What is music education for? Understanding and fostering routes into lifelong musical engagement

Music education has a long history of defending its place in the school curriculum, with practitioners and researchers alike arguing for the creative, social and cognitive benefits of music in young people's lives. Meanwhile, those who doubt the benefits of musical learning – or more likely give them very little thought – are themselves the product of their own music education, just as much as the many amateur musicians and music listeners, a smaller number of professional musicians, and indeed the music education workforce in schools, universities and beyond. There are challenging questions to be asked, therefore, about what lasting values and attitudes the majority of the population acquire during their formative musical years – and what responsibilities school music education holds for shaping those values across the population. This keynote paper from RIME 2015 draws on diverse empirical studies with infant schools, chamber music audiences and lapsed amateur musicians, using this evidence to reflect on how music educators could be more aware – and make others more aware – of their contribution to lifelong musical engagement, and of the risks, challenges and opportunities inherent in the shaping of musical lives

Music, Language and Learning: Investigating the Impact of a Music Workshop Project in Four English Early Years Settings

The Soundplay project ran in four early years settings in Sheffield, UK, in 2014-15, using a series of music workshops to attempt to increase the music and language attainment of children aged two to four years. The associated research investigated the impact of the programme, using a combination of observation, music and language tracker tools, and interviews and written reports from the early years practitioners, parents and workshop leaders. The research demonstrated higher than average development in language skills amongst children who had been identified as being at risk of developmental delay, and also highlighted ways in which music helped to build confidence, social interaction and enjoyment. The confidence and engagement of the practitioners was supported through professional development, and end of project surveys showed how the practitioners had understood the potential of music for their children and had identified some strategies for including it in their future teaching. The project is evaluated here as a model for collaborative and embedded research, which contributes to the growing body of evidence for the effectiveness of music in early years settings

Audiences for the contemporary arts: Exploring varieties of participation across art forms in Birmingham, UK

This article provides an overview of the key findings of the research project, Understanding Audiences for the Contemporary Arts, a collaboration between the Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre (SPARC) and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG). The project investigated the experiences of audiences for ‘contemporary’ work across art forms (craft, dance, music, theatre and visual art), and helped develop a collaborative network of contemporary arts organisations in Birmingham. This article provides an account of the distinctive research design employed during the eight months of collaboration in Birmingham and a summary of the project’s six main findings. The paper indicates the implications these findings have for organisations presenting contemporary work and how they might widen and deepen relationships with audiences. It concludes by suggesting the need to move beyond the prevailing vocabularies and conceptualizations of audience ‘access’ and ‘barriers’, and for researchers and cultural organisations to instead address the varieties of participation and the possibilities of ‘cultural citizenship’

Adolescent perceptions of singing: exploring gendered differences in musical confidence, identity and ambition

Previous research on adolescents and singing has focused on understanding the physiological changes in the voice during the age range 11–16 [Cooksey, J. M., and G. F. Welch. 2008. ‘Adolescence, singing development and national curricula design.’ British Journal of Music Education 15 (1): 99–119], and addressing the lack of male participation in singing [Ashley, M. R. 2013. ‘Broken voices or a broken curriculum? The impact of research on UK school choral practice with boys.’ British Journal of Music Education 30 (3): 311–327; Hall, C. 1999. ‘Gender and boys” singing in early childhood.’ British Journal of Music Education 22 (1): 5–20]. This study makes a new contribution by exploring adolescent girls’ perceptions of singing as compared with those of boys. Through an inductive, two-phase research design, the language of the students themselves is used to describe their perceptions of singing. The roles of motivation, confidence, self-efficacy and autonomy come through as strong influences on the students’ enjoyment of singing. Boys have a tendency to exhibit static ability evaluations in this age group, and demonstrate a lack of cognitive understanding of their changing voices. Girls, however, recognise that effort, ability and confidence interact in different ways depending on the social context for their singing. Recommendations for teachers are made, that could challenge boys’ fixed views of their vocal abilities, and strengthen the appeal of group singing for all adolescents

A cross-cultural comparison of music education experiences and ambitions in two Spanish and English primary schools

This paper reports on a small-scale comparative study of music education provision in two Spanish and English primary schools. The study used questionnaires, interviews and observations to investigate the musical experiences of the children in the two schools, their ambitions for their musical futures, and the classroom practices and policy contexts that shaped these encounters with musical learning. Through thematic analysis and comparison of the data from the two schools, we examine music in children’s lives, music in the classroom, and musical ambitions and values, and consider how well the music curriculum serves the children in each setting. Our research shows the value of cross-cultural comparisons for raising fundamental questions about the purpose and provision of musical education, with wider implications for teachers and learners in these two countries and beyond

“The Violin in the Attic”: Investigating the Long-Term Value of Lapsed Musical Participation

The motivations and experiences of adults who participate in music making have attracted increasing research attention in recent years, but less is known about the probably far greater number who have “given up” playing an instrument or lapsed in their participation: what are the factors that cause people to cease their involvement in instrumental learning, and how are these different from the views of participation expressed by continuing players? Life history interviews with current and lapsed members of amateur performing groups are used here to explore the long-term impact of music education. Even when the opportunity to make music has been set aside, benefits remain of open-mindedness to the arts, support for children’s musical education, and understanding of the value of leisure and creativity. These findings lead to conclusions about how foundations for musical leisure and lifelong learning could be laid in formative education, and the routes back into musical engagement made more accessible in adulthood

'Audience exchange': cultivating peer-to-peer dialogue at unfamiliar arts events

Purpose – The paper aims to demonstrate the usefulness of the 'audience exchange' approach for audience development and research, and to highlight the insights offered by peer-to-peer dialogue in understanding experiences of unfamiliar arts. Design/methodology/approach – Using a case study with contemporary arts audiences, and setting this in the wider context of studies with other first-time attenders at a range of arts events, the paper explores the use of the 'audience exchange' method, in which facilitated conversations after performance events allow newcomers to reflect upon and deepen their first-time encounters with live arts. Findings – The study demonstrates the way in which conversations about arts events can enrich audience experience, and shows how participants use exploratory and emotional language to articulate their understanding of unfamiliar arts events. Peer-to-peer learning occurs through these conversations, in ways that could be further supported by arts organisations as a valuable tool for audience development. The audience exchange discussions also reveal the varieties of participation from 'drifting' to full attention that are all part of audience engagement. Research limitations/implications – This is a small-scale, qualitative study, and the method has potential to be tested in future studies with a greater variety of participants (e.g. younger or more ethnically diverse groups). Practical implications – The effectiveness of the audience exchange for enriching experiences of first-time attendance are demonstrated in the paper, and could be adopted by arts organisations as a regular part of their audience engagement. Greater understanding of how new audience members draw on prior cultural experiences in finding the language to articulate their first impressions of an unfamiliar arts event could be valuable for targeted marketing, and for making arts events more accessible to new attenders. Originality/value – The originality of this study lies in its elaboration of the audience exchange method, and its focus on the language and peer-to-peer learning evident in the facilitated post-performance discussions

(Un)popular music and young audiences: Exploring the classical chamber music concert from the perspective of young adult listeners

This empirical study explores the responses of 40 young people to a chamber music concert, considering how their greater experience of popular music listening formed a frame of reference for their responses to live classical music. Using qualitative methods including the ‘Write-Draw’ technique to investigate the young people’s responses before, during and after the concert, we demonstrate how the emotional, responsive listening of popular music conflicted with the etiquette of the concert hall and the structures of classical music. Our study sheds new light on the continued decline of young audiences for classical concerts and presents a challenge to music education to equip young people for all kinds of live musical experience