{"title":"The Teacher","authors":"R. Woody","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"Most accomplished musicians can readily identify music teachers whose encouragement and instruction were instrumental in their skill development. Just as musicians must acquire a diverse set of skills to be succeed as performers, music teachers must develop their own range of specialized skills to be successful. Psychological research offers no support to the old saying that “Those can, do; those who can’t, teach.” Rather, those who can teach well typically do possess a skill set that is that differs from that of other musicians. This chapter explores the variety of factors that influence how effective musicians’ instructional efforts are. It explains the importance of building respectful relationships with students, planning instruction around specific learning objectives, and deliberately teaching generalizable music concepts. The chapter encourages teachers to support learner autonomy as to empower their students to have musically rich lives beyond the confines of their educational experience.","PeriodicalId":170891,"journal":{"name":"Psychology for Musicians","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115520298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Learning and Remembering Musical Works","authors":"R. Woody","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Learning pre-existing pieces of music is a very common learning goal, both among vernacular musicians, who learn from recordings, and among those who are formally educated and work from published sheet music provided by a teacher. Whether learning a piece by ear or from notation, the processes of memory involved are very similar. Because the learning of musical works is often a precursor to additional kinds of music making and performance skills, it is important for musicians to understand how human memory works. This chapter explains the processes involved in learning and remembering pieces of music. It describes the various stages and components of memory from the information processing perspective that is common in cognitive psychology. More specifically, the chapter explains how ear musicianship is foundational to other performance skills, including those that use notation. It also shows that the ability to learn and remember musical works can be improved through experience and deliberate practice.","PeriodicalId":170891,"journal":{"name":"Psychology for Musicians","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124807209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction to Music Psychology","authors":"R. Woody","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Psychology and music can be complementary fields of study. Psychology is the study of the amazing human mind, and music comprises some of people’s most fascinating behaviors. Psychology promotes understanding of people: how they perceive and process the world around them, how they feel emotion, how they learn, and how they can skillfully perform certain behaviors, just to name several areas of interest. Music is made by human beings for human beings. Because people are the most important elements of music, aspiring musicians really cannot optimally advance their craft without considering the insights offered by psychology. This chapter introduces the psychology of music as a field of study. It covers a number of topics, including the cultural nature of music, the contributors to emotionally powerful music experiences, and the acquired skill explanation of musical ability.","PeriodicalId":170891,"journal":{"name":"Psychology for Musicians","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128057548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Composing and Improvising","authors":"R. Woody","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Creativity is often associated with great composers or performers of the past who have been ascribed some kind of \"creative mystique.\" In order to attain better explanatory power, the psychological perspective usually begins by defining musical creativity not by divine inspiration but rather as a generative process, that is, the act of generating new musical material or new renderings of pre-existing music. Musical generativity is best understood as a component of basic musicianship, rather than part of a specialized skill set. Despite creativity being of great interest to scholars for a very long time, only recently has scientific study of creativity borne some useful insights for musicians. This chapter shows how broader principles of human creativity, revealed by research across many domains, are also specifically applicable to music. It also explains the specific processes of composing and improvising music, showing that both require musicians to investment time and energy to build these creative skills to an expert level. Finally, this chapter encourages nurturing the naturally creative behaviors of childhood and facilitating in young musicians a exploratory mindset as a basic part of their musicianship.","PeriodicalId":170891,"journal":{"name":"Psychology for Musicians","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116991694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Motivation","authors":"R. Woody","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Although musicians may know what they need to do to improve their skills, it is quite another thing to actually do it. Similarly, it is easy for a teacher to write down a list of exercises to be practiced but much more difficult to get students to carry them out. Although a great many people get involved with music as children and set out to become musicians, relatively few of them achieve a satisfying level of proficiency. Building musical skill necessarily involves effort. A better understanding of motivation may allow musicians to approach the required effort with a positive perspective, so as to keep their musical lives sufficiently rewarding and enjoy the fruits of their labor. This chapter considers the multiple ways that people are effectively motivated toward meaningful achievement in music. It discusses how music is intrinsically motivating, as well as the most important sources of extrinsic motivation. Special attention is given to how young musicians’ beliefs—about music and about themselves—can greatly affect their motivation going forward.","PeriodicalId":170891,"journal":{"name":"Psychology for Musicians","volume":"76 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115720297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Expressing and Interpreting","authors":"R. Woody","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"Proclamations of the great emotional power of music are etched deep into artistic culture. During great performances, the emotions seem to flow directly from the hearts of musicians. Listeners are not, of course, privy to the hours of work and shaping that performers can devote in preparation. Research has shown that expressive musicians craft the details of sound parameters—timing, loudness, timbre, pitch—to make their music sound alive and human. This chapter shares insights afforded by psychological research on musical expression that can directly assist performing musicians. It explains that the expressive features applied by performers originate from several basic sources related to the structural characteristics of the music they are performing and to their own humanness. The artistic enterprise of interpretation is explained as the selection and combination of expressive ideas applied across an entire piece of music. Musical communication is successfully accomplished when performers—usually through explicit planning and artistic decision-making—stimulate listeners to experience emotions or feelings that match the musicians’ intentions.","PeriodicalId":170891,"journal":{"name":"Psychology for Musicians","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125184756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Listener","authors":"R. Woody","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"Practically speaking, listening is the primary reason music exists at all. Providing a meaningful sonic experience for others is largely the reason that composers work so hard on their creations and performers enter the stage or recording studio. Human beings’ love of music can be seen in common music listening is in everyday life today. In this respect, it may seem strange to consider “the listener” as a musical role, let alone to regard music listening as a skill that people develop, even to specialized expert levels. Be that as it may, listening is an extremely important topic in the psychology of music. Many people would never consider themselves “musicians” still enthusiastically fill the role of serious listeners. This chapter offers in depth consideration of music listening, beginning with an examination of the processes of human hearing. It addresses the multiple types of listening in which people engage, from hearing music in the background while doing other things to focused listening for the purpose analyzing or evaluating the music heard. Special emphasis is given to music’s capacity to evoke strong emotions in music, sometimes to the point of physiological responses such as tears, shivers, and a racing heart.","PeriodicalId":170891,"journal":{"name":"Psychology for Musicians","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114807846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Performer","authors":"R. Woody","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Skillfully singing or playing an instrument, even at a very advanced level, is not enough by itself to ensure success as a performer. Musicians who give live performances must also use body gesture, facial expression, and other elements of stage presence to enhance their musical sound production. The visual aspects of live performance are influential to how audiences perceive the music, and therefore critical to performance. Additionally, outside of unaccompanied solo performing, musicians must know how to function effectively with coperformers, both in terms of musically coordinating performance (e.g., synchronizing multiple parts and performing in tune with each other) and communicating—both verbally and nonverbally—with each other. This chapter examines aspects of being a performer that are sometimes overlooked. Music performers can gain much by giving explicit attention to mastering the visual aspects of live performance and the interpersonal skills of musical collaboration.","PeriodicalId":170891,"journal":{"name":"Psychology for Musicians","volume":"343 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132305959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Development","authors":"R. Woody","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197546598.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Many people describe being musical as a dream that was never realistically attainable because they were not born with the innate talent required. Is this true or can all people become musical? How can they—and their parents and teachers—know if they have “what it takes” to become a musician? These are the kinds of questions addressed by developmental psychology. This chapter explains foundational principles of human music development. It shows that human beings are essentially “hardwired” to be musical, and that there is a predictable progression in which children typically develop musical abilities. Through a combination of factors related to enculturation (informal musical experiences) and education, people develop to a great variety of musical ability levels. The experiences and education received as a child can be very consequential in determining the level of musicality a person will enjoy throughout life.","PeriodicalId":170891,"journal":{"name":"Psychology for Musicians","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122940451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}