This Blog has been created by Charlie Byrne for students at the University of Strathclyde. This is a collection of materials which forms the basis of a Music Independent Study Module that students can use to study some aspects of music in school and to further develop an interest in how music can be used to enhance the learning experience for young people. There are three other units available which draw upon my research, writing, teaching and interests.
The four units are:
Music and Learning
Music and A Curriculum for Excellence
Music and topics
Music and Wellbeing
4 -Music and Wellbeing
(Extract from Byrne, C., MacDonald, R. A. R. and Carlton, L. (2003) Assessing creativity in musical compositions: flow as an assessment tool. British Journal of Music Education, 20(3) , 277-290. )
‘Flow’ or Optimal Experience may be described as the effortless involvement with everyday life and may occur when a person is engaged in absorbing and enjoyable activities. The universal precondition for flow is that a person should perceive that there is something for him or her to do, and that he or she is capable of doing it. In other words, optimal experience requires a balance between the challenges perceived in a given situation and the skills a person brings to it. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988: 30)
The characteristics of flow are clearly recognizable in many worthwhile pursuits and
activities including sports, hobbies (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992) and musical performance
(O’Neill, 1999). Csikszentmihalyi (1996) describes nine components of enjoyment that
many people experience when engaged in activities such as sports and hobbies. Activities
which ensure that ‘there is no worry of failure’, provide ‘clear goals every step of the
way’ and instant feedback on the performance during the activity and which contain a
balance between challenge and skill often provide individuals with the exhilarating feeling that is optimal experience, or flow. In addition, such pursuits also provide a feeling of time being altered and a state in which distractions are excluded from consciousness. Actions or decisions become automatic and feelings of self-consciousness disappear. Such pursuits and activities are also described as being ‘autotelic’ in nature since they provide their own goals and are therefore worth doing for their own sake. Activities can become rewarding experiences if ‘the activity is structured right and if one’s skills are matched with the challenges of the action. In this optimal condition, people enjoy even work, extreme danger, and stress’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975: xiii).
The study of optimal experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988) in everyday life has extended
to performance in sport (Jackson & Marsh, 1996) and in musical activities (O’Neill,
1999; Custodero, 1999). O’Neill’s (1999) study made use of the flow model to explore
and examine the motivational and social factors involved in learning to play a musical
instrument. A method of observing young children’s flow experience while engaged in
musical activities has been developed by Custodero (1999). Studies of flow typically involve participants in completing self-report forms seven or eight times a day when contacted by radio pagers that are activated according to a random schedule. Information on respondents’ awareness of dimensions of consciousness and personal experience are gathered over the course of a number of days (Massimini & Carli, 1988). Byrne & Sheridan (2000) have described a model for music education which utilizes the flow concept, and it has also been suggested (MacDonald, Byrne & Carlton, 2006 - updated reference) that the creative output of musicians can be positively correlated with levels of flow.
A short summary of a research project on Flow by Byrne, MacDonald and Carlton (2002). A fuller description of the research is also available here and will require an ATHENS account.
Music, mind and spirit
This website might be useful for your own personal study. The BACH project is very interesting if you are a Bach scholar and might be used in conjunction with some of the music played which could be found on the NAXOS website. I have placed details of NAXOS and how to access it on the University FirstClass system.
References
Byrne, C. & Sheridan, M. (2000) The Long and Winding Road: The Story of Rock Music in Scottish Schools. International Journal of Music Education, 36, 46-57.
Byrne, C., MacDonald, R. A. R. & Carlton, L. (2002) Flow and Creativity in the Music Classroom. Paper presented at the 10th Anniversary ESCOM Musical Creativity Conference, University of Liege.
Byrne, C., MacDonald, R. A. R. and Carlton, L. (2003) Assessing creativity in musical compositions: flow as an assessment tool. British Journal of Music Education, 20(3) , 277-290.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975) Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: The Experience of Play in Work and Games. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988) The flow experience of human psychology. In M. Csikszentmihalyi, & I. Csikszentmihalyi (Eds) Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 15-35.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1992) Flow: The Psychology of Happiness. London: Random House.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Custodero, L. A. (1998) Observing Flow in Young Children's Music Learning. General Music Today, 12,1, 21-27.
Jackson, S.A. and Marsh, H. (1996) ‘Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Optimal Experience: The Flow State Scale’, Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 18(1): 17–35.
MacDonald, R. A. R., Byrne, C. & Carlton, L. (2006) Creativity and flow in musical
composition: an empirical investigation. Psychology of Music, 34(3), 293-307.
Massimini, F. & Carli, M. (1988) The systematic assessment of flow in daily experience. In M. Csikszentmihalyi & I. Csikszentmihalyi (Eds) Optimal experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness (pp. 266-287). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O’Neill, S. (1999) ‘Flow Theory and the Development of Musical Performance Skills’, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 141: 129–34.
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