Individuality in music performance: introduction to the research topic

Gingras, Bruno

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00661

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…As alluded to above, sensation seeking emerged as the only dimension to be significantly related to examination grade, with participants scoring higher on sensation seeking tending to perform worse in the absence of intervention. This finding contributes to an emerging literature documenting associations between individual differences and music performance (Gingras, 2014; Sloboda, 2000; Welch & Papageorgi, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Self-affirmation improves music performance among performers high on the impulsivity dimension of sensation seeking

Churchill

Jessop

Goodwin

et al. 2017

Psychology of Music

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In the light of evidence that self-affirmation can mitigate the negative effects of stress on outcomes, this study tested whether a self-affirmation manipulation could improve undergraduate students' achievement in a formal musical performance examination. The study also investigated the association between impulsivity and music performance and explored whether impulsivity moderated any impact of selfaffirmation on exam performance. Methods: At baseline, participants provided demographic information and completed the UPPS-P Impulsive Behaviour Scale (short-form), which assesses five dimensions of impulsivity (negative and positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking). In the subsequent 14 days, participants (N = 65) completed either a self-affirmation manipulation or a control task, before reading a message about the impact of practice on music performance. Music performance was formally assessed 14 days later.Findings: Sensation seeking was the only dimension of impulsivity associated with exam performance, with participants high in sensation seeking receiving lower grades.Critically, self-affirmation promoted better music performance among those high in sensation seeking. Discussion: Self-affirmation may provide a useful intervention to augment the performance of musicians who would otherwise perform worse than their counterparts under formal evaluative circumstances, such as those high in sensation seeking.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Self-affirmation improves music performance among performers high on the impulsivity dimension of sensation seeking

Churchill

Jessop

Goodwin

et al. 2017

Psychology of Music

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show abstract

“…The aspiring vocalist or instrumentalist needs to master how to make use of acoustic aspects such as rhythmic accuracy, intonation, harmony, articulation, and tone quality (Gabrielsson & Lindström, 2010), and what the musician adds to the musical scores in terms of expressive parameters will depend on how well s/he is able to manipulate such features. This is also valid for the ability to demonstrate artistic individuality (Gingras, 2014;Sloboda, 2000). While music students stressed that expressivity was the most valuable feature and ranked it higher than playing technique and personal style (Lindström, Juslin, Bresin, & Williamon, 2003), music teachers preferred to focus on playing technique and written score during lessons (Karlsson & Juslin, 2008).…”

Section: Musical Skills and Self-perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring personality and musical self-perceptions among vocalists and instrumentalists at music colleges

Sandgren

2018

Psychology of Music

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The aim was to investigate whether vocalists and instrumentalists (N = 108) would differ in personality traits, such as the Big five dimensions, competence-based self-esteem, and musical selfperceptions. The design involved both global and domain-specific features to more closely map similarities and differences between the groups. Results indicated that vocalists reported significantly higher levels of extraversion, agreeableness, and openness than the control group (p < .01-.05) but not musicians. The musical self-perceptions were explored using a qualitative method by asking the students to, in their own words, describe aspects of two categories of musical self-perceptions. For self-perceptions related to musical development, goal-orientation, personality, and expressivity were of most importance for both vocalists and instrumentalists, although personality ranked first among vocalists and third for instrumentalists. For self-perceptions related to musical expression in a performance, vocalists assigned most value to timbre, emotions, and musical ideas, whereas instrumentalists indicated dynamics, musical ideas, and timbre. In sum, global and objective measurements failed to discriminate well between vocalists and instrumentalists, whereas the qualitative study aimed at tapping domain-specific features was successful in embracing a large variety of musically related items and to differentiate between vocalists and instrumentalists.

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“…The individual's musical signature leads to eccentricities of a particular performer (Fabian & Ornoy, 2009;Gingras, 2014). Situational sources (Friberg & Battel, 2002) refer to where the expression used is dependent on the context in which it is being used-be it a particularly special performance, the performer being in a particular state or mood, a desire to satisfy a particular kind of audience, and so on.…”

Section: Sources Of Musical Expressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Musical Expression

Schubert

2022

The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance, Volume 1

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“Playing with feeling” is central to music making and is referred to more formally as playing with “expression.” This chapter organizes expressive playing into three components: Knowledge (K); Performance (P—the act of making music in an expressive manner); and Affect (A—the reception of the music by the listener) (KPA). Knowledge is paramount for the musician seeking to understand and improve their capacity to play music expressively, and the chapter catalogues the scientific and psychological literature that provides insight into the knowledge component. Notation, skill acquisition, proprioception, and extramusical knowledge types are discussed. This is followed by a presentation of the sources of musical expression knowledge—individual, situational, cultural, and universal. The author then critiques key theories of musical expression, contrasting the idea of musical expression arising from deviation or modulation of the norm against the empirical but contradictory evidence that optimal musical expression is perceived when a performance is the most average (prototypical). Finally, individual differences in musical expression are discussed, with the proposal that some individuals may prefer to understand musical expression through a performance stance, while others in terms of an affect stance, with both stances being simultaneously possible. The KPA process model of musical expression presents a convenient way for the musician to better understand how to perform from a performance science perspective, without losing the nuances offered by approaches offered by philosophy, pedagogy, and intuition.

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Individuality in music performance: introduction to the research topic

Cited by 8 publications

References 25 publications

Self-affirmation improves music performance among performers high on the impulsivity dimension of sensation seeking

Self-affirmation improves music performance among performers high on the impulsivity dimension of sensation seeking

Exploring personality and musical self-perceptions among vocalists and instrumentalists at music colleges

Musical Expression

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