Jazz education in Western Switzerland in the 1970s and 1980s: Formal, Non-Formal or Informal Learning Settings?

This article aims to complement the understanding of the implementation, expansion, and formalisation of jazz education as well as of how jazz was learnt and taught in the 1970s and 1980s in the Western, French-speaking, part of Switzerland. Focussing on this specific geographical context, it takes a close look at the transition from traditional, informal learning to what are considered as more formal realms of learning in jazz education. Drawing both on documentary analysis and in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with former students, directors, and teachers of the first jazz schools and jazz departments, it provides a description of the Swiss jazz educational landscape at its beginnings. Two educational models that emerged are compared in the light of the formal-informal spectrum. Finally, the music training trajectories of nine students who attended the newly created settings for jazz learning are analysed. Special attention is given to learning practices, skills transfer and the processes of access to and appropriation of music learning environments. These analyses provide evidence of the flexibility and shifting character of organisational boundaries and educational practices during the implementation of new patterns of music learning

How audience and general music performance anxiety affect classical music students' flow experience: A close look at its dimensions

Flow describes a state of intense experiential involvement in an activity that is defined in terms of nine dimensions. Despite increased interest in understanding the flow experience of musicians in recent years, knowledge of how characteristics of the musician and of the music performance context affect the flow experience at the dimension level is lacking. In this study, we aimed to investigate how musicians’ general music performance anxiety (MPA) level (i.e., the general tendency to experience anxiety during solo music performances) and the presence of an audience influence the nine flow dimensions. The participants were 121 university music students who performed solo a music piece once by themselves (private performance) and once in front of an audience (public performance). Their general MPA level was measured with an adapted version of the STAI and ranged from 27 (very low MPA) to 76 (very high MPA). The level of the nine flow dimensions was assessed with the Flow State Scale-2 after each performance. The levels of “concentration on task at hand,” “sense of control,” and “autotelic experience” decreased significantly with increasing general MPA level. The levels of “unambiguous feedback” and “loss of self-consciousness” decreased significantly with increasing general MPA level during the public performance only. The level of “sense of control” was significantly lower during the public performance than the private performance across participants. The level of “unambiguous feedback” was significantly lower during the public performance than the private performance for participants with a general MPA level higher than 47. The level of “loss of self-consciousness” was significantly lower during the public performance than the private performance for participants with a general MPA level higher than 32. In contrast, the general MPA level and the audience did not significantly affect the levels of “challenge-skill balance,” “clear goals,” and “action-awareness merging.” These results show that the effects of general MPA level and audience vary greatly across flow state dimensions. We conclude that musicians’ flow state should be analyzed at the dimension level rather than as a global score. We discuss how our findings could inform the development and implementation of interventions

Accompagnement partagé dans une formation en alternance à l’enseignement instrumental

Cette recherche, conduite dans une Haute école suisse de musique lors de la mise en place d’un nouveau dispositif de formation pour le master en pédagogie instrumentale et vocale, vise à mettre en évidence les conceptions des acteurs concernés (étudiants-stagiaires, professeurs de pédagogie, didacticiens et maîtres de stages) relatives aux pratiques, postures et rôles de l’accompagnement. Les données récoltées par entretiens et « focus groups » ont fait l’objet d’une analyse catégorielle de contenu mixte. Les résultats permettent de comprendre les liens existants entre les conceptions, le contexte institutionnel, la plateforme utilisée et la forme de l’accompagnement (bilatéral, multilatéral ou partagé) actualisée par les acteurs.Conducted in a Swiss music university along with the implementation of a new training system for a master’s course of instrument teaching, this research aims to highlight how the beliefs about support by the different actors involved (pedagogy teachers, didactic teachers as well as practical training teachers) shape their practices, postures and accompaniment behaviors of the students-trainees. Data collected by means of interviews or focus groups were analyzed using categorical analysis of mixed content. The results allow to better understand how these beliefs, the institutional context and the platform itself facilitate or inhibit the development of a truly shared support

Are musicians particularly sensitive to beauty and goodness?

The main purpose of this research was to further validate the characteristic responsiveness to the good and beautiful by investigating its links with different degrees of involvement in musical practice, and with three art-relevant personality constructs. Participants (125 professional musicians working in various fields, 125 amateur musicians, and 125 nonmusicians) filled in the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005), the Engagement with Beauty Scale (Diessner, Parsons, Solom, Frost, & Davidson, 2008), the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence Test (Güsewell & Ruch, 2012a), the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V (Zuckerman, 1994), the Tellegen Absorption Scale (Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974), and the Dispositional Positive Emotion Scale (Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006). Overall, responsiveness proved to be related to the degree of involvement in musical practice. However, professional musicians displayed distinct profiles depending on their main occupational activity: Whereas music teachers and orchestra musicians showed a specific sensitivity to artistic beauty, soloists evidenced an overall high sensitivity to all types of beauty and goodness. Furthermore, results showed that the responsiveness dimensions correlated in a theoretically meaningful manner with dispositional awe, absorption, and experience seeking