UHI_HIArts_Lecture-Raymond_MacDonald-We_Are_All_M

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Raymond MacDonald Glasgow Caledonian University

We are all musical: the importance

and potential of music

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Context

• We are all musical

• Every human being has a biological and social guarantee of musicianship. (Hodges, 1995; Trevarthen, 2002; Hargreaves, MacDonald and Miell, 2002

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What are musical identities?• Infant communication (Trevarthen, 2002)

• Musical taste (Zillman & Gan, 1997)

• Musical ability (MacDonald, O’Donnell & Davies, 1999).

We all have a musical identity

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Music is a fundamental channel of communication

Musical Communication (Miell, MacDonald and Hargreaves, 2005 )

• Music can facilitate: • the sharing of emotions, intentions,

and meanings even though spoken languages may be mutually incomprehensible

• a lifeline to human interaction• powerful physical effects and

deep and profound emotions

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• Individuals who are involved in musical participation develop personal identities that are intrinsically musical

• The Identity of a “musician” is a Socially/Culturally defined concept

Identities in Music

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Identities in Music

• Influenced by certain non-musical factors• Identity paradoxes

• The family (Borthwick & Davidson, 2002)

• The school (Lamont, 2002)

• Jazz identities (Mac Donald and Wilson, 2006)

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Sounds of ProgressAims and objectives

• To provide access to creative music and theatre activities

• To facilitate integration between disadvantaged and non disadvantaged groups

• To challenge stereotypes of disability• To create employment opportunities

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Design

• 60 participants• 20 participants in each of 3 groups:

• Experimental group• Intervention control group• Non-intervention control group

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Measures

• Participants in all groups assessed before and after sessions on:• Musical ability• Communication skills• Self perception of musical ability

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Results

• Significant Improvements in:• Musical ability• Communication skills• Self perception of musical ability

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A Qualitative Study

• The social model of disability• A social constructionist view of identity• Experimental and observational research

does not shed light upon more general beliefs, thoughts and feelings of the people who participate in music activities.

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Semi-Structured Interviews

• In-depth interviews with a small sample of participants (N=6).

• Participants were all involved in SOP activities and had been for a number of years.

• Interviews taped recorded and transcribed • Repeated listenings and and readings of data

allowed for themes to emerge • Themes refined and checked using thematic

analysis techniques (Denzin and Lincoln, 1998)

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Theme 1 - Other people’s expectations

• “I remember I used to go up in the ambulance up to the hospital years ago (.) and there was this old woman she was always complaining about her illness (.) we used to call her 57 varieties! (both laugh) She used to always say about me, ‘you know, he’s in a wee world of his own there’ (.) and you’re sitting listening! (both laugh) and you’re sitting listening ‘oh aye, I’m in a wee world of my own here!’ (laughs) (.) but there again, (.) that same old woman, I started a sing-song in the ambulance one time and she started to talk (.) she started to talk to me normally! (laughs) you know what I mean? (both laugh) so there you go […] she forgot about the ‘wee world of my own’ when I started the sing-song! […] The attitude changed.”

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Theme 2 - Professionalism

• like when folk came up and spoke to you, they weren’t giving you the sympathy vote any more, you know, you thought, (.) well (.) I must be, (.) I must be doing all right! You know! you didn’t get all that pat on the head and that ‘oh, that’s very good son’ […] maybe some would think (.) ‘oh, these disabled folk what can they, you know, what can they do?’ you know (laughs) …. but, I think (.) think they get rather a shock when they (.) when they hear us! …… then when things started to get a wee bit professional I thought ‘this can’t be bad!’

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Researching the Arts in Scottish Education (RAISE)

• Explore the views of teachers on a range of issues relating to the teaching of the arts in primary schools and the first two years of secondary schools.

• Six Focus groups and 232 Questionnaires

Delivering the Arts in Scottish Schools (2005) Wilson, MacDonald, Byrne, Sheridan & Ewing http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications

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How the arts are valued

• Participants saws the arts as of fundamental importance

• Schools were seen as a stronghold for the arts

It’s important that every child in Scotland has a meaningful creative and aesthetic experience throughout their school career, from Primary 1 until they leave, and it should be core, it should be a core experience.

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How the arts are valued

• Less able to allocate equal priority to both arts and other areas

the thing is with maths and language we’ve got to teach it, that’s we’ve not got a choice whereas, music or other… then it’s: just can’t do that this term.

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Benefits of the arts

• Growth in self confidence, self-esteem, social and communication skills, emotional intelligence, discernment and being able to articulate individual opinions.

I say to my children that I can’t think of any job, any university course, any college course where drama will not help you, it will be vital for some things, it will help you in everything. And I also say to them that even if you were never to work in your life, you will still need these skills, you’ll still need to deal with your family, you’ll still need to deal with your friends, you still need to deal with officialdom…

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Teaching the arts

• The role of the specialist teacher

In a way these are just two kind of two extremes …. we’re talking about very good high quality visitors, and places they can go; and we’re talking about the basic delivery of the arts and in between I’ve got this problem because many teachers are not happy and confident about teaching all four of the expressive arts areas. Sometimes one or two: they’ll tend to go through the motions a wee bit, ….. I think we need to improve the basic delivery of teaching of the expressive arts within the schools.

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Assessment and accountability

• Concerns regarding assessment in the arts

you’ve got the head teacher breathing down your neck going, ‘But where’s that at level D? These are primary 6 children .. why are you doing sponge painting?’ …… if the inspectors come in here next month, then he’ll have to see this, and you’ll have to prove this, and it’s all about proving…

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The value of improvisation

• Evidence that teachers have significant concerns about how to teach creativity in general and improvisation in particular

(MacDonald and Byrne, 2003)

• Improvisation is an under used musical resource in an educational context

(MacDonald and Wilson 2006)

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Current conceptions of improvisation

“Improvisation is the highest form of art”(Daniel Barenboim - BBC Reith lectures 2006)

“improvisation is a parlour trick; anyone can do it”(Willie Wonker - Charlie and the chocolate factory)

• Polyphony – Gartnavel Royal Hospital

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• Music in medical treatments can be traced to the earliest reports of medical practice (Weldin and Eagle, 1991).

• 45% of respondents used music for pain management in hospital settings, (Michel and Chesky, 1996).

• Need for further research (Mac Donald & O’Donnell (1999)

An Empirical Investigation of the Anxiolytic and Pain Reducing Effects of Music (MacDonald et al 2003)

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Music and pain perception: study 1

• 20 participants in an experimental group listened to self selected music

• 20 participants in a no music control• Pain and anxiety levels measured• All participants underwent a minor

operation on foot

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Music and pain perception

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25

30

35

40

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Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

ExperimentalControl

Mean Score on

SSAI

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Music and pain perception: Study 2

• Experimental group a (n= 30 females) • No music control group (n= 28 females) • Both groups underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy. • Pre and Post operative measures of pain, anxiety and

patient-controlled analgesia were taken. • No differences between the groups were obtained on

these measurements.

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Music and pain perception: Study 3 (Mitchell et al in press)

• 54 participants • 3 trials:

White noiseAnxiolytic musicPreferred music

• Dependent variables:Tolerance timeIntensity rating of pain Perceived control rating

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Tolerance times

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

White noise Anxiolytic Preferred

Sec

onds Female

Male

Significant differences:Preferred music greater than white noise p<.001and anxiolytic music p<.001

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Pain rating on visual analogue scale

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10

20

30

40

50

60

70

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White noise Anxiolytic Preferred

Ratin

g FemaleMale

Significant differences in females:Preferred music lower than white noise p<.001 and anxiolytic music p<.05Anxiolytic music lower than white noise p<.001

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Perceived control rating

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

White noise Anxiolytic Preferred

Rat

ing Female

Male

Significant differences:Preferred music greater than white noise p<.001 and anxiolytic music p<.001Anxiolytic music greater than white noise p<.05

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Music and the brain

• left brain versus right brain • The whole brain lights up like a Christmas tree

Robert Fox director of brain mapping centre, University of Texas at San Antonio

• The Mozart effect • The brain that makes music is changed by it

The cognitive neuro-science of music, Peretz and Zatorre 2003

• Neurologic music therapyFindings suggest that music can stimulate complex cognitive, affective and senorimotor processes in the brain which can then be generalised and transferred to non-musical therapeutic purposes.

Michael Thault in Musical communication

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Summary

• Musical identities • Musical communication • Music and SEN• Music in education • Music and pain • Music and the brain

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Conclusions

• Music is not a “magic bullet” or the “ultimate panacea”

• But when utilised in a knowledgeable way it can have significant effects

• Western society constructs an elitist image of “musicians”

• “Music is the Healing Force of the Universe” BBC radio Scotland June 29th 11am