Music Participation Research Articles

Joining alone: factors that influence the musical participation of young adults after leaving school

Abstract When young people leave the musical world of their school environment, a lack of clear routes into adult musical engagement brings a risk of wasted ability, motivation and enjoyment, which arguably undermines the value of music education. This study explored the factors that influence continued musical participation among young British adults who had been actively engaged in school music. Musical participation is defined in this research as group music-making in either a formal or informal setting. Participants (n = 102) completed an online questionnaire or were interviewed (n = 6) about their past and present musical experiences along with future expectations for music-making. The stark headline finding was that while 87% of participants had intended to continue with music-making beyond school, only 48% had found groups to join. Nonetheless, 78% expected to continue with music-making in the future. Our research therefore suggests that any break from musical participation need not be permanent for individuals who have established strong musical identities through their early experiences. To conclude, we present a model of lifelong musical participation that illustrates the influences, motivations and choices that contribute to sustained musical engagement.

Civil wind bands beyond music education: a scoping review (2010-2021)

The aim of the present study is to provide a comprehensive scoping review focused on the educational effects of active music-making participation in wind bands. This review combines mapping studies to identify the primary sources, authors, institutions, and types of evidence available in wind band research and a literature review to identify the key concepts underpinning this research domain. Based on peer-review journal literature published between 2010 and 2021, a total of 712 records were examined, resulting in 459 papers screened and 84 studies included in the analysis. Findings indicate that, in the past decade, the essential contribution to research about active music-making participation in wind bands came from Western English-speaking academic institutions based in the United States of America, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. The research’s relevant focus was on the purposes of music education and the psychosocial and health effects of participation. Furthermore, the psychosocial effects encompassed a comprehensive set of themes, such as social bonding, community music participation, emotional well-being, and individual quality of life. Nevertheless, all these topics are closely linked to the single overarching expression of the quality of life. Other than music education, educational effects were not at the heart of the last decade of wind band research. A few gaps in the literature exist, including a lack of research concerning the educational benefits of informal and intergenerational environments of wind band practices. Equally important is the lack of research on the impacts of wind band activities on social cohesion or the inclusive intercultural development of their local communities. Lastly, there is a significant opportunity to provide up-to-date insights into the educational potential of non-school contexts and the impacts of wind band activities on supporting their places’ cultural ecology.

Are we all anxious about the same thing? A comparison of lay definitions of music making and performance in the context of music participation

Adverse experiences toward making music can be found in both musicians (music performance anxiety) and non-musicians (avoidance of participating in musical experiences). Both anxiety and avoidance are driven by perceptions and attributions about particular stimuli, based on schemas developed via direct and indirect experiences. Most research within music psychology focuses on the views of professional or student musicians. However, little is known about music avoidance in the general population, or their perceptions of music and performance. This article proposes to address this gap by comparing Australian adults’ perceptions toward music making and performance. A total of 116 participants self-identified as musical/non-musical, a musician/non-musician, and a performer/non-performer, then defined various terms and phrases related to music making and performance. Logistic regressions indicated that those with exposure to the music education system were significantly more likely to self-identify as musical, a musician, and a performer. Tests of independence reveal a relationship between self-identification and perceptions of music making, performance, anxiety, and willingness to engage. Possible mechanisms underlying the results of this study are discussed and a conceptual expansion related to music performance anxiety (MPA) and music making is proposed.

Music Participation Among Public School Students in Metropolitan China: An Examination of Personal, Parental, and School Factors

Music Participation Among Public School Students in Metropolitan China: An Examination of Personal, Parental, and School Factors

Supporting Autistic Students and Their Siblings through Inclusive Music Groups

This article provides a brief review of research along with a recommended music program with the purpose of facilitating constructive and loving relationships between autistic individuals and their allistic siblings. We highlight research regarding the need for family-based interventions, as well as the benefits of music participation for both the individuals with autism and their allistic siblings. Finally, we recommend a world percussion program for the siblings to participate in together that coincides with an allistic sibling support group. Music educators can facilitate growth within these relationships because they have a unique perspective on the individuals involved.

Delving into the structural model of students’ music performance anxiety, self-efficacy, and motivation based on a self-determination theory

Musical Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a multifaceted issue that exists on a spectrum of severity, necessitating an exploration of the underlying factors that hinder or reduce it within musical educational environments. Self-efficacy and motivation are widely recognized as significant determinants in the context of musical performance. Motivation has been a focal point in music education research, underscoring its importance in educational psychology and other skill-based performance domains. A comprehensive understanding of motivation is essential for elucidating students' achievements, performance, well-being, and intentions in music education. This study aims to investigate the impact of music students' self-efficacy and motivation on their MPA by analyzing data from 557 music participants who completed scales related to self-efficacy, motivation, and MPA. The research had a correlation-based research approach, typical in descriptive quantitative studies. The findings indicated that there exists a notable negative correlation between self-efficacy and MPA, as well as between motivation and MPA. In contrast, a substantial constructive correlation emerged between motivation and self-efficacy, indicating the interrelated nature of these constructs within the context of the study. The findings of the study through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated that a substantial proportion, estimated at around 54 %, of the variability evident in MPA among music students can be ascribed to the collective impact exerted by their levels of self-efficacy and motivation. Indeed, higher levels of self-efficacy and motivation are associated with lower degrees of MPA, suggesting that nurturing these attributes could potentially enhance music students’ overall performance. The paper provides recommendations for teaching participants in musical education.

Participation and Persistence in High School Elective Music Ensembles

In this study, we examined demographic patterns of participation and persistence in high school elective music ensembles. We extend prior research that has only compared music and non-music students by explicitly modeling persistence across multiple years of ensemble enrollment. The research draws on data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 and employs a zero-inflated Poisson regression model to analyze the data. This hurdle model, suitable for count data with a large number of zero observations, allows us to jointly examine factors related to enrolling in at least 1 year of a music ensemble (moving from 0 years to 1 year of music) and those factors related to accruing additional years of music ensemble enrollment (moving beyond 1 year to multiple years). We found that family socioeconomic status, birth-assigned sex, academic achievement, shared parent/student outside arts event attendance, and out-of-school arts engagement were significant predictors of both students’ music participation and persistence. By examining persistence, we add important nuance to the prior research examining demographic predictors of elective high school music enrollment, particularly for issues of birth-assigned sex and socioeconomic status in the choral context.

Music facilitation styles and behaviours across the health-care continuum: explanatory multiple case studies

ABSTRACT Background Understanding how music group facilitators work across the health-care continuum has received sparse research attention. Methods An explanatory multiple case study design was used to identify approaches employed by experienced facilitators. Five music facilitators working in contrasting areas of practice were interviewed and video recorded engaging with the same groups at three timepoints. Results All facilitators demonstrated four common behaviours: applying a consistent structure for each session; creating a positive and relaxing atmosphere for the work; engaging with varying musical repertoire and activities; and offering clear instructions for the participants. Their styles of practice were found to be shaped by their personality, educational background, as well as the size of the group, health conditions, and cultural identities of their music participants. Conclusion These skilled facilitators showed flexibility, always aiming to accommodate participants’ needs, and revealing new evidence of a common approach to music facilitation across different types of participant groups.

Remini-Sing RCT: Therapeutic Choir Participation for Community-Dwelling People with Dementia and Their Primary Caregivers.

Dementia negatively affects the wellbeing of both caregivers and care recipients. Community-based therapeutic choir singing offers opportunities for music participation and social engagement that are accessible and mutually enjoyable for people with dementia and their family caregivers and promotes shared and meaningful musical interactions, which may support relationship quality. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the Remini-Sing therapeutic choir intervention on relationship quality, quality of life, depression, and social connectedness for dyads, as well as caregiver burden and care recipient anxiety. A randomized-controlled trial design was used with a target sample of 180 dyads. Due to recruitment difficulties, 34 participant dyads were recruited and randomly assigned to a 20-week group singing condition (n = 16) or a waitlisted control group (n = 18). Participant dyads consisted of people with dementia and their family caregivers who resided at home in the community. The Remini-Sing therapeutic choirs were held in community settings. Assessments were conducted by masked assessors at baseline, 11 weeks, and 21 weeks. Twenty-one dyads completed assessments at the primary timepoint (Week 11). Issues with recruitment and retention resulted in an unpowered study with no statistically significant findings. Mean decreases in anxiety and depression for choir participants with dementia were supported by medium to large effect sizes, indicating a potential intervention effect to be explored in future powered studies. Key learnings related to study design are discussed regarding recruitment, retention, participant burden, and sustainability, with recommendations made for future dementia research.

“The Whole City Must Never Cease Singing”: Plato and the Community of the Musical Nomos

Abstract: This paper explores the fundamental tenets of Plato’s philosophy of education, particularly his views on a practice of great educational potential: communal musical participation. According to Plato, music can attune the individual and the community to cosmic harmony and this, in turn, is the only way to form and maintain a community. The paper explores how the concepts of ethos and nomos are utilized to explain music’s role in community cohesion. It argues that Plato’s understanding of the power of immediate and pre-reflective participation in music can provide valuable insight for contemporary philosophy of music education. The concept of nomos , in particular, allows music educators to take this frame of thought to better understand the role of music in creating communities.

The Relationship Between Participation in Different Music Programs and Academic Achievement

The current study investigates the relationship between participation in different music programs and academic achievement. This topic was investigated because although a strong correlation between music participation and academic achievement has been established, this could vary among different music programs. This is because different personality traits tend to be prevalent amongst different courses (MacLellan, 2011) and this variation in personality has been proven by multiple researchers to influence academic achievement (e.g., Nechita et al., 2015; Mammadov, 2021). Based on the pre-existing research about the relationship between academic achievement and music participation, and the effects of personality on student success, I hypothesized choir students would have lower achievement. This is because choir students displayed higher levels of extraversion, which was proven to hinder achievement. A two-part, dual-methods study was conducted, consisting of an ex-post facto research design utilizing a shortened achievement test, and a content analysis of student transcript summaries. A shortened version of an SAT practice test was completed by 19 subjects, and 14 of the 19 subjects turned in a copy of their student transcript summaries. This study found no statistically significant effect on academic achievement. This can benefit students, parents, and counselors. Schools should endorse various music programs since providing students with options allows them to explore their interests and benefit their achievement. The findings can also be beneficial to scientists because this study provides insight into how music influences the brain since the courses must have had a common factor that influenced brain activity.

A Student-Affirming Approach to Middle School Classroom Music: Four Guiding Principles for Curriculum and Instruction

Students who enter middle school may discover few or no opportunities for music participation beyond the Western ensemble paradigm. However, the explorative experiences of elementary general music can continue to thrive in middle school classroom music. In order for middle school classroom music programs to maximize potential, they must be valued and supported equitably, and invite creativity, questioning, and co-learning. In this article, I discuss four guiding principles for a middle school general music curriculum that is culturally responsive, generationally relevant, and student-centered. When teachers adopt these values, middle school classroom music can affirm students’ musical and nonmusical identities and pave the way for growth in individuals and the music education, performance, and composition fields at large.

Classed approaches to musical parenting in Norwegian schools of music and arts: findings from interviews with parents of music students

ABSTRACT This article explores musical parenting in Norwegian schools of music and arts. These schools aim to provide extra-curricular activities in music and other art forms to all children and adolescents regardless of their social and economic background, but the schools reveal traits of social and cultural exclusion, serving mainly the children of the middle classes. Taking this into account, we set out to understand the parents’ role in relation to music participation and explored different classed approaches to musical parenting in these schools, borrowing Lareau’s (2011) notion of concerted cultivation and based on a Bourdieusian-inspired framework. Drawing on 14 qualitative interviews among parents of music students in schools of music and arts, we found that they invested time, energy, and money in their child(ren)’s musical activities in the schools, and as such, we also found traces of concerted cultivation, and some classed connections to different approaches to musical parenting.

Change of Plans and A New Venue of Possibility

The sensory friendly concert (SFC) represents an increasingly popular effort toward engaging the autism community in live music performances by promoting inclusive practices and offering specialized accommodations to counter what many consider the rigidity of concert etiquette. The authors explore academic and historical perspectives on SFCs and seek to highlight best practices for the design and facilitation of inclusive community music events in live and virtual settings. Drawing upon the experience of adapting a planned in-person protocol to the virtual setting, the authors explore benefits that extend far beyond the autism community. In addition to providing an environment in which self-expression, diversity, and community are celebrated, SFCs can serve as a transition-oriented therapeutic intervention aimed at promoting progress toward goals related to independent living and musical participation in the broader society, including school and community ensembles.

Analysis of Accessible Digital Musical Instruments through the lens of disability models: a case study with instruments targeting d/Deaf people

Music educators and researchers have grown increasingly aware of the need for traditional musical practices to promote inclusive music for disabled people. Inclusive music participation has been addressed by Accessible Digital Musical Instruments (ADMIs), which welcome different ways of playing and perceiving music, with considerable impact on music-making for disabled people. ADMIs offer exciting possibilities for instrument design to consider and incorporate individual constraints (e.g., missing arm, low vision, hearing loss, etc.) more than traditional acoustic instruments, whose generally fixed design allows little room for disabled musicians inclusivity. Relatively few works discuss ADMIs in the context of disability studies, and no work has investigated the impact of different disability models in the process of designing inclusive music technology. This paper proposes criteria to classify ADMIs according to the medical, social, and cultural models of disability, then applies these criteria to evaluate eleven ADMIs targeting d/Deaf people. This analysis allows us to reflect on the design of ADMIs from different perspectives of disability, giving insights for future projects and deepening our understanding of medical, social, and cultural aspects of accessible music technology.

Subjectively preferred octave size is resolved at the late stages of cerebral auditory processing.

Human listeners prefer octave intervals slightly above the exact 2:1 frequency ratio. To study the neural underpinnings of this subjective preference, called the octave enlargement phenomenon, we compared neural responses between exact, slightly enlarged, oversized, and compressed octaves (or their multiples). The first experiment (n= 20) focused on the N1 and P2 event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited in EEG 50-250 ms after the second tone onset during passive listening of one-octave intervals. In the second experiment (n= 20) applying four-octave intervals, musician participants actively rated the different octave types as 'low', 'good' and 'high'. The preferred slightly enlarged octave was individually determined prior to the second experiment. In both experiments, N1-P2 peak-to-peak amplitudes attenuated for the exact and slightly enlarged octave intervals compared with compressed and oversized intervals, suggesting overlapping neural representations of tones an octave (or its multiples) apart. While there were no differences between the N1-P2 amplitudes to the exact and preferred enlarged octaves, ERP amplitudes differed after 500 ms from onset of the second tone of the pair. In the multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of the second experiment, the different octave types were distinguishable (spatial classification across electroencephalography [EEG] channels) 200 ms after second tone onset. Temporal classification within channels suggested two separate discrimination processes peaking around 300 and 700 ms. These findings appear to be related to active listening, as no multivariate results were found in the first, passive listening experiment. The present results suggest that the subjectively preferred octave size is resolved at the late stages of auditory processing.

Metal like a hermit: Situating the ‘subcultural’ of Chinese metal music in the Chinese context

This article presents a discussion on how Chinese metal musicians situate the ‘subcultural’ of Chinese metal music in the ‘hermit’ concept in the Chinese context. Since it first appeared in mainland China in 1990, Chinese metal has been a subculture with a double marginality in relation to both Chinese society and the global metal scene. Accordingly, Chinese metal musicians have been trying to negotiate their marginal and subcultural identities through localized strategies, embodied notably as the appropriation of the concept of ‘hermit’. By examining recent symbolic material produced by Chinese metal musicians, this article provides a brief overview of how they translate the ‘subcultural’ of their metal music participation in relation to elitism, covert and passive resistance, and authentic national and individual identities through the ‘hermit’ concept.

청소년의 학교폭력 예방 뮤지컬 참여에 관한 질적연구

The purpose of this research is to explore the use of cultural and artistic educational musicals as an enjoyable experiential learning method, focusing on the prevention of school violence. It aims to utilize musical participation education materials to engage learners in a process of joyful learning, and through direct participation, enhance experiential prevention of school violence while fostering the creation of creative knowledge to address societal issues. The researcher observed the participants and collected and analyzed data using the general methods and procedures of grounded theory. The objectives of this study were twofold. Firstly, for the participants of the school violence prevention musical, the researcher employed 'F. Schuetze's' individual interview method, utilizing semi-structured questionnaires. Additionally, the study reinterpreted meaning through storytelling, with a focus on original musical creation. Secondly, based on the research findings, the study aimed to propose the utilization of the school violence prevention musical as a practical participatory educational resource, suggesting directions for cultural and artistic educational content. The research outcomes encompassed aspects such as restoration of interpersonal relationships, enhancement of social awareness through prevention and education, school violence response and measures, self-growth, and future planning. Therefore, it is evident that fostering shared awareness of school violence prevention is essential, emphasizing the continuous evaluation and enhancement of the school violence prevention musical program.

The role of music in promoting health and wellbeing: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

The higher disease burden and related costs due to an increasing aging population have placed tremendous pressure on the healthcare systems worldwide. Given that music, both listened and actively performed, promotes and maintains good health and wellbeing among the population, we sought to perform a systematic review that would assess its biopsychosocial effects on a population over 40 years of age. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed articles up to April 2021 was conducted on six electronic databases (i.e. Cochrane, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Scopus). Our study population only included healthy adults of 40 years and older. A total of 11 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) matched the inclusion criteria and were therefore analyzed. Despite the heterogeneity of the methodologies used in the selected studies, our findings suggest that active musical participation can lead to beneficial effects on both cognitive and psychosocial functioning, whereas the positive impact of listening to music seems to be predominantly restricted to the cognitive domain. Although our results are consistent with both active and passive music activities favouring health and wellbeing in individuals 40 years old and over, future prospective RCTs, employing more uniformed and sensitive measurements, should allow us to better gauge the role of music participation in healthy aging and longevity, especially in countries with a high population density of elderly people.

Supporting children’s wellbeing through music participation during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from Scotland

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of strengthening the health and wellbeing of children as a global priority. This paper explores the impact of an inclusive music programme, that was delivered, prior to and during the pandemic, in an area of deprivation in Scotland. The main research question was, ‘How does an inclusive music programme support wellbeing of children living in areas of multiple deprivation during COVID?’. Multiple perspectives and data collection methods were included, e.g. comic strips, interviews, focus groups and questionnaires. Results suggest that the programme provided continuity and stability to children, especially during lockdown. All participants highlighted the positive impact the programme had on the emotional wellbeing of children, which was linked to a sense of security and trusting relationships that were formed as part of the programme, not only during COVID but prior to it too.