Acquisition of Skills and Techniques

Question 1

What did Tan et al. (2009) propose in terms of rhythm and expressive timing?

Answer 1

Performers have two levels in which they can make sense of timing

Internal clock and muscle precision

Question 2

What is the idea of an internal clock?

Answer 2

Innate sense of timing (often imprecise and unreliable)

You have your own sense of the timing of a piece of music

You have to keep your own timing when playing piano pieces etc.

Cognitive concept

Question 3

What is the idea of muscle precision?

Answer 3

Keeping a beat by clapping along. Tactile/muscle memory keeps the rhythm more reliable than your internal clock

Question 4

Do performers use both levels (internal clock and muscle precision) when playing an instrument?

Answer 4

Yes

Question 5

What is voice leading?

Answer 5

Expressive timing

Question 6

What happens in voice leading?

Answer 6

Several notes go on simultaneously in pieces. Performers have a way of picking out the melody when they play several notes together

Skilled performers emphasise main melodic notes to pick out the melody

Question 7

Who proposed the concept of voice leading?

Answer 7

Palmer (1989)

Question 8

What helps stay in tune when singing?

Answer 8

Chest and abdominal muscles push air out. This helps the air stream when it comes to staying in tune etc.

Question 9

How many people claim to be tone deaf? (Cuddy et al., 2005)

Answer 9

17% of people

Question 10

How many students are claimed to sing out of tune?

Answer 10

59%

Question 11

What does tone deafness result in?

Answer 11

Misperception of pitch

Inability to replicate a note that is being played

Question 12

Where is tone deafness commonly seen?

Answer 12

In groups of children seeing

Question 13

What did Dalla Bella (2007) find in terms of non-singers and singing?

Answer 13

When singing Happy Birthday, the non-singers were good at staying in tune (90% of the non-singers sang in-tune at professional accuracy), as well as the professional singers

Question 14

What are two important things in singing?

Answer 14

Confidence and familiarity

Question 15

What is amusia?

Answer 15

Inability to detect differences between melodies or recognise familiar tunes

Find it difficult to recognise sounds as music - music might just sound like meaningless noise e.g., rattling pots and pans

Question 16

What % of the population have amusia? (Perez & Hyde, 2003)

Answer 16

4% of the population have amusia

Question 17

How does being amusical affect one’s life? (McDonald & Stewart, 2008)

Answer 17

Lifelong difficulties with music

Social problems - tend to avoid social situations because of background music (e.g., restaurants)

Sense of missing out on a pleasant experience. Might see how much music means to other people and it bothered them that it didn’t mean much to them. Miss out on the appreciation of music.

Deeply affected by music and lyrical content

Question 18

What can amusia occur from?

Answer 18

Brain injury or trauma

Some might be born with amusia

Question 19

What does Ericsson et al. (1993) argue about natural gift vs practice for musical ability?

Answer 19

Looked at professional violinists and pianists

Looked at how much practice they put in over the years (retrospective data)

Found that professionals practiced more (7400+ hours in their life) than amateurs (3400 hours)

Deliberate practice is more important than innate skills for music

PRACTICE is the secret to being good. Need to practice according to a proper schedule.

Question 20

What did Macnamara & Maitra (2019) find when they replicated Ericsson et al.’s (1993) study?

Answer 20

Failed to support their findings. Failed to replicate the skill and practice correlation.

Question 21

What did Macnamara & Maitra (2019) argue about natural gift vs practice for musical ability?

Answer 21

Argued that informal, self-direct practice (for enjoyment, messing around) was just as important as scheduled practice.

Question 22

What did Macnamara & Maira (2019) argue about the qualities of practice?

Answer 22

Teacher-directed practice did not have the same predictive power as Ericsson et al. (1993) found.

Argued that informal, self-direct practice (for enjoyment, messing around) was just as important as scheduled practice.

Argued that your WILLINGNESS to practice informally is a better predictor of your success and skill. These are people who genuinely love playing their instrument.

Question 23

What does the 10,000 hour rule refer to?

Answer 23

The idea that informal practice seems very useful in terms of future success and ability.

Informal practice is helpful for developing expressivity and co-ordination

The Beatles were so successful because of the intensity of their performances on a regular basis. They played every night for 3 or 4 year, trying out lots of different genres.

Question 24

What did Sloboda et al. (1996) find about practice and exam performance?

Answer 24

The top performers did 30 minutes of practice in first year, 40 minutes in second year, and 75 minutes by fourth year.

Other children did 15-25 minutes practice and were less successful.

The bottom group (the group who practiced the least) did not make steady progress across years.

All other children (the ones who practised) made steady progress across years

Question 25

Explain Sloboda et al.’s (1996) study on practice and exam performance

Answer 25

257 schoolchildren (8-18 years) with varying success on different instruments

Used interviews and diaries to record their practice

Question 26

Did Sloboa et al. (1996) find evident differences in types of practice?

Answer 26

No. Informal practice and teacher-directed practice made no difference.

Question 27

When is deliberate practice most effective?

Answer 27

When done in the morning

Question 28

Which 2 researchers argued that you need to put hours of practice in to become ‘good’?

Answer 28

Ericsson

Sloboda

Question 29

What did Sloboda argue in terms of practice vs innate ability in success and skill?

Answer 29

Sloboda argued that you need to put the hours in

Sloboda did not find any evidence of child prodigies. No children showed early onset of interest or ability in music. No evidence of an innate gift.

Question 30

Were children keen to do formal practice in Sloboda’s study?

Answer 30

No. Parents had to direct and encourage children.