Perceptions and predictions of expertise in advanced musical learners

Abstract

Psychology of Music 38 (1) Finally, characteristics that predict and account for variability in musicians' views and attitudes regarding musical expertise and self-assessments of personal expertise levels are highlighted. Results are viewed in the context of music learning and implications for music education are discussed. k e y w o r d s : expertise development, gender, musical genre, musical performance, skill acquisition

Institutional culture and learning II: inter-relationships between perceptions of the learning environment and undergraduate musicians' attitudes to performance

“…The 623-field online survey instrument was piloted and refined accordingly in preparation for the main data collection. The questionnaire survey was completed by 170 undergraduate musicians and included 57 questions that embraced a wide range of perspectives on musical performance that built on diverse literature sources (see Creech et al 2008;Papageorgi et al 2010a).…”

Continuing professional development in a chamber orchestra: player and management perspectives

“…Workshop 1, in particular, provided a safe, trusting environment in which players and management could get to know each other better and as a result felt more able to experiment with creativity and self-expression. If older, more established classical trained musicians are to improve their flexibility to cope with a changing music industry (Papageorgi et al 2010), then creating trust in a working environment could encourage this flexibility and risk-taking. This was perhaps most apparent in the performance evaluations of Schubert's Octet where the breakdown of traditional hierarchy and added confidence allowed the players more flexibility in their approach to music making without the fear of being judged.…”

“…The professional, non-classically trained musicians were most likely to consider transferable musical skills an important constituent of expertise, and those who were younger (i.e. between the ages of 21 and 26, as opposed to those aged 27 and older) rated their own abilities in this area highest (Papageorgi et al 2010). While self-rated transferability of musical skills may not represent flexibility in the broader sense, these findings nevertheless suggest that older classically trained musicians with long experience of playing in the same orchestra or singing in the same chorus (Oakland, MacDonald, and Flowers 2012) may find it less easy than do the younger musicians with less professional experience to adapt to a changing work environment.…”

The Role of the Institution and Teachers in Supporting Learning

“…Although all musicians recognized the value of practice, the community of classical musicians tended to place greater emphasis on practicing alone, whereas other-than-classical musicians attached greater relevance to making music for fun, networking, and extracurricular activities such as listening to a diverse range of musics and engaging in professional conversations with peers (see Figure 5). Nevertheless, both classical and other-than-classical groups considered musical expertise to involve the possession of global musical skills that could be transferred to other musical genres (Papageorgi et al, 2010). …”