Search

The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate changes in advanced musicians' self-regulated practice as they worked to acquire mastery of an étude across 2 weeks. Four advanced collegiate violinists recorded themselves practicing an étude in seven practice sessions, each approximately 20 min in length. Data were gathered via questionnaire, practice diaries, behavioral observations, an automated offline score-following program (which documented the measures played during practicing), and stimulated recall interviews in which participants commented on their own practice recordings. Several compelling changes in self-regulation sub-processes pertaining to forethought (goals, plans) and performance (strategies used, material addressed, time spent) self-regulation sub-processes across practice sessions were found. In addition, distinct differences in self-regulated learning tendencies were observed between participants. These results suggested that the participants struggled to implement a self-regulated learning approach, despite being advanced musicians and having much knowledge of practice methods. Suggestions for making practice instruction more explicit are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to explore a microanalysis technique for measuring instrumentalists' self-regulation tendencies during music practice. A secondary purpose was to investigate whether an intervention informed by the features of the microanalysis technique would increase the students' self-regulated learning tendencies. Three undergraduate instrumental music education majors volunteered to participate in this study. This study was designed as a multiple-baselines experiment spanning 15 consecutive days. Data sources included (a) entrance interviews; (b) daily practice efficacy ratings; (c) data gathered from pre- and posttest microanalysis sessions; (d) detailed behavioral analyses of video-recorded, pre- and posttest practice sessions; and (e) a focus group exit interview. The microanalytic intervention designed for this study involved a coaching session in which a member of the research team explicitly drew attention to the affective, behavioral, and metacognitive qualities related to effective practicing during a student's practice session. The pretest microanalysis data revealed distinct learning profiles for each student that were corroborated with information from the other data sources. The intervention had modest effects that varied across participants, suggesting that it was useful for bringing to light and addressing individuals' specific self-regulatory deficiencies in a manner respective to their needs.

Professional discussion of curricular change and innovation is essential for maintaining and increasing the positive effects that music education can have on schoolchildren. Much recent discourse about curricular change has focused on critiques of the traditional large-ensemble model of music education, technological innovation applied to teaching music, and the incorporation of popular music idioms. I propose counterpoints to these commonly discussed topics and offer suggestions for redirecting advocacy efforts and for reconsidering dispositions toward large-ensemble instruction. Rather than discard the current curricular models as inadequate, we can exercise patience and reflect while building on what currently exists. (Contains 11 notes.)

The purpose of this study was to investigate intermediate musicians' self-regulated practice behaviors. Thirty sixth- through eighth-grade students were observed practicing band repertoire individually for 20 min. Practice sessions were coded according to practice frame frequency and duration, length of musical passage selected, most prominent musical objective, and practice behaviors. The 600 min of video were parsed into 234 practice frames for analysis. Practice sessions also were rated for overall degree of self-regulation. Reliability of the observational procedures (three observers, 95% to 100% agreement) and self-regulation ratings (two raters, coefficients of 0.89 to 0.96) was excellent. Analyses revealed an average of 7.8 practice frames with a mean duration of 2 min 45 s across sessions. Participants most frequently addressed the musical objective pitch accuracy and most commonly selected passages of nine measures in length or greater. The most common practice behaviors were varying tempo, repeating fewer than four measures, repeating more than four measures, and irrelevant playing. Significant relationships were found between self-regulation ratings and frequencies of the behaviors writing on music (r = 0.55), varying tempo (r = 0.42), repeating four or more measures (r = 0.41), and irrelevant playing (r = 0.59). Implications for future research and practical applications are discussed. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

The purpose of this study was to develop and test the construct validity and reliability of a self-report measure of self-regulated practice behaviors for beginning and intermediate instrumentalists. A questionnaire was designed to assess the motive, method, behavior, time management, and social influences dimensions of the theoretical model of self-regulation proposed by McPherson and Zimmerman. The questionnaire's construct validity was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and a preliminary assessment of predictive validity was estimated by correlating the measure with self-reported practice habits. The measure's reliability in regard to internal consistency and consistency over time was assessed as well. The sample consisted of middle school band students in grades 6 to 8 (N = 302). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a model including factors representing the dimensions self-efficacy, method/behavior combined, time management, and social influences was the best fit. Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability results indicated good to excellent consistency across all self-regulation subscales, with coefficients ranging from 0.76 to 0.90. Significant correlations (p less than 0.001) between the self-regulation subscales and self-reported practice habits (i.e., time spent practicing, average daily practice efficiency, percentage of time spent on formal practice) provided preliminary evidence of predictive validity of the measure. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study was designed to (a) gather band directors' opinions of skills and characteristics important to teaching and (b) examine the relative effectiveness of electronic versus paper survey methods. Survey respondents ranked lists of music, teaching, and personal skills or characteristics in order of importance and answered open-ended items regarding advice for 1st-year teachers and the struggles and rewards of band directing. The final response rate was 66% (N = 235). Personal and teaching skills and characteristics were ranked higher than music skills. The items "maintain high musical standards," "be able to motivate students," and "enthusiastic, energetic" were the highest ranked skills or characteristics. Perseverance, patience, and long-term vision were the most common forms of advice to 1st-year teachers. Issues related to classroom management and student success were the most-often-cited struggles and rewards of band directing, respectively. An experiment comparing response rate and response quality as a function of survey method (i.e., e-survey vs. paper survey) and follow-up notification (i.e., postnote, no postnote) also was completed using a smaller subsample of respondents ( n = 102). Response rates for the e-survey conditions were better than those for the paper survey conditions. Greater proportions of respondents from the paper survey conditions completed the open-ended items. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)

We employed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) method to systematically review research on music practice from 1928 until June 2020 and identified a total of 3,102 records using our inclusion criteria, of which a total of 296 were eventually selected for the final analysis. We tabulated percentages and frequencies of (a) publications in ten-year periods, (b) type of publications, (c) sampling by geographical location, (d) methodologies used, (e) the top tenth percentile of the most highly cited research, and (f) topics covered. Our analyses reveal that particularly strong growth occurred in the literature between 2000 and 2020. In the literature we retrieved, the most commonly sampled research participants were those in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom and Australia. Quantitative research designs were most prevalent, accounting for two-thirds of all studies reviewed (66.2%), with questionnaires and recordings being the most common methods of data collection. Non-empirical papers (17.5%) as well as studies incorporating qualitative (13.5%) and mixed-methods designs (3.1%) were much less prevalent. Ericsson et al.'s (1993) seminal study of deliberate practice, Driskell et al.'s (1994) review of the research literature on mental practice, and Sloboda et al.'s (1996) study of young musicians were by far the most often cited. Overall, the most common topics addressed were deliberate practice, practice strategies, mental practice, the benefits of practice, metacognition, self-regulation, and self-efficacy, suggesting that music practice is a rich, multifaceted, and complex activity. In light of the findings, recommendations for practice and implications for future research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary goal of this study was to examine relationships among observed practice behaviors, self-reported practice habits, and performance achievement of high school wind players (N = 60). Participants practiced [...]

This study is an investigation of relationships among impulsiveness, locus of control, sex, observed practice behaviors, practice effectiveness, and self-reported practice habits in a sample of 40 college brass players. [...]

This study is a longitudinal investigation of the relationships among music participation (i.e., band, chorus, orchestra), socioeconomic status (SES) and standardized measures of academic achievement (i.e., math, reading, social studies, science) in a national sample of American high school students (N = 5335). The data used for this study were drawn from the first three waves (i.e., 8th, 10th and 12th grade) of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (US. Department of Education). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze inter- and intra-individual differences in academic achievement over time. The final model included music participation and SES as significant predictors. Results indicated that music participants began the study with significantly higher academic achievement scores in all subjects and maintained higher scores over time. Although SES was found to be significant predictor, the variance explained by the interaction of SES and music participation was found to be negligible. The results confirmed those of previous studies linking music participation and academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]