The social context of musical success: A developmental account

Abstract

Correspondence should be sent to. Derek Moore, Department of Psychology, University of East London, Romford Rd, London, E15 4LZ, d.g.moore@uel.ac.uk Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge our earlier collaborations with John Sloboda and the sadly missed Michael Howe who provided many conceptual insights into the original data set. We also thank those who participated in the study eight years ago and more recently to help us understand how musical expertise is developed and sustained to a professional level. This paper brings together extensive data from 257 children to explore the relative importance of social environmental factors during critical periods of children's musical development. The paper also presents preliminary findings from a follow-up of 20 of the most successful children eight years later to determine which childhood factors predict differences in success as adult performers. Those children who continued to play an instrument started at an early age, had higher parental support in lessons, and had first teachers who were friendly but not too technically able. However, these factors alone were not sufficient to predict relative success in childhood. Successful childhood musicians appear, in addition, to need teachers who are 'not too relaxed' and also 'not too pushy' and they still also need to do substantial amounts of practice. The follow-up study suggested, though, that successful adult performers were not those who did the most practice, rather the successful adults were those who took part in more concert activities in childhood, did more improvisation, and who had mothers at home in their early years.The results are discussed in relation to theories of musical development and the changing influences of parents, teachers and peers.3

Musical experience shapes top-down auditory mechanisms: Evidence from masking and auditory attention performance

“…Nevertheless, it is unlikely that either innate qualities or early predispositions alone can account for our results. This is because these factors alone cannot predict professional development as a musician, which is largely driven by socio-cultural influences (Burland and Davidson, 2002;Davidson et al, 1998;Moore et al, 2003), nor the correlations we observed between auditory abilities and extent of musical experience.…”

Are there critical periods for musical development?

“…At age 21, violinists rated as excellent by their teachers had accumulated about 10,000 hr of practice compared to 5,000 hr in those who were rated as good (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993); however, more experience is not the whole answer. Interestingly, fewer hours of formal practice at an early age (Sloboda & Howe, 1991), perhaps allowing a more positive attitude toward practice to develop, and a positive social context for musical development (Moore, Burland, & Davidson, 2003) also are associated with adult expertise.…”

A preliminary comparison study of burnout and engagement in performance students in Australia, Poland and the UK

“…4 burnout in music students are predominantly anecdotal, lacking a sound theoretical basis (e.g., Moore, Burland, & Davidson, 2003). An exception is Hamann and Daugherty's (1985) study of university music students, which suggests that they experienced "varying levels of burnout" (p. 6).…”