This article examines how musicians use recordings as learning resources in preparing for performance. While previous research has partially acknowledged the contribution of external factors to self-regulated learning, the specific impact of recordings on performers’ approaches to practising remains largely uncharted. A survey was designed to assess the use and importance of recordings on musicians’ listening and practising behaviours, their preferences when choosing recordings, and the type of influence exerted by recordings over self-regulatory processes. Respondents (N = 204) completed an online survey, and the data were analysed according to level of expertise: advanced music students (n = 147) and professional musicians (n = 57). The results show clear differences between students and professionals in the frequency of use and level of reliance on recordings, with students consistently exhibiting a greater preference for these resources. Students were more likely to listen to recordings and, consequently, change aspects of their interpretations in the early stages of practising. Additionally, students were influenced by other people’s recommendations, especially their teachers’, and by other performers’ reputations when choosing recordings. The need to develop a distinct style had a positive influence on students’ practising and performing habits. The study shows that listening to recordings forms an integral part of self-regulated learning activities and contributes to musicians’ development by increasing musical knowledge and stylistic awareness.
AlessandriE. (2014). The notion of expression in music criticism. In FabianD.TimmersR.SchubertE. (Eds.), Expressiveness in music performance: Empirical approaches across styles and cultures (pp. 22–33). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
2.
AlessandriE.EiholzerH.WilliamonA. (2014). Reviewing critical practice: An analysis of Gramophone’s reviews of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, 1923–2010. Musicae Scientiae, 18, 131–149.
3.
AlessandriE.WilliamsonV.EiholzerH.WilliamonA. (2015). Beethoven recordings reviewed: A systematic method for mapping the content of music performance criticism. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(57), 1–14.
4.
AlessandriE.WilliamsonV.EiholzerH.WilliamonA. (2016). A critical ear: Analysis of value judgements in reviews of Beethoven’s piano sonata recordings. Frontiers in Psychology, 7 (391), 1–17.
5.
AraújoM. V. (2016). Measuring self-regulated practice behaviours in highly skilled musicians. Psychology of Music, 44, 278–292.
6.
BayleyA. (2010). Recorded music: Performance, culture and technology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
7.
BerlinerP. F. (1994). Thinking in jazz: The infinite art of improvisation. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
8.
BornG. (2009). Afterword–Recording: From reproduction to representation to remediation. In CookN.ClarkeE.Leech-WilkinsonD.RinkJ. (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to recorded music (pp. 286–304). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
9.
BornG. (2010). Listening, mediation, event: Anthropological and sociological perspectives. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 135, 79–89.
10.
ChaffinR. (2007). Learning Clair de Lune: Retrieval practice and expert memorization. Music Perception, 24, 377–393.
11.
ChaffinR.ImrehG.LemieuxA. F.ChenC. (2003). “Seeing the big picture”: Piano practice as expert problem solving. Music Perception, 20, 465–490.
12.
ClarkT.LisboaT.WilliamonA. (2014). Learning to be an instrumental musician. In PapageorgiI.WelchG. (Eds.), Advanced musical performance: Investigations in higher education learning (pp. 287–300). Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
13.
ClarkeE. (1993). Imitating and evaluating real and transformed musical performances. Music Perception, 10, 317–341.
14.
ClarkeE. (2005). Creativity in performance. Musicae Scientiae, 9, 157–182.
15.
ClarkeE. (2007). The impact of recording on listening. Twentieth Century Music, 4, 47–70.
16.
CookN.ClarkeE.Leech-WilkinsonD.RinkJ. (2009). The Cambridge companion to recorded music. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
17.
CreechA.PapageorgiI.DuffyC.MortonF.HaddonE.PotterJ.… WelchG. (2008a). Investigating musical performance: Commonality and diversity among classical and non-classical musicians. Music Education Research, 10, 215–234.
18.
CreechA.PapageorgiI.DuffyC.MortonF.HaddonE.PotterJ.…WelchG. (2008b). From music student to professional: The process of transition. British Journal of Music Education, 25, 315–331.
19.
DavidsonJ. (1997). The social in musical performance. In HargreavesD. J.NorthA. C. (Eds.), The social psychology of music (pp. 209–228). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
20.
DayT. (2000). A century of recorded music: Listening to musical history. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
21.
De NoraT. (2000). Music in everyday life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
22.
EricssonK. A.KrampeR. T.Tesch-RömerC. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100, 363–406.
23.
FabianD. (2014). Commercial sound recordings and trends in expressive music performance: Why should experimental researchers pay attention? In FabianD.TimmersR.SchubertE. (Eds.), Expressiveness in music performance: Empirical approaches across styles and cultures (pp. 58–79). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
24.
GreenL. (2002). How popular musicians learn. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
25.
HallamS. (1995). Professional musicians’ approaches to the learning and interpretation of music. Psychology of Music, 23, 111–128.
26.
HallamS. (2006). Music psychology in education. London, UK: Institute of Education, University of London.
27.
JørgensenH. (2004). Strategies for individual practice. In WilliamonA. (Ed.), Musical excellence: Strategies and techniques to enhance performance (pp. 85–104). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
28.
JørgensenH.HallamS. (2009). Practising. In HallamS.CrossI.ThautM. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of music psychology (pp. 265–273). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
29.
KatzM. (2004). Capturing sound: How technology changed music. Berkeley: University of California Press.
30.
KozulinA. (2003). Psychological tools and mediated learning. In KozulinA.GindisB.AgeyevV. S.MillerS. M. (Eds.), Vygotsky’s educational theory in cultural context (pp. 15–38). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
31.
Leech-WilkinsonD. (2009a). The changing sound of music: Approaches to studying recorded musical performances. London, UK: Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music. Retrieved from http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/studies/chapters/intro.html
32.
Leech-WilkinsonD. (2009b). Recordings and histories of performance style. In CookN.ClarkeE.Leech-WilkinsonD.RinkJ. (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to recorded music (pp. 246–262). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
33.
Leech-WilkinsonD. (2010). Listening and responding to the evidence of early twentieth-century performance. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 135, 45–62.
34.
LindströmE.JuslinP. N.BresinR.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.
35.
LisboaT.WilliamonA.ZicariM.EiholzerH. (2005). Mastery through imitation: A preliminary study. Musicae Scientiae, 9, 75–110.
36.
McPhersonG.SchubertE. (2004). Measuring performance enhancement in music. In WilliamonA. (Ed.), Musical excellence: Strategies and techniques to enhance performance (pp. 61–82). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
37.
McPhersonG.ZimmermanB. J. (2011). Self-regulation of musical learning: A social cognitive perspective on developing performance skills. In ColwellR.WebsterP. R. (Eds.), MENC handbook of research on music learning (Vol. 2 – Applications, pp. 130–175). New York: Oxford University Press.
38.
MikszaP. (2011). A review of research on practicing: Summary and synthesis of the extant research with implications for a new theoretical orientation. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 190, 51–92.
39.
MontemayorM.MossE. (2009). Effects of recorded models on novice teachers’ rehearsal verbalizations, evaluations and conducting. Journal of Research in Music Education, 57, 236–251.
40.
MorrisonS. J.MontemayorM.WiltshireE. S. (2004). The effect of a recorded model on band students’ performance self-evaluations, achievement, and attitude. Journal of Research in Music Education, 52, 116–129.
41.
PapageorgiI.CreechA.HaddonE.MortonF.De BezenacC.HimonidesE.… WelchG. (2010). Perceptions and predictions of expertise in advanced musical learners. Psychology of Music, 38, 31–66.
42.
PhilipR. (1992). Early recordings and musical style: Changing tastes in instrumental performance 1900–1950. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
43.
ReppB. H. (2000). Pattern typicality and dimensional interactions in pianists’ imitation of expressive timing and dynamics. Music Perception, 18, 173–211.
44.
SlobodaJ. A.DavidsonJ. W.HoweM. J. A.MooreD. G. (1996). The role of practice in the development of performing musicians. British Journal of Psychology, 87, 287–309.
45.
TaitM. (1992). Teaching strategies and styles. In CowellR. (Ed.), Handbook of research on music teaching and learning (pp. 525–534). New York: Schirmer Books.
46.
VygotskyL. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
47.
WilliamonA.ThompsonS.LisboaT.WiffenC. (2006). Creativity, originality and value in music performance. In DeliègeI.WigginsG. (Eds.), Musical creativity: Current research in theory and practice (pp. 161–180). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
48.
WilliamonA.ValentineE. (2002). The role of retrieval structures in memorizing music. Cognitive Psychology, 44, 1–32.
49.
WoodD. (1999). Teaching the young child: Some relationships between social interaction, language, and thought. In LloydP.FernyhoughC. (Eds.), Lev Vygotsky: Critical assessments (Vol. 3, pp. 259–275). London, UK: Routledge.
50.
WoodyR. H. (2002). The relationship between musicians’ expectations and their perception of expressive features in an aural model. Research Studies in Music Education, 18, 57–65.
51.
WoodyR. H. (2006). The effect of various instructional conditions on expressive music performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54, 21–36.
52.
ZimmermanB. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation a social cognitive perspective. In BoekaertsM.PintrichP. R.ZeidnerM. (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13–39). New York: Academic Press.
