Why do they choose their instruments?

Abstract

I r e n e M a r t í n e z C a n t e r o 1 a n d J o r d i -A n g e l J a u s e t -B e r r o c a l 2 1 Music Conservatory of Pilar de la Horadada, C/ Ramon y Cajal, 23, 03190, Pilar de la Horadada (Alicante), Spain 2 Faculty of Communication and International Relations Blanquerna (University Ramon Llull), Plaça Coromines s/n, 08001 Barcelona irenemc2000@yahoo.com, jordiajb@blanquerna.url.edu Motivation is a key word in the arts and, especially, in music since it conveys collective, as well as individual, feelings. The beginning of musical instrument learning should be based on the student's musical interest but, due to the casual and improvised nature of everyday situations in which the choice of a musical instrument takes place, tend to underestimate the attention that such interest deserves. This research paper seeks to expound on the lack of knowledge by students as regards musical instruments and on the powerful influence over them by instrumentalists in their environment.

Why did you (not) choose your main musical instrument? Exploring the motivation behind the choice

“…With regard to the role of musical genres in instrument choice, our results did not show any significant influence: none of the respondents indicated that this was a motive for their choice of instrument, and no significant correlations were found with their choice of motives. This outcome contradicts the role of this factor found by Marshall and Shibazakim (2011) and Geringer (1977) and thus aligns our study with that of Cantero and Jauset-Berrocal (2017), whose results similarly indicated that the significance of this factor was marginal. We hypothesise that the reason for this discrepancy between studies may rest in our focus on the choice of main instrument and, particularly, the varied starting ages of participants among different studies.…”

“…With respect to peers, having friends who are learning to play an instrument has indeed been a reason for individuals engaging with music (MacKenzie, 1991), as well as having siblings playing an instrument, having seen/heard a musical ensemble at school (McPherson et al, 2012) or having received encouragement from a teacher (Sloboda, Davidson, & Howe, 1994). Furthermore, emulating a famous musician (McPherson, 2016) may influence instrument choice, though the role of genre preferences in instrument choice has been controversial, with studies both supporting (Marshall & Shibazakim, 2011; Geringer, 1977) and disproving (Cantero & Jauset-Berrocal, 2017) its relevance.…”

Music education students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A quantsitative analysis of personal narratives

“…The social benefits do not just occur around the music activity (e.g., after rehearsals, on bus rides to events), but they also happen during the collaborative processes of creation, rehearsal, and performance (Allsup, 2003; Biasutti, 2018; Woody & McPherson, 2010). Clearly, peer influence can be a strong factor in young people choosing to learn a musical instrument in school and continuing their participation through their schooling (Cantero & Jauset-Berrocal, 2017; Evans, McPherson, & Davidson, 2012). Even among the most successful music students, “lack of social contact and peer support, combined with high intensity but isolated practice may serve to de-motivate childhood musicians and lead to so-called ‘burnout’.” (Moore, Burland, & Davidson, 2003, p. 546).…”

Blue and pink in extracurricular music education. Some differences associated with gender at the beginning of studies

“…Éstas hacen relación al entorno musical del alumnado, sus gustos, intereses o incluso sus conocimientos y vivencias previas al inicio de estos estudios. Aunque la investigación inicial pretende conocer los motivos por los cuales los alumnos inician los estudios extraescolares de música y la influencia del entorno en ellos (Martínez y Jauset-Berrocal, 2017;Martínez, 2016 b ), se encontraron en ella claras diferencias de género que se muestran en este artículo.…”

“…Las redes bayesianas son un modelo probabilístico con representación gráfica que enlaza diferentes variables por relaciones de dependencia causal relativa o absoluta (Pearl, 2001). Sus ventajas son, entre otras: a) no necesitar justificar el supuesto de partida; b) facilitar la identificación de efectos de interacción y moldeamiento de relaciones no lineales; c) permitir una idea general del modelo cualitativo y cuantitativo, indicando el estado más probable y facilitando su interpretación, asignación o generación de probabilidades; d) realizar inferencias bidireccionales y abductivas; e) posibilitar el trabajo con datos perdidos, reducir el sobreajuste, combinar el conocimiento previo con datos experimentales; f) poder efectuar computaciones locales, permitiendo su actualización al incorporar algún conocimiento (Heckerman, 1995;Edwards, 1998;Gámez, 1998;Huete, 1998;Nadkarni y Shenoy, 2004;Lagnado y Steven, 2004;Ruiz, García y Pérez, 2005;López y García, 2011;Martínez y Jauset-Berrocal, 2017).…”