Positive Instruction in Music Studios: Introducing a New Model for Teaching Studio Music in Schools Based upon Positive Psychology

Step 1: Positive Priming

Most conventional studio lessons follow a familiar path: a warm up followed by technical exercise, followed by fixing mistakes in repertoire, followed by playing a piece (Duke and Henninger 1998). By following a PP approach, we suggest that lessons can begin in a positive and affirming way. Positive priming sets up the mood and tone of the lesson which will follow. The WWW technique, which was first published by Seligman et al. (2005) and is now well-validated scientifically, asks people to focus on positive aspects of a situation. This technique has been significantly linked to well-being in adults (Seligman et al. 2005; Sin and Lyubomirsky 2009). Frederickson’s (2004) Broaden-and-Build theory has been used to explain why the WWW technique builds learning and well-being. The essence of the Broaden-and-Build theory is that positive emotions produce optimal function in individuals by sparking an urge to play and explore. The positive emotion generated means that people are more likely to build upon the task they are performing. The positive priming component of the PIMS should give students the spark to ignite and maintain a positive view of themselves and their music making.

There are many ways to begin a lesson positively. Under this model, each lesson begins with the question “What went well since our last lesson?” Students are encouraged to discuss anything from how they enjoyed playing a piece for their parents, to how they mastered a difficult phrase. This reinforces the positive nature of their music experiences beyond the studio. This question does not, indeed should not be specifically related to practice, but can relate to any aspect of music which the student has enjoyed or appreciated since their last lesson. An open-ended question may well elicit tastes, opinions, philosophies, or values the student holds in regard to music. Such knowledge can only assist teachers to understand their students and devise approaches and materials more effectively. From a student’s perspective the teacher is seen to have a broader interest in them as a person, not just a musician who practices. Confidence in their ability to express their opinions would be expected to raise self-esteem (Dweck 2007).

Following this brief discussion students are encouraged to begin their playing with a piece they enjoy. This may or may not be a piece chosen by the teacher. Many students play excerpts or pieces for enjoyment or fun at home, more than they practise what their teacher has directed (Hallam 2001). Often, they like to play one of the first pieces that they have mastered (McPherson 2005). Once again the student’s personal musical value system is validated. We believe that this process will engage the student’s mental, musical, and technical focus more rapidly than a demonstration of scales. Students who believe that they can contribute to the course and content of a lesson are more likely to be engaged and stimulated by the process (Blackwell et al. 2007). As the mind is engaged, and the music making has positive connotations from the very beginning of the lesson, the teacher can then focus on technical or repertoire aspects as they prefer, drawing on positive aspects which the student has demonstrated in the first piece they played. This feeling of experiencing and demonstrating mastery will aid the engagement process and sense of self-efficacy. It would also be expected that students in this state will be less likely to be anxious (Kirschenbaum et al. 1982; Kivimäki 1995).

Step 2: Strengths Spotting

One of the prominent topics of study in PP is that of character strengths. In 2004 Professor Chris Peterson and Professor Martin Seligman developed the “Values in Action” (VIA) framework, which identified 24 character strengths. When developing the VIA framework, Peterson and Seligman’s research identified 24 character strengths that are universal to the human species. Each of the 24 strengths falls under one of six core virtues: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence, as shown in the diagram below (Fig. 2).

Character strengths are defined by Brdar and Kashdan (2010) as “pre-existing qualities that arise naturally, feel authentic, are intrinsically motivating to use and energizing.” (p. 151). Strengths of character are different to abilities and talents (such as intelligence, sporting prowess, music ability, or artistic ability). Not everyone may be high on talent, but everyone has character. It is important to stress that a character strength is different to a talent (Seligman 2002). A young musician may have a very good ear and the ability to mimic others (talent), but lack the character strengths such as curiosity, love of learning, and persistence to develop skills in sight reading. Research has shown that the character strengths model has been a successful learning tool in other academic disciplines such as Arts, Language (Seligman et al. 2005), English Literature (Barbieri et al. 2013), and Personal Development curriculum (Madden et al. 2010).

Studio music teachers can use the VIA character strengths framework to foster learning by being flexible in meeting their students’ needs. For example, the approach taken in a lesson toward a student who has a strength of prudence/caution will be different to someone whose signature strength is humour and playfulness. This is flexible, differentiated teaching and learning in action and more likely to enhance student engagement (Vaughn and Parsons 2013). Teachers who employ student-specific teaching strategies are more likely to maintain student interest and be more effective teachers (Darling-Hammond 2000; Duckworth et al. 2009). From a student’s perspective, their teacher will be demonstrating an active interest in the whole student, not just their musical and technical abilities.

Step 3: Positive Pause (Teaching the Right, Not Just Correcting the Wrong)

Another aspect of conventional studio teaching is the “stop”. It is common for teachers to wait until they hear a mistake and then stop and correct (Duke and Simmons 2006). However, research by Kirschenbaum et al. (1982) found that pausing to reflect on positive technique in a sporting performance context significantly enhanced sporting performance and accounted for greater improvements in sporting performance than stopping to pause on incorrect technique and errors. The group of athletes who followed the traditional correctional technique and reflected on what went wrong in their sporting performance had significantly worse sporting outcomes than the group who engaged in the positive pause.

Under the PIMS model, music teachers are encouraged to ask the student to stop after they get something right, be it a rhythm, a pitch, a phrase, or a demonstration of technical facility. The students are told that lessons are about trying to find what they do well, so as to foster positive impact and learning from past success. This style of instruction not only builds student confidence, but also encourages students to explore solutions in independent practice from a strengths-based approach. It is a powerful tool which encourages an enjoyment of process, not a fixation on product. This step is not meant to replace that traditional technique of stopping students when they make a mistake, but, rather, we encourage studio instructors to consider the option of the positive pause as an effective learning strategy and for instructors to balance their use of the more corrective pause with the positive pause. We believe that this approach will encourage and develop an open mindset in students (Dweck 2007), with their analysis of positive aspects of study or performance informing their areas for improvement.

Given the high levels of performance anxiety and perfectionism in music education (Osborne and Kenny 2005; Patston 2010, 2014), a positive approach to problem solving will be helpful. Kirschenbaum et al. (1982) suggested that there are two mechanisms that may lead positive reflection to work: (1) attention and (2) reinforcement. In the music studio setting, attention may relate to a student reminding themselves of the correct fingering position before playing a phrase. Reinforcement may relate to repeating a phrase or passage which was executed correctly.

Step 4: Process Praise

The concept of fixed- versus growth-mindset has recently received attention in the education literature (Coyle 2009; Dweck 2007; Heyman et al. 1992; Mueller and Dweck 1998). Students with a fixed mindset believe that they have a fixed level of intelligence or talent. The belief that musicians are born and not made has been a dominant view in music since the first attempts to predict music talent by Seashore in the 1920s (Lehmann and Gruber 2006). Conversely, those with a growth mindset believe that their talents can be developed, and that through application and accepting the challenges involved in developing new skills, students will be rewarded with improvement (Coyle 2009; Dweck 2007). Research shows that a growth mindset is more likely to be developed through the teacher’s use of process praise (Dweck 2007), which Dweck defines as praise for specific aspects put into the work, such as effort, resilience, and problem solving, rather than generic praise, such as “well-done” (Kamins and Dweck 1999).

The idea of a growth mindset has obvious applications in a music studio. Using the PIMS model, we encourage studio music teachers to specifically praise processes such as problem solving, technical development, determination, or concentration within a musical context. We predict that engagement followed by the motivation generated by a growth mindset will foster in students a love of music and a love of learning.

Students are faced with the challenges of developing their instrumental technique, learning the language of music, and then combining these to play and perform music. In music instruction, process praise would be given by the teacher for the way in which a student uses strategies, such as goal planning and execution, effort, application of specific technique or demonstration of engagement in the task. Such praise supports the notion of a flexible mindset and gives the message to the student that their music learning and performance can be improved. This is contrasted to person praise, or praising a student for a fixed quality such as intelligence or “natural talent”. In the music studio, a teacher may provide person praise and praise a student for their talent: “You are a naturally gifted musician”, or provide process praise such as: “Your tone in that phrase was even because you supported the breath throughout”. A number of studies (Aronson et al. 2002; Dweck 2007; Heyman et al. 1992; Mueller and Dweck 1998) have demonstrated that specific process praise results in higher levels of student motivation.

According to authors such as Kupers et al. (2014), and Madsen and Duke (1985), the most common phrase heard by teachers from their students after a performance or running through a piece of music is either negative or apologetic, or a combination of both. Students can easily become focused on errors and become harsh self-critics (Kupers et al. 2014; Patston 2014). Such mindsets can lead to the development of perfectionism or music performance anxiety (Patston 2014). By utilizing the PIMS model in lessons, teachers can then ask students to apply the model in their post-performance review. They can use positive priming before the performance and think about their character strengths. They can then reflect on the positive moments which occurred in the performance, before contextualising the performance with process praise in relation to their macro performance goals, rather than fixating on what are usually minor errors or lapses.