Music Motivation among Piano Players

Preliminary Analyses

Peter MacIntyre

Gillian Potter

Cape Breton University

During the months of June and July 2010, we conducted an online survey among piano players.  The sample was contacted by posting messages on discussion groups, Facebook groups, and online piano forums.  In this brief report we will offer some preliminary analysis as a way to say ‘thank you’ to those who completed the survey.  It will take more time to fully analyze the data and write up an article for publication.  We have a lot of written responses (approximately 300) to read and analyze on hopes, expectations and fears. Thank you for those!  We also had 48 people participate in Survey 2, in which they discussed their motivation, their learning history, and other topics.  This data is very interesting, we will begin analyzing it shortly.

For the moment, we will present some preliminary analysis on key topics from Survey 1.

Our first analyses describe the people who participated in the study.  We had a good balance between men and women, with a little more than half the sample being male.

                                                                       Gender

For 92% of the participants, the primary instrument was piano.  Those who played something else mentioned guitars most frequently, but there was a wide variety of other instruments that people play.  Many people listing a combination of instruments they play, some named as many as five or six different instruments.

The sample was varied in age as well.  Approximately 30% were under 30 and a few more than that were over 50.

                                                                                     Age

 We asked people how old they were when they first started playing piano.  It was most popular to begin playing when they were under 10 years of age, approximately half the sample began this early in life.  This means that there also is a sizable group of players who started later in life.  Some of the participants started learning at a young age and then picked it back up after a long break. It is not safe to assume that everyone started learning piano as a child.  Indeed, with the increase in internet support groups, we might see even more adults learning or coming pack to learning piano.

Practice, Play, and Improvement.

The sample indicated that participants practice and play frequently.  Almost three-quarters of the sample practice every day, or a few times per day. Practice was defined by an attempt to learn something new or refine one’s skill.

                                                               How often do you practise?

Playing for enjoyment was captured by another question.  Here, the rates are just a little lower.  In this case, 61% play for enjoyment every day.  It is safe to say that the sample is well engaged with the piano.

                                                                   How often do you play?

With this level of engagement in learning and playing, it is not surprising that people see themselves as improving their skill.

                             In general, do you see yourself as steadily improving?

 Motivation.

A central theme of the research was motivation and how various features of motivation are interrelated. It takes a great deal of time and energy to learn piano.  From where does that motivation come? A popular theory in motivational psychology is Deci & Ryan’s (1985) self-determination theory.  They propose that motivation can be described along a continuum that ranges from external authority telling us what to do (e.g., parents and teachers) to purely intrinsic reasons (e.g., for enjoyment and personal fulfillment).  In general, motivation is more stable and learning is strongest if the source of motivation tends to be intrinsic.  The following table describes the four types of motivation we measured, the average level of that motivation, and correlations with effort and desire to learn. 

(* The range of scores for each scale was 4 - 28).

Motivation in this sample was highest for identified and intrinsic reasons, and the lowest for introjected and extrinsic motives. This is an encouraging finding because it suggests a long term commitment to playing piano.  It is not especially surprising, however, given that most people in our sample are adults who do not have parents and teachers requiring that they practice and play.  We also see that both identified and intrinsic regulation correlate strongly with the respondents’ effort at playing piano.  There is also a weaker, negative correlation between external regulation and effort.  This indicates that the more people are playing piano because somebody else expects them to, the less effort they tend to put into it.  A very similar pattern, with even stronger correlations, was observed for the desire to learn. Again, among those who feel motivated by external reasons, there is a lower desire to play.  Among those motivated by intrinsic reasons, there is a tendency to have a stronger desire to learn. Intrinsic motives for playing the piano also are the best predictors of how much perceived competence a person has and his or her willingness to play.  

Willingness to Play in Different Contexts

Another question we wished to answer was whether or not the context in which a person might play (e.g., playing formally or informally, playing with a friend, acquaintance or stranger) has an effect on willingness to play.  Our findings suggested that the context does affect how willing one is to play.  Pianists are more willing to play when: 

1)      Playing with a friend (Most Preferred, mean = 8.0 / 10), and

2)      Playing with an acquaintance (mean = 7.1 / 10)

Conversely, pianists are least willing to play when:

1)      Playing formally for a large group of strangers (Least Preferred, mean = 4.8 / 10), and

2)      Playing informally to a small group of strangers (mean = 5.3 / 10)

These results make sense considering the majority of our participants appear to be intrinsically motivated.  Playing for friends and acquaintences is viewed as more enjoyable compared with a group of strangers. It is somewhat surprising that playing informally to a small group of strangers was rated almost as low playing formally to a large group of strangers.

A final word.

These are some of the key findings we initially found from our study.  They are only preliminary results and much more analyzing lies ahead! So if anyone would like to view the finalized results, feel free to contact my professor Dr. Peter MacIntyre at the following address:  peter_macintyre@cbu.ca

Once again, a big thank you to all of those who participated in our study and also for all of your comments and feedback.  Your help is greatly appreciated and please know that your participation has helped contribute to the great deal of research on music and motivation that is going on today.

Sincerely,

Dr. Peter MacIntyre

Gillian Potter