Psychology of Music

This historical account traces the beginnings of the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE) to the founding of the Society for Research in Psychology of Music and Music Education (SRPMME) in 1972, which in turn had evolved from Arnold Bentley’s Research in Music Education conferences instituted in 1966. The paper charts the growth and development of SRPMME through to its transformation into SEMPRE in 2002. In conclusion there is a discussion of the society’s achievements and influences which augur well for the future of research in the fields of music, education and psychology.

In our recently-published book Musical Imaginations (Hargreaves, Miell, & MacDonald, 2012), I suggest that the creative aspects of music listening have been neglected, and that putting these at the centre of musical creativity (which is usually seen as being manifested in the activities of composition, improvisation and performance) can lead to a more fundamental view of imagination as the cognitive basis of musical activity. I consider different approaches to the concept of musical beauty in experimental aesthetics and neuroscience, and also different views of the concept of imagination, which declined in psychology in favour of studies of creativity. I propose that we should redress this balance by orienting the study of musical activity around the musical imagination, such that the concept of musical creativity can be seen to be much more restricted in scope. I suggest that musical imagination involves different networks of association, and consider the existence of a creative general executive function for music. This leads to a revised and simplified reciprocal-feedback model of music processing, which exists at the core of both musical perception and musical production.

Group musical improvisation, as a spontaneous process of collaborative creativity effected through non-verbal social interaction, is a unique psychological phenomenon and universal capacity. Existing studies focus on improvisation among professional jazz musicians, often using qualitative methods. However, improvisation transcends genres and levels of training or experience, and existing qualitative data are rarely analyzed as discourse. We compare findings from studies of jazz musicians’ improvising with interview data from free improvisers from varied backgrounds focused on their improvising together (n = 10). The ways jazz musicians construct improvising in talk were distinct from the constructions of this more diverse group, suggesting a specifically professional discourse. By focusing on accounts of deciding whether to play, the ambiguity of musical contributions in the non-verbal context of playing is highlighted. Analysis indicates that musical acts within improvisation are interpreted by the musicians involved in ways that inherently support or resist particular identities. The unique creative, communicative and social process of musical improvising in groups can therefore best be understood when the entirety of improvisational practice and its various contexts are acknowledged. Future research can best recognize the diversity of, and change in, what improvisation can encompass with continued discursive investigation of group improvising.

This paper explores the emotions connected with music performance. Performing music provides the potential to attain wellbeing via the hedonic and eudaimonic routes, appealing to pleasure, engagement and meaning (Seligman, 2002). To date, most research exploring emotions amongst performers has focused on these components separately, exploring positive or negative affect, flow, or the development of performer identity. In the current study, 35 university students (mean age 20.6 years) gave free reports of their strongest, most intense experiences of performing music. Accounts were content analyzed using the Strong Experiences of Music Descriptive System (Gabrielsson & Lindström Wik, 2003), and also analyzed for the components of wellbeing using an idiographic approach. Four basic types of response were characterized, emphasizing: (1) negative and positive emotions and personal engagement; (2) negative and positive emotions, engagement and meaning; (3) positive emotion and meaning; or (4) positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. The emphasis on the eudaimonic route to wellbeing (through engagement and meaning) shows that young musicians do have valuable and rewarding experiences with the potential to sustain long-term motivation to engage with practical music-making. The value of the positive psychology framework is also demonstrated by its applicability to descriptions of strong experiences of performing music.

The research literature concerning gesture in musical performance increasingly reports that musically communicative and meaningful performances contain highly expressive bodily movements. These movements are involved in the generation of the musically expressive performance, but enquiry into the development of expressive bodily movement has been limited. In two studies this paper explores the expressive components of bodily movement in both solo and ensemble musical performance. The first study examined flute and clarinet performers in both solo and duo settings. Whilst each player had a specific way of expressing musical goals through their bodily movement, there were features common to the woodwind instruments investigated. Detailed analyses revealed that, although many movements were possible, performers used only six basic expressive gesture types. The second study described a performance of the internationally celebrated pianist, Lang Lang, focusing on the relationship between musical affect, bodily movement and facial expression. Analysis also revealed extensive and striking use of combined bodily and facial expression, which were involved in articulating structural features of the music and the narrative of the work. Findings suggest the existence of a repertoire of expressive information used for the generation of expressive ideas, and available to the observers of music performers.

Despite the centrality of live musical performance to jazz, there has been little scholarly attention placed on the performer–audience relationship. This pilot study explored the factors that assisted and hindered this relationship among players and audience members attending live performances at a London jazz club. Semi-structured interviews were held with seven jazz musicians and ten audience members who had been present at one of their performances in a London jazz club. The central question was ‘what makes a successful jazz gig?’. Content analysis of responses identified that responses clustered in three major themes: the power of the audience, as experienced by both parties in positive and negative ways; the critical importance of venue size in moderating the quality of the performer-audience interaction; and the relative accuracy of each group’s beliefs about what the other group sought from this relationship. A major finding was that performers set clear limits on the degree to which they are willing to take audience views or behaviour into consideration, whilst acknowledging the very considerable power of the audience to influence events for better or for worse.

There has been considerable research considering how instrumental practice changes as expertise develops. Much of that research has been relatively small scale and restricted in the range of instrumentalists included. This paper aimed to explore the development of practising strategies and motivation to practise as expertise develops with a large sample of participants at different levels of expertise playing a wide range of different instruments. A total of 3,325 young people ranging in level of expertise from beginner to the level required for entry to higher education conservatoires completed a questionnaire which consisted of a number of statements relating to practising strategies, organization of practice, and motivation to practise with a seven-point rating scale. Data were analyzed in relation to nine levels of expertise. Factor analysis revealed seven factors: adoption of systematic practice strategies; organization of practice; use of recordings for listening and feedback and use of the metronome; use of analytic strategies; adoption of ineffective strategies; concentration; and immediate correction of errors. There were statistically significant linear relationships between grade level and four of the factors but not for organization of practice; use of analytic strategies; and concentration. The findings are discussed in relation to the educational implications.