Developing Familiarity in a New Duo: Rehearsal Talk and Performance Cues

Context and Aims: Social and cognitive processes underlying individual classical musicians' and duo performers' preparation for performance have been explored using longitudinal case studies. Social processes can be inferred from rehearsal talk and recent studies have focused on its content and nature. Cognitive processes can be inferred from score annotations representing musicians' thoughts while practicing, rehearsing (rehearsal features), and playing or singing from memory (performance cues). We report three studies conducted by two practitioner-researchers: (1) of rehearsal talk; (2) of rehearsal features and thoughts while performing; and (3) a triangulation (as it were) of the two kinds of data to gauge the potential for rehearsal talk to predict the use of performance cues. Methods: A singer and viola player formed a new duo to prepare two songs, new to them both, for two performances on the same day and a third performance 10 months later. Their practice and rehearsal sessions, over the course of seven days, were recorded and transcribed. The musicians annotated copies of the scores after rehearsing and after each performance. Each musician performed one of the two songs from memory. First, verbal data were coded and analyzed using two frameworks for categorizing socio-emotional interactions and musical dimensions, respectively. Second, their annotations were categorized and compared, and finally the frameworks were combined so that correlations between rehearsal talk and performance cues could be calculated. Results: The musicians' verbal interactions were positive and task-related; significant changes over time were observed only in the extent to which they showed solidarity toward each other. Analysis of their annotations illustrates similarities and differences between their attention to specific features of the music while rehearsing and performing, particularly from memory. Rehearsal talk predicted performance cues in the third performance, but not the first or second. Conclusion: Musicians' talk cannot be assumed to reflect musicians' actions. The study of musicians' verbal interactions may be less useful for determining cognitive than social processes underlying preparation for performance. Nevertheless, the study provides a detailed snapshot of classical musicians' “real world” preparation for performance, highlighting the role of spontaneity in performance, and underlining differences between what happens in the studio and what can happen on stage

Making myself understood: perceived factors affecting the intelligibility of sung text

Singing is universal, and understanding sung words is thought to be important for many listeners’ enjoyment of vocal and choral music. However, this is not a trivial task, and sung text intelligibility is probably affected by many factors. A survey of musicians was undertaken to identify the factors believed to have most impact on intelligibility, and to assess the importance of understanding sung words in familiar and unfamiliar languages. A total of 143 professional and amateur musicians, including singers, singing teachers, and regular listeners to vocal music, provided 394 statements yielding 851 references to one or more of 43 discrete factors in four categories: performer-related, listener-related, environment-related and words/music-related. The factors mentioned most frequently in each of the four categories were, respectively: diction; hearing ability; acoustic; and genre. In more than a third of references, the extent to which sung text is intelligible was attributed to the performer. Over 60% of respondents rated the ability to understand words in familiar languages as “very important,” but only 17% when the text was in an unfamiliar language. Professional musicians (47% of the sample) rated the importance of understanding in both familiar and unfamiliar languages significantly higher than amateurs but listed fewer factors overall and fewer listener-related factors. The more important the respondents rated understanding, the more performer-related and environment-related factors they tended to list. There were no significant differences between the responses of those who teach singing and those who do not. Enhancing sung text intelligibility is thus perceived to be within the singer’s control, at least to some extent, but there are also many factors outside their control. Empirical research is needed to explore some of these factors in greater depth, and has the potential to inform pedagogy for singers, composers, and choral directors

“The brilliance of perfection” or “pointless finish”? What virtuosity means to musicians.

The concept of virtuosity has been explored by music historians and theorists from disciplines ranging from aesthetics and anthropology to semiotics. Its history goes back to ancient times, although it is often thought to culminate in the 19th century with Liszt and Paganini. Many historical sources quote well-known performers and composers but little is known as to how music students and professional musicians define virtuosity today, and what it means to them as performers and audiences. The present study was exploratory, employing a mixed methods approach. A total of 102 musicians provided open-ended responses to a short questionnaire. A keyword-in-context analysis of content was undertaken, followed by a more in-depth thematic analysis. Five main themes emerged: characteristics of virtuosity; relationship between virtuosity and (“magical”) music making; aspirations towards virtuosity; how virtuosity is achieved; and communication. Responses from students and professionals were compared and are discussed with reference to historical and current theoretical models

The Experiences of Mid-career and Seasoned Orchestral Musicians in the UK During the First COVID-19 Lockdown

The introduction of social distancing, as part of efforts to try and curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought about drastic disruption to the world of the performing arts. In the UK the majority of professional orchestral musicians are freelance and therefore self-employed. These players, previously engaged in enjoyable, busy, successful, portfolio careers, are currently unable to earn a living carrying out their everyday work of performing music, and their future working lives are surrounded by great uncertainty. The aim of the present study was to examine how established professional musicians are experiencing this period, and to look for similarities and differences between the experiences of musicians in the middle of their performing careers (aged 35–45), with those of older players (aged 53 and over). Single semi-structured interviews were carried out over Zoom with 24 freelance, self-employed orchestral musicians; 12 mid-career musicians aged 35–45, and 12 seasoned musicians aged 53 and over. Thematic analysis identified themes common to both groups: the loss of a much-loved performing career, missing music making and colleagues, and anxiety about the future of the music profession. It also identified differences between the two groups: challenges to their identity as a musician, the extent of their anxiety about finances, the extent of their emotional distress, attitudes toward practicing and engaging in collaborative music making, and confusion over future career plans. Findings are discussed with reference to lifespan models of musicians' career development, the PERMA model of wellbeing, and the concept of resilience

Understanding what we mean by portfolio training in music

Although musicians have always had portfolio careers, the discourse in conservatoires around training musicians specifically for portfolio careers is relatively new. This is partly because of increasing opportunities in the workplace for entrepreneurial and multi-faceted musicians and partly – in the UK at least – because of educational policy and practice. This article incorporates narratives provided by professional portfolio musicians and students and teachers at a single conservatoire in the UK, to illustrate disjunctures between the expectations fostered by conservatoires undergoing changes in their culture and the lived experiences of teachers and students responding, in real time, to changes both within the conservatoire and in the wider society. One of the key findings of the research is that teachers and students have qualitatively different conceptions of what it means for students to be trained for portfolio careers. The paper concludes by considering the implications of their different understandings for initiatives to reform conservatoire curricula

Time for practice: implications of undergraduate pianists’ choices of repertoire

There is an on-going debate as to the skills needed for 21st century careers in classical music and how undergraduate students should learn them. Many graduate pianists report being under-prepared for the music profession, lacking sight-reading skills in particular. While research-evidenced pedagogy for improving sight-reading skills has been developed, little is known regarding what impact enhancing this skill could have on undergraduate educational experience. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of sight-reading training on undergraduate pianists’ choices of repertoire for practice. Two groups of 12 participants were recruited from three institutions in the UK and Australia. One group undertook the sight-reading training programme for 10 weeks. Both groups listed the solo, concerto, chamber and accompanying repertoire they practised. The mean lengths of time participants spent practising each kind of repertoire were calculated. There were significant effects of institution and therefore country on practice time but no effects of the sight-reading training. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that interventions should be designed to develop pianists’ practical skills, including sight-reading, and the long-term effects of such interventions on quality of deliberate practice, particularly on the types of repertoire that are likely to be most valuable for pianists in the early stages of their career, should be evaluated

25 years of ESCOM: Achievements and challenges

This reflection on the first 25 years of ESCOM’s activities is in two parts. In the first part we analyse the country and discipline spread of contributors to its journal Musicae Scientiae and its formal membership. In the second we address the choice of “cognitive sciences of music” as the initial focus of both Society and journal by comparing the topics of early meetings and publications with those that are current now. Journal contributors and members are both concentrated in a small number of countries. When corrected for population size, the countries with the highest levels of activity are, in order: Finland, Estonia, UK, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria. This has not changed substantially over the duration of ESCOM’s existence. In contrast, there have been significant changes in the disciplinary spread of contributions, psychology becoming increasingly popular in recent years to the near exclusion of some other disciplinary approaches including ethnomusicology, computational modelling and theoretical musicology. Current topics include performance and composition, emotion, musical development, perception, music therapy and well-being, music learning, preferences, cognition, and neuropsychological approaches. An early aspiration of the Society was that the wide range of disciplines represented by the cognitive sciences of music might eventually converge, but this has proved difficult to achieve. An increasing convergence on the use of English as its normative language, however, has provided ESCOM with both new challenges and some opportunities

Why do music students attend counselling? A longitudinal study of reasons in one UK conservatoire

Music students in tertiary education struggle with a range of health-related problems. We investigated students’ self-referrals for counselling at a UK conservatoire in order to explore trends in students’ attendance at counselling sessions over time, and identify their reasons for seeking and continuing to attend counselling. We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected from 645 students by two in-house counsellors at the conservatoire between 2000 and 2016. We obtained analogous data on all students registered during the same period for comparison, running chi-square and non-parametric tests of association between groups. A total of 645 students attended a mean of eight (Mdn=4) counselling sessions over the 16-year period: 63% were female, 79% were from the UK, and 72.5% were undergraduate students. The percentages of students attending counselling increased from two (1%) in 2000-2001 to 71 (13%) in 2015-2016. The presenting concerns of almost one in ten students who sought counselling were related to self-esteem, self-confidence, ego strength and coping ability. Their main reasons for continuing to attend counselling were also to do with self and identity, relationships, academic concerns, loss, abuse, and anxiety. Female students, postgraduate students, and those studying singing were most likely to attend counselling sessions

Making myself understood: perceived factors affecting the intelligibility of sung text

Singing is universal, and understanding sung words is thought to be important for many listeners’ enjoyment of vocal and choral music. However, this is not a trivial task, and sung text intelligibility is probably affected by many factors. A survey of musicians was undertaken to identify the factors believed to have most impact on intelligibility, and to assess the importance of understanding sung words in familiar and unfamiliar languages. A total of 143 professional and amateur musicians, including singers, singing teachers, and regular listeners to vocal music, provided 394 statements yielding 851 references to one or more of 43 discrete factors in four categories: performer-related, listener-related, environment-related and words/music-related. The factors mentioned most frequently in each of the four categories were, respectively: diction; hearing ability; acoustic; and genre. In more than a third of references, the extent to which sung text is intelligible was attributed to the performer. Over 60% of respondents rated the ability to understand words in familiar languages as “very important,” but only 17% when the text was in an unfamiliar language. Professional musicians (47% of the sample) rated the importance of understanding in both familiar and unfamiliar languages significantly higher than amateurs but listed fewer factors overall and fewer listener-related factors. The more important the respondents rated understanding, the more performer-related and environment-related factors they tended to list. There were no significant differences between the responses of those who teach singing and those who do not. Enhancing sung text intelligibility is thus perceived to be within the singer’s control, at least to some extent, but there are also many factors outside their control. Empirical research is needed to explore some of these factors in greater depth, and has the potential to inform pedagogy for singers, composers, and choral directors

Engagement and burnout among music performance students

The psychological and physical demands of the music profession can take their toll, putting musicians’ health and wellness at risk. Despite its potential impact on the changes in attitudes towards music- making, well-being remains under-researched in the context of tertiary music education.The current paper reports a study of two facets of well-being: engagement with performance and burnout among music performance students at conservatoires. The study aimed to establish and compare the levels of engagement and burnout in music students in the UK and Australia, exploring their potential social-environmental determinants and health and performance-related consequences. In line with the literature on sport and dance, Basic Psychological Need Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), which seeks to explain the role of satisfaction of autonomy, competence and relatedness in well- being, was used as the theoretical framework for studying the possible determinants of engagement and burnout. A cross-sectional design and questionnaire methods were employed in the study. Data were collected from 146 performance students from several conservatoires in the UK and a single conservatoire in Australia. The results revealed that while burnout was not prevalent in the sample, the respondents tended to experience moderate to high levels of engagement. Overall, there were no differences between the students in the UK and Australia in terms of engagement and burnout. Only weak correlations were found between engagement and burnout, and health issues, musculoskeletal pain and practice strategies employed by respondents. The findings of the study suggest that the social context of the conservatoire and the sense of competence may play a major role in the psychological well-being of music performance students, confirming the basic tenets of Basic Psychological Need Theory.The study sheds light on determinants and consequences of well-being in music education setting, thus contributing to the better understanding of healthy careers in music and forming the basis of practical advice for institutions and principal studies tutors on how to enhance music-related well- being in conservatoire students.Keywords: music education, psychological well-being, engagement, burnout, Basic Psychological Need TheoryReferences Deci, E.L., Ryan, R.M. (2000) The ”˜what’ and ”˜why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry. Vol.11 No.4, 227-268