Advanced Musical Performance: Investigations in Higher Education Learning: (SEMPRE Studies in The Psychology of Music)

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.

Table of Contents:
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 performing musicians, Sanchita Farruque and Alan H. D. Watson; Developing and maintaining motivation in advanced music performers, Susan Hallam; Understanding professionalism: transitions and the contemporary professional musician, Andrea Creech. Index.

About the Author :
Ioulia Papageorgi is the Director of the University of Nicosia Teaching and Learning Institute (UNTLI) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Nicosia. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol), as well as an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS). She previously held the position of Lecturer and Coordinating Research Officer in the Department of Psychology and Human Development and the Department of Arts and Humanities at the Institute of Education, University of London, and of Associate Lecturer at the Open University (UK). Ioulia has presented her work in many international conferences and seminars and has several publications in a number of peer-reviewed journals and books. Graham Welch holds the Institute of Education, University of London Established Chair of Music Education. He is elected Chair of the internationally based Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), Immediate Past President of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and past Co-Chair of the Research Commission of ISME. Publications number over three hundred and embrace musical development and music education, teacher education, the psychology of music, singing and voice science, and music in special education and disability.