Learning, identity work, and music use in young garage bands

Abstract

This narrative investigation explored the lived musical experiences of five teenage garage bands, particularly in relation to music use, identity work, and music learning. Members were aged 12-18, and played diverse genres including punk, 80s and “screamo” metal, pop, and rock. The investigation aimed to understand better the ways young people learn in and through musical practices. Six areas of literature informed the study. The first briefly surveyed the ubiquitous nature of music within everyday life. The second overviewed prior youth and music culture research, which has often mirrored dominant discourses (and moral panics) placing adolescence as inevitably problematic. The third examined communities of practice, particularly within musical contexts. These contexts foster diverse tools, artefacts, and technologies for use in learning, meaning-making, and identity work. Such musical identity work was the fourth focal-point. Research indicates musical identities are fluid and multiple, inherently relational and dialogical, embodied, and enacted. The fifth and sixth areas explored were learning (informal, non-formal, and formal) and expertise development, particularly as experienced within communities of practice. The study was informed by a constructivist philosophy, which conceived narrative as a means of self-creation through the development and constant revision of personal stories. In order to co-construct balanced and respectful inter-subjective accounts of the band members’ musical lives, the methodologies of narrative inquiry, case study, and reflexivity were combined. Narrative inquiry not only affirms the authenticity of the personal; it also provides an invitation to look at the world in fresh ways, to challenge traditionally held conceptions, and to consider other possible meanings. A relational, dialogical approach thus guided every aspect of the investigation, with the intention of establishing an ethical, resonant research framework. The findings echoed prior research by indicating that music occupied a central role in the band members’ lives. The young musicians described an almost constant state of immersion in diverse musical contexts. Their deepening engagement within various communities of musical practice kindled growing understandings about music use, identity work, and learning. These trajectories involved movement from sporadic peripheral engagement largely motivated by the potential for fun, to progressively deliberative, goal-directed behaviours, which increasingly reflected the communities’ core norms and values. Concomitant refinements of the musicians’ self-concepts supported such changes, by enabling increasingly effective relationships and negotiations with fellow community members. Through these processes, members gradually learned to utilise musical activities to engineer emotional experiences, understand self in relation to others, and construct and re-construct identities. Their pathways of music learning also involved the negotiation of increasingly deliberative approaches. In contrast to arguments describing learning in such contexts as “haphazard” and “spontaneous”, the young people outlined goals for learning, and their strategies to achieve such aims, including deliberate practice, performance monitoring, and evaluation; in short, they worked towards musical expertise. The study concluded that a range of contexts can support musical expertise. The findings inform the development of a three-phase model of garage band learning. In the Pre-Deliberative stage, participation and negotiation within communities of musical practice was peripheral. As such, learning activities were largely unplanned and motivated by the desire to listen and play music for enjoyment. When the musicians’ engagement in such communities deepened, learning goals were set, and music-making became increasingly “Deliberative”. These intentional, strategic approaches often led to situated, “routine” expertise, and sometimes developed further, into “Post-Deliberative” learning. Characterised by the capacity for “adaptive expertise”, this final phase also involved progression to leadership roles within musical communities. While performance at this level often appeared effortless, maintenance of musical excellence continued to require the ongoing deliberative development of diverse capacities. In contrast to oppositional categorisations of formal and informal approaches, this model suggests that music-making and learning may be understood as a fluid and holistic circle of practices. These findings suggest the need for careful planning concerning the incorporation of “informal” learning techniques and practices within formal education. Garage band music learning practices could be nurtured by making spaces for them within formal education contexts, and by acknowledging the wider network of learning systems young people are enmeshed within. This project also demonstrated the need for future research into the trajectories of learning, music use, and identity work which unfold as membership within various communities of practice deepens.