Informal Music Learning Research Articles

A scoping review of empirical studies on informal music learning

Abstract Informal music learning, pioneered by Green (2002, 2006, 2017), presents an alternative approach that integrates students’ interests in popular music, bridging the informal and traditional styles of Western music education in schools. We conducted a scoping review adhering to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines to investigate informal music learning. Our scoping review encompasses 28 empirical, peer-reviewed articles published from 2006 to 2023. First, we analyse the diverse contexts, methodologies and geographic locations in which informal music learning has been investigated. Second, we explore how different stakeholders perceive and engage with informal music learning in various educational settings. Lastly, we summarise the implications derived from the analysed studies on informal music learning. Our findings reveal that across various educational contexts, informal music learning has consistently demonstrated its positive impact in motivating students. We also find that researchers have extended their investigations from programme reform to exploring pupil and teacher’s musical identities. Recommendations for future research include exploring informal music learning in ensembles and elementary music classrooms and employing quantitative or mixed methods to assess its effectiveness and impact.

Educational affordances of music video games and gaming mobile apps

ABSTRACT The rapid advancement of mobile and computing technologies has made the enjoyment of music in the video gaming experience more accessible and affordable, and has raised the interest of educators in the affordances of music-related games for informal music learning. This study aimed to examine the educational affordances of music-related games through content analysis. User reviews of music gaming mobile apps and video games were collected from two major digital distribution platforms and analysed to identify patterns and meanings related to their educational affordances and learning design. The findings reflected a sense of competence, autonomy and engagement resulting from playing video games, which motivated players to become self-directed learners in the context of informal learning. Several bias and limitations were identified, suggesting that an overreliance on video games may lead to unbalanced musical growth and incomprehensive musicianship training.

Is “Watching and Copying” the New “Listening and Copying”?

This article examines the role of YouTube in how young popular musicians learn in the twenty-first century. I frame this question within the dual legacies of Lucy Green’s (2001) findings about “listening and copying” among popular musicians and Marc Prensky’s (2001a, 2001b) “digital natives” hypothesis. I present an ethnographic description of a music learning encounter that raises questions as to whether there is a generational change occurring, one which shifts the primary mode of informal music learning from listening and copying to watching and copying via YouTube videos. I argue that learning via YouTube constitutes a form of informal learning, one situated within a longer history of learning strategies based in available technologies and resources. I suggest that in the midst of this continuity, digital videos present at least one new phenomenon within popular music education: the ability to abstract single lines and riffs from their musical contexts.

Exploring the potential of informal music learning in a perceived age of pedagogical traditionalism for student teachers in primary music education

AbstractThis research explored the impact of informal learning (IL) in primary music initial teacher training. A small group of undergraduate student teachers had an opportunity to learn about and facilitate an IL approach. Data were collected from interviews, participant reflective logs and researcher reflections. The findings show that perceived benefits included freedom for serendipity, pupil autonomy and aural learning; perceived tensions included student teacher anxiety and a lack of teacher control. The researchers propose two aspects for consideration: first, that language associated with IL has social meaning that must be updated; second, that while direct instruction remains at the heart of primary teacher education, IL can continue to be justified despite the current emphasis on direct explicit teaching.

Perspectives on Music Pedagogy in Informal, Performance-Based Learning

Music learning practices in formal settings, for example, in the classroom, generally apply structured and systematic curriculum-based learning strategies. The entire learning process has generally been organized and implemented with guidance and supervision by the teacher. In Indonesia, music learning in formal schools still applies the standardization of Western music theory. In fact, music learning practices that offer local pedagogical values provide a very diverse portrait. In higher education, music learning that applies local pedagogy has been going on for some time. The Music Education Study Program (PSPM) of Lampung University is one of the tertiary educational institutions that has implemented music learning practices based on local pedagogy. Learning practices that are also performance-based are carried out with "informal" stages and processes. This notion means that local pedagogy is based on informal music practices in Lampung society. Informal music learning practices have not been recognized as the curriculum of formal institutions. This article looks at the concept of Lampung local pedagogy applied in music performance-based learning practices in formal areas. The central theoretical perspective in this research uses Green's (2008) thoughts on informal learning in the classroom. Data were collected through observation and in-depth interviews with lecturers and students of levels 2 and 3. As a result, the concept of local music pedagogy that takes place in music performance-based learning at PSPM University of Lampung (1) provides opportunities for students to learn while creating; (2) provides space for collaboration and social participation; and (3) strengthens peer learning in groups.

Gitar Tunggal Lampung: Enculturation and Ethnopedagogy in Advancing Formal Music Education

Formal music education often uses systematic teaching methods, a planned curriculum, leveling, organization, and standardized learning stages. From a pedagogical perspective, learning music provides a more imaginative, improvisatory learning structure besides all these standard rules. By capturing the social practice of music in the community, music scholars can enrich their academic experience and ideas about designing informal music learning in the classroom. The gitar tunggal players from Lampung may serve as ideas for those learning music formally. While they lack musical and academic literacy, they also provide useful self-learning concepts. Over the past four years, data for this study were gathered using ethnomusicological methods. Online databases were used in addition to the primary data collected through fieldwork. When designing curricula, music scholars might include the ideas of enculturation and Ethno pedagogy. A useful suggestion for enhancing formal music education is to base instruction on local culture and learn it from vernacular musicians in Lampung.

Pendidikan Musik Informal pada Komunitas Jazz di Lampung

Purpose: Jazz has grown in popularity recently, and its presence in Lampung has been recognized. This condition is reflected in the emergence of jazz music groups and communities such as the 'Rakata Jazz Community' (RJC) and the 'Kalima Jazz Community' (KJC) (KJC). However, the Lampung jazz community has a pedagogical dimension in addition to its musical and social activities. Several researchers have realized that jazz provides an informal music learning format. This research aims to describe the pedagogical dimensions of jazz in the community and the music landscape of the Lampung jazz community, particularly at RJC and KJC. Method: From 2017 to 2021, I have been actively participating in this ethnographic research as a member of both communities. Digital archives and websites were used to supplement the research data. Result and Discussion: The study's findings indicate that the learning environment and experience are the potentials for the Lampung jazz community to develop its members' knowledge. This potential is demonstrated through performance activities and jam sessions at its regular meetings.

Attitudes to Representations of Medieval Music in Role-Playing Computer Games

The proliferation over the past two decades of computer games that reimagine the European Middle Ages has produced a powerful agent through which medieval music is represented in popular culture. This article evaluates attitudes to the music of medieval-themed role-playing games through the framework of medievalism. Recent ludomusicological research has used musical and intertextual analyses to locate and describe medieval sonic signifiers. These signifiers borrow from cinematic and cultural conventions to inform the game player about the virtual world. While some signifiers such as plainchant are derived from music of the Middle Ages, others have acquired medieval meaning despite historical or geographical incongruencies. To measure the effectiveness of these signifiers, this research compiled audiovisual samples within a Likert-type scale to assess and to compare attitudes toward modern musical medievalisms and reconstructed medieval music in the setting of medievalist game imagery. The survey was delivered online and sampled 110 participants of varying age, gender, musical education, and gaming experience. It found that attitudes toward modern musical medievalism in games were not only favorable but were equivalent to attitudes toward reconstructed medieval music in the same setting. Higher levels of music education correlated with more critical attitudes toward either music. Notably, the length of time spent playing computer games was connected to an increasing acceptance of medievalist game music and a decreasing acceptance of reconstructed medieval music. The findings of this research indicate that computer games are potent disseminators of medievalist sound. They provide timely advice for music educators and lay the groundwork for further research into informal musical learning connected to historically inspired computer games.

Considering musical communities online and offline: A dedication to the life and work of Janice Waldron (13 April 1957–7 November 2022)

Janice Waldron (1957–2022), professor at the University of Windsor (Canada), was an accomplished musician, teacher and researcher. Her scholarly passions revolved around informal music learning practices, online and offline music communities, social media and music learning, and Irish and Scottish traditional musics. In this dedication to Waldron, five friends and colleagues – Kari Veblen, Jonathan Bayley, Kirsten Allstaff, Danielle Sirek and Roger Mantie – offer reflections on her life and work and the legacy she has left for scholars and practitioners of community music.

The high school classroom group piano lesson strategy applying the principles of Musical Futures in Taiwan

Objectives The purpose of this paper is to introduce Professor Lucy Green's Musical Futures(MF) approach in Britain, that employs the informal music learning methods, and to develop a high school classroom group piano lesson strategy in Taiwan based on MF approaches.
 Methods The methods is to review the literature on the informal learning, Musical Futures and group piano lessons to develop a high school classroom group piano lesson strategy applying the informal learning principles of Musical Futures.
 Results The paper developed a high school group piano lesson strategy and also briefly discussed the related psychological theories within Musical Futures.
 Conclusions Green's approach of MF is helpful for learning many kinds of music including classical music through its focus on aural training and transmission processes.

Children’s informal music learning: A phenomenological inquiry

Children’s informal music-making has been studied in a variety of contexts outside of school, but few researchers have examined this type of learning in elementary music classes. The purpose of this phenomenological inquiry was to explore the lived experience of 13 children with informal music learning in an elementary school in the U.S. Individual interviews, focus group interviews, and field notes were collected and analyzed using van Manen’s process for hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry. The data revealed the following themes: freedom to choose, making it their own, exploring their musical identities, and critical reflection. Key elements of the essence include interactions with friends, embodied music making, personal validation, and the encouragement of future musical opportunities. The discussion provides suggestions for music educators to facilitate informal music learning experiences and implications for future research with elementary students.

Rockstar teaching: Blended informal music learning in an elementary ukulele club

The purpose of this case study was to examine the phenomenon of informal music learning in an elementary school ukulele club. Research questions were: (1) How does a master teacher use informal music learning in an elementary ukulele club? (2) What teacher behaviours and characteristics facilitate informal music learning in an elementary ukulele club? Participants in the study were 60 students in an elementary ukulele club and their music teacher. Data were analysed using a priori themes from Lucy Green’s five components of informal music learning. The researchers found that elementary students were free to develop leadership, ownership and fearless musicianship because a master teacher utilized blended learning approaches. The teacher created an environment that encouraged musical noodling, and while the room was often loud, the space gave students the ability to play and learn while the teacher had opportunities to coach and facilitate musical skill development.

The written press as an instrument of informal music education in the general population: content analysis of three Spanish newspapers (La prensa escrita como instrumento de educación musical informal en la población general: análisis de contenido de tres diarios españoles)

ABSTRACT The press is one of the lifelong learning tools forming part of the context of citizens’ learning ecologies in every area of human knowledge. This work examines the characteristics of the general-interest written press as a vehicle for unintentional learning about music by the public at large. The first objective of the study was to identify the formal characteristics of the musical content messages found in the general-interest written press. The second objective was to analyse the type of music-related messages disseminated by the press in relation to its sociocultural links. The methodology used was both quantitative and qualitative, applying both to analyse the content. The data source consisted of 60 weekend pull-outs found in three of the most widely read newspapers in Spain, covering a six-month period of data collection. The results indicate that it is possible to create a taxonomy of informal music learning that the press can promote in the general population. This learning is strongly shaped by variables related to the socio-cultural context surrounding it, giving rise to trends towards the dissemination of content more related to general aspects of popular urban culture than to music itself.

Making the Schoolhouse Rock: A Content Analysis of Two Popular Music Pedagogies

Abstract In popular music education, there has been an increase in the amount of literature, pedagogical resources, and organizations that are available, and two pedagogical approaches for teaching popular music are informal music learning (IML) and modern band (MB). However, there is little existing scholarly critical analysis comparing these approaches. The purpose of this qualitative directed content analysis was to explore the similarities and differences between IML and MB in kindergarten through 12th-grade settings and examine how major characteristics of each approach are represented in scholarly and curricular resources. While similarities exist in the literature on these approaches, there are also distinct differences between them, such as orientation toward process or performance, use of composition and improvisation, and teacher role and approach. Moreover, the representation of the principles of both IML and MB were not always consistent in the resources we examined, with some aspects highly represented and others rarely mentioned. Learning more about both approaches could be beneficial to scholars and teachers interested in popular music pedagogy and how they are implemented in classrooms.

Retuning music teaching: Online music tutorials preferences as predictors of amateur musicians’ music self-efficacy in informal music learning

Music self-efficacy has been acknowledged as a strong predictor of successful performance among musicians and music students, but is less researched among amateur musicians. The purpose of this study is to examine the connection between music self-efficacy and learning and playing habits of amateur musicians who had preferences for online music tutorials as an informal learning technique. Two hundred and twenty-two amateur musicians completed four research questionnaires: (a) a general background questionnaire including learning and playing habits, (b) music self-efficacy, (c) self-esteem, and (d) online music tutorials users’ preferences, which distinguish between autonomy online music tutorials (fostering independent learners, incorporating context, and background) and dependent online music tutorials (offering mainly imitation options and providing little further knowledge). The results of the study supported the hypotheses, which predicted high music self-efficacy to be associated with the use of autonomy online music tutorials, co-playing, studying with a teacher, and self-esteem, and low music self-efficacy to be associated with the use of dependent online music tutorials. As music self-efficacy is crucial for students’ learning processes, we argue that music educators could refer students to optimal use of online music tutorials, thus fostering autonomous learners. Further research is required for clarifying the impact of personal characteristics and playing habits among amateur musicians on their music self-efficacy.

Incorporation of informal music learning practices in a primary classroom in Cyprus

Recently, a growing interest from music educators and researchers has focused on the ways informal music learning practices could be integrated in schools’ classrooms, in a response to bridge the gap between the music studied at school and the hidden or private musical world of our students. This qualitative case study investigated the use of Green’s informal learning approach in three stages as derived from Musical Futures, but with some differences. Participants were 18 fifth-grade students (aged 10–11 years) in a rural school in Cyprus, along with eight parents. The findings here focus on exploring the learning process that the children underwent, derived from a larger study which also examined the benefits (musical and extra-musical) perceived by children and their parents. Despite differences in the cultural contexts, musical styles, and ages of the children, findings reveal similarities with related work on informal music learning in other cultural contexts, and with Green’s original work. However, different from Green’s work which was set in secondary schools, but similar to other research on Musical Futures in primary schools, students extensively used singing and incorporated movement throughout the learning process. Findings support the notion that young students can construct their music learning when given the opportunity to be active agents and collaborators in the learning process.

Bridging the Digital Divide: Distance music learning among older adult musicians

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of conductor-teachers and older adult musicians in a New Horizons ensemble engaged in distance online music-making and music learning. This study employed intrinsic and particularistic qualitative case study designs in which older adult musicians and conductor-teachers of a New Horizons orchestra were interviewed and observed for one year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Primary data sources included verbatim interview transcripts of 11 older adult musicians and the principal conductor, e-mail correspondences, video recordings, and the principal conductor’s journal entries. Findings distilled from the data included (a) the information communication technology (ICT) and music learning technology (MLT) introduced and the technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) needed to teach orchestra members and (b) how orchestra members navigated both ICT and MLT to engage in meaningful music-making and music learning in a distance learning environment. Implications for research and practice include challenging implicit assumptions and messages regarding technology use among older adult musicians, continuing post-COVID distance music learning that may lead to promising models for informal music learning, and continued connectivity beyond the locality of the rehearsal hall.

A Student-Led, Small-Group Approach to a cappella Music Arranging

This article presents a field-tested approach for integrating music arranging into middle and high school music ensembles. This project-based unit of study builds on scholarship in informal music learning and social constructivism. Reflections from former high school students who participated in the project help illuminate these connections. The article provides planning and assessment documents, recognizes students’ successes, proposes solutions to challenges encountered, and reports outcomes. The article and supplemental documents demonstrate how student-led, small-group music arranging can infuse middle and high school ensembles with student creativity and choice while providing opportunities for group collaboration.

Learning strategies of video game music makers: Informal and school-based learning for online publication

Music is an integral part of video games and the cultures that surround them, and the sound of video games enhances the user’s immersive game-play experience. Video game music (VGM) inspires performance and the creation of derivative music in both online and offline contexts. This study was conducted to explore how musicians perceived how helpful various learning strategies were for gaining the skills to publish VGM online. A cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire was conducted at Super Music and Gaming Festival™ (Super MAGFest), an annual convention held near Washington DC, to capture data from respondents ( n = 137) who were adult musicians who published VGM online. The questionnaire captured the perceived helpfulness of learning strategies at school, other educational institutions, and informal approaches. Descriptive and inferential statistics analyses were made. Respondents found music theory courses in school and informal music learning strategies were among the most helpful learning approaches for attaining the skills they needed to publish VGM online. This article provides a starting point for the further exploration of VGM and informal music learning in the age of the Internet.

The rhythmic and tonal musical abilities in the functional-learning music kindergarten children

Musical abilities include a number of abilities developed under the influence of innate dispositions, environment, maturity, informal music learning experience and formal music education. The paper aims to identify the potential difference between the musical abilities of preschool and early school-age children at the initial and final testing stages and whether there is any difference between the rhythmic and tonal component of their musical abilities in terms of their sex. The survey was conducted on a sample of 70 respondents. The respondents were second-year students of the Elly Bašić Functional-Learning Music Kindergarten in Zagreb. A general information questionnaire was used in the survey, as well as the Gordon Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA) test, as an indispensable measuring tool used to identify the key music potential variables in a timely, reliable and objective manner.The obtained results indicate that the tonal and rhythmic aptitude of the participants in the survey were substantially higher at the final stage of testing with respect to the initial one. Moreover, the sex of the participants in the survey did not prove to be a significant musical aptitude predictor.The author calls for changes to the music school curriculum aimed at integrating preschool music education into the formal music education system.