“Expressivity comes from within your soul”: A questionnaire study of music students' perspectives on expressivity

Abstract

Much has been written about expressivity by philosophers, composers, musicologists, and psychologists, but little is known about how the musicians of tomorrow — music students — approach this subject. This paper reports an exploratory study in which 135 students from music conservatories in three countries (England, Italy, Sweden) filled out a questionnaire that addressed four themes: (a) conceptualizing expressivity, (b) expressivity in everyday practice, (c) expressivity in music teaching, and (d) novel teaching strategies. The results suggest that students define expressivity mainly in terms of communicating emotions and `playing with feeling'. Expressive skills are regarded as highly important by students, and they would like to practice more on expressivity than is currently the case. However, most students are skeptical toward using computers in teaching of expressivity since they cannot see how such applications could work. The results suggest that expressivity deserves more attention in music education than has hitherto been the case.

Play it again with feeling: Computer feedback in musical communication of emotions.

“…Many music students and teachers believe that the emotions must be felt by the performer in order to be communicated well (e.g., Laukka, 2004;Lindström et al, 2003). However, felt emotion provides no guarantee that the emotion will be successfully conveyed to listeners, neither is it necessary to feel the emotion in order to communicate it successfully.…”

“…People become moved by particularly expressive performances, which for many listeners is the essence of music. Moreover, questionnaire research suggests that performers and music teachers view expression as the most crucial aspect of a performer's skills (e.g., Laukka, 2004;Lindström, Juslin, Bresin, & Williamon, 2003). Clearly, good technique is required to master a musical instrument, but expression is what really sets performers apart (see Boyd & George-Warren, 1992, pp.…”

Enactivism And Embodied Cognition In Education Of Music Teachers

“…The results of a questionnaire study of music students' conducted by Lindström, Juslin, Bresin, & Williamon suggest that expressivity deserves more attention in music education than has hitherto been the case. (Lindström et al, 2003).The study of Bonastre et al, aimed at studying of the ideas of teachers and students on teaching expressiveness in music, showed that despite the general interest in these issues, it remains unclear to what extent this is reflected in practice, or what specific activities are being developed to enhance expressiveness (Bonastre et al, 2017, p.10).…”

The effects of projected films on singers’ expressivity in choral performance.

“…However, student musicians have repeatedly expressed preference in imagery/metaphor-based instruction as compared to acoustical concrete instruction or aural modeling (Lindström, Juslin, Bresin, & Williamon, 2003;Woody, 2006b). …”

“…A questionnaire was administered to 135 music students from three European countries, asking them to report the importance of expressivity in their everyday practice (Lindström, et al, 2003). The majority of the participants (60%) regarded the feeling of emotion as a necessary component to expressivity in their everyday practice.…”