Ageing and the orchestra: Self-efficacy and engagement in community music-making

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between age, self-efficacy and intellectual, emotional and social engagement in a group of orchestral players who are a mixture of professional and amateur musicians. Using a concurrent triangulation design, quantitative survey data from 23 orchestral players is cross-validated with qualitative interview data from three of these respondents. Results confirm that intellectual stimulation is high for these orchestral players and is a balance between perceived challenge, effort and reward of the musical tasks. In this particular orchestra, it appears that emotional engagement increases with age for amateur players, yet decreases with age for professionals, which may be due to increasing pressures. Although social engagement is high, with players reporting feeling connected as a group whilst making music, new personal connections may be difficult to forge.

A Process Evaluation of a Performance Psychology Intervention for Transitioning Elite and Elite Musicians

“…On the other hand, the elite musicians did state that the intervention helped them to examine their old practice habits, reinvigorate their motivation, and increase their practice efficiency, even at an older age. MacRitchie and Garrido (2019) already found an inverse relationship between aging and music-specific self-efficacy in orchestra members. Thus, findings from the present study suggest that certain performance psychology principles might be suited to address such very specific challenges.…”

“…As transitioning elite musicians eventually enter the professional field, they might face excessively high workloads and financial pressure; often combined with a new need to balance their profession with family life, reducing the time available for practice (MacNamara et al, 2006). Finally, as musicians grow older, they might perceive increasing difficulties sustaining their own level of performance (MacNamara et al, 2006;MacRitchie and Garrido, 2019). Given these changing demands, transitioning elite and elite musicians might equally benefit from performance psychology interventions.…”

A cross-sectional study on relationships between musical activities and quality of life in Japanese older adults

“…Musical motivation and musical self-efficacy were assessed using study-developed questions on participants’ motivation to improve their musical skills and engage in various musical activities and how they rated those skills (Table 5). Previous studies on musical self-efficacy have attempted to measure aspects such as efficacy for performance and musical learning (Ritchie & Williamon, 2010), targeting participants who received music lessons (McCormick & McPherson, 2003; McPherson & McCormick, 2006), participants in musical programs (Bugos et al, 2016), and members of orchestras (MacRitchie & Garrido, 2019). We did not apply questionnaires developed in previous studies because our study-developed questions aimed to measure the basic musical skills and knowledge of the participants, including those with no musical training.…”

Facilitating arts participation for creative ageing: an action research in South Korea

“…The second category, artistic activities, includes vocational artists' old-age creative activities, professional-level amateur artists' activities and various arts participation activities by arts lovers. For example, there are studies of an amateur senior orchestra (MacRitchie and Garrido, 2019), musical tastes (Harrison and Ryan, 2010), textual and craft activities (Kenning, 2015), old-age fandom (Harrington, 2018), arts museum experiences (Thongnopnua, 2015) and a museum volunteer programme (Park and Chang, 2017). The studies of arts programmes in senior centres with therapeutic purposes and arts programmes designed for dementia prevention and treatment (Greaves and Farbus, 2006; Sonke et al ., 2009; Lowry, 2017; Dewey and Sonke, 2019; Robertson and McCall, 2020; Hendriks et al ., 2021; Hughes et al ., in press) also fall under this category.…”