Why did you (not) choose your main musical instrument? Exploring the motivation behind the choice

Mateos-Moreno, D. and Hoglert, A. (2023) Why did you (not) choose your main musical instrument? Exploring the motivation behind the choice. British Journal of Music Education, (doi: 10.1017/S0265051723000025) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

This study aims to shed light on the motivation governing instrument choice. To collect data, we designed, piloted and administered a survey to a population of students enrolled in a music teacher education programme in Sweden. In line with previous, Anglo-centred research, we identify the instrument’s timbre and parental influences as relevant motives for this decision. Uncommonly, however, taking part in a testing session is suggested to have a similarly influential effect. Accordingly, our study supports the value of offering free-to-all sessions where children may try different instruments and openly discuss them with music teachers. Further insights from our results include families exerting more influence than peers, genre preferences bearing little relevance and potential tendencies regarding the influence of gender and socio-economic background for instrument choice. In addition, we uncover several motives that counteract this decision, music provision being the main impediment to pursuing one’s original preference, thereby underscoring the urgency of reducing the Swedish communal schools’ waiting lists for specific instruments. Our results further suggest the presence of mediating factors, including the musician’s starting age, family environment (beyond parents/guardians) and the availability of the instrument at home. This finding opens a new path in the study of instrument choice and challenges the way this topic has been traditionally researched, given that such factors could function as confounding variables in the study of instrument choice.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Mateos-Moreno, Professor Daniel
• Authors: Mateos-Moreno, D., and Hoglert, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Journal Name: British Journal of Music Education
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISSN: 0265-0517
• ISSN (Online): 1469-2104
• Published Online: 10 March 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s), 2023
• First Published: First published in British Journal of Music Education 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license