“What Is a Good Musician?” An Analysis of Student Beliefs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discover relationships in student perceptions of what it means to be a "good musician" across grade level, with regard to gender, and according to different school music affiliations among an intact school culture. The specific problems were to determine (1) what percentage of students choose to participate in school music, (2) if there is a trend in self-reported good musicianship across grade levels, (3) if there is a relationship between gender and music self-efficacy, and (4) which factors defining "good musician" are indicated most frequently across different grade levels. Subjects (N = 1,219) were students grades 4 through 12 at a moderate-size, suburban school district in the midwestern United States. Subjects were administered an online researcher-devised survey protocol inquiring about areas of musicianship. Results indicate that a majority (56%) of students chose not to participate in school music, that student self-perceptions of being a good musician decreased in relationship to grade level, that girls indicated being a good musician significantly more than boys (p < .0001), and that the category "Performs/practices an instrument" was the most cited response for each grade level.

Elementary students' definitions and self-perceptions of being a ‘good musician’

“…Similar to the findings of previous studies (Hallam 2010;Hallam and Prince 2003;Hallam and Shaw 2002;Randles 2011), children who participated in this study most frequently defined a 'good musician' as someone who plays an instrument, practises and/or sings. While these characteristics remained consistent across all grade levels, other aspects were mentioned more or less frequently at various grade levels, suggesting that definitions of 'good musician-hood' may relate to the musical experiences of the students.…”

“…Unlike earlier studies in which students were asked to complete written surveys (Eccles et al 1993;McPherson and O'Neill 2010;Randles 2011;Ritchie and Williamon 2011), I did not believe young children could reasonably be expected to independently complete a written survey with sufficient detail and accuracy; therefore, I chose to conduct an individual oral survey interview with each student. In addition to written parental consent, verbal assent to participate was obtained from each student before the interview began, and I reassured each student that there were no right or wrong answers and that his or her responses would be kept confidential.…”

“…Effort was the second most frequent response for grades 4-7 but then gradually dropped in response until grade 11, where it disappeared from the top five categories for grades 11 and 12. Randles (2011) provides insight into the perceptions of what it means to be a good musician among students in grades 4-12. However, there is no research investigating similar perceptions among younger children.…”

“…Rather than using established categories developed in previous studies (Hallam 2010;Hallam and Prince 2003;Hallam and Shaw 2002;Randles 2011), I chose to use open coding (Strauss and Corbin 1990) to identify salient elements that emerged in these students' definitions of a 'good musician'. This was done using an iterative process in which I would develop codes for a set of interviews, apply existing codes and identify new codes within another set of interviews and then recode the previously coded 334 H.N.…”

“…The children's judgments of themselves also seemed to relate to how they compared themselves with others. While Kastner's study provides insight into the ways in which those four children conceptualised what it means to be a musician, Randles (2011) investigated student perceptions about what it means to be a 'good musician' with a much larger sample. Randles surveyed students (N = 1,219) in grades 4-12 using an online questionnaire, which provided the open-ended prompt 'A good musician is someone who …' and also asked the students if they were good musicians themselves.…”