Musical Talent: Innate or Acquired? Perceptions of Students, Parents, and Teachers

Abstract

Secondary analysis of descriptive data concerning musically gifted students, their parents, and their teachers yields distinctive attribution patterns for each group. The patterns describe this group of students as attributing much of their success to inborn ability and hard work. These accomplished students, however, describe family members and friends as discouraging their musical development. Parents, in sharp contrast, report their children as having only ordinary levels of inborn talent, and they attribute their children's musical accomplishments to encouragement provided by family and friends. Teachers in this study attribute students' musical development to innate talent, hard work, and schooling. Differences among these attribution patterns are surprising, but are consistent with research that suggests that individuals often make causal attributions that are self-serving, giving a good deal of credit to their own characteristics or influence.

The Elusive Muse: Understanding Musical Giftedness

“…One good example of the problem in question is asking different relevant groups what they believe makes an individual musically gifted. This is what researchers Evans, Bickel, & Pendarvis, (2000) did. They found that students attribute much of their success to innate talent and hard work, whereas they also feel that family and friends have, in fact, discouraged their musical development.…”

“…Among the phenotype labels are musical talent (Evans, Bickel, & Pendarvis, 2000;Freeman, 1984;Haroutounian, 2002) and musical ability (Coon & Carey, 1989;Shuter-Dyson, 1982;Howe, Davidson, Moore & Sloboda, 1995), both of which are also used interchangeably in the literature. However, they always refer to a manifest set of cognitive skills such as memory, aural discriminatory skills, and motor skills; skills that are assumed to be necessary for musical achievement, which is another term used in this context, the connotation of which is that which musicians have learnt on the basis of their aptitude (Shuter-Dyson, 1982).…”

Musically Talented Pupils in Slovene Elementary Schools: Gender and Age Differences in the Area of Musical Abilities / Glazbeno talentirana djeca u osnovnim školama u Sloveniji: razlike prema spolu i dobi u području glazbenih sposobnosti

“…• Musically talented pupils live in an encouraging social environment (family, school, teachers). (Davidson, Howe, & Sloboda, 1997;Freeman, 2000aFreeman, , 2000bDavidson & Pitts, 2001;Burland & Davidson, 2002;Davidson & Borthwick, 2002;Evans, Bickel, & Pendarvis, 2004;McPherson, 2009). • Musically talented pupils have well-developed musical abilities.…”

“…In the research carried out by Evans, Bickel, and Pendarvis (2004), it was shown that high expectations of teachers have a positive effect on the achievements of their pupils. Also, according to The Expectancy Theory (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968;Babad, 1998;Rosenthal, 1991;Rubie-Davies, 2006;Locke, 2005), the achievements of pupils are connected with the expectations of their teachers.…”

Collective Talent : A Study of Improvisational Group Performance in Music

“…In the cultural context for example, the fact that some people lack musical prowess is formulated in terms of natural variation and inevitability: 'Things are so that we cannot all be great musicians'. In the context of research the aim is to search for the factors that contribute to musical talent as a relatively fixed property, such as a musically stimulating home and social environment (Evans et al, 2000;Haroutounian, 2002;Kemp & Mills, 2002;Pratt, 1978;Scott & Moffett, 1978;Shuter-Dyson & Gabriel, 1981;Shuter-Dyson, 1999). Given the difficulty and cost of identifying and implementing such factors, it is understandable that talent is attributed to a lucky few, those 'naturally gifted'.…”