated set of normative
behaviours and practices and to break these norms is to identify oneself as an
outsider.
Practices of transmission are normative practices associated with how the repertoire
of a style is curated and passed on to other musicians. This is an aspect of
pedagogy, but goes beyond that to encompass the methodology of curatorship and
how repertoire is preserved for the future. In classical music, for example, the
repertoire is preserved through written documents (manuscripts, editions, scores)
that carefully prescribe how works are to be performed. While performance
practices change (for example with regard to tempo and pitch) most performances
of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony will be very similar. Learning a new piece requires
access to the score, which provides almost all the necessary information. In
comparison, rock music presents significant challenges to accurate notation and its
performance is usually dependent on spontaneity and creative ‘flair’. Someone
wishing to learn a new work in this style is more likely to refer to a recording, or by
listening repeatedly to someone else performing the track, than referring to a score
(Wemyss, 1999).
Active membership of a stylistically-allied community, such as would be required
by an accepted (‘authentic’) performer of that style, requires both an awareness of
and an ability to engage in these behaviours and processes (Frith, 2007). Effective
Musical styles as communities of practice...
5
learning and teaching within formal contexts that aspires to produce professional-
level graduates demands that these be recognised and embedded within
pedagogical processes. In the following section I briefly discuss two areas in which I
believe this to be most important - teaching and assessment - and reflect on how
stylistic distinctiveness could be embedded.
Challenges for Learning and Teaching
Given the historical dominance in performance pedagogy of Western Classical
music it is unsurprising that the standard model of teaching performance is the
individual lesson. Here, the more “expert” passes on their wisdom to the “less
expert”, on the assumption that the less expert will themselves become more expert
(Gaunt, 2008; Nerland, 2007). However, Westerlund (2006) argues that many
musical styles are characterised by informal learning and the development of
‘knowledge-building communities’ rather than apprenticeship and transmission
models. The first challenge, therefore is to consider the social context into which
teaching is situated.
It is important also to consider the size and structure of the learning environment,
as well as the learning style of the individual student (Zhukov, 2007). It may be
stylistically appropriate for an aspiring classical musician to spend considerable
time practicing by themselves and engaging in formal instruction within a restricted
social context. For the aspiring rock musician this is contextually inappropriate
because it fails to reflect how they engage musically in the ‘real world’. There may
still be value in such students working in a paired or individual context. However, if
most or all of their formal teaching takes place in such contexts it will be removed
from the stylistically situated norms that define that community of practice, which
in turn may diminish its impact (see below).
A third consideration is with the curriculum. The dominant master-apprentice
model places responsibility on the teacher (the expert) to determine those aspects of
a student’s competency and knowledge that require attention. If the student is
working within the classical tradition the parameters are clear and are reflected in
the range of technical exercise books, orchestral repertoire extracts and ‘standards’
from the repertoire of the instrument. It is accepted (within this tradition) that
mastery is reflected in being able to accurately and fluently reproduce these
materials, in an aesthetically pleasing way. This curriculum may be excellent for
producing competent, employable orchestral musicians. However, it may not be
appropriate to the needs of a future jazz musician.
There are consequences in failing to take account of these considerations. First,
there is a danger that students do not receive adequate preparation for the future.
An aspiring rock guitarist who has spent three or four years developing their
technical skills through one-to-one lessons is unlikely to be fully prepared to enter
that community of practice. Second, students who are already engaging in their
community of practice in the external environment (and may have done so for
Musical styles as communities of practice...
6
many years) may actively discount or disregard the opportunities for learning that
are afforded to them; they may construe formal teaching as being disconnected
with the emerging awareness of the norms of their chosen style or styles. Third,
from an external perspective, programmes that appear to be based on pedagogical
models that deviate from genre-based communities of practice may well be seen as
ineffective, a waste of time, and an inappropriate training for aspiring professionals.
The consequences in terms of recruitment, esteem and graduate employability may
be significant.
3
Challenges for assessment
Stylistically-situated norms of practice also impact on performance assessment.
Ideally, this should be viewed by student and teacher as part of the learning process
rather than as a series of ‘hoops to be jumped through’ (A. Green, 2006).
Assessment should be a source of information to the student and to the tutor about
their strengths and weaknesses and an opportunity for students to judge the extent
to which present capabilities map onto the normative behaviours of a stylistically
situated community of practice (Smith, 2005). However, the extent to which
assessment can perform such an active role in learning depends on how students
perceive it. It has been argued that students choose the extent to which they allow
feedback (grade, comments etc) from formal assessments to influence their own self
and task perceptions as performers (Hewitt, 2004).
There is a demand for stylistically-appropriate feedback that students accept and
integrate into their learning but which is also honest, robust and equitable. In this
context, programme teams should consider the format and structure of assessment
(Barratt & Moore, 2005). The most powerful and relevant form of assessment is one
that replicates most closely the authentic performance environment for any
particular musical style. For the classical musician, the recital format of soloist plus
accompanist is fairly authentic; for the Scottish traditional musician this is an
altogether more alien mode of performance. It may well be true that the student’s
level of performance is not diminished by the lack of authenticity (see below);
rather, there is an increased risk that the experience will be dismissed as an
institutional requirement, and the information about their performance (which may
be of great use) will be ignored (Hewitt, 2004).
There is a further question of who undertakes the assessment. Conventional
practice has been to utilise a panel of university staff, perhaps supplemented with
one or two external experts. Students may raise concerns about the stylistic
expertise of those assessing them (Hewitt, 2004), especially in those institutions
whose staff come from a predominantly Western classical background. Little
research has been done to investigate potential biases in panels, or to investigate
whether those non-expert in a particular musical style grade more or less
3 I am not suggesting that opportunities for learning will not occur for the student, rather that the
majority of learning may occur outwith the formal context, which raises questions about why it is
being offered in a formal context in the first place!
Musical styles as communities of practice...
7
generously (though Bergee (2003) reports strong correlation in evaluations among
assessment panels). What is likely, however, is that students themselves are less
likely to give credence to feedback reports and grades provided by assessment
panels whose expertise they do not recognise. The literature has some reports of
innovative practice that may go some way to addressing these concerns, for
example through the use of peer (Blom & Poole, 2004; Hunter, 1999; Searby &
Ewers, 1997) and self (Daniel, 2001) assessment within music courses in HE.
When formal assessment of musical performance is carried out, it is usually within a
context of assessment criteria (Stanley, Brooker, & Gilbert, 2002). These set out the
parameters for the assessment and draws the examiners’ attention to particular
aspects of the performance that are considered important (Coimbra & Davidson,
2001). I would argue that effective assessment will use criteria that are consonant
with the those used to judge ‘quality’ in a performance by the stylistic community
itself. After all, these are the same criteria by which students will be judged when
they participate in that community outwith the university context. This applies to
the inclusion of criteria (i.e. the aspects of the performance that are considered
important) and the exclusion of criteria (i.e. the aspects of the performance that are
not considered important).
Finally, it is important to consider what is performed. Anecdotally, there is
considerable variation between UK institutions in the level of prescription over
performance repertoire and duration. It seems reasonable to assume that, for
assessment purposes, students will perform repertoire that is appropriate to their
particular stylistic affiliation or specialism. However, the particularities of the
assessment procedure may lead them into selecting repertoire that is more
appropriate to the assessment, but less appropriate in terms of the community of
practice.
If these issues are not taken seriously, the quality of provision for students will be
put at risk. Where the outcomes of assessment are not internalised and accepted by
students, a significant opportunity for development is lost. Students who discount
the feedback they receive from an assessment panel may miss important and
worthwhile input and continue to think they are better (or worse) than they actually
are. They may disregard advice on aspects of their playing that, unaddressed, will
ill-prepare them for the future. Conversely, students may give their attention to
feedback that itself is less than useful because it lacks style-specific contextuality. It
may, for example, focus on aspects of their performance that are less highly valued
within the community of practice and say nothing about those aspects that are
more important.
Finally, where the mode or criteria for assessment fail to achieve consonance with
the performance practices of a particular style, it is possible that students will be
obliged to produce behaviours in which they are less skilled. They may focus on
demonstrating behaviours they perceive as consonant with the style associated with
the assessment modality, rather than those consonant with their own area of
Musical styles as communities of practice...
8
expertise. Their development and achievement may be undervalued because it
cannot be exemplified within a formally assessed context.
CONCLUSION
Music in Higher Education in the UK is now studied by large numbers of students
and for a variety of reasons (Burland & Pitts, 2007). The traditional hegemony of
the Western classical tradition has been replaced by a multiplicity of musical styles.
This poses significant challenges to pedagogy and to assessment. Failure to provide
learning opportunities that address the extramusical aspects of stylistic diversity,
and embed the normative behaviours and expectations of those communities
within degree programmes, risks failing to engage students in the learning process.
It risks failing to produce employable graduates who are accepted and competent
members of professional communities of practice. There is much good work going
on (see, for example Lebler, 2008) but there are limited opportunities for staff in the
UK to discuss and develop their practice together.
I conclude with two caveats. First, it is tempting to assume that students wish to
belong to one particular stylistic ‘camp’ and are therefore to be habituated only
into the community of practice associated with that style. My own research suggests
that this is too simplistic. Second, empirical research into a range of cognitive and
social psychological constructs with music students lends limited support to the
notion that students who specialise in different musical genres are significantly
different on these constructs (Welch, et al., 2008), though the same team have
identified some significant differences in terms of what is valued in a performance
(Creech, et al., 2008). It has not been my argument in this paper that students are
‘single style’ musicians, nor that specialising in a particular musical style gives rise
to a defined set of distinctive psychological characteristics (though see Rentfrow &
Gosling, 2003). Rather, it is more likely that music students learn to negotiate
between different sets of normative practice, and such stylistic flexibility may be an
essential component of successful employment. To that end, it is vital that the
practices of learning, teaching and assessment that are embodied within higher
education are consonant with the range of musical practices utilised in the external
world. Not only will they be recognised as having validity by our students and the
professional community; they will better act as a stimulus to learning and
development.
Musical styles as communities of practice...
9
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barratt, E., & Moore, H. (2005). Researching Group Assessment: Jazz in the
Conservatoire. British Journal of Music Education, 22(03), 299-314.
Bergee, M. J. (2003). Faculty Interjudge Reliability of Music Performance
Evaluation. Journal of Research in Music Education, 51(2), 137-150.
Blom, D., & Poole, K. (2004). Peer assessment of tertiary music performance:
Opportunities for understanding performance assessment and performing
through experience and self-reflection. British Journal of Music Education,
21(1), 111-125.
Burland, K., & Pitts, S. (2007). Becoming a Music Student Investigating the skills
and attitudes of students beginning a Music degree. Arts and Humanities in
Higher Education, 6(3), 289-308.
Coimbra, D. D. C., & Davidson, J. W. (2001). Investigating performance
evaluation by assessors of singers in a music college setting. Musicae scientiae:
The journal of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, 5(1), 33-53.
Cope, P. (2005). Adult Learning in Traditional Music. British Journal of Music
Education, 22(2), 125-140.
Creech, A., Papageorgi, I., Duffy, C., Morton, F., Hadden, E., Potter, J., et al.
(2008). Investigating Musical Performance: Commonality and Diversity
among Classical and Non-Classical Musicians. Music Education Research,
10(2), 215-234.
Daniel, R. (2001). Self-assessment in performance. British Journal of Music Education,
18(3), 215-226.
Frith, S. (2007). Taking Popular Music Seriously. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Gaunt, H. (2008). One-to-one tuition in a conservatoire: the perceptions of
instrumental and vocal teachers. Psychology of Music, 36(2), 215-245.
Green, A. (2006). University Challenge: Dynamic subject knowledge, teaching and
transition. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 5(3), 275-290.
Green, L. (2008). Group Cooperation, Inclusion and Disaffected Pupils: Some
Responses to Informal Learning in the Music Classroom. Presented at the
RIME Conference 2007, Exeter, UK. Music Education Research, 10(2), 177-
192.
Hewitt, A. (2004). Students' Attributions Of Sources Of Influence On Self-
Perception In Solo Performance In Music. Research Studies in Music
Education, 22(1), 42-58.
Musical styles as communities of practice...
10
Hunter, D. (1999). Developing peer-learning programmes in music: group
presentations and peer assessment. British Journal of Music Education, 16(1),
51-63.
Kamin, S., Richards, H., & Collins, D. (2007). Influences on the Talent
Development Process of Non-Classical Musicians: Psychological, Social
and Environmental Influences. Music Education Research, 9(3), 449-468.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: legitimate peripheral
participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lebler, D. (2008). Popular Music Pedagogy: Peer Learning in Practice. Music
Education Research, 10(2), 193-213.
Nerland, M. (2007). One-to-One Teaching as Cultural Practice: Two Case Studies
from an Academy of Music. Music Education Research, 9(3), 399-416.
Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2003). The do re mi's of everyday life: the
structure and personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of
personality and social psychology, 84(6), 1236-1256.
Searby, M., & Ewers, T. (1997). An Evaluation of the Use of Peer Assessment in
Higher Education: a case study in the School of Music, Kingston
University Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 22(4), 371-383.
Shevy, M. (2008). Music genre as cognitive scheme: extramusical associations with
country and hip-hop music. Psychology of Music, 36(4), 477-498.
Smith, J., McKnight, A., & Naylor, R. (2001). Graduate employability: Policy and
performance in Higher Education in the UK. The Economic Journal,
110(464), 382-411.
Stanley, M., Brooker, R., & Gilbert, R. (2002). Examiner Perceptions of Using
Criteria in Music Performance Assessment. Research Studies in Music
Education, 18(1), 46-56.
Thomas, L. (2002). Student retention in higher education: the role of institutional
habitus. Journal of Education Policy, 17(4), 423-442.
Tomlinson, S. (2001). Education in a post-welfare society. Buckingham: Open
University Press.
Watson, D., & Bowden, R. (1999). Why did they do it?: The Conservatives and
mass higher education, 1979-97. Journal of Education Policy, 14(3), 243-256.
Welch, G., Papageorgi, I., Haddon, L., Creech, A., Morton, F., de Bezenac, C., et
al. (2008). Musical genre and gender as factors in higher education learning
in music. Research Papers in Education, 23(2), 203-217.
Musical styles as communities of practice...
11
Wemyss, K. L. (1999). From T.I.1 to Tasmania: Australian Indigenous Popular
Music in the Curriculum. Research Studies in Music Education, 13(1), 28-39.
Westerlund, H. (2006). Garage bands: A future model for developing musical
expertise? International Journal for Music Education, 24(2), 119-125.
Zhukov, K. (2007). Student Learning Styles in Advanced Instrumental Music
Lessons. Music Education Research, 9(1), 111-127.
