Psychology of Music

The gulf between research in music psychology and practice in music education presents a perennial and pressing problem, and Psychology of Music provides an appropriate forum in which to tackle it but a brief analysis of the contents of the first ten years of the journal suggests that we still face an uphill task. Viewing this problem from a developmental perspective may enable researchers to organise their knowledge such that it is more readily amenable to practical application, and this article sets out the potential scope and aims of a developmental psychology of music. Some growing areas of research are described in each of the three main theoretical perspectives within the subject, namely cognitive psychology (development of melodic processing, singing, and children's representations of music); cognitive-developmental psychology ("music conservation", and the development of aesthetic sensitivity); and behavioural psychology (motiv- ation, affect, and classroom music learning). The developmental perspective should be able to make a direct contribution to issues in music education such as the relationship between formal and intuitive musical understanding, the place of composition, improvisation and non-traditional musics in the curriculum, and the role of assessment and evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect that accompanying a tape-recorded soloist has on the ability of music students to sight read vocal and instrumental accompaniments at the piano. Specifically, the study examined a tape-recorded accompanying situation and its effects on the accuracy of the following sight reading skills: pitch, rhythm, and expression.

The null hypotheses for the study were tested by the Student's t test (a parametric test), the Mann-Whitney U test (a non-parametric test), and an analysis of covariance (a parametric test). Since the results of all three tests agreed, the validity of the findings was enhanced.

The treatment group that employed a tape-recorded soloist as an aid to teaching sight reading had significantly higher mean posttest rhythm accuracy scores than did the group that employed no taped soloist. The pitch accuracy and expression accuracy mean posttest scores of the two groups were not significantly different.

Aspects of the decision-making of 15 private piano teachers in south-western and western London in 16 policy areas are described: six examples of administrative decisions; four examples of student-related decisions; three examples of curricular decisions; and three examples of instructional decisions. The findings, based on in-depth focused interviews, show private piano teaching as a predominantly part-time occupation in which teachers are comparatively isolated, relatively independent and localised decision- makers. The decision-making process is egalitarian rather than hierarchical and institutions primarily function in an advisory or supportive capacity. Despite a decision-making role that is wider, especially in regard to the prominence of administrative function, than that typical in institutional teaching, the majority of private piano teachers are more interested in traditional teaching functions, e.g. student-related, curricular and instruc- tional matters, than in the administrative, organisational or business aspects of their studios. Implications for further research are then discussed.

Theories of interpersonal dynamics have been an integral part of research in the fields of psychology, psychiatry and the social sciences but have not been systematically applied to music teaching.

The present study makes use of Sigmund Freud's theory of the defence mechanisms of the personality, demonstrating how these mechanisms operate in shaping the diagnostic and remedial content of the student- teacher dyad in four private violin lessons. Drawn from 12 hours of videotaped lessons, the psychoanalytic interpretation of the behaviours of eight subjects supports the hypothesis that the manifest contents of the lesson interactions are dominated by the unconscious aims of either or both members of the dyad. These findings are consistent with the extensive psychiatric literature on the defences of personality in everyday life and suggest that observation and interpretation of these phenomena are of value to teachers and educators interested in the relation between task and personality in the setting of the private lesson.