Musical Engagement Research Articles

Becoming singular: Musical identity construction and maintenance through the lens of identity process theory

This study uses identity process theory to understand the social–psychological processes that motivate individuals to construct an identity in which music, singing, and singing teaching feature prominently. We conducted reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 10 Australian singing teachers (with an average age 60) to understand how they enacted identity principles that motivate identity construction and maintenance. Findings were captured in two themes: (1) ‘It has just been music’: Living a musical life is my destiny; (2) ‘I know my value’: Achieving goals in music and teaching is motivating. Participants’ consistent musical engagement across the lifespan satisfied the identity principles of continuity and positive distinctiveness. The identity principles of self-efficacy and self-esteem were satisfied through the social connections created with peers and through teaching singing; participants derived self-worth from celebrating and contributing to the success of others. Teaching singing was a way to become ‘singular’, that is, distinctive, and distinctively valued by the self and others. This article provides an example of how identity process theory can be applied in musical identities research to uncover new insights into the psychological processes of identity construction, with implications for understanding identity resilience and musical engagement across the lifespan.

Music Perception and Music-Related Quality of Life in Adult Cochlear Implant Users: Exploring the Need for Music Rehabilitation.

Cochlear implant (CI) users face difficulties in accurately perceiving basic musical elements such as pitch, melody, and timbre. Music significantly affects the quality of life (QoL) of CI users. Individually and culturally influenced music perception exceeds psychophysical measures in capturing the subjective music enjoyment of CI users. Understanding the music perception, enjoyment, and habits of CI users is crucial for approaches to improve music-related QoL (MuRQoL). Therefore, this study aims to investigate music perception skills, experiences, and participation in music activities in a large group of adult CI users, and to understand the importance of these factors and their impact on QoL of CI users. This study included 214 CI recipients with diverse auditory experiences who were aged between 18 and 65 years and were unilateral, bimodal, or bilateral users for at least 1 year and 193 normal hearing (NH) controls. All participants completed the information forms and the MuRQoL questionnaire. To assess the impact of music on QoL and identify personalized rehabilitation needs, the scores for each question in both parts of the questionnaire were intersected on a matrix. Data were presented in detail for the CI group and compared between CI and NH groups. A statistically significant difference was found between the matched CI and NH groups in favor of the NH group in terms of music perception and music engagement. Participants who received music education at any point in their lives had significantly higher MuRQoL questionnaire scores. There was no significant relationship found between the duration of auditory rehabilitation, pre-CI hearing aid usage, music listening modality, and MuRQoL questionnaire scores. Unilateral CI users had significantly lower scores in music perception and music engagement subsections compared with bimodal and bilateral CI users. Also, it was found that music had a strong negative impact on QoL in 67/214 of the CI users. Although CI users scored significantly lower than NH individuals on the first part of the questionnaire, which asked about musical skills, enjoyment, and participation in musical activities, findings suggest that CI users value music and music enjoyment just as much. The study reveals the influence of factors such as education level, age, music education, type of hearing loss and auditory rehabilitation on music perception, music enjoyment, and participation in music activities through self-report. The results indicate that for many CI users, music has a strong negative impact on QoL, highlighting the need for personalized music interventions, the inclusion of self-report questionnaires, and music perception tests in clinical evaluations.

The role of active and passive music engagement in cognitive development: A systematic review

The aim of this study is to provide a systematic review of the effects of active and passive music engagement on cognitive development. Out of the 66 studies uncovered by the initial search, methods, and conclusions of 12 quantitative, 2 qualitative, and 12 review studies were analyzed. The present review shows active music engagement may improve cognitive skills in near transfer domains, such as verbal and motor skills, as well as auditory discrimination. Improvements in distant transfer domains have also been reported, such as enhanced general IQ, memory skills, numeracy and spatial skills, executive skills, and problem-solving. Benefits for affective and social skill development have also been shown for both active and passive music engagement, while passive engagement is specifically beneficial in clinical settings. However, there are studies that don’t report significant effects. Potential sources of bias are further explored, suggesting that this field may be victim to confirmation and publication bias. Method variety in measurements, sample size, and intervention length, along with the lack of methodological rigor and control groups, prevent us from concluding a direct causal relationship between music engagement and cognitive development. Implications for controlling confounding factors and identifying potential moderator mechanisms are discussed.

Fathers' transformative caring experiences of engaging in music and singing with their children

AbstractThis study explores the role of music and singing in fostering transformative caring relationships between fathers and their children. It aims to understand how these interactions contribute to fatherhood identity and relational dynamics, filling a significant gap in research on musical fatherhood. Employing a phenomenological‐hermeneutic approach, the study conducted open‐ended interviews with eight fathers, analysing data through the lens of Paul Ricoeur's theory of interpretation. Findings reveal that musical activities enable fathers to engage intuitively and responsively with their children, facilitating a pre‐verbal form of communication that deepens emotional bonds and enhances paternal identity. Music and singing emerge as powerful tools that transcend traditional parenting roles, allowing fathers to experience and express a potentiated sense of fatherhood marked by empathy, connection and care. This study highlights the profound impact of musical engagement on father–child relationships and suggests broader implications for emotional intelligence and gender roles in parenting.

The path to happiness for music students: music empathy and music engagement as potential sources of subjective well-being

Music is widely known to enhance one’s subjective well-being. However, we know little about the specific associations and potential pathways between music and subjective well-being among students majoring in music. The purpose of this study was to explore the links between music students’ subjective well-being, music engagement, and music empathy while examining parallel mediation models involving self-esteem and prosocial tendencies. Through a questionnaire survey of music students, we found that positive links exist between subjective well-being, music empathy, and music engagement. Mediation analyses further demonstrated that self-esteem and prosocial tendencies parallelly mediate the positive associations of subjective well-being with music empathy and music engagement. These results indicate that perceiving, feeling, experiencing, and engaging more with music may enhance music students’ self-esteem and prosocial tendencies and therefore further improve their subjective well-being. Our findings provide evidence for the positive relationship between music and subjective well-being among music students and provide further insights for improving the mental health and well-being of music students in real life.

Twenty-first century learning skills and music engagement among young children: a systematic review

ABSTRACT Previous researchers have thoroughly examined music-based interventions, which involve singing, movement, and musical activities. According to the findings of previous research, music-based intervention is highly beneficial for young children in developing their 21st-century learning skills, which include communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking skills. This review analysed and contrasted previous research on the studies of using music-based intervention in enhancing 21st-century learning skills. The SPIDER and CATT search tools were used to conduct this systematic review, which investigated samplings (S), phenomena of interest (PI), designs (D), evaluations (E), and research methods (R). The themes from the selected studies were also studied to investigate the effects of music-based interventions. Thirty-six studies with participants aged 1 to 12 that were published between 2001 and 2023 were included. This review found that music-based intervention has been discovered as a viable approach for enhancing the developmental skills of 21st-century learners among young children. Researchers and educators are suggested to pay close attention to ensuring the suitability and reliability of their research designs to maximize the effectiveness of music-based interventions.

The effects of musicality on brain network topology in the context of Alzheimer’s disease and memory decline

Abstract Music’s role in modulating brain structure, particularly in neurodegenerative contexts such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), has been increasingly recognized. While previous studies have hinted at the potential neuroplastic benefits of musical engagement and training, the mechanisms through which music impacts structural connectivity in neurodegenerative pathways remain underexplored. We aimed to examine the impact of music perception skills, active musical engagement, and musical training on structural connectivity in areas relating to memory, emotion, and learning in individuals with worsening memory impairment, investigating the potential neuroplastic effects of music. Employing diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) based structural connectivity and graph theoretical analysis, we investigated brain topological features in 78 participants aged 42 to 85 with a range of memory impairments. Participants were assessed for musical training, engagement, and perception skills. The study analyzed regional and local network topological metrics to examine the influence of musical activities on graph metrics, while controlling for stages of objective memory impairment (SOMI) and diagnosis, separately. This study aimed to elucidate the effects of musical perception skills, active musical engagement, and musical training on structural connectivity within memory, emotion, and learning-related brain areas in individuals with varying degrees of memory impairment. We found enhanced structural connectivity of the right hippocampus and the right posterior cingulate cortex was associated with stronger local network metrics, such as clustering coefficient and betweenness centrality, with increased music perception skills like melody and beat perception. Musical training specifically impacted the clustering coefficient of the right hippocampus and the node degree of the right mid cingulate gyrus. Active musical engagement influenced the eigenvector centrality of the right hippocampus. Furthermore, musical training was associated with enhanced global metrics, such as global efficiency and characteristic path length. Our study integrates diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and graph theoretical analysis to reveal significant effects of musical activities on structural connectivity in key brain regions. The results highlight the potential of musical activities to serve as a non-invasive modulatory tool for cognitive resilience, especially in memory impairment and neurodegeneration contexts. These insights contribute to the understanding of delaying AD onset and aiding early-stage patients through music-based interventions, emphasizing the importance of musical engagement in maintaining cognitive and brain health.

Promoting musical engagement for well-being: the effects of negative contextual information on engagement, enjoyment, and aesthetic response

ABSTRACT Artistic engagement and enjoyment are conceptualized as mechanisms for positively affecting well-being. However, less is known about how negative extramusical information influences enjoyment and/or engagement. We asked if knowing the immoral character of a composer and/or their compositional intent negatively affected listeners’ engagement and enjoyment. Participants (N = 448) read a fictionalized excerpt about Holst’s Mars, with either sexist or neutral composer information, and either sexist or neutral musical intent before listening to the work and completing measures of their enjoyment, engagement, and aesthetic response. We found an effect of extramusical information for listeners’ enjoyment and aesthetic response, but not for engagement. Enjoyment and aesthetic response were higher in the Neutral Composer/Neutral Intent condition than the other three conditions. This study furthers understanding of how extra-musical factors affect the positive emotions music elicits, and impact how listeners interact with music, thus impacting possibilities for enhanced senses of well-being.

Beyond the gender binary: a survey of gender marginalization and social boundaries in Australian jazz and improvisation.

Jazz and improvisation have typically been associated with ideals of freedom and liberty; however, in practice these genres are known to be constrained by entrenched patterns of male domination and gender discrimination. Despite a large number of qualitative accounts evidencing persistent sexism and gender exclusion in the field, there exists a lack of empirical data to assess the scale of this phenomenon and substantiate smaller-scale research on gender inequality. In this paper, we employ boundary theory to report on a quantitative investigation of gender marginalization in jazz and improvisation in the Australian context, positioning gender as a symbolic boundary resulting in the social exclusion and marginalization of gender diverse individuals and women. An anonymous survey (n=124) was run over a period of five months, to explore the beliefs, attitudes, and experiences concerning gender, of people participating in Australian jazz and improvisation. A means comparison found that gender was a statistically significant indicator (p ≤0.05) on almost all measures, with gender diverse respondents significantly more likely to report the effects of marginalization than their (cisgender) counterparts. Additionally, the results indicated contrasting forms of musical engagement and marginalization across gender groups, with women perceiving exclusion to a lesser extent than gender diverse practitioners, and differing in their opinions regarding work opportunities. Lastly, a widespread but historically unspoken awareness of sexual harassment in the Australian jazz and improvisation industry was reported by all genders. This paper concludes with three recommendations for future research, policy and practice: 1. Specific targeted strategies are needed to address the manifold and complex forms of marginalization experienced by gender diverse people; 2. Heightened institutional visibility for marginalized groups is needed to change gendered narratives and highlight awareness of inequities; and 3. Enhanced safety measures are critically needed to address sexual harassment throughout the industry.

Exploring the Real-World Applicability of an Intercultural Music Engagement (ICME) Framework

ABSTRACT As our societies become increasingly multicultural, our collective ability to understand and tolerate differences is critical for social cohesion. Music has been used by many organisations to help foster connection across cultural divides, yet research suggests it is not always a simple exchange. This paper tests the feasibility of a framework formerly proposed by the current authors for helping people navigate the intercultural music experience, specifically when facilitating Intercultural Music Engagement (ICME). Interviews and observations with community artists working in ICME test the real-world applicability of the framework. Results support all elements of our existing framework and add both nuance and detail to our understanding. The findings also strongly indicated that efforts in this area should focus on supporting artists already embedded within communities, rather than solely supporting external organisations. Ultimately, we argue the need for further community-engaged research to identify how a framework in this area can best support existing practitioners.

HABITUS, RESISTANCE AND THE PRODUCTION OF MUSICAL MEANING

AbstractThis article defines and explores the concept of ‘resistance’ as a source of musical meaning in performance. Using Pierre Bourdieu's concept of ‘habitus’ as a framework, I examine my musical habitus: the embodied, internalised ways I play my instrument and think about music, which reflect my extensive musical histories and the fields in which these histories have taken place. Resistance arises in practice when this habitus is undermined. When the types of musicking undertaken circumvent my habituated understanding of acceptable performance and performative roles, it manifests as a pull towards more familiar modes of musical engagement. Making specific reference to resistance experienced in the development and performance of Alex Harker's Drift Shadow (2021), for solo oboe and electronics, the article outlines the ways in which my subjective relationship to my instrument and my role as a performer produce particular understandings of a work that can then nuance the way I play the piece.

Inter-subject correlation of electroencephalographic and behavioural responses reflects time-varying engagement with natural music.

Musical engagement can be conceptualized through various activities, modes of listening and listener states. Recent research has reported that a state of focused engagement can be indexed by the inter-subject correlation (ISC) of audience responses to a shared naturalistic stimulus. While statistically significant ISC has been reported during music listening, we lack insight into the temporal dynamics of engagement over the course of musical works-such as those composed in the Western classical style-which involve the formulation of expectations that are realized or derailed at subsequent points of arrival. Here, we use the ISC of electroencephalographic (EEG) and continuous behavioural (CB) responses to investigate the time-varying dynamics of engagement with functional tonal music. From a sample of adult musicians who listened to a complete cello concerto movement, we found that ISC varied throughout the excerpt for both measures. In particular, significant EEG ISC was observed during periods of musical tension that built to climactic highpoints, while significant CB ISC corresponded more to declarative entrances and points of arrival. Moreover, we found that a control stimulus retaining envelope characteristics of the intact music, but little other temporal structure, also elicited significantly correlated EEG and CB responses, though to lesser extents than the original version. In sum, these findings shed light on the temporal dynamics of engagement during music listening and clarify specific aspects of musical engagement that may be indexed by each measure.

Musical Habits and Smartphone Addiction of College Students: Mediating Role of Self-Control

This study uses theories of habit and self-control to explore the relationship between musical habits and smartphone addiction among college students. Our findings reveal that self-control mediates this relationship, with individual differences playing a significant role. While musical listening habits, impacted by personal genre preferences, positively impact self-control, active music engagement, through playing an instrument and/or creating music, negatively affects it. We suggest using interventions to promote mindful music engagement to mitigate smartphone addiction. These insights contribute to understanding how music habits influence digital behaviors and offer practical strategies for fostering healthier smartphone use among college populations.

Children’s and adolescents’ engagement with music and the potential for (digital) empowerment processes: A text-mining-supported scoping review

Extracurricular and out-of-school engagement with music is often associated with positive effects for musical goals while also holding potential for developmental and empowerment processes. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance and the potential of digital technologies for facilitating musical engagement. The emergence of digitally transformed musicking has added complexity to the already multifaceted and complex field of research on non-formal musical engagement. Thus, the aims of this text-mining-supported scoping review are (1) to map and describe the underlying research topics in the field of children’s and adolescents’ musical engagement, (2) to explore potential for empowerment processes, and (3) to identify the extent to which digital aspects emerge. Based on N = 624 articles, a topic-modeling procedure yielded k = 10 topics covering cognitive, emotional and attitudinal, youth cultural and digital aspects. Among these, one predominantly digital topic comprised studies on the production and consumption of music. Implications for the potential for empowerment can be drawn from studies that focus on youth cultural aspects, such as hip-hop culture and digital aspects. Limitations and implications for further research are discussed, including how to transfer these findings and how new technologies can further enhance music-making and creation.

Impact of Music on Subjective Well Being of Young Adults

This study investigates the impact of music on the subjective well-being of young adults, aiming to unravel the intricate relationship between musical engagement and overall mental and emotional states. Utilizing a correlation method approach, the research explores how various genres, modes of consumption, and personal preferences contribute to the subjective well-being of individuals in the critical developmental stage of young adulthood. The analysis encompasses psychological, emotional, and physiological dimensions to provide a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted influence of music on well-being.

Vibrotactile enhancement of musical engagement

Sound is sensed by the ear but can also be felt on the skin, by means of vibrotactile stimulation. Only little research has addressed perceptual implications of vibrotactile stimulation in the realm of music. Here, we studied which perceptual dimensions of music listening are affected by vibrotactile stimulation and whether the spatial segregation of vibrations improves vibrotactile stimulation. Forty-one listeners were presented with vibrotactile stimuli via a chair’s surfaces (left and right arm rests, back rest, seat) in addition to music presented over headphones. Vibrations for each surface were derived from individual tracks of the music (multi condition) or conjointly by a mono-rendering, in addition to incongruent and headphones-only conditions. Listeners evaluated unknown music from popular genres according to valence, arousal, groove, the feeling of being part of a live performance, the feeling of being part of the music, and liking. Results indicated that the multi- and mono vibration conditions robustly enhanced the nature of the musical experience compared to listening via headphones alone. Vibrotactile enhancement was strong in the latent dimension of ‘musical engagement’, encompassing the sense of being a part of the music, arousal, and groove. These findings highlight the potential of vibrotactile cues for creating intensive musical experiences.

The interplay between music engagement and affect: A random-intercept cross-lagged panel analysis.

Engagement with music has the capacity to influence and be influenced by affective experiences. Although cross-sectional and experimental research provides evidence that music engagement is related to higher positive and lower negative affect, few studies have investigated the bidirectional nature of this relationship over time. The present longitudinal study, therefore, examined the interplay between passive and active music engagement and affect using random-intercept cross-lagged panel analysis. Over 8 weeks in 2022, 428 participants regularly engaging with music completed weekly online surveys on quantitative music engagement (i.e., time spent with music listening/music making), qualitative music engagement (i.e., use of music listening/music making for mood regulation) as well as positive and negative affect. Results revealed cross-lagged associations between music engagement and negative affect, but not positive affect: regarding quantitative music engagement, more time spent with music listening (but not music making) was related to less negative affect than usual at the following measurement. Results on qualitative music engagement showed that weeks with more negative affect than usual were followed by an increased use of music listening and music making for mood regulation. Our findings emphasize the bidirectional nature of the relationship between music engagement and affect corroborating the significant role of music engagement in affect regulation. Future research should replicate these findings with a more diverse sample regarding age, sex, ethnicity, education, and socioeconomic status. Additionally, further studies could examine individual and contextual factors and adequate measurement time points for further investigation of bidirectional affective processes involved in music engagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Music Exposure and Maternal Musicality Predict Vocabulary Development in Children with Cochlear Implants

Children with cochlear implants (CIs) exhibit large individual differences in vocabulary outcomes. We hypothesized that understudied sources of variance are amount of music engagement and exposure and maternal musicality. Additionally, we explored whether objective measures of music exposure captured from the CI data logs and parent reports about music engagement provide converging and/or complementary evidence, and whether these correlate with maternal musicality. Sixteen children with CIs (Mage = 16.7 months, SD = 7.7, range = 9.6–32.9) were tested before implantation and three, six, and 12 months post-CI activation. Music exposure throughout the first year post-activation was extracted from the CI data logs. Children’s vocabulary and home music engagement and maternal musicality were assessed using parent reports. Analyses revealed relatively low home music engagement and maternal musicality. Nonetheless, positive effects emerged for music exposure on children’s early receptive and expressive vocabulary and for maternal musicality on expressive vocabulary three months post-activation. Results underline the importance of combining automatic measures and parent reports to understand children’s acoustic environment and suggest that environmental music factors may affect early vocabulary acquisition in children with CIs. The presence of these effects despite poor music exposure and skills further motivates the involvement of children with CIs and their parents in music intervention programs.

Reimagining Inclusive Music Education: Reflections from a Black Music Educator

Abstract: The Eurocentric canon remains the predominant focus of music education often excluding the role of music and experiences of Black individuals and people of color. This singular perspective creates an incomplete and inaccurate understanding of the comprehensive nature of music and the humans who create, perform, and engage with it. In this article, the author shares her experience as a Black music educator and her aspirations for a music profession that incorporates the full range of human music engagement and expression. The paper begins with a reflection on W.E.B. DuBois’s double consciousness followed by an exploration of the nuances, complexities, contradictions, and beauty of being a Black educator in a primarily white field. Subsequently, the essay presents four conceptual principles for a reimagined, inclusive music education approach, drawing inspiration from Sylvia Wynter’s “new science of the Word.” These principles advocate retelling the music education narrative to incorporate historically marginalized voices, reorienting music education to be human-centered, embracing interdisciplinary approaches to view music teaching and learning, and acknowledging the power of music in uplifting the human condition. Finally, this paper proposes a pathway for reconciling diverse identities prevalent in American culture with music education and academia.

Conflicting predictions in the cross-cultural study of music and sociality – Comment on “Musical engagement as a duet of tight synchrony and loose Interpretability” by Tal-Chen Rabinowitch

Conflicting predictions in the cross-cultural study of music and sociality – Comment on “Musical engagement as a duet of tight synchrony and loose Interpretability” by Tal-Chen Rabinowitch