Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Research Publications
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ItemPlaying an Instrument(Oxford University Press, 2016)Learning to play a musical instrument is one of the most widespread musical activities for children. While much research in the past century has focused on the assessment of musical abilities and the content of their lessons, more recent research has focused on children’s interactions with their social environments and how these interactions impact their ongoing ability and motivation to learn and play music. This chapter explores these social and cognitive developments starting with how children and their parents select an instrument and negotiate the commencement of formal music learning, through to the task related cognitive strategies children use to overcome the difficulties associated with learning and practice, and the ways they may eventually become able to integrate an identity as a musician with their own sense of self. Aspects of self-regulation and self-determination theory are discussed.
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ItemDeveloping Tests of Music Performance Improvisation(Oxford University Press, 2019)This chapter presents a survey of research on the development and validation of a measure to assess instrumentalists’ ability to improvise music. It begins by framing efforts to distinguish between visual, aural, and creative forms of music performance, and the types of assessment tasks required to evaluate music performance improvisation. The chapter surveys a range of related measures that have been used to assess improvisational abilities in young developing musicians and provides a detailed description of the author’s own Test of Ability to Improvise (TAI) that he has used with beginning, intermediate, and advanced level school instrumentalists. Included also are examples of the instrumentalists’ improvisations and a discussion of the implications of the research findings for conceptions of musical development and practical applications within music education.
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ItemDeveloping Tests of Music Performance Improvisation(Oxford University Press, 2019-03-08)This chapter presents a survey of research on the development and validation of a measure to assess instrumentalists’ ability to improvise music. It begins by framing efforts to distinguish between visual, aural, and creative forms of music performance, and the types of assessment tasks required to evaluate music performance improvisation. The chapter surveys a range of related measures that have been used to assess improvisational abilities in young developing musicians and provides a detailed description of the author’s own Test of Ability to Improvise (TAI) that he has used with beginning, intermediate, and advanced level school instrumentalists. Included also are examples of the instrumentalists’ improvisations and a discussion of the implications of the research findings for conceptions of musical development and practical applications within music education.
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ItemDeveloping tests of musical improvisation performance(Oxford University Press, 2019-03-28)This volume also looks at technical aspects of measurement in music, and outlines situations where theoretical foundations can be applied to the development of tests in music.
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ItemThe molecular genetic basis of music ability and music-related phenotypes(Routledge, 2018)In the past decade, researchers have sought to uncover potential genes that underlie various musical traits through molecular genetic approaches once the genetic basis of a musical trait has been established using behavioral genetic methods. Since the 1980s, progress in molecular genetic technology and bioinformatics has brought about the advent of human molecular genetic approaches, especially for elucidating the genetic mechanisms of complex diseases. In contrast, the investigation of the molecular genetic basis of music ability only began to surface in recent years, with Irma Järvelä, a clinical geneticist at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and her collaborators contributing a sizeable and significant research output on this topic. Although this field is still in its infancy, some exciting and converging results are already beginning to emerge.
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ItemSelf-regulation and mastery of musical skills(RoutledgeCurzon, 2011)
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ItemProdigies in performance(ABC-CLIO, 2021)
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ItemDeveloping self-regulated musicians(Springer, 2018)Highlighted within this chapter is a collection of best practices for encouraging student musicians to develop as self-regulated learners. Two model lessons are presented that are emblematic of the kinds of considerations, methods, and techniques that teachers may find useful for classroom applications with a variety of beginning, intermediate, and advanced performers. A brief discussion of selected aspects of self-regulated learning theory follows the model lessons and this is used as a framework for understanding the processes, skills, and dispositions that are characteristic of self-regulated music learners. We present the primary components of the theory with an eye towards practical application in the classroom. The chapter concludes with a commentary and analysis of the two model lessons and how these typify approaches to the teaching of musical self-regulation.
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ItemLearning to perform: From 'gifts' and 'talents' to skills and creative engagement(Oxford University Press, 2017)To perform any skilled activity to expert level requires committed and intensely motivated learning. This chapter explores how musical development, particularly as it applies to learning an instrument, depends crucially on inventive and productive opportunities that coalesce in configurations unique to each learner. It reveals how an obsession with gifts and talents on the parts of researchers, teachers, parents and musicians alike has led to confusion over the nature and acquisition of the skills required for high-level music performance. It traces key theories on family scripts and self-determination to illustrate the ways in which psychological constructs shape belief and thus motivate learning. Environmental catalysts such as practice support and opportunity for creative expression offer additional significant influences. These factors are shown to align with intrapersonal characteristics and are described as syzygies, or inventive configurations, that provide pathways to committed music learning.
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ItemSelf-Regulated Learning in Music Practice and Performance(Routledge, 2017-09-07)This chapter discusses self-regulated learning (SRL) in the context of music. SRL holds significant potential for increasing the efficiency of musical skill acquisition across all aspects of music performance instruction. We begin with a review of selected research that has studied skill acquisition when learning to play a musical instrument. Although the literature related to this topic is growing steadily, much of the scholarship is scattered and atheoretical. Moreover, researchers in music tend to concentrate on behavior and cognition as separate and somewhat unrelated theoretical topics to the exclusion of affect. We discuss these limitations and present a summary of literature that brings research-based evidence pertaining to behavior, cognition, and affect together into a coherent SRL framework. Current and future research priorities are then detailed as a means of outlining ways of maximizing music practice, teacher-student interactions, and efficient approaches to learning complex musical skills. Our final section summarizes the discussion and provides implications for how SRL might be adopted more widely in the music education domain.