In what ways do we understand music?

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In what ways do we understand music?

• Susan Hallam

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Introduction

• The way that we conceptualise musical
  understanding is important for
• curriculum development in formal schooling
• decisions about the provision of musical
  activities in the wider community
• Musical understanding can be viewed from a range
  of different perspectives.
• These are rarely made explicit in education.

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Study 1

• Participants were asked to complete two
  statements
• Musical understanding is........
• You learn to understand music through........

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The sample

• 465 individuals
• 113 professional musicians
• 60 adult amateur musicians
• 94 adult non-musicians
• 92 school students engaged in extra curricular
  activities
• 104 students only engaged in music making as part
  of the school curriculum

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Findings

• Musical understanding was seen by some as complex
  and multidimensional
• 10 other categories emerged some with
  sub-categories

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Understanding as complex and multidimensional

• A peculiar but highly satisfying conjunction of
  intellectual appreciation (of form) and of
  emotional response (to sound).
• A whole network of different cognitive,
  psychological, sociological, musicological as
  well as neuropsychological processes.

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1. Understanding music as a form of communication

• Music as a language
• To know the language of any type of music and be
  able to interpret it.
• The ability to comprehend music as an expressive
  language by means of awareness and knowledge
  obtained through listening.

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• Understanding the composers intentions
• Understanding what the composer wants to express
  through the song or the classical piece they have
  composed.
• Understand the message or feeling that the
  composer artist is trying to convey
• Understanding sound
• How sound is recorded, transmitted, and received
  by the listener. Acoustics, distortion, echo and
  other effect

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2. Kinaesthetic understanding

• For musicians and singers there is also a
  physical understanding. The physical sensations
  of touch, blow, finger pressure, engagement of
  the whole body all combining with hearing and
  feeling the note to constitute appreciation of
  the musical phenomenon and therefore
  understanding.

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3. Emotional understanding

• Experiencing feelings in response to the music.
• Being able to understand the emotions that are
  being conveyed and to derive joy and
  understanding.
• Hearing music and being moved emotionally or
  subconsciously by it for no academic or definable
  reason.
• Bypassing language and cultural norms to make
  contact with emotions directly.

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4. Personal meanings

• Personal/subjective understanding
• Being able to produce yourself what you believe
  the music to mean. Its a personal relationship
  with the page/aural stimulus.
• Musical understanding is highly subjective. I
  would argue that there is no absolute musical
  understanding but that each individual makes
  their own understanding of a particular piece of
  music.

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• Links with other elements of life
• The subtleties of music escape me. Nevertheless
  some performances of some pieces of music do
  affect my feelings. Some move me considerably
  usually I suspect by associations with the first
  time I heard them or some other emotional event
  in my life.
• Subjective appreciative evaluation
• A simple understanding of what you like.
• Having an opinion/musical taste.

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5. Knowledge about music

• Knowledge of factual or historical aspects of
  music
• Knowledge of music, composers, history,
  background.
• Knowledge of the era in which the music was
  written and why that kind of music was popular.
• Knowledge of genre
• There is also the notion of having a wide
  knowledge of different genres of music of
  different musicians within a genre. Someone might
  have a wide knowledge of jazz which enables them
  to identify different styles within jazz.

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• Knowledge of cultural context
• Understanding cultural attitudes in society.
• Initially understanding is a form of tacit
  knowledge of musical practices as
  heard/experienced within the historically
  specific, socio-cultural milieu of a persons
  childhood.
• The role and function of music in culture
• The place in human society, its uses in society,
  its impact on society economically, politically,
  scientifically, religiously as a force and agent
  for change.

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6. Critical evaluation

• Being able to listen to music critically.
• Being able to distinguish errors in
  performance.
• Being able to listen to music and appreciate
  with discernment.

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7. Understanding musical elements

• Being able to listen to music with perception of
  melody, harmony, rhythm and timbre.
• An awareness and appreciation of how music
  communicates through rhythm, pitch, speed,
  volume, and instrumental and vocal tone, and
  colour.

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• Musical structure
• Understanding the structure of music, the way in
  which tones and rhythms are constructed and
  manipulated to produce certain effects.
• A sense of the structure of a piece, its
  harmony, melodic structure and form.
• Identifying instrumentation
• The knowledgeable listener knows which
  instruments are playing.
• Distinguish the instruments which are used in
  music.

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8. Analysis /comparison

• Being able to make comparisons across different
  styles of music.
• Being able to understand what is happening in an
  analytic way.

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9. Internal representations of music

• To be able to recognize it, know what is coming
  next and be able to hear it internally without it
  being played.
• The ability to guess where the music is going
  and to recognize the logic behind where it has
  gone.

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10. Understanding is creating music

• Creativity
• To write music in an original style.
• Being able to put together and experiment with
  elements of music constructive/creative.
• Interpretation
• Phrasing, making decisions about style of
  playing.
• Partly projecting ones own experiences onto the
  music and making it ones own.

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• Being able to make music
• Knowing enough to successfully create, perform
  and understand why it works or why it doesnt.
• Understanding how to make music through
  improvisation and composition.
• Making music with others
• Participating with other people.
• Play in an ensemble then when you listen to
  other people playing you have more appreciation
  and understanding of whats going on.

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• Reading notation of some kind
• Being able to turn notation (graphic, staff,
  tab, etc) into sound.
• Be able to read notes.
• Aural skills related to making music
• Having an aural understanding of a piece in
  terms of an appreciation of what the piece is
  aiming to convey.
• Listening to the beat, the rhythm so see or know
  if it is movement such as dance, drill or
  marching.
• Explain or demonstrate
• Being able to explain or practically demonstrate
  to others.

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Emotional understanding 28
Understanding musical elements 24
Creating music Being able to make music 23
Personal Subjective appreciative evaluation 22
Knowledge Knowledge of genre 20
Elements Musical structure 20
Communication Understanding the composers intentions 16
Elements Identifying instrumentation 15
Understanding as complex and multidimensional 15
Creating music Reading notation of some kind 14
Knowledge Knowledge of cultural context 11
Personal Personal/subjective understanding 10
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Professionals

• More complex (average of 5.1 themes)
• Emotional (43)
• Subjective appreciative evaluation (35)
• Musical structure (30)
• Musical elements (27)
• Identifying instrumentation (27)
• Understanding the composers intentions (25)
• Knowledge of genre (23)
• Knowledge of cultural context (23)
• Personal subjective understanding (22)

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Young musicians

• Mean responses (2.27)
• Being able to make music (37)
• Musical elements (21)
• Emotional understanding (20)
• Musical structure (19)
• Knowledge of genre (17)
• Understanding the composers intentions (15)
• Music as sound (15)
• Subjective appreciative evaluation (15)
• Reading notation of some kind (15)
• Identifying instrumentation (10)

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Young people not actively engaged in making music

• Lowest number of statements (1.25)
• Being able to make music (28)
• Reading notation of some kind (24)
• Understanding musical elements (20)
• Understanding composers intentions (18)
• Knowledge of genre (12)
• Emotional understanding (5)

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How understanding is developed

• Love and enjoyment of music
• Physical responses to music
• Emotional engagement
• Analytic processes and discussions
• Active engagement with making music (expression,
  communication, experimentation, reflection)
• Education or guidance in formal or informal
  contexts (feedback, teaching)
• Exposure to music (family, friends, early years)
• Listening (wide range of music, being open eared,
  media).

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Understanding through listening 63
Understanding through active engagement with making music 58
Understanding through education or guidance in formal or informal contexts (including feedback) 30
Understanding through love and enjoyment of music 17
Listening to a wide range of music/ being open eared 13
Understanding through exposure to music (including through family and friends) 10
Music learning through other media 9
Understanding through engagement in discussions 8
Understanding through experimentation 8
Understanding through analytic processes 7
Understanding through emotional engagement 5
Early years 4
Understanding through physical responses to music 3
Musical expression and communication 2
Understanding through teaching others 1
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Professional musicians

• Listening (75)
• Active engagement with making music (74)
• Education guidance (27)
• Experimentation (21)
• Love and enjoyment (20)
• Engagement in discussions (16)
• Through exposure (16)
• Through other media (14)
• Being open eared (14)
• Analytic processes (13)
• Reflecting (10)

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Young musicians

• Active engagement (79)
• Listening (66)
• Education and guidance (36)
• Love and enjoyment (15)
• Being open eared (10)

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Young people not actively engaged with making
music

• Listening (61)
• Active engagement with making music (37)
• Education and guidance (29)
• Love and enjoyment (10)
• Being open eared (4)
• Music learning through other media (4)

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Study 2 Participants

• 18 10-year-olds
• 12 male and 6 female
• All of the participants belonged to the same KS5
  class in a state primary school located in
  western London.

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Methods

• Three different types of music were used
  classical/ film music, jazz, and popular music.
• The main theme from Star Wars (film/classical
  music)
• A jazz piece (Blue Cycles) performed by the Five
  Corners quintet)
• A song by Madonna, Get into the Groove.

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• Children drew a picture representing the music
• They were interviewed afterwards about their
  understanding of the music using their pictures
  as prompts

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Findings

• A number of themes emerged from the data
• Dynamics
• Musical elements
• Musical instruments
• Musical structure
• Lyrics
• Overall conception of the music
• Events associated with the music
• Affective responses
• Images associated with the music
• Familiarity with musical style.

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Dynamics HmmThe dynamics make it easier to
listen to and, yes, to process. The loudness and
the dynamics of it make me feel like something is
going to happen. That is why there is a volcano
in the drawing. Like an explosion
(classical/film music)
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Dynamics Its the dynamics. Like a slide when it
goes up and down. (classical/film music) 
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Musical elements It is the elements in the music
that vary and I mainly listen to. They help me in
understanding the music. Like, the tempo, the
volume, the movement. You can see the movement in
the drawing too. (Classical/film music)
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Musical elements HhmmThe tempo, the volume, the
pitch, shortness of the notes(classical/film
music)
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Musical instruments The trumpet is very loud.
You pay attention to it, mostly. You hear it
better than any of the other instruments. Also,
you can hear the drum well. Like it shows in the
picture.(Jazz piece)
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Musical structure Yeah, if there is not
structure, then I listen to the musical
instruments alone. The notes in the picture are
like the consistency (popular music)
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Musical structure How the whole thing continues
in an easy to follow way. Kind of like a
structure that you can focus on. (popular music)
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Lyrics The lyrics, mainly Like the letters in
the drawing.(Popular music) 
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Overall conception of the music The overall
picture. I listen to it that way. Like,
everythingMusical instruments and the voice,
lyricsYeah, if there is not structure, then I
listen to the musical instruments alone. (Popular
music )
 
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Events It reminds me of when my uncle died. And
when my hamster died. It makes me feel sad
again.(classical/film music)
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Events The music makes me feel relaxed and
happy. It reminds me of a holiday on Hawaii. I
remember the beach when I listen to the music.
The white beachesThe images help me in listening
to the music(Classical/film music)
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Events I was going to school for the first time
when we heard this music in the car. Whenever I
hear it now, I always think about my first school
day. It sort of makes me understand the music
through that memory I saw a lark then, and I was
thinking about space men (popular music) 
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Affective responses The music makes me feel
happy it is happy music. That is why I used a
lot of yellow in the picture. (jazz piece)
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Affective response It made me feel so nice and
good. It depends on how the music makes you feel,
how you understand itYou can see a nice drawing.
(jazz piece)
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 Images I think about old singers who sang such
music.(jazz)
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Images This is why it reminded me of the sun. It
also reminded me of swimming (classical/ film
music)
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Familiarity with the genre I listen to this kind
of music at home too. I am familiar with it. SoI
guess thats why I understand it easily. It just
makes sense to me straight away...The picture
shows me listening to the music in a comfortable
way since I understand it straight away (popular
music)
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Number of children referring to each theme
Classical/ film Jazz Popular
Musical elements 14 16  
Musical instruments 17
Musical structure   12
Dynamics 13 15  
Lyrics   9
Overall conception of the music 18 15
Images 8 9
Events associated with the music 2   13
Affective responses 5    
Familiarity with musical style   15
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Overview

• Music can be understood in a variety of ways
• Engagement with music in any way is likely to
  increase understanding in some way
• The level and type of engagement is likely to
  lead to different understandings
• There will be age and expertise related changes

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Promoting musical understanding
Cumm
Music as communication
Kinaesthetic understanding
Internal representations
Ex
Exposure/ listening
Personal understandings (events/images)
Love and enjoyment
Analysis/ comparison of music
Education (formal and informal)
Active engagement
Emotional understanding
Critical evaluation
Creating and re-creating
Knowledge about music
Musical elements
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• s.hallam_at_ioe.ac.uk

Institute of Education University of London 20
Bedford Way London WC1H 0AL Tel [phone]
6000 Fax [phone] Email
info_at_ioe.ac.uk Web www.ioe.ac.uk