To reach the highest standards of instrumental performance, several years of sustained and focused learning are required. This requires perseverance, commitment and opportunities to learn and practise, often in a collective musical environment. This book brings together a wide range of enlightening current psychological and educational research to offer deeper insights into the mosaic of factors and related experiences that combine to nurture (and sometimes hinder) advanced musical performance. Each of the book's four sections focus on one aspect of music performance and learning: musics in higher education and beyond; musical journeys and educational reflections; performance learning; and developing expertise and professionalism. Although each chapter within its home section offers a particular focus, there is an underlying conception across all the book's contents of the achievability of advanced musical performance and of the important nurturing role that higher education can play, particularly if policy and practice are evidence-based and draw on the latest international research findings. The narrative offers an insight into the world of advanced musicians, detailing their learning journeys and the processes involved in their quest for the development of expertise and professionalism. It is the first book of its kind to consider performance learning in higher education across a variety of musical genres, including classical, jazz, popular and folk musics. The editors have invited an international community of leading scholars and performance practitioners to contribute to this publication, which draws on meticulous research and critical practice. This collection is an essential resource for all musicians, educators, researchers and policy makers who share our interest in promoting the development of advanced performance skills and professionalism.
Contents: Foreword; Preface. Part I Musics in Higher Education and Beyond: Western classical music studies in universities and conservatoires, Harald Jørgensen; Brilliant corners: the development of jazz in higher education, Tony Whyton; Popular music in higher education, Gareth Dylan Smith; Wha's like us? A new Scottish conservatoire tradition, Celia Duffy and Peggy Duesenberry; The epirotic vocal folk polyphony in contemporary Greece: performance and the involvement of higher education in an oral/aural tradition, Konstantinos Tsahouridis; Music performance in a 'transitional era' of education: a case study of folk song performance in China, Yang Yang. Part II Musical Journeys and Educational Reflections: Concepts of ideal musicians and teachers: ideal selves and possible selves, Andrea Creech and Ioulia Papageorgi; Music, motivation and competence-acquisition across genres, Rachel Swindells and Christophe de Bézenac; Creativity and the institutional mindset, Elizabeth Haddon and John Potter; Through a glass, vividly: shedding light on the extraordinary musical journeys of some children on the autism spectrum, Adam Ockelford. Part III Performance Learning: How do musicians develop their learning about performance?, Ioulia Papageorgi and Graham Welch; Spaces of learning and the place of the conservatoire in Scottish music, Frances Morton; Pitch perception and absolute pitch in advanced performers, Desmond Sergeant and Maria Vraka; Learning free improvisation in education, Simon Rose and Raymond MacDonald; Hidden instrumental and vocal learning in undergraduate university music education, Elizabeth Haddon; Learning to be a professional singer, Filipa Martins Baptista Lã; Learning to be an instrumental musician, Terry Clark, Tania Lisboa and Aaron Williamon. Part IV Developing Expertise and Professionalism: Developing and maintaining expertise in musical performance, Ioulia Papageorgi; Developing expertise and professionalism: health and well-being in perform
