Mary Therese D. Pitogo Prof.

Leticia del Valle

MuEd 210 Foundations of Music Education 24 March 2009

Environmental Factors in the Development of Musical Performance Skill
Over the Life Span

I. Introduction Musical response research undertaken in Western Europe has
demonstrated that even before birth, responses to music occur. (Lecanuet
1996;Papouek 1996; Zenatti 1976)
- As the child matures, there is some kind of musical learning process in
which the grammatical rules of the musical language of the particular culture
are unconsciously synthesized.
- By the age 10 according to Sloboda, most children are capable of
discriminating between musical sequences which fit the rules of their specific
musical language from those that do not.
- Gardner on the other hand says that most are able to make appropriate
judgements of the emotional character of musical pieces.
- Bigand, Delige and El Ahmahdi says that upon reaching adulthood, provided
that tasks do not require specialized musical vocabulary, notation, or long-
term memory training skills, even people who have not been given specific
training in music can make judgements based on musical structure that are
often very similar to those of the musically trained.
- The gifts and talents explanation of musical achievement is consistent with
the determinist belief that abilities are largely hereditary.
- One of the most commonly cited kinds of evidence for the importance of a
gift or talent in music is the so-called perfect pitch.
- But according to Sergeant, empirical studies of the past 30 years suggest that
a particularly systematic exposure to musical stimuli in early childhood is
required for perfect pitch to emerge.
- Cuddy and Brady cites evidence that with a sufficiently persistent approach,
excellent pitch discrimination can be learned by a determined person.
- Levitini on the other hand argued that most measures of perfect pitch draw
on two independent abilities: pitch memory and pitch labeling (the ability to
name a remembered pitch).
a. Researching the life span relied on retrospective methods and drawing on
biographical information about highly successful musicians. A study by
Manturzewska (1990) which is: recruiting established adult professional musicians,
used both structured and semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Questions
ranging from ancestry to extrinsic and intrinsic motivations and obstacles, to career
advancement at different stages of life.
- One major problem poses such methods given, that is the memory over the
life span becomes unreliable due from a long period of time. The tendency to
forget important details when a musician needs to recall, not unless it is
channeled through a written journal.
- In short, there is semantic memory, but no episode connected to the
meaning.
- How then can environmental influences on the development of musical
performance skills be observed accurately?
- Below are some methods:
i. Observe the circumstances dealing directly on the emergence of
musical skill
ii. Tracing young people from birth until the time of musical
competence has been achieved. (though difficult still to trace and
follow up)
iii. Interview young people at various stages of learning.
iv. Preparing a structured interview technique, can interview the
parent or guardian aside from the musician.
v. Exploration also of variety of music learning experiences.
- The study of five different groups of young people, who were all matched for
socio-economic status, sex, age, and musical instrument studied.
i. 1
st
group attended a specialist music school
ii. 2
nd
group the rejected specialists
iii. 3
rd
group passive interest specialists
iv. 4
th
group non-specialist instrumentalists
v. 5
th
group - given-up instrumentalists
- Their musical competence was tested by the Associated Board and Guildhall
School of Music. It was discovered that the specialists had achieved the
highest grade levels and the given-up instrumentalists got the lowest grade.
- Thus, the research proves that such study can provide data about the
environmental circumstances of musicians and their musical skills.

II. Early Childhood signs of musical ability
- It is said that Stravinsky at age two could imitate the performances of local
peasant singers (Gardner 1984).
- Scheinfield (1956) on the other hand claimed that majority of virtuoso
instrumentalists have shown some special ability before the age of five. This
supports the idea that some special signs are present prior to instruction on
an instrument.
- Below are ages in which a child is perceived to develop music:
i. 1.40 years infant moving to music
ii. 1.94 years the child showing a liking for musical sounds
iii. 2.31 years attentive to music
iv. 4.43 years requests to become involved in musical activities

III. The acquisition of musical skills deliberate practice.
a. Music practice Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Romer (1993) obtained information on
formal practice undertaken by violin students. The best students had 10,000 hours
of practice by the age 21 and the less competent student accumulated only 5,000
hours the average. Concluding that there is a clear relationship between proficiency
and number of hours of practice.
- Deliberate practice has significant effects in learning. A study by Ericsson and
Krampe (1995) of adult pianists who deliberately practice should maintain in
order to gain more skill development and virtuosity. It is a critical factor in
the advancement and continuance of a pianist even in old age.
b. The technical and expressive aspects of musical performance
- Five characteristics which attest to the rationality of expressive performance:
i. Systematic clear relationship between the use of particular
expressive devices and particular structural features of the music.
ii. Communicability listeners are better able to infer structural
features of the music when expression is present than when it is
absent.
iii. Stability an expert can closely reproduce the same expressive
performance on occasions which might be separated by some
months.
iv. Flexibility an expert performer can attenuate, exaggerate or
change the expressive contour to highlight different aspects of the
music.
v. Automaticity an experienced performer is not always aware of
the details of how an expressive intention is translated into
action.

c. Performance expression research on emotional reactions during childhood
determine the extent to which musical experiences will elicit strong emotional
reactions. There is emotional response and contextual response. Contextual
response may be either positive or negative.
- Sloboda, in his study says that autobiographical memories of emotional
responses to music in childhood, shows that individuals with a lifelong
commitment to music were much more likely to report strong emotions to
musical content that those individuals who were not involved with music.
- On the other hand, those who did not have commitment to music were likely
to report negative, contextually-based emotions. Experiencing music in a low
external threat, with less expectation on performance level.

IV. Key others in the learning of musical skills

a. Parents major influence on the child. Either a parent or both parents have musical
background and plays a musical instrument. Healthy interaction between the parent
and the child is another factor, as long as it is not threatening to the childs self-
esteem.

b. Siblings older siblings display more teacher-behavior to the child/learner, and the
younger siblings imitate or role-play older siblings; they have positive influence to
younger siblings.


c. Peers gender specific and sometimes make the learner under pressure when peer
doesnt like classical music or even the musical instrument being learned.

d. Professional performers specially the famous performers are being looked upon
and idolized or learner gets inspiration.


e. Teachers correlation of low teacher expectation and low achievement. First
teachers were regarded by young music learners as significant influences on their
musical skill acquisition. A good established personal relationship between teacher
and learner is another factor.

V. Conclusion musical performance skills do not just happen, but fairly being developed
in a nurturing social and cultural environment. With parents, siblings, peer and teachers
as influential in the musical development and learning of a child. We should also
consider the cultural environment as part of the influence.