Despite an increase in research on emotional expression in music and its teaching and learning, little is known about the beliefs and conceptualizations that students hold regarding musical expression, and how they differ depending on educational context. To address this gap, a comparison was made between a sample of 79 UK and 117 Spanish higher education students of music, who were asked to indicate their beliefs about expressivity, most useful instructional methods to develop expressive performance, and factors that influence expressiveness and its teaching and learning. Results indicated agreement, but also several significant differences across cohorts. UK students endorsed the idea more strongly that musical context (i.e., piece and instrument) influences expressivity and the choice of teaching strategy, while Spanish students linked expressivity more strongly to particular music-emotional characteristics. Both groups considered using technical explanation as the better method for teaching expressivity, whilst modelling was considered the worst. On the other hand, they agreed that the choice of the teaching approach should depend on the age of the student with modelling being preferred for younger age groups, and technique for adults only. These results highlight differences in the understanding of musical expressivity that parallel academic debates on emotional vs. stylistic expressiveness.
BautistaA.Pérez-EcheverríaM. P. (2008). ¿Qué consideran los profesores de instrumento que deben enseñar en sus clases? [What do music performance teachers consider that they should teach in their classes?]. Cultura y Educación, 20, 17–34.
2.
BonastreC. (2009). La expresividad en la enseñanza superior de música [Expressivity in higher education of music] (Unpublished master’s thesis). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
3.
BonastreC. (2015). Expresividad y emoción en la interpretación musical [Expressivity and emotion in music performance] (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
4.
BonastreC.MuñozE.TimmersR. (2016). Conceptions about teaching and learning of expressivity in music among Higher Education teachers and students. British Journal of Music Education, 34, 277–290.
5.
BrennerB.StrandK. (2013). A case study of teaching musical expression to young performers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 61, 80–96.
6.
BroomheadP. (2006). A study of instructional strategies for teaching expressive performance in the choral rehearsal. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 167, 7–20.
7.
Casas-MasA.PozoJ. I.MonteroI. (2014). The influence of musical learning cultures on the construction of teaching–learning conceptions. British Journal of Music Education, 31, 319–342.
8.
ChaffinR.LemieuxA. F. (2004). General perspective on achieving musical excellence. In WilliamonA. (Ed.), Musical excellence: Strategies and technique to enhance performance (pp. 19–40). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9.
ChaffinR.LoganT. F.BegoshK. T. (2009). Performing from memory. In HallamS.CrossI.ThautM. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of music psychology (pp. 352–364). New York: Oxford University Press.
10.
CrickmoreL. (2017). The measurement of aesthetic emotion in music. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 651.
11.
DaynesH. (2010). Listener’s perceptual and emotional responses to tonal and atonal music. Psychology of Music, 39, 468–502.
Doğantan-DackM. (2014). Philosophical reflections on expressive music performance. In FabianD.TimmersR.SchubertE. (Eds.), Expressiveness in music performance: Empirical approaches across styles and cultures (pp. 3–21). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
15.
FabianD.TimmersR.SchubertE (Eds.). (2014). Expressiveness in music performance. Empirical approaches across styles and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16.
FangZ. (1996). A review of research on teacher beliefs and practices. Educational Research, 38, 47–65.
17.
GabrielssonA.JuslinP. N. (2003). Emotional expression in music’. In DavidsonR. J.GoldsmithH. H.SchererK. R. (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 503–534). New York: Oxford University Press.
18.
GarnettJ. (2013). Beyond a constructivist curriculum: A critique of competing paradigms in music education. British Journal of Music Education, 30, 161–175.
19.
HallamS. (2010). Music education: The role of affect. In JuslinP. N.SlobodaJ. A. (Eds.), Handbook of music and emotion: Theory, research, applications (pp. 791–817). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
20.
HastonW. (2007). Teacher modeling as an effective teaching strategy. Music Educators Journal, 93, 26–30.
21.
HughesR.HubyM. (2004). The construction and interpretation of vignettes in social research. Social Work and Social Sciences Review, 11, 36–51.
22.
JuslinP. N. (2013). What does music express? Basic emotions and beyond. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 596.
23.
JuslinP. N.BarradasG. T.OvsiannikowM.LimmoJ.ThompsonW. F. (2016). Prevalence of emotions, mechanisms, and motives in music listening: A comparison of individualist and collectivist cultures. Psychomusicology, 26(4), 293–326.
24.
JuslinP. N.KarlssonJ.LindströmE. F.FribergA.SchoonderwaldtE. (2006). Play it again with feeling: Computer feedback in musical communication of emotions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 12, 79–95.
25.
JuslinP. N.PerssonR. S. (2002). The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning. In ParncuttR.McPhersonG. E. (Eds.), Emotional communication (pp. 219–236). New York: Oxford University Press.
26.
JuslinP. N.TimmersR. (2010). Expression and communication of emotion in music performance. In JuslinP. N.SlobodaJ. A. (Eds.), Handbook of music and emotion: Theory, research, applications (pp. 457–490). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
27.
Karlsson & Juslin (2008). Musical expression: An observational study of instrumental teaching. Psychology of Music, 36(3), 309–334.
28.
LaukkaP. (2004). Instrumental music teachers’ views on expressivity: A report from music conservatories. Music Education Research, 6, 45–56.
29.
LaukkaP.EerolaT.ThingujamN. S.YamasakiT.BellerG. (2013). Universal and cultural specific factors in the recognition and performance of musical affect expressions. Emotion, 13, 434–449.
30.
LehmannA. C.EricssonK. A. (1998). Preparation of a public piano performance: The relation between practice and performance. Musicae Scientiae, 2, 69–94.
31.
LindströmE.JuslinP. N.BressinR.WilliamonA. (2003). Expressivity comes from within your soul: A questionnaire study of music students’ perspectives on expressivity. Research Studies in Music Education, 20, 23–47.
32.
López-IñiguezG.PozoJ.de DiosM. J. (2013). The older, the wiser? Profiles of string instrument teachers with different experience according to their conceptions of teaching, learning, and evaluation. Psychology of Music, 41, 1–20.
33.
MeissnerH. (2017). Instrumental teachers’ instructional strategies for facilitating children’s learning of expressive music performance: An exploratory study. International Journal of Music Education, 35, 118–135.
34.
MeissnerH. (2018). Teaching young musicians expressive performance: A mixed methods study (Unpublished PhD dissertation). University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
35.
MeissnerH.TimmersR. (2018). Teaching young musicians expressive performance: An experimental study. Music Education Research, 21(1), 20–39.
36.
ReppB. H. (1992). Diversity and commonality in music performance: An analysis of timing microstructure in Schumann’s “Träumerei.”Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 92(5), 2546–2568.
37.
SchubertE.FabianD. (2014). A taxonomy of listeners’ judgments of expressiveness in music performance. In FabianD.TimmersR.SchubertE. (Eds.), Expressiveness in music performance: Empirical approaches across styles and cultures (pp. 283–303). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
38.
ShapiroS. S.FranciaR. S. (1972). An approximate analysis of variance test for normality. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 67, 215–216.
39.
TaitM. (1992). Teaching strategies and styles. In CowellR. (Ed.), Handbook of research on music teaching and learning (pp. 525–534). New York: Schirmer.
40.
TanS-L.PfordresherP.HarréR. (2010). Development, learning, and performance. In TanS-L.PfordresherP.HarréR. (Eds.), Psychology of music from sound to significance (pp. 131–199). Hove: Psychology Press.
41.
TimmersR.SadakataM. (2014). Training expressive performance by means of visual feedback: Existing and potential applications of performance measurement techniques. In FabianD.TimmersR.SchubertE. (Eds.), Expressiveness in music performance: Empirical approaches across styles and cultures (pp. 304–334). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
42.
TimmersR.SadakataM.DesainP. (2012). The role of visual feedback and creative exploration for the improvement of timing accuracy in performing musical ornaments. Music Perception, 30(2), 187–204.
43.
TorradoJ. A.PozoJ. I. (2008). Metas y estrategias para una práctica constructiva en la enseñanza de la música [Goals and strategies for a constructive practice in musical performance teaching]. Cultura y Educación, 20, 35–48.
44.
Van ZijlA. G. W.SlobodaJ. (2010). Performer’s experienced emotions in the construction of expressive performance: an exploratory investigation. Psychology of Music, 39, 196–219.
45.
WilliamonA. (2014). Implications for education. In D. Fabian, R. Timmers & E. Schubert, Expressiveness in music performance: Empirical approaches across styles and cultures (pp. 348–352). Oxford: Oxford University Press
46.
WoodyR. H. (2006). The effect of various instructional conditions on expressive music performance. Journal of Research and Music Education, 54, 21–36.
47.
YoungVBurwellK.PickupD. (2003). Areas of study and teaching strategies in instrumental teaching: A case study research project. Music Education Research, 5, 139–155.
