Jane W. Davidson

Innate talents: Reality or myth?

Talents that selectively facilitate the acquisition of high levels of skill are said to be present in some children but not others. The evidence for this includes biological correlates of specific abilities, certain rare abilities in autistic savants, and the seemingly spontaneous emergence of exceptional abilities in young children, but there is also contrary evidence indicating an absence of early precursors of high skill levels. An analysis of positive and negative evidence and arguments suggests that differences in early experiences, preferences, opportunities, habits, training, and practice are the real determinants of excellence.

Visual Perception of Performance Manner in the Movements of Solo Musicians

The study of music perception has focused almost exclusively on sound, ignoring the role of seeing the performers body movements. Whilst anecdotes frequently refer to the importance of the performers movements, there is scant psychological evidence to support this finding. The closest equivalent work in visual event perception research has shown that covert mental dispositions (for instance, an intention to deceive an observer) are specified in body movements, and therefore provide important information for the observer.. With these findings in mind, this article investigates the information conveyed by the movements of a musical performer when s/he is asked to play-the same piece in three different expressive manners. These performance manners are presented to observers in three modes: vision alone, sound alone and sound and vision together to investigate the relative contributions of the different perceptual modes. The results reveal that not only is vision a useful source of information about manner, but that it actually more clearly specifies manner than the other modes. These findings emphasise the need to consider visual as well as sound information in psychological enquiries into music perception.

Effects of group singing and performance for marginalized and middle-class singers

In western society music performance is generally considered from the perspective of the elite performer, and the performance literature within the psychology of music has been representative of this preoccupation. But, in spite of much attention being directed to the ‘how’ of creating exceptional performances, little attention has been given to the ‘why’ of performance. Results of an investigation with members of a choir for homeless men indicated that group singing and performance, at the most amateur levels of musicality, yielded considerable emotional, social and cognitive benefits. The present article further explores the effects of group singing and performance with (a) a second choir formed for homeless and other marginalized individuals who had little or no music training or group singing experience, and (b) middle-class singers with low to high levels of music training and choral singing experience. Results indicate that the emotional effects of participation in group singing are similar regardless of training or socioeconomic status, but the interpersonal and cognitive components of the choral experience have different meanings for the marginalized and middle-class singers. Whereas the marginalized individuals appear to embrace all aspects of the group singing experience, the middle-class choristers are inhibited by prevalent social expectations of musicianship. The outcomes may be of relevance to music educators, therapists and choral conductors who wish to create a choral environment in which the benefits of singing and performance override elitist concerns.

Exploring Co-Performer Communication

This paper examines the development and implementation of general social and specific non-verbal communication between two expert pianists who prepared and gave a recital of piano duo and duet music. All ensemble rehearsals and the final performance were video-taped. Following the performance, the musicians were interviewed in order to document their thoughts on the learning and performance processes. From the video-taped rehearsals and performance, data concerning musical coordination, social interaction, non-verbal gestures and looking behaviour were coded and counted. The results show that these excellent sight-readers used rehearsals to consolidate the timing, phrasing and sense of musical style. Moreover, an emergent set of coordinated, non-verbal gestures and eye-contact developed, with these actions increasing significantly over the rehearsal process at locations in the music identified by the pianists as “important for coordinating performance and communicating musical ideas”. Thus, the two performers acquired a deepening expressive and communicative assurance along with a familiarisation with the musical material. The findings are discussed in relation to their implications for musical performance by highlighting the elements of co-performer interaction that were negotiated and coordinated throughout the rehearsal process.

Social and Musical Co-Ordination between Members of a String Quartet: An Exploratory Study

This paper examines the social and musical co-ordination between members of a student string quartet in rehearsal and performance. Devised as an exploratory observation and interview study, a two-tier analysis of the data is undertaken. The first deals with broadly socio-cultural issues, the second with moment-by-moment social and musical co-ordination. The results indicate that there are many factors that influence the functioning of such an ensemble. These include personal concerns about particular social dynamics within the group, performance anxiety worries, as well as immediate musical demands relating to the co-ordination of content and process. The paper concludes with a discussion of ways in which further studies of social and musical co-ordination might be developed. In particular, emphasis is given to the need for the development of a comprehensive theoretical framework reflecting a more adequate conception of music ontology and encapsulating the mutuality of the multi-tier social and musical factors.

The Role of the Body in the Production and Perception of Solo Vocal Performance: A Case Study of Annie Lennox

The work described in this paper interprets the body movements of singers in an attempt to understand the relationships between physical control and the musical material being performed, and the performers implicit and explicit expressive intentions. The work builds upon a previous literature which has suggested that the relationship between physical execution and the expression of mental states is a subtle and complex one. For instance, performers appear to develop a vocabulary of expressive gestures, yet these gestures – though perceptually discreet – co-exist and are even integrated to become part of the functional movement of playing. Additionally, there is the matter of how both musical and extra-musical concerns are coordinated between performer, co-performers and audience using body movements. A case study shows how, in the interaction between body style, musical expression and communication movements of both an individual and culturally-determined style are used. Many of these performance movements have clear functions and meanings: to communicate expressive intention (for instance, a sudden surge forwards to facilitate the execution of a loud musical passage, or a high curving hand gesture to link sections of the music during a pause); to communicate to the audience or co-performers a need for co-ordination or participation (for example, nodding the head to indicate “now” for the audience to join in a chorus of a song; or exchanging glances for the co-performer to take over a solo); to signal extra-musical concerns (for example, gesturing to the audience to remain quiet); and to present information about the performers personality, with their individualized characteristics providing important cues (muted contained gestures, or large extravagant gestures, for example); to show off to the audience. From these results a theory is developed to explain how gestural elements help to make a performance meaningful.

Developing Effective Practise Strategies: Case studies of three young instrumentalists

The importance of practise is self-evident to instrumental teachers and parents, who will put considerable energy into ensuring that pupils work between lessons to maintain progress on their instrument. A longitudinal study at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, has been investigating the cognitive strategies used by young instrumentalists when they practise, relating this and other factors, such as environment, motivation and general ability, to the progress that is made in the first years of learning. In this paper, case studies of three of the pupils involved in that study will be used to demonstrate the range of practise strategies that children devise, and to analyse their efficiency in promoting musical development. The implications for teachers and parents will be considered, and a definition of ‘effective practise’ sought.

Musical Practice: Mother and child interactions during the first year of learning an instrument

Mother and child interviews were analysed for a group of 157 beginning instrumentalists aged 7-9 during the first year of their learning. The purpose was to study interactions in terms of the quantity and content of the childrens practice, the mothers support and supervision of home practice, the relationship of previous exposure to learning an instrument and consistency of practice, and differences in expectations and practice habits of children who ceased instruction compared to those who continued learning. The childrens mothers were able to make accurate assessments of how much support they would need to provide for their child even before instruction began. Mothers who reported that they were worried about practice before their child commenced lessons were more likely to have children who ceased instruction. Children who ceased learning typically had unrealistically high expectations about how much practice they would undertake even before commencing lessons. After they started, and the reality of learning set in, they also consistently undertook less practice than their peers who chose to continue. Implications for future research are discussed based on the results of the study.

Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument

This article presents a study of a choir of homeless men who experienced positive life transformations since joining the choir. In view of holistic health constructs which propose that overall health and life satisfaction are rooted in cultural practices, it was considered that involvement in group singing, in a community setting germane to the lifestyle of the participants, may have contributed to the positive outcomes. The results of an interpretative phenomenological analysis of in–depth semi–structured interviews indicated that group singing appeared to promote therapeutic effects which precipitated from emotional, social and mental engagement. The themes are discussed in reference to Ruuds (1997) music therapeutic theory which promotes the importance of culturally relevant musical activities in enhancing quality of life. The similarities between Ruuds themes and those which evolved with the homeless singers emphasize the therapeutic role of commonplace, community–based musical activities.

Are There Early Childhood Signs of Musical Ability

The parents of 257 children who had all studied a musical instrument but who differed in the extent of their mastery were interviewed in order to investigate the claim that unusual musical expertise is often preceded by early signs in the form of spontaneous musical behaviours. Of the possible early signs that were investigated, only one, singing by the child, was observed at an earlier age in those children who later became the most accomplished young musicians than in the other children. With the other four early signs examined in this study, the age at which the behaviours first occurred did not differ between the most and least competent musicians. The age at which parent and child first listened to music together tended to be lower for the most successful children, and these were more likely than the others to have had a keyboard instrument in their home from an early age.