Most research on musical performance anxiety has focused on musicians coming from a classical background, and performance anxiety experiences of musicians outside the western classical genre remain under-researched. The aim of this study was to investigate perceived performance anxiety experiences in undergraduate and professional musicians and to…

There is an increasing awareness of the importance of reflexivity across various disciplines, which encourages researchers to scrutinize their research perspectives. In order to contextualize and reflect upon research in music, this study explores the musical background, current level of musical engagement and the listening habits of music…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cognitive load during practice on university wind students' learning. Cognitive load was manipulated through instrument family (woodwind or brass) and the amount of repetition used in practice (highly repetitive or random). University woodwind and valved-brass students (N = 46)…

This study examined the effects of the conductor's goal orientation (mastery vs. performance) and use of shared performance cues (basic vs. interpretive vs. expressive) on instrumentalists' self-efficacy, collective efficacy, attributions, and performance. Eighty-one college instrumentalists from two musical ensembles participated in the study. It…

The purpose of this study was to compare the levels of anxiety that students experienced according to whether their public performance consisted of a free improvisation or a repertory piece. The researcher had two objectives: (1) examine the relationship of students' levels of anxiety to free improvisation and repertory pieces during a…

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between observed practice behaviors consistent with conceptions of deliberate practice (Lehmann & Ericsson, 1997) and the performance achievement of collegiate wind players (N = 55). The secondary purpose of this study was to explore relationships among observed practice…

Previous research has suggested that training on a musical instrument is associated with improvements in working memory and musical pitch perception ability. Good working memory and musical pitch perception ability, in turn, have been linked to certain aspects of language production. The current study examines whether working memory and/or pitch…

The overall aims of this study were to identify qualities of interpersonal interaction within teacher-parent-pupil learning partnerships and to explore whether these characteristics were predictors of learning and teaching outcomes for teachers, parents and pupils participating in pursuit of expertise on musical instruments. This article presents…

The "Mozart effect" refers to an increase in spatial reasoning performance following exposure to music composed by Mozart. Empirical tests of the effect have resulted in an inconsistent pattern of findings with some studies producing the effect and others failing to do so. The majority of the investigations have relied on paper-and-pencil tests.…

This study is the second in a series of investigations attempting to clarify relationships between variables that impact on a young musician's ability to perform music (as assessed on a graded music examination). Consistent with studies on school academic subjects, our previous investigation demonstrated the importance of self-efficacy in…

This study explored nonverbal communication in one-to-one music performance instruction by investigating relationships among nonverbal sensitivity, nonverbal behaviors and lesson effectiveness. Subjects (N = 120) comprised 60 college teachers and 60 of their non-music major students. Using the Music Lesson Evaluation Form, lesson effectiveness was…