Music Teaching Tips : Missouri Music Teachers Association

by Brent Hugh

This is Part 1 of a two articles published in MMTA Notes. Part 1 was published in the Spring 2007 issue of Notes.

During the years 1996-2002 I became very interested in the subject of musical preferences. How are musical preferences developed? How do they change throughout life? Can they be changed through education or exposure to new music or different musical styles? What is the role of the music educator in developing students' musical preferences?

The first fact one learns about musical preferences is that they are very set and very difficult to change, especially in adults. The average adult likes certain styles of music and dislikes others--often very intensely. The strength of this musical preference is so powerful it has been called "musical prejudice".

However, not everyone has such strong musical preferences—a fact that is evident in today's classical music audiences. Years ago, the typical classical music lover could most likely have been termed a "musical snob"—a person with a very strong preference for classical music and an equally strong distaste for every other style of music.

But in recent years, the classical audience has changed. Now the typical audience member is more likely than not a "musical omnivore"--a person who enjoys many different styles of music, from blues to vedic chants to zydeco to grand opera. The musical omnivore seeks and values quality in every style of music--and finds it very often in classical music.

How do musical preferences change over a person's lifetime?

The average person fits the so-called "impressionable years hypothesis" for music preference: musical preferences are malleable early on but become set and unchangeable by late adolescence. Often the music enjoyed during adolescence (the "impressionable years") remains the favored musical style throughout the person's life.

On the other hand, the person who listens to and/or performs a lot of different music and musical styles from an early age onward becomes more likely to fit the "aging stability hypothesis" for musical preference: music preferences are malleable early in life and only gradually harden throughout the entire lifespan.

What ramifications do these research findings have in our day to day teaching?

We must start much younger in exposing students to a wide variety of musical styles and elements. Pre-school is not too early.
We miss a golden opportunity when we de-emphasize music and arts in elementary school.
We need to reverse many of our attitudes about music teaching. Young students can absorb many more sophisticated musical elements than we give them credit for--for instance, a wide variety of scales, modes, tunings, usual and unusual rhythms and meters, non-metrical and atonal melodies. Young students will learn and absorb these things far more readily than will older students. Don't start out with just 4/4 and major with young students!
Compared with children, adults' musical preferences are relatively set and unchangeable. A pre-teen or early teen student is far more likely to be open to an experience with new, unusual, or "difficult" music than the adult is. Therefore: adults should not let their (relatively narrow and set) musical preferences determine and restrict what musical elements and styles young people are exposed to.

References

On the impressionable years and aging stability hypotheses: J.A. Krosnick & D. F. Alwin (1989), "Aging and susceptibility to attitude change," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57(3), 416-425.
On classical music audiences becoming musical omnivores: R. A. Peterson & R. M. Kern (1996), "Changing highbrow taste: From snob to omnivore," American Sociological Review 61, 900-907.
More about musical preferences, including more teaching ideas, more details about the ideas introduced in these articles, the complete research study, and a bibliography, is at BrentHugh.com/piano/

Brent Hugh is a piano teacher and MMTA's webmaster. These ideas on musical preference were developed during his doctoral study at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

posted by Brent Hugh at 5/06/2007 | 0 comments
permanent link to article: Developing Students' Love For a Wide Variety of Music

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