Musical Practice in Music Students During COVID-19 Lockdown.

Manfred Nusseck,Claudia Spahn

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643177

Abstract

The pandemic situation has forced students in higher education to use alternative learning routines due to reduced activities at universities and educational facilities. Especially music students needed to adapt their musical learning to this particular situation. Mostly affected by the lockdown was the musical practicing behavior, especially when practicing at the University of Music was not possible. In this study, music students in their second and third semesters were asked to provide information on their practicing situations during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown. They were required to fill in questionnaires about the practicing time and concepts of self-efficacy and self-regulation for musical learning. The data of 18 music students were collected. For the analysis, they were compared with the answers of 15 music students who were asked the same questions half a year earlier before the pandemic situation occurred. The results showed that the music students relocated mostly to their parents' homes for practicing during the lockdown. In the amount of practicing, the bachelor of music students practiced less during lockdown compared with before the lockdown. The mean self-efficacy for musical learning did not differ between before and during the lockdown. For the self-regulated musical learning, the music students showed significantly higher values in the subscale on reflecting and creating a framework for the progress of musical learning during the lockdown. The findings indicate that the music students developed certain self-regulated learning skills during the lockdown and managed to find suitable solutions in continuing with their musical learning without reservation.

Highlights

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in severe restrictions during the summer semester 2020
Where the practice time per day of the music students with bachelor of music profile decreased from M1 = 181.4 min (SD = 70.8 min) to M2 = 115.6 min (SD = 74.9 min), the music education students increased practice time per day from M1 = 96.3 min (SD = 72.8 min) to M2 = 139.0 min (SD = 61.9 min)
Under the very unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, music students were questioned about factors of formal practicing, such as the practice time, and about selfefficacy and self-regulated learning during the lockdown

Summary

Introduction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in severe restrictions during the summer semester 2020. In Germany, the government imposed certain requirements and regulations to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, the so-called lockdown. A necessary provision was to urge universities to cancel all live courses and events and to change to digital online teaching. For the students, this entailed no seminars and lectures with physical attendance, and they had to work at home. The teachers started to use formats of asynchronous learning, where the students had been given a task they could perform at their own pace until a certain deadline, or synchronous learning, where both students and teachers attended live online meetings

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Conclusion