reflective essay on music

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Reflections on music’s life lessons

Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers

• By Julie Jaffee Nagel
• September 28 th 2017

I find myself reflecting upon my own experiences in music as a student, a piano teacher, a performer, a psychologist and a psychoanalyst.  How did I get from “then” to “now”?  Who assisted me along my winding journey?  Do you ever wonder these things about yourself?

As I thought about music in my life, I discovered an article by Tom Jacobs titled, “ The Lifelong Effect of Music and Arts Classes ” (in Pacific Standard, April 7, 2017).

Mr. Jacobs cited a NEA funded 2012 research study on Public Participation in the Arts  which “examined childhood experiences with music and arts education” as well as more “recent experiences as an audience member and/or creator.”  The bottom line of the data compiled by Kenneth Elpus at The University of Maryland, strongly emphasized, ”If one aim of music education….is to engender a lifelong connection with the arts”, the results of this study  suggest that music – and arts education more broadly – is achieving this aim for many alumni.”  Data analysis included 9,482 American adults who were surveyed about their childhood experiences with music and art. These data are compatible with my repeated assertions that music lessons involve more than playing an instrument.  Music lessons are life lessons.

Are you surprised with these findings?  I am not, nor, do I suspect, are you. Jacob’s article led me to reflect further upon my music teachers and early experiences that have become so much a part of who I am today.  I share some of my memories with you and hope you will take a few minutes to recall your own.

I hasten to add at the outset, I cannot mention everyone who has had an impact on music in my musical life – there are so many people who have encouraged and taught me, including my former students and current and former patients.  I think of my very first music teacher – MA – with whom I began my formal journey at the piano when I was 6 years old.  I had begun to pick out tunes and compose songs at age 4, but MA was my first music teacher.  She was a sweet, kind lady and had the advantage of owning a cute little Pekinese dog who would lap up coffee (with cream) on the floor by the piano pedals during my lessons.  I had my first memory slip when working with her – I remember it vividly (perhaps I will write about that in another column.)  Unfortunately, I stopped making progress and was losing interest in playing the piano.  My mother started looking for another teacher.

She located a wonderful man, SP, who was professor of piano at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia– not far from my hometown.  He was more sophisticated and knowledgeable about teaching music, and he remained my teacher until I auditioned and was accepted at Juilliard.  Even during my first year at Juilliard, I recall always playing for Mr. P every time I went home on break.

Before Juilliard, I had wonderful music teachers in public school music– particularly JL, my high school choir teacher.  I was the accompanist of the Chorus  – an activity I loved.  Mr. L was fun to work with in choir, and he often tutored me privately in theory.  I realized much later how valuable these lessons were, but even at the time, I found them challenging and interesting.  He also signed my yearbook with the message “be sure to keep your options open” – a message with which I took offense because I thought he was telling me that I could not “make it” as a pianist.  In hindsight, it was some of the best advice I have ever gotten.  I have pursued many options since those high school days and have created a very gratifying career blending music and psychology. Thank you, Mr. L.  (JL lives in another state, is retired from college teaching, and we stay in touch.)

JR my teacher at Juilliard initiated me into a larger world of music and professional piano playing.  JR also treated me like a family member –  invited me to his home for family dinners,  studio class parties after recitals, and one time told me that   “I wore too much eye makeup” (he had two daughters to whom he said he could not give this advice.)  I disagreed with him about the eye makeup!!  I recall detailed and intense lessons; I learned more repertoire than I thought I could handle (but did), performed in studio classes and public recitals, and went to his apartment on Riverside Drive for fabulous afterglow parties.  I learned to love green grapes with brie cheese at these receptions.  I watched him show off his cat, Tosca – imploring her to “roll over” as her one brilliant trick (eventually she would roll over, as most cats do, to his glee.)

Aside from JL, none of my music teachers is alive anymore.  Yet all my music teachers, singly and as a group, are alive inside my mind and in my life in everything I do today. All were instrumental in my musical development.  The far-reaching effects of teaching and learning music reverberate forever.  My music lessons clearly were life lessons.

Please take a few moments to revisit your memories as a music student and/or as a music teacher.  How has music affected your life? I would love to hear from you.

An earlier version of this article was published in Clavier Companion , revised and printed here with permission.

Featured image credit: “Dark, spotlight, stage” by StockSnap, Public Domain via Pixabay .

Julie Jaffee Nagel is author of Managing Stage Fright: A Guide for Musicians and Music Teachers, Oxford University Press, 2017 and Melodies of the Mind, Routledge Press, 2013.  She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, The University of Michigan, and The Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute.  She is in demand as a speaker about stage fright for musicians and other types of performers and on how music pertains to social, educational, and political issues.  Dr. Nagel is author of numerous scholarly articles and blogs and is in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Visit her website  as well as on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook .

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Recent Comments

I like this so much :) :) :) I’m currently working on the f# minor nocturne! they’re beautiful pieces. Don’t get me wrong, you have to be strong and confident to be successful in just about anything you do – but with music, there’s a deeper emotional component to your failures and successes. If you fail a chemistry test, it’s because you either didn’t study enough, or just aren’t that good at chemistry (the latter of which is totally understandable). But if you fail at music, it can say something about your character. It could be because you didn’t practice enough – but, more terrifyingly, it could be because you aren’t resilient enough. Mastering chemistry requires diligence and smarts, but mastering a piano piece requires diligence and smarts, plus creativity, plus the immense capacity to both overcome emotional hurdles, and, simultaneously, to use that emotional component to bring the music alive.

Before I started taking piano, I had always imagined the Conservatory students to have it so good – I mean, for their homework, they get to play guitar, or jam on their saxophone, or sing songs! What fun! Compared to sitting in lab for four hours studying the optical properties of minerals, or discussing Lucretian theories of democracy and politics, I would play piano any day.

But after almost three years of piano at Orpheus Academy, I understand just how naïve this is. Playing music for credit is not “easy” or “fun” or “magical” or “lucky.” Mostly, it’s really freakin’ hard. It requires you to pick apart your piece, play every little segment over and over, dissect it, tinker with it, cry over it, feel completely lame about it, then get over yourself and start practicing again. You have to be precise and diligent, creative and robotic. And then – after all of this – you have to re-discover the emotional beauty in the piece, and use it in your performance.

Comments are closed.

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Reflective Essay Sample on Music

The music we listen to has a big impact on how we view ourselves and how we look at the world around us. People all over the world have one thing in common and that’s the love for music. No matter what type of music people listen to, almost everyone is drawn towards music. There’s so many different genres of music and typically people favor certain genres over others. The harmonious tunes catch your attention and this is why music is so popular throughout the world. From rock, to hip-hop, to country, to jazz, music is all around us. Music is a way to feel better about yourself, relate to other people, express your emotions, and to be reminded of certain memories.

Each genre has a different purpose in it’s lyrics. For example, I love country music because I feel every song has a story behind it. When I listen to country music it puts me in a good mood and reminds me of summertime. As a kid, whenever I’d go camping, country music was all we’d listen to. So whenever I listen to country music it takes me back to the smell of a campfire and the joy of the lake. Music is a way to create memories and to connect with family and friends. Another genre of music that brings me happiness is Christmas music because once again, it brings back memories of fun Christmas memories with my family. It reminds me of being at my grandparents house baking desserts for Christmas. It also reminds me of spending time with my cousins and the warmth of Christmas time. When I listen to a certain song, that song brings me back to a specific memory. Just like how certain smells remind you of certain memories, music does the same thing. 

Not only does music bring back memories but it’s also a way to brighten your mood. Whenever I’m not in the best mood, I turn on my favorite music and it lifts me up. It’s also great when I’m sad and just need a good cry. That’s exactly what different genres of music are for. When I’m sad, I listen to sad music and when I’m happy I listen to country or pop music. While music is great for many things it also says a lot about you. Just like how people say you act like the people you hang out with, music works the same way in a sense. Typically, if you’re interested in a certain genre of music, so are your friends. Some songs send bad messages and some send positive ones. The type of music you listen to is your choice however the more you listen to negative songs the more negative you’ll feel about yourself and others around you. The opposite is true as well. Listening to positive music is more likely to put positive thoughts in your head. Overall, music sends very different messages and it’s up to you if you would rather hear positive or negative thoughts.

Music is also a way to relate to other people. A lot of the time, people are drawn to music that relates to situations going on in their lives. For example, when people go through heartbreaks a lot of them listen to heartbreak songs because they can relate to them. If people experience an uplifting experience in life, they might listen to uplifting music because they’re happy with that stage in their life. Music artists keep this in mind when making music. Usually, songs have a story behind them and that’s so people can relate to it. Of course there are still songs that have no story behind them; they're simply just random words put together. Typically, songs with a story behind them are more successful because people are drawn to them. Music has many different purposes behind it but overall, it’s a way to unite people and brighten moods.

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Music and Its Impact on Our Lives Essay (Critical Writing)

No one can even imagine our life without music. For centuries it was an integral part of our everyday life, our traditions and culture. Listening to the charming sounds of nature, man could not help trying to reproduce it in order to enjoy music at any time. That was the reason for the first primitive musical instruments to appear. Since that time music and mankind were never torn apart. With the development of the society the instruments and the whole music changed. The mankind and music were always at the same stage of development. Starting with the mysterious melodies of the ancient cults and ending with the energetic military marches. Music follows humanity step by step, working its magic on it, showing its power. The ability of music to influence human consciousness was known from the earliest stages of development of the society.

Relaxing and calming at the beginning, it can become energetic and aggressive just in a moment, causing great changes in your mood. “Without even thinking about it, we use music to create desired moods- to make us happy, to enjoy movement and dance, to energize, to bring back powerful memories, to help us relax and focus. Music is a powerful tool for our personal expression within our daily lives– it helps “set the scene” for many important experiences” (Brewer, n.d., para. 2). Music can even serve as a basis for peoples segregation, dividing them into the different social groups according to their preferences or abilities to understand a certain type of music. Nothing could create the appropriate atmosphere better than music. The church music can serve as an ideal example of it. Religions all over the world use the music in the rituals in order to maximize the influence on people and help them to achieve eupathy and humility. Nowadays, with an unrestricted access to the sources, music has conquered the world, sounding from everywhere, suggesting the great variety of genres for any demands. Everyone could find something up to his or her taste.

Talking about my life it is impossible not to mention music. It is a huge part of my everyday routine. My day starts and ends with it. Early in the morning it is quite vital for me to listen to a portion of a good energetic music in order to get up and have a charge for a long day. But it is not enough of course. Like a real melomaniac, I always take my player with me. I have noticed the great growth of my productivity if I do something with music in background. The type of chosen music depends on the type of the job I have to do. If there is some kind of a physical activity I need some fast and energetic music. However, when some sort of mental activity is demanded, I need some calm, not very loud music playing somewhere in the background. This is by no means a panacea for everyone who wants to raise their productivity , but I cannot imagine me working without music

Having come home late at evening, it is just necessary for me to listen to another portion of music in order to relax and forget about all the stresses of the outside world. I even go to bed with the headphones in my ears, listening to my special “good night” song.

Taking into account the fact that I am a great admirer of rock music, it is not difficult to guess that all my friends are great admirers of it to. I am more than sure that common tastes in music are the good basis for friendly relations. This is not only the question of having something to discuss or to listen to together. If a person has the same preferences in music that means that he has something in common with your inner world and with your soul. Of course, there is that type of music that you will never listen with your friends. It is that kind of music which affects the deepest parts of your soul and you can only listen to it while keeping to yourself. At that moments no one is allowed to trouble you.

Music also has a great impact on the way we communicate within our company. The excessive tension or some miscommunication in relations can be easily dispersed by means of music. The sounds of the familiar song cool heads and return friendly atmosphere.

There is one more aspect of music which is worth mentioning. It is its lyrics. Being not less ancient part of our culture than music, the word has even more influence on peoples hearts and minds. The combination of such powerful remedies gives a marvelous results. This combination of sounds and words affects all your senses, penetrating deep inside your soul. Looking through the lyrics of my favorite songs, I can say that the text is of the same importance as music in the song. While listening to it for the first time you pay special attention to lyrics, especially if it resonates with your mood. The song runs in your head and you repeat it over and over, enjoining the harmony of the words and your soul.

The most common topic for all songs is, of course, relations of any kind. It is the basis of human life and music, as an integral part of it, cannot stand off. Love and hatred, faith and betrayal, and all others shades of human feelings are praised in thousands of songs. The mans attempts to find his reason to live should also be mentioned. The great number of songs is devoted to that problem, making people think or helping them to find an answer. One of my favorite songs “ The Show Must Go On ” by Queen (Queen 1990) is also one of the best compositions touching the problem of self-determination. While listening to it you cannot but feel the great suffering of a man who realizes the duality of his inner world and necessity of playing the annoying part. The Freddie Mercurys heart cry makes the great effect on the listener, making you think about your own place in the world, the way you live and spend your lifetime and reconsider your values and priorities.

The love theme is also one of the especially beloved by lyrics authors. Everyone on this planet has its own favorite love song and I am not an exception. The great song “ Not Strong Enough ” by Apocalyptica (Warren 2010) tells us about the pangs of the love-crossed man who cannot be with his darling. The most dramatic moments of the lyrics are wonderfully emphasized by music, the most powerful beats comes with the most bitter worlds, projecting the singers and the authors mood on you, making you feel the same. That great interplay of words and music makes you shiver. Especially strong effect is achieved if the song correlates with your mood or life experience. In that case the song becomes a some kind of an anchor, which evokes certain memories and feelings connected with a certain life period. No matter where you are and what your feel, from the first beats of the song you will remember the first time you have listened to it and your emotions at that moment.

The love theme is a part of a bigger theme of gender relations, which is also quite popular in music. According to the generally accepted tradition there is some stereotypical pattern of behavior for both genders which is praised in the songs. Historically, man always strives for womens love, trying to overcome all the obstacles on his way. He fights the injustice, erases the boundaries of social or race segregation just to reunite with his beloved one. Music is a reflection of the mans thoughts that is why all this issues are blended in it, The artists want to share their feelings and experience with us, to warn and protect from the mistakes they made, to show that all the prejudices are only in our heads and we have to overcome it.

Summing it up, we should say that music is not just part of our lives, it is something bigger, and that determines our mood and emotions. It helps us to forget everything and enjoy one of the greatest gifts of nature – the sound.

Reference List

Brewer, B. (n.d.). Music and Learning: Integrating Music in the Classroom . Web.

Queen, (1990). The show must go on [Reordered by Queen]. Innuendo [7″, 12″, CD]. London, England: Metropolis Studios.

Warren, D. (2010). Not strong enough [Reordered by Apocalyptica]. 7th Symphony [CD]. Germany: Sony Music.

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Blog > Essay Advice , Personal Statement > How to Write a Great College Essay About Music (with examples)

How to Write a Great College Essay About Music (with examples)

Admissions officer reviewed by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University

Written by Alex McNeil, MA Admissions Consultant

Key Takeaway

Ask any admissions officer if they’ve read a college essay about music, and they’ll definitely say yes. Between music extracurriculars and academic interests in music, it’s is one of the most common college essay topics.

So does that mean that you shouldn’t write your college essay about music?

Not necessarily. But as with any common college essay topic, some approaches are better than others.

Let’s get into it.

Why you should (and shouldn’t) write your Common App essay about music

As we explained in our Stanford Items exercise , writing your college essay on a common topic isn’t off-limits. In fact, most college essays share common topics and themes. Trying to find a completely unique, never-been-done-before topic is almost impossible. And writing about a quirky topic in hopes of coming across as unique usually backfires.

In other words, it’s likely that you’ll write about the same topic as someone else.

The problem arises, however, when you write about a common topic in a cliche way . Cliches are always a danger in college essays, but in especially college essay topics that tend to surface again and again.

To avoid cliches, your college essay about music needs to be deeply personal, specific, and meaningful. You’ll want to let go of any over-generalizations or truisms and focus on the details of your own story.

Because you’ll need to write meaningfully and vulnerably, you should only write your college essay about music if you have something genuine and significant to say.

The Best Ways to Approach Your College Essay about Music

College essays about music aren’t off the table, but you should be thoughtful in how you write about them. The following two approaches will help you avoid cliches and find an authentic, meaningful story that fulfills all the requirements of a personal statement .

Writing about music as an academic interest

If you’re interested in studying music in college, then you can consider writing your college essay about music as an academic interest. A college essay about your academic interest in music can show fantastic intellectual fit with a school.

Let’s say you want to study music theory or composition. You might write about a topic you find compelling, a problem you’ve solved, or even a recounting of your journey becoming interested in the subject.

Or maybe you’re an aspiring performer planning on studying music performance. As an admissions officer, I read outstanding essays about students performing their favorite pieces, creating emotional music projects, and teaching lessons to young children.

No matter your topic, your goal with this approach is to show an intellectual spark, a curiosity and passion that will demonstrate to your admissions officers that you’ll be a great addition to the music community on their campuses.

Writing poignantly about a deeply meaningful extracurricular

The previous approach is great if you want to study music, but what if music is just an extracurricular passion of yours? Don’t worry—you can still write about it.

In that case, the best way is to focus on meaning. Remember: personal statements should be deeply-meaningful reflections on your personal strengths.

To start, reflect on your music extracurricular. Is it playing guitar in a band? Playing trombone in your school’s symphony? Learning piano from your grandma? How your love of poetry turned into a love of songwriting?

Next, think about what strengths you have to showcase. If you play guitar in a band, maybe you want to highlight your collaborative spirit. If you love poetry and songwriting, perhaps you focus on your creativity.

Writing about your love of music in a way that draws upon your strengths will make sure that your Common App essay avoids the following two approaches and gives admissions officers a reason to admit you.

Approaches to Avoid

While the following two approaches aren’t necessarily bad, they are the most cliche ways of approaching a college essay about music. You might want to consider avoiding them.

An inauthentic tale of triumph

Let me tell you a cliche story.

When I was in fourth grade, I decided to join the school orchestra. I found it exceedingly difficult at first. No matter how hard I tried, I never could seem to place my fingers correctly on the fingerboard. Every sound I made mimicked a screeching cat. But I decided not to give up. I practiced every day after school and on the weekends. By the time I was in ninth grade, I had made it into my high school’s top orchestra.

Is that a lovely story? Yes, absolutely. Is it hearty enough for a college essay? No. While it tells a good narrative of growth and progress, it remains on the surface of the writer’s life. It comes across as a convenient way to brag about your strengths instead of exploring them in a genuine way. In this example, the story also focuses on events that happened way too far in the past.

A song that changed your life

This approach is by far the most common cliche in college essays about music. We’ve all been there: a favorite song that transports you to a moment in your life whenever you hear it. It makes sense that you’d want to write about yours.

But there’s a problem with this approach. Too often, it reads as trite or unoriginal, and the end result usually doesn’t say much about the writer. And when it does, the message an admissions officer gets doesn’t typically give them any more reason to admit you. Since you want your college essay to be meaningful, even vulnerable, and strengths-based, you’re better off choosing another topic that better speaks to who you are.

Key Takeaways + Examples

College essays about music aren’t for everyone. But when you get it right, you can strike the perfect chord with admissions officers (you’re welcome for the pun).

As you go, dig deep, find something genuinely personal, and try to avoid the most common and cliche ways of approaching the topic.

Want to see some examples of college essays about music before you get started? Check out our examples, The Time Machine and The Band .

Liked that? Try this next.

The Incredible Power of a Cohesive College Application

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1 Introduction

• Published: January 2009
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This book is a collection of critically reflective essays on the praxial philosophy of music and music education. The contributors are an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars who believe that critical thinking, constructive debate, and dialogues are the lifeblood of music education. By means of their essays, they also speak for those who believe that future music teachers must learn to think for themselves and develop their own philosophies based on their own careful reflections. One of the goals of this book is to contribute to music education philosophy generally and the literature of praxialism in music education specifically. The contributors evaluate the praxial philosophy, pro and con, from the viewpoint of their area(s) of interest and expertise such as philosophical foundations, musical performance, music listening, early childhood education in music, multiculturalism in music education, and curriculum development and offer criticisms.

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Essay on Music for Students and Children

500+ words essay on music.

Music is a vital part of different moments of human life. It spreads happiness and joy in a person’s life. Music is the soul of life and gives immense peace to us. In the words of William Shakespeare, “If music is the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.” Thus, Music helps us in connecting with our souls or real self.

What is Music?

Music is a pleasant sound which is a combination of melodies and harmony and which soothes you. Music may also refer to the art of composing such pleasant sounds with the help of the various musical instruments. A person who knows music is a Musician.

The music consists of Sargam, Ragas, Taals, etc. Music is not only what is composed of men but also which exists in nature. Have you ever heard the sound of a waterfall or a flowing river ? Could you hear music there? Thus, everything in harmony has music. Here, I would like to quote a line by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the greatest musicians, “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.”

Importance of Music:

Music has great qualities of healing a person emotionally and mentally. Music is a form of meditation. While composing or listening music ones tends to forget all his worries, sorrows and pains. But, in order to appreciate good music, we need to cultivate our musical taste. It can be cited that in the Dwapar Yug, the Gopis would get mesmerized with the music that flowed from Lord Krishna’s flute. They would surrender themselves to Him. Also, the research has proved that the plants which hear the Music grow at a faster rate in comparison to the others.

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Magical Powers of Music:

It has the power to cure diseases such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, etc. The power of Music can be testified by the legends about Tansen of his bringing the rains by singing Raag Megh Malhar and lighting lamps by Raga Deepak. It also helps in improving the concentration and is thus of great help to the students.

Conclusion:

Music is the essence of life. Everything that has rhythm has music. Our breathing also has a rhythm. Thus, we can say that there is music in every human being or a living creature. Music has the ability to convey all sorts of emotions to people. Music is also a very powerful means to connect with God. We can conclude that Music is the purest form of worship of God and to connect with our soul.

FAQs on Essay on Music:

Q.1. Why is Music known as the Universal Language?

Ans.1. Music is known as the Universal language because it knows no boundaries. It flows freely beyond the barriers of language, religion, country, etc. Anybody can enjoy music irrespective of his age.

Q.2. What are the various styles of Music in India?

Ans.2. India is a country of diversities. Thus, it has numerous styles of music. Some of them are Classical, Pop, Ghazals, Bhajans, Carnatic, Folk, Khyal, Thumri, Qawwali, Bhangra, Drupad, Dadra, Dhamar, Bandish, Baithak Gana, Sufi, Indo Jazz, Odissi, Tarana, Sugama Sangeet, Bhavageet, etc.

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Reflective Essay About Music

Music involves the production of melodies, sound, beats, and rhythmic tunes through songs and instruments. As such, listening to music evokes a feeling which cannot be described unless it is heard. Music can be interpreted in many ways depending on the approach taken by the musician. If one was surrounded by people who sounded like music some of the sounds that they would be exposed to are loud and soft sounds of melodic harmony. Melodic music travels in a systematic way and is often complimented with the presence of beats (Copland 67).

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Other forms of music that would be representative of the people around me are round songs and songs of harmony. Such songs involve two or more people who use different music pitches to achieve a blend of contrasting sounds. Some of the songs in this case are round songs, duets, and choirs. Another element of music is rhythm which is representative orderly and systematic music. Rhythmic sounds can be produced by different pitches and musical elements making them the synchronized (Copland 16).

One of the sounds of music that is more elaborate and associated with groups of people is folk songs. Such sounds are produced by a magnitude of people who actively participate in producing chanting, clapping, singing, harmonizing, and dancing. Lastly, if the people around me were music, one of the sounds that would attract me to them is the sound of the piano. The use of this string instrument evokes a spiritual and relaxed feeling depending on the pace of the song. The sounds can change from crescendo, decrescendo, and allegro (Copland 119). To summarize, all these sounds take a groups of people to become beautiful music that is relatable in all parts of the world.

• Copland, Aaron. What to Listen for in Music. New York, N.Y: Signet Classic, 2002. Print.

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Reflective Practice in Music: A Collaborative Professional Approach

• First Online: 01 January 2014

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Reflective practice and critical analysis are major components in any creative discipline. For the ephemeral performing arts such as music, keeping art ‘in the conversation about art’ is central to meaningful engagement with a discourse around the creative work (Dillon et al., Physical and virtual learning spaces in higher education: Concepts for the modern learning environment, 2011). Storing, recalling and presenting artworks as digital artefacts offers ways to make the critical analysis process less abstract. Learning about music involves having an understanding of the concepts that frame musical practice and the language to discuss it as an entry point into the musical discourse. In an elective subject titled Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll students are asked to examine their personal, social and cultural relationships with music in their lives and reflect on these connections using musicological and semiotic analytical tools. Students experience the process of deconstruction, reconstruction and analysis in three cycles of activity that move from the ontological to the epistemological and back to a focus on self-understanding. The reflective process is documented and shared via multi-modal representations including wikis, blogs, video media, eZines, podcasts/vodcasts and creative works. This discussion will draw on examples of student work in the subject by exploring both the ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ perspective, as encountered in ethnomusicology (Barton, 2014), and reflective practice about the meaning of music for undergraduate university students.

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Appendix 1—4Rs Model of Reflection Applied to Music

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Barton, G. (2015). Reflective Practice in Music: A Collaborative Professional Approach. In: Ryan, M. (eds) Teaching Reflective Learning in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09271-3_5

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Arts and Humanities as Higher Education

An international research group and network, founder of arts and humanities in higher education journal, exploring the role of reflection in musical learning of performance undergraduates: implications for teaching and learning, a&hhe special issue august 2016, monica esslin-peard (co-authors: tony shorrocks, university of liverpool, and graham f welch, university of london), university of liverpool.

How do university undergraduate musicians mature? This research project focuses on the self-reported behaviours of both popular and classical musicians taking the performance module. Students submit an annual reflective essay documenting their experiences of musical learning, which generates data that have been analysed to identify common practice behaviours, irrespective of musical genres. The analyses have allowed the teaching team to advocate the adoption of a more holistic view of practice. Initial findings suggest that assessed written reflection, combined with keeping a practice diary each year, increases the likelihood that students will think consciously about how they practise and point towards the development of independent learning skills and an understanding of metacognitive practice strategies.

Practice, performance, reflection, metacognition, classical music, popular music, musical learning, maturation

Historically, music education research has centred on Western classical musicians. In this context, it is well documented that practice is a key part in the development of musical excellence (e.g. Austin and Haefner-Berg, 2006; Papageorgi et al., 2010). Classically-trained musicians apparently report 10,000 hours or ten years of practice to reach professional standards (Ericsson et al., 1993). The traditional model of musical learning for classical musicians implies many solitary hours spent working firstly on technique, and later on interpretation, based upon one-to-one instrumental or vocal tuition (Platz et al., 2014:1). In an attempt to explain the phenomenon of practice by classical musicians, researchers adopt many different approaches. Miksza (2011), for example, offered a tripartite division between the individual, a comparison of student and teacher views, and changes in approaches to practice over long periods of time. Despite this attempt to find synergies, there is no overall consensus about practice behaviours, because it would seem that within the broad context of  musical learning, there is no single way to become an expert musician. Similarly, Hallam (2001:28) investigated expert practice and conceded that even the description of an expert does not lead to a neat definition of how they become experts: ‘They know how to do the right thing at the right time. There is no single expert way to perform all tasks.’

In the absence of consensus about what an individual does to become an expert, we consider the strategies that are thought to support learning which may variously be grouped under titles such as metacognition, self-regulated or independent learning. Outside the field of music, Zimmerman (2002) described how high school students in the United States were helped by their teachers to develop self-regulated learning strategies, which he links to metacognition. The key elements which promote more effective self-regulated learning include setting proximal goals, self-awareness, monitoring progress, self-motivation, effective time management, attributing causation to outcomes and the ability to apply and adapt newly gained knowledge to future behaviour and skill development.

Nielsen (2012) conducted research into self-regulated learning and epistemic beliefs with 130 first year students at a conservatoire in Norway. Her focus was to discover what kind of epistemic beliefs students held regarding their instrumental playing, and how these beliefs were related to their practising strategies. The musical experience of the sample population was predominately classical (80%), with 20% working in rock, pop and jazz genres.  Her study (2012: 355) revealed that students who believed that their own abilities could be developed used both metacognitive and effort regulation strategies. Moreover, she also concluded that students, whatever they believed about their own learning, did not necessarily develop metacognitive strategies in a linear way.

There would seem to be a need for more than metacognitive strategies in educating expert performers, as the Investigating Musical Performance (IMP) study by Welch et al., (2008: 151) demonstrated. Researchers collected data from questionnaires sent to 170 classical, jazz, folk and pop musicians and discovered that for non-classical musicians, networking, communication skills and playing for fun were important factors for musical development. The authors’ findings suggested that ‘the context of learning and the prevailing institutional culture are related to students’ approaches to learning and performance’.

Thus, in an institution with separate departments for classical and popular music, one might expect different learning behaviours, dependent on genres. This separation might also culturally underpin the view expressed by Creech et al., (2008:215) that musicians in different genres identified different specific skills which could lead to excellence in musical performance.

Green (2002) explored how popular musicians learn and identified important differences compared with classical musicians and reported, for example, that popular musicians are largely self-taught, and influenced by peers and admired musicians. Much learning in popular music takes place collectively and is thus socially situated.

As Parkinson (2013:155) outlined, there has been a clear shift towards popular music courses in the last twenty years , which makes it all the more relevant, as Feichas (2010:58) suggested, that ‘… the traditional teaching approaches for music in higher education are possibly inadequate for educating university students from varied music learning backgrounds, especially those with informal music learning backgrounds’. This echoes the findings of Folkestad (2006:143), who emphasised that musical learning, exists on a continuum between formal and informal approaches to teaching and learning.

The role of reflection in musical learning

Reflective practice was introduced by tertiary educational institutions in England, Scotland and Wales over the last two decades as a form of self-assessment, derived from theories of reflective practice that were developed by Schön (1987) and refined for educational practice by Ghaye (2011), among others.  For example, music educators like Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) and Daniel (2001) have described the use of video to stimulate reflection after musical performances. Daniel (2001: 224) also discovered that writing a reflective essay encouraged reflection about performance skills. These comments echo the findings of Clark et al., (2014) who found that learning and practice behaviours are linked to levels of expertise, and suggested that conscious, stimulated reflection is useful to analyse past actions and could be a catalyst for conscious change.

Background to the performance module

The university admits 65 students each year to read for a BA honours degree in classical or popular music. Students on the performance module are expected to keep a practice diary in all three years of study, in which they report on their experiences of practice, performance, going to concerts and gigs and their lessons with peripatetic music staff which are provided by the department. The practice diary, which may be hand-written or kept electronically, is used as the basis for the annual reflective essay (1,500-2,000 words) about practice and performance, which all students are required to write and submit for grading, accounting for 30% of their overall mark. The remaining 70% of marks are generated from assessed performance.

There is an important caveat here relating to students’ self-reported behaviours in a practice diary and a reflective essay, namely whether they are cue-conscious, and write what they want their tutors to read, or reflect what their tutors have said to them in seminars, in one-to-one coaching or in any other formal or informal conversations. The tutors at the university where our research is situated take care not to “instruct” their students how to practise. The emphasis is on a process of self-discovery, which is enhanced by discussions with peers and tutors. This concurs with Cowan’s approach (2013:4), based on thirty years of mentoring engineering students writing reflections:

I want to empower each learner supportively and without exercising authority […] I nudge the learners forward into Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development where they can make more progress through prompting than they could manage on their own. I do no more than that. I certainly do not instruct, or tutor.

Furthermore, when there is a need to write a reflective essay for summative assessment, it would seem that students make more effort to keep their practice diaries. We believe that this combination of practice diary, assessed reflective essay and assessed performance may be unique for music performance modules at UK universities.

Defining the process of musical learning for popular and classical musicians

In order to find some common guidelines to be able to assess classical and popular musicians in parallel, we start from the concept of practice outlined by Ericsson et al., (1993) which describes deliberate practice as a learning process which involves planning, reflection and problem solving, combined with learning in a wide range of other situations which may be more informal, as discussed by Jorgensen (2011:4). Within the context of the undergraduate performance modules, we suggest a holistic definition of musical learning which includes reflection and is not limited to any musical genre. We start with a general definition of practice which encompasses both solo and group behaviours: ‘musical learning involves problem solving either individually, or in groups, leading to an outcome which demonstrates change and/or progress.’

“Problem solving” in this context includes individual thinking, planning and acting to solve, for example, a technical difficulty as well as discussions within a band to try new approaches until a solution is found, for example, for tightening a rhythm or getting backing vocals in tune. “Problem solving” may also involve conversations with course tutors, or specific interventions with peripatetic music tutors. This definition can be further refined to include the reflective element:

Musical learning involves problem solving either individually, or in groups, leading to an outcome which demonstrates change and/or progress. Reflection underpins the process of practice and rehearsal for the individual or the group by stimulating conscious thought about how practice is conducted, prompting choices about how the process can be improved and what strategies can be adopted to reach desired goals.

The definition of musical learning suggested above is posited by the lead researcher (first author), but is not a part of the performance module materials, or the published curriculum or reading lists. We discuss the value of this holistic model below in our findings.

The research question

In our research project, the aim is to understand the maturation of musicians through practice and performance, using evidence from their reflective essays, based on the following question:

How do the self-reported behaviours of undergraduate popular and classical musicians help us to identify similarities and differences in changes which individuals experience in the development of and their understanding of their own musical expertise?

For the purposes of this paper, we discuss the initial findings across two years of longitudinal research relating to the 2012-2015 cohort of students. A reflective essay from a classical musician illustrates the possible insights into musical learning which can be stimulated by the reflective process (PM, 2015):

The three-year classical performance module has revolutionised not only the way I approach practice, but also the way I approach performance and musical study as a whole. It has taught me that singing is not something that you just do . It’s something that you have to carefully consider and think about. It has taught me that rehearsal isn’t just singing through a few songs every night until everything accidentally falls into place. It is an academic pursuit, which requires careful evaluation and self-reflection before any sort of real improvement can be made. I like to think that over the past three years I have changed from a student who sings to a singer who studies.

This comment encapsulates the process of musical maturation which is the focus of our research, including the development of skills and an understanding of how learning occurs, involving reflection. Our research aims to discover to what extent this clarity of cognition is exemplified by all students, or only a few, and how there may be differences or similarities between popular and classical musicians. It must be stressed at this stage that we are reporting on initial findings, and any conclusions are tentative and will be followed by more in-depth research.

Methodology

The data for this project were drawn principally from the students’ reflective essays (n=94: 64 essays from popular musicians and 30 essays from classical musicians) which were made available to the lead researcher at the end of each academic year, after assessment results had been published. When comments were identified in reflective essays which needed further explanation, nine classical and eight popular music students were invited to participate in individual or small group interviews, which were audio recorded and transcribed for subsequent analysis by an independent typist to avoid any bias. Before data were collected from the 2012-2015 cohort, a small sample of reflective essays and practice diaries were discussed with the principal supervisor to agree the research methods outlined below.

We adopted a mixed approach to analysing the data, using both quantitative and qualitative techniques, a method which is commonly used in (music) education research, following Bryman (2006:100).  Quantitative data have played a lesser role in this project, serving to show trends, such as, for example, in themes in reflective essays.

Qualitative data drawn from the reflective essays and interview transcripts were examined based on the principles of textual analysis. Following McKee (2003), we sought to gain an understanding of how students make sense of their practice behaviours. Repeated close reading of all the available narratives was considered to be the most appropriate method to gain an understanding of how students’ behaviour and attitude towards practice was changing, which is similar to the approach of Johansson (2013) and methods adopted by Green (2002) and Smith (2013) in exploring data from popular musicians who had been interviewed.

The value of the research project for the university’s Department of Music lies in trying to gain an explicit understanding of how reflection supports musical learning on the performance module, which could be shared within the university and beyond.

Ethical considerations

Ethical approval was obtained from the University Ethics Committee in October 2012, in line with BERA guidelines (2011). Performance module students were given information about the research project and all 47 signed a consent form to confirm that they understood the nature of the study, and could withdraw at any time for any or no reason. This form also offered an opt-in clause for taking part in interviews.

The lead researcher, as a full time music teacher in London and part-time doctoral student, has made considerable efforts to keep her distance from students when conducting group and one-to-one semi-structured interviews in order to avoid influencing the content of reflective essays. Furthermore, she is not involved in any assessment of student performances, and so cannot influence the grades that students are awarded by faculty staff.

Findings – student reactions to the practice diary

The Head of Performance adopts a multi-modal approach when introducing the notion of musical learning to first year classical musicians. He posits a model of musical learning, based on Harris and Crozier (2000: 108) which involves not only visual, aural and kinaesthetic learning modes, but also an intellectual dimension, which encompasses the conscious awareness of the learner of the task to be tackled. This approach also reflects a model of musical learning posited by Cantwell and Jeanneret (2004) which includes the domains of affective, cognitive and metacognitive learning. The 15 classical musicians are required to keep a practice diary and develop an awareness of how it might be useful for their musical development, as explained by one violinist in her reflective essay: ‘I have found the practice diary a very useful tool as I do now stop and think about the issues that I am having and try to write down as precisely as I can what is going wrong and how I can change this,’ (EJ, 2013).

Similarly, a saxophonist writes in his essay: ‘Practising is actually actively monitoring what you can’t do, while you practise,’ (AM, 2013). It is interesting that these two classical musicians are focusing on deficits in their playing, which may link back to Nielsen’s study (2012) of student musicians’ beliefs about their own abilities. This also illustrates that these students are doing more than merely listing the actions they took in a particular practice session. A potentially negative view of practice was also raised by popular musicians when the lead researcher presented her initial findings to the cohort.  Many commented that reflection could lead not only to positive change and progress, but might also point to bad practice days, when no progress was made. This echoes Nielsen’s findings (2012) that musical development is not necessarily linear.

The approach from the tutor for popular musicians is more informal. He involves students in discussions at their weekly workshops, drawing on his professional experience as a performer. There is little or no reference to theories concerning reflection, which may be an indication of a cultural reluctance of popular musicians to adopt formal teaching strategies, as discussed by Robinson (2012).  None of the popular musicians mentioned a practice diary explicitly in their first year reflective essays, despite each having submitted a diary at the end of the year.

When the popular musicians wrote their reflective essays, they described what happened without necessarily asking how they were playing or singing.  Were they conscious of the process of practice? What does emerge is that, with the focus on performances in tutor-assigned bands in December and May, many of the students identified barriers to their musical learning. These include lack of commitment, absences from rehearsals, inter-personal conflicts, arguments about repertoire and being forced to play with people who they did not consider to be their friends. This might suggest that the practice diary, per se, is not useful for these popular musicians in their first year. But perhaps it is also important to understand, as the Head of Performance explains, that the practice diary is not essentially reflective:

I don’t think a diary, if it’s visceral and therefore real, can be reflective. It’s mixing two things up and it falls into the same trap of “You’ll get better by doing”. If you do a diary, you’ll become reflective. I don’t think that’s true. If you do a diary, it is merely a log, (Shorrocks, 2015).

Furthermore, he recognises that the popular musicians are learning collaboratively, which offers an aspect of learning which may be lacking for the classical musicians:

They work in groups and they learn in groups and they are quite often self-taught, which means that they can invest a bit of their curiosity and self-thinking in it, which an awful lot of classical musicians have sterilised out of them. If your only model is ‘Do what teacher says and do the repetitive practice’ then you’re not getting the benefit of what an awful lot of the poppers do, (Shorrocks, 2015).

One of the contrasts between the two performance modules was a strong focus on the practice diary and reflection for classical undergraduates, especially in the first year, whereas for the popular musicians, the practice diary was not discussed to the same extent in workshops.  In order to understand this difference better, a group interview was conducted with four popular performance students from the 2013 intake who chose to attend both classical and popular performance workshops in their second year. One guitarist commented on the benefits of starting to use a practice diary in his second year:

It’s more personal and that is what I find the practice diary really useful for, because I didn’t keep a personal practice diary last year. I find it is really handy for getting inside your own head, and trying to understand what the way forward is for me, (HM, 2014).

The Head of Performance recognises that his initial reservations about not teaching students about the practice diary have gradually changed as a result of being involved with the current research project, as he explains:

For [new] first years, I’m doing more on the means of practising than I’ve ever done. I think that’s because I have felt a need to get people to study that more. I’ve done even more with the current second years, I did quite a lot last year with the cohort we’re watching, and that did seem to help, because halfway through their course, I went back to thinking about practising and see what’s developed (Shorrocks, 2015).

Whilst this comment demonstrates that the Head of Performance is thinking about the ramifications of his interventions to students about how to practise, we turn now to the student accounts to see how they perceive their own progress in musical learning.

Findings – Main themes in reflective essays (First Year)

Figure 1 Main Essay Themes

For the first year, themes were consistent for both groups of musicians regarding the most frequently cited elements which might be deemed relevant to musical learning. Figure 1 above shows percentages for the three most frequently cited themes. Comments on technique are generally linked to students’ descriptions of one-to-one tuition. Insight is used for self-reported instances of practice behaviour in which the student goes beyond narrative description to identify what change can be made to a practice routine. Targets relate to descriptions of specific practice or performance goals. Taken together, these three themes link back to the model suggested for musical learning as all these behaviours could be considered to be part of problem solving.

For example, a classical saxophonist recognised the difference between merely playing through a piece and thinking about how he is practising:

Throughout the year I have learnt that there is a difference between simply just playing through a piece and actually practising a piece. […] I now question myself more as to why I cannot do certain things and try and find solutions, (AM, 2013).

Conversely, a popular musician who plays the guitar noted the benefits of the wide range of musical experiences during his first year:

By jamming along to and transposing songs from a wide range of different genres from hip-hop to deep house, I have gained an insight into alternative scales, intervals, phrasing and percussive techniques that can be used to great effect in creating original sounds (CS, 2013).

As the Head of Performance points out, popular musicians may have quite different ideas about the benefits of developing individual technique:

The whole thing about the pop world is that they’re going to do that solo that way because that’s the way I can do that solo, rather than ‘I really ought to be aspiring to do a solo in this way, I’ve got a little bit of technical practice to do to support it’ (Shorrocks, 2015).

The whole culture of popular music education – as Parkinson (2013) explains – is contrary to the accepted norms of the Western musical tradition. The change towards a more disciplined practice regime begins to emerge, as we discuss below, in the second year reflective essays.

Findings – main themes in reflective essays (Second Year)

The second year reflective essays tackled different areas of practice as a result of the content taught in performance workshops. Classical musicians learn about intonation, whilst the popular musicians continued to perform to their peers, focusing on the development of original material in their own choice of bands. Students’ comments suggested that they were beginning to think more carefully about how to solve musical problems and thus rehearse more effectively. The data show a change from 48% of first year popular musicians writing about insights into practice, compared with 56% in the second year.

At this stage, at the end of the second year, the process of self-discovery is revealed in different ways, dependent on the environment in which students are practising and performing. However, if we make a direct comparison between the three areas of focus for the first and second year essays for popular musicians, the data point to an increased focus on technique and discovering insights about how to practise (see Figure 2 below).

Figure 2. Comparison of Essay Themes, Second Year Popular Musicians

As an example, one bass player explained in detail how a newly-formed band ‘Defunkt’ worked in the second year:

We began to plan our practice slots more carefully, running through the songs we had, consecutively and collectively discussing ideas for new songs with a hands on approach to playing them as we discussed what direction to follow, and focusing on sections of songs that we felt needed work instead of wasting time by running through the whole song, (JG, 2014).

In comparison, classical musicians examined their individual practice behaviours in more depth and described the development of some metacognitive practice strategies such as breaking a piece into smaller sections, playing slowly and increasing the tempo:

I feel that my practice this year has been a lot more productive. I would immediately find the problem or specific sections of a piece before trying to play it through. Also, I took a slightly different approach to sections that I struggled with, taking a bar at a time and repeating it over and over again to get it into muscle memory. This helped me to play difficult sections and get them up to speed (AM, 2014).

Mental rehearsal is another aspect of practice which is linked to the use of metacognitive practice strategies. A viola player wrote almost exclusively about what she heard in her head, and what she thought about: ‘I am imagining what can be done, and how I could be improving. The music is clearer and louder in my head, as is the image of the viola when I am not practising,’ (SB, 2014).

Taken overall, our quantitative and qualitative data point towards the students’ increasing understanding of how to reflect upon their musical learning and how to make their individual and group rehearsal sessions more effective, by thinking about how they can make changes to the process.

Discussion – Student musical journeys

We would suggest that it is also worth considering musical maturation in a broader context. As the Head of Performance explains,  ‘…students arrive inhibited by their prior musical experiences. They see themselves as poppers or classical musicians, and are determined to stay in that preferred genre,’ (Shorrocks, 2015).

Looking back to our suggested model for musical learning, there is nothing explicit which points to a need to make students aware of wider opportunities for musical development. Nevertheless, by virtue of their environment, students are exposed to many different kinds of musicking and they can explore many musical genres, including jazz, folk and world music, either through university-based ensembles or groups based in the city. Thus each student can create his or her own personal musical learning journey, based upon their individual needs and cultural preferences. Over the last three years, there have been examples of a bass guitarist playing cello in the university symphony orchestra, a classical singer conducting a popular music choir, classical string players gigging in an acoustic folk/rock band, a rock guitarist working in the pit band for a musical theatre production and a classically-trained popular vocalist leading a barbershop quartet which appeared in a BBC One television programme. For the 2012-2015 cohort, ten out of 47 undergraduates have been involved in cross-genre musicking. The impetus for such musical exploration comes either from the individual, from peer groups, or may be suggested by the performance tutors or peripatetic music staff.  Whilst the Head of Performance states that it would be counter-productive to market this cross-genre musicking to prospective students, he acknowledges that such musicking is effectively prompting more synergies between the two performance modules:

There is probably a growing commonality [between the two courses] – probably more than I realise – and at a surface level, that commonality will be the last thing to be apparent.  For example, I get them all to work in ensembles, which is important for the classical people. I don’t have to worry about that in terms of the poppers. They know how to do that, (Shorrocks, 2015).

This comment suggests that the act of reflection is opening up opportunities for students to explore new musical genres as well as prompting the faculty to reflect on course design and also gives some credence to the concept of a holistic model for musical learning. A full examination of the experiences of these cross-genre musicians is a possible area of focus for future research.

In summary, the data show that the first-year classical musicians began to think more about technique, and about how to improve their technique related to personal targets compared with their popular musician peers. The popular musicians, in contrast, focused more in their first-year reflective essays on the social processes of band formation. If the members of a band did not get on, or could not organise their rehearsals effectively, the data suggest that their musical learning was hindered, which is reflected by the lower levels of reported reflection about technique, insights and targets.

In the second year, the data show that popular musicians were developing more awareness of individual and group practice routines, and were beginning to identify insights into how they could improve the process. Crucially, they were now in bands of their own choosing, which is likely to be why the lack of commitment reported by 53% in the first year reduced dramatically to only 9% in the second year. Over 90% of the second-year classical musicians provided evidence which demonstrated that they were developing their understanding of how to practise using a range of different metacognitive strategies, which reflect the elements in our suggested definition of musical learning.

Whilst the third-year reflective essays have not yet been analysed, interviews which have been conducted during the 2014-2015 academic year point to developments in a wider musical context. For example, two of the popular musicians in the third year were already working professionally as session musicians and there is a third year band, The Sneaky Nixons , which has been signed by a distribution agent and producer, whose members are getting their first taste of commercial management.  Whilst it is definitely not a stated purpose of this university performance course to produce professional musicians, as might be expected from a conservatoire, tutors can, perhaps, claim that their music performance graduates have acquired some lifelong reflective skills to improve as musicians, as the Head of Performance explains:

I like people to be able to work within what they can already do, knowing that gradually if they wanted to go up a level, hopefully they’re equipped by the structure of the course – diaries etc.- to do that, should they wish to. They can really change things because they’re equipped with the mechanisms, the psychological insights and the skills, (Shorrocks, 2015).

The key point here is that the unique combination of a practice diary, the annual assessments through the reflective essay and performances seem to support the students in their journeys of self-discovery and musical learning. Future research into student musical biographies, and how these change during the three years of study, combined with reflective essays and interviews, may offer some answers.

In conclusion, we would suggest that there is much to be gained from adopting a wider definition for musical learning, supported by practice diaries, reflective writing and performance. Preliminary findings for both classical and popular musicians point to a deeper understanding of how to practise, as a result of assessed reflection. We believe that as we continue to develop our understanding of reflection and musical learning, more elements will emerge which will be of interest to those running multi-genre performance courses in tertiary education.

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sector.

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Smith G D (2013) I drum, therefore I am Farnham: Ashgate

Welch G, Duffy C, Whyton A and Potter, J (2008) Investigating Musical Performance [IMP]: Comparative Studies in Advanced Musical Learning Economic and Social Research Council Ref. RES-139-25-0101. Available at: http://www.imerc.org/papers/imp/imp_final_report.pdf (accessed 10th May 2012)

Zimmermann B J (2002) Becoming a Self-Regulated Learner: An Overview Theory into Practice 41(2): 64-70

List of sources for quotes from students. Names have not been given to protect the identity of participants

AM (2013) Reflective essay saxophonist (classical performance module)

AM (2014) Reflective essay saxophonist (classical performance module)

CS (2013) Reflective essay guitarist (popular performance module)

EJ (2013) Reflective essay violinist (classical performance module)

JG (2014) Reflective essay bass guitarist (popular performance module)

HM (2014) Reflective essay guitarist (classical performance module)

KM et al. (2014) Three singers and one guitarist in the second year who had transferred from the popular performance module to the classical performance module.  Interview conducted  27.10.2014

LF (2013) Reflective essay female drummer (popular performance module)

LF (2015) Female drummer (popular performance module) Interview conducted 18.2.2015

PM (2015) Reflective essay male singer/pop lead singer (classical performance module)

SB (2014) Reflective essay viola player (classical performance module)

Music and Empathy

How could music improve empathy.

Posted May 17, 2024 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

• The Importance of Empathy
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• Empathy allows for the perception of another’s thoughts and feelings.
• Music can increase our ability to be more empathetic individuals.
• Music is thought to be the social glue that strengthens feelings of unity.

Empathy is the ability to imagine how others are feeling. It allows an individual to share the same emotions observed in another person. Music can nonverbally channel empathy between people. People who demonstrate empathy can better interpret emotions conveyed through music (Tabak, 2022). They tend to be more accurate in understanding what musicians intend to convey through music.

Empathy levels influence people’s preferences for music (Clark 2015). Research has shown that empathy is positively linked to preferences for sad and tender music (R&B/soul, adult contemporary, soft rock genres) and negatively correlated with preferences for intense music (punk, heavy metal, and hard rock genres).

Evidence has shown that highly emphatic people experience more intense sadness after listening to sad instrumental music (Clarke 2015). Highly empathic people also find listening to music more pleasurable than people low in empathy. This evidence suggests the possibility that empathy can be cultivated via music. Music with emotional depth may increase empathy, whereas music with more strong and tense features may decrease it.

Even listening to music could help us be more empathic toward others. For instance, listening to love songs enhances our romantic feelings, and marching bands intensify our feelings for the home team.

For some people, music can represent a virtual person with whom to empathize. For example, we listen to sad music when we feel sad. We experience the music as empathizing with our feelings and making us feel less alone.

Evidence has also shown that long-term musical training (rhythmic coordination) has a positive influence on children’s empathy and social competence. For instance, musically trained children tend to be more sensitive to emotions expressed in music, and adults with professional musical training have heightened sensitivity to emotions in speech compared to non-musicians (Juslin 2019).

The social hormone oxytocin plays a role in facilitating empathy. Music triggers the hormones oxytocin and serotonin, responsible for bonding , trust, and intimacy . Sharing rhythmic behaviors such as singing, dancing, chanting, smiling to a smile, or talking together can increase social bonding.

The power of music to arouse brain oxytocin was at the center of the 2004 film entitled The Story of Weeping Camel . In the movie about a family of nomads in Mongolia, one camel had just given birth, but with great difficulty. Consequently, the mother camel showed little interest in her baby and refused to let it nurse. Tradition holds that the playing of the violin can motivate a camel and reunite her with her calf. This is exactly what the family did. They brought a musician to the village and played for the mother and baby camels. After a while the mother camel began to weep and gradually moved closer to her baby, in the end allowing it to suckle.

In sum, empathy is the capacity to share what someone else is feeling, resulting in compassionate behavior. Even if empathy doesn’t come naturally, research suggests people can cultivate it. Music has some special power to motivate our empathy and help us connect with others. Listening to music that contains reflective, thoughtful, and gentle attributes may increase empathy and improve reflective functioning. In fact, a possible evolutionary benefit of music is to improve group cohesion. Singing in choruses and sharing rhythms and melodies could have brought people together, whether as a community or in preparation for a battle.

Clark S., Giacomantonio S. (2015). Toward predicting prosocial behavior: Music preference and empathy differences between adolescents and adults. Empirical Musicology Review , 10(1–2), 50–65.

Juslin, P. N. (2019). Musical emotions explained: Unlocking the secrets of musical affect . Oxford University Press

Tabak, B. A., Wallmark, Z., Nghiem, L. H., Alvi, T., Sunahara, C. S., Lee, J., & Cao, J. (2023). Initial evidence for a relation between behaviorally assessed empathic accuracy and affect sharing for people and music. Emotion, 23 (2), 437–449.

Shahram Heshmat, Ph.D., is an associate professor emeritus of health economics of addiction at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

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Music Therapy Skills 1. Reflective essay

Cultural influences have had a significant impact in shaping my beliefs and values. The first section of this writing will outline how my cultural and life experiences have shaped these values. For the purposes of this writing, I have selected to focus only on the values for discipline, flexibility, respect and compassion. In the latter half, I will focus on how these values may influence my way in engaging in therapeutic conversations.

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Dean Olsher

Music Therapy Auditions. Note: applicants can choose to be heard in one of our overseas venues for the Musical Audition, but all Interviews will take place in London. Musical Audition. At the audition, candidates are expected to demonstrate a high standard in their Principal Study (usually diploma level). The other part of the interview involves participation in a group run by one of the department’s experiential group leaders. This session gives an opportunity to assess applicants’ patterns of relating in peer groups and also provides a helpful opportunity to reflect on a challenging process. All successful candidates will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service and health check. STANDARDIZATION: Music therapy goals, objectives and progress are documented in a treatment plan, following client assessment, and delivered in accordance with the AMTA Standards of Clinical Practice. Music selections and certain active music making activities are modified for client preferences and...

Susan Gardstrom

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of verbal skills as an intervention in music therapy practice in three models of music therapy: (a) analytical music therapy (AMT), (b) the Bonny method of guided imagery and music (BMGIM), and (c) Nordoff-Robbins music therapy (NRMT). Data were collected from three interviews that included each professional’s use of verbal skills in their respective model of music therapy. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Five themes emerged: (1) definitions of verbal intervention/verbal skills, (2) population dependent, (3) use of lyrics, (4) music as therapy vs music in therapy, (5) musical-verbal intervention relationship. Although future research in the area of verbal intervention definition and usage is needed, this study provided a foundation to encourage further research on verbal interventions in addition to music interventions to best serve the needs of clients in music therapy.

Annie Heiderscheit

Reflection On The Music Concert: The Mobile Pops

• Category: Music
• Topic: Concert Review , Music Industry

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