3.3.4. Pedagogy

There were also clear pedagogical benefits of being involved in more andragogic/heutagogic approaches (Price 2013, p. 212) and being able to apply "pedagogical sensitivity" (van Manen 2008; Huhtinen-Hildén and Pitt 2018) to different situations (Mather and Camlin 2016), emphasising a much broader pedagogical attitude to musical development:

I particularly enjoy it when the participants have the confidence/know-how/skills to be able to work collaboratively amongst each other, so that I am less of a leader—more of a facilitator in a scaffolding kind of way. (Q-5)

### **4. Discussion**

Taken together, the combined themes resulted in the following hierarchy map of coding density (Figure 3):

**Figure 3.** Combined themes: coding density. Source: Graphic by author. **Figure 3.** Combined themes: coding density. Source: Graphic by author.

In broad terms, the findings of this small study support the conclusions of previous research about the impact these kinds of encounters have on a musician's identity, skills (personal, interpersonal, musical, cognitive and teaching) and wellbeing (Ascenso 2016, p. 4) in a variety of complex ways. A situational understanding of music—and an appreciation of the complexity of power and other kinds of relationships which underpin musical situations—encourages musicians to develop a more holistic understanding of music's power and the range of benefits attributed to it (Hallam 2015). A range of professional attributes need to be developed in order to engage effectively with participatory music, including the development of practical, musical and pedagogical skills, and also psychological attitudes or mindsets in order to face and adapt to risks and challenges associated with the work. The impacts on musical confidence and personal wellbeing—as well as on aural memory and improvisational skills—can be considerable in terms of being able to "see the fun in music again" (Q-4) and apply the relational dimensions of musical communication back into one's professional performance practice. In broad terms, the findings of this small study support the conclusions of previous research about the impact these kinds of encounters have on a musician's identity, skills (personal, interpersonal, musical, cognitive and teaching) and wellbeing (Ascenso 2016, p. 4) in a variety of complex ways. A situational understanding of music—and an appreciation of the complexity of power and other kinds of relationships which underpin musical situations—encourages musicians to develop a more holistic understanding of music's power and the range of benefits attributed to it (Hallam 2015). A range of professional attributes need to be developed in order to engage effectively with participatory music, including the development of practical, musical and pedagogical skills, and also psychological attitudes or mindsets in order to face and adapt to risks and challenges associated with the work. The impacts on musical confidence and personal wellbeing—as well as on aural memory and improvisational skills—can be considerable in terms of being able to "see the fun in music again" (Q-4) and apply the relational dimensions of musical communication back into one's professional performance practice.

#### *4.1. Shifts in Attitudes, Assumptions and Values 4.1. Shifts in Attitudes, Assumptions and Values*

*develop your own ability to share ideas. (Q-7)* 

Of particular significance in this study is the way it highlights some of the epistemological challenges involved in thinking differently about music in order to make sense of and participate authentically in participatory musical practices. In focusing primarily on the experience of classically trained musicians at the start of their careers, this study demonstrated some of the shifts in mindset that are necessary to handle disruptions to more familiar monological structures of power and hierarchy which characterise the kind of formal musical learning found within conservatoire settings. Developing a more holistic understanding of music's power is necessary to accommodate a broader appreciation of quality as contingent on situation and purpose: *It's crucial to understand the many different ways of being good at music, and to*  Of particular significance in this study is the way it highlights some of the epistemological challenges involved in thinking differently about music in order to make sense of and participate authentically in participatory musical practices. In focusing primarily on the experience of classically trained musicians at the start of their careers, this study demonstrated some of the shifts in mindset that are necessary to handle disruptions to more familiar monological structures of power and hierarchy which characterise the kind of formal musical learning found within conservatoire settings. Developing a more holistic understanding of music's power is necessary to accommodate a broader appreciation of quality as contingent on situation and purpose:

21

It's crucial to understand the many different ways of being good at music, and to develop your own ability to share ideas. (Q-7)

Therefore, the epistemological shift described herein cannot be over-emphasised, both in terms of the challenge it represents and the potential benefits it can bring. Recognising the value of more dialogic modes of pedagogy and practice can be inspiring and emancipatory, but they can also destabilise a world view built on perfection, competition, monologic conceptions of quality and relationships characterised by power and hierarchy. However, inhabiting the kinds of "dialogic space" (Bakhtin 1981; Wegerif 2012; Camlin 2015a) which often characterise participatory music activity and encountering the creative freedoms and possibilities therein represent valid and useful preparation for a career in music, especially one with active involvement in chamber music contexts. With more of an emphasis on music as the performance of relationships, the importance of each individual voice (including the student's) in both musical and spoken exchanges emphasises the unique contributions that each member can make and highlights the value of the interplay between personal and collective expression.

Some of the focus group discussion centred around a challenge related to alienation, which we might theorise as relating to the pressures arising from being part of a "rational community" of music through membership of the conservatoire, where individual "insights and utterances become part of the anonymous discourse of universal reason" (Lingis 1994, p. 3). The realisation of musical "works" can be achieved with many combinations of musicians, all of whom are, to a greater or lesser extent, dispensable, and this can inevitably result in individuals feeling less actualised in terms of their potential. This contrasts with the kind of discourse outside of a rational community, i.e., the "community of those who have nothing in common" (ibid. p. 12), where the utterances of everyone present have equal value:

In the rational community our voice is a representative voice, while it is only in the other community that we speak in our own, unique and unprecedented way. This in turn means that it is only in and through our engagement with the other community, that is, in and through the way we expose ourselves to what is strange and other, that we come into the world as unique and singular beings—and not as instances of some more general "form" of what it is to be human. (Biesta 2006, p. 67)

For conservatoire students, this tension can manifest itself as a form of alienation, where the competitive culture of perfectionism can be debilitating. For some, musical situations outside of the conservatoire open up spaces where personal identity in music can be forged or strengthened:

Everyone feels some kind of alienation with the conventions of the professional musician world. And whether that's because of the instrument they play or because of the environment they come from or because of the pressure that they feel, the feeling of not quite connecting with the conventional musician background is what draws people towards community music. (FG-1)

In a participatory setting, where the emphasis is on the performance of relationships, "who" is participating matters at least as much as "what" they are participating in. Through involvement in participatory settings, musicians can therefore develop more of a purpose to their musical identity because it very much matters that it is *them*—a unique and singular musical individual—who is leading the work.

This epistemological shift has clear beneficial impacts for those looking to develop their musical identities within chamber music contexts, where "who" is performing matters much more, and where the performance of relationship is absolutely essential to the realisation of musical works. The way that individual performers within a chamber context attune to and synchronise with each other in subtle musical and neurobiological ways in order to realise compelling performances is, at heart, a *relational* sensitivity. Participatory music is a clear training ground within which to develop such sensitivity, without the pressure of public performances judged solely on their capacity to fulfil the expectations of the "rational community" of the conservatoire.

There are, of course, many other benefits to involvement in participatory settings which go beyond musical impact. These "paramusical" or "more-than-musical" benefits (Stige et al. 2013, p. 298; Camlin et al. 2020, p. 2) include music's positive impact on mood, identity and wellbeing as well as its affordances for social bonding. Respondents in the study identified the "fun" aspects of participatory music as musically and socially liberating and the relational aspects as profoundly inspiring, all of which point toward a more holistic appreciation of music's power.

#### *4.2. Human Solidarity*

Beyond these considerations, participatory music settings also provide opportunities for certain kinds of freedom—freedom from the often debilitating culture of perfectionism; freedom to be oneself, and to be valued as such; and freedom to encounter participants as fellow human beings with diverse and unique personalities, creative aspirations, dreams and ambitions. Encounters with participatory music are also encounters with other human beings in the Arendtian sense of an encounter between "beginners", i.e., people who "set something into motion" (Arendt 1977, p. 176). In this dialogic exchange between "beginners"—as we each articulate our personal truths through our musical expression—we reveal ourselves as "unique, singular beings [in a] world of plurality and difference" (Biesta 2006, p. 9). When one steps out of the conservatoire/concert hall and into

participatory settings, one encounters other human beings as unique and singular individuals too, rather than as interchangeable representatives of any broader "rational community", and this changes all those involved in the participatory activity, especially the musician:

[Engaging in Participatory Music] not only makes you a better musician but it makes you a better musician by making you a better person. (FG-6)

I want my musical experience to be a situation in which I might interrogate the world about me. Participatory work allows me to do this. Performance without interaction is too allegorical; it is a comment upon life rather than an instance of it. (Q-8)

Due to the tendency to conceive of musical value primarily in terms of its aesthetic quality, the shift that conservatoire music students need to make in order to engage with participatory music authentically is, therefore, not just a practical one in terms of developing a range of new skills. It is also an epistemological shift, or a "break" with the world view of the conservatoire, which is as much about developing a complementary set of values to the ones customarily in use within the conservatoire system. In order to embrace music as a holistic practice, an emphasis on perfection needs to be transformed into an emphasis on positive and empowering relationships, and this requires a good degree of critical reflection in a supportive environment. The benefits of such an epistemological shift may also extend beyond developing competencies in participatory musical settings. The development of a more dialogic and relational mindset toward music making also represents an invaluable attitudinal shift which can help students transform the "hotshot" mindset of conservatoire training into something more collaborative, in preparation for taking up professional roles in chamber music practice.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** I wish to acknowledge the support of the Royal College of Music in providing ethical clearance for the study, in-kind contributions in the form of a room to host the focus group, and the critical feedback of academic colleagues on early drafts of this chapter.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


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