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This thesis describes a research project undertaken in a school located in a deprive neighbourhood of Bogota, the capital of Colombia. The project investigated the effects of musical experiences on social and musical development by means of a mixed methods approach involving children, parents, and teachers. The project comprises three studies: an experimental intervention study; and interviews study and a psycho-musicological study. The experimental intervention study was carried out with two groups of 52 children between six to eight years old; the experimental group followed a music programme of a singing workshop in which children made musical improvisations. The interviews study carried out interviews with the children, parent and teacher conducted during the intervention programme. The psycho-musicological case study analyse the musical improvisations of six of the children. Data analysis includes the statistical analysis of the children‘s tests (Harter´s Perceived Competence Scale for Children, 1999)and Self-Efficacy in Music, Hargreaves et al., 2002), qualitative analysis of parents‘, children‘s and teachers‘ interviews and a psycho-musicological analysis of children‘s musical improvisations (Ockelford, 2007) and its relation to children‘s cognitive and socio-emotional development. The principal findings are that the cognitive component of the self-identity of children who undertook the music programme increased. This appears to be related to the children‘s cultural environment, their parents‘ attitudes, and the idiosyncratic ways in which they use music to express themselves. Music appears to help them to be resilient, to manage the challenges they face, and to adapt to changes in the environment.

Barbershop harmony in the form of quartet singing has its roots in the USA from the middle of the 19th century and has grown into its own unique genre. Towards the end of the 1930’s the genre had almost disappeared, and in 1938 an organization was formed to preserve it. A year after the organization started, a yearly contest to crown the best barbershop quartet was held for the first time. These contests have now been going on for eighty years and have played a very important role in keeping the genre alive and well. The contests also meant change for the genre; new quartets came up with new ideas and new takes on how the genre can be performed. This called for a set of rules to be applied to the contest, and they have changed as the style has progressed over the years. The purpose of this study is to compare the contestable songs sung by barbershop champion quartets over the past eighty years, exploring how the genre has changed, first and foremost looking at musical aspects from an arranger's perspective, searching for paradigm shifts and musical trends within the genre. The material that has been gathered to perform the study is in form of recordings from all eighty champion quartets. The method of the study is to decide on one definition of the genre and thoroughly walk through what the definition implies, then to listen through the material in chronological order and see how well it follows the definition of the style, but also how it has evolved over the years. The study resulted in a noticeable change from ‘less barbershop’ in the early days of the contest to ‘more barbershop’ according to today’s definition. For about 30 – 40 years this solidification of the genre was more or less the same. Then it started changing more and more towards the kind of barbershop we often hear today. The biggest written change in the genre has been from almost complete homophony to more polyphony, as the arrangements have become more and more advanced. Also, the vocal range has widened, and voicings are sometimes more divorced than the usual close harmony version of barbershop. Fusion with other styles such as pop, blues or musical has become more usual, evident in both the arrangements and how the singers treat the music. Even the chord vocabulary itself has ever so timidly started to grow. The results show a wider variety of barbershop on contest stage today. This hopefully makes the genre more accessible than ever, even though the elite groups have become more advanced. / Barbershopkvartettsång har sedan mitten av 1800-talet vuxit fram som en unik genre med rötter i USA. År 1938 startades en organisation med målet att bevara genren, som då höll på att dö ut. Ett år efter att organisationen startade började man hålla årliga tävlingar för att kora den bästa kvartetten, dessa tävlingar har nu pågått i åttio år och de har spelat en viktig roll för att hålla genren i god vigör. Tävlingsmomentet har också inneburit förändring för genren, nya kvartetter kommer med nya idéer om hur den kan utföras. Detta innebar att ett regelverk ganska snabbt blev nödvändigt, som i sin tur har förändrats i takt med att genren har utvecklats. Studiens syfte är att ta reda på hur genren har förändrats under de åttio som den har existerat i tävlingsform, genom att jämföra musik från de åttio kvartetter som hittills vunnit tävlingen och leta efter förändring, framförallt i den noterade musiken. Materialet som har samlats in för studien är således inspelningar av dessa åttio kvartetter, som i de flesta fall var mer än tillräckligt för studiens genomförande. Metoden var att först välja en definition av genren och sedan tydligt gå igenom vad definitionen innebär, därefter lyssna igenom materialet i kronologisk ordning och undersöka dels hur det stämmer överens med definitionen, och dels hur det förändras i sig genom åren. Undersökningen resulterade i först ett märkbart skifte till väldigt kontrollerade former av barbershop, som under ca 30 – 40 år höll i sig, och därefter skedde förändring mot den sortens barbershop som vi ofta hör idag. Det som framför allt har förändrats är att polyfoni har tagit en allt större plats i arrangemangen som blivit betydligt mer avancerade, sättningen av ackord har blivit mer varierad och inte lika tät, en del olika fusioner med till exempel blues, pop och musikal har skett och på senare år har även själva ackordvokabulären expanderat en aning, dock blygsamt. Resultaten visar på en bredare variation av barbershop på dagens internationella tävlingsscen. Förhoppningsvis innebär detta att genren är mer tillgänglig än någonsin för nya intressenter, samtidigt som eliten inom barbershop har blivit alltmer avancerad.

Despite the ubiquity of music and its importance to one’s identity, there has been limited research on individual differences in music preferences. The aim of this dissertation was to examine how music preferences vary across individual differences in stable traits (e.g., gender, personality) and states (e.g., mood) over three studies. The focus of Study 1 was on the influence of the listener’s mood on emotion-based music preferences. The typical preference for happy- over sad-sounding music was found to be mood-dependent, evident after happy and neutral but not sad mood inductions. When the music was emotionally ambiguous (i.e., with cues to both happiness and sadness), happy listeners liked the music more than other listeners, whereas sad listeners perceived it to be more sad-sounding. Study 2 examined how emotion-based music preferences develop. Adults and children 5, 8, and 11 years of age listened to short pieces expressing emotions that varied in arousal and valence: happiness (high, positive), scariness (high, negative), peacefulness (low, positive), or sadness (low, negative). Adults preferred pieces with a positive valence (happy and peaceful), whereas children preferred excerpts depicting high-arousal emotions (happy and scary). Identification accuracy was predictive of a positive-valence bias among 5- and 8-year-olds. A number of other findings related to accuracy and gender differences were also evident. Study 3 examined whether personality differences affect the influence of exposure on liking. Undergraduates completed the Big Five Inventory and provided liking ratings for novel music excerpts as well as for excerpts they heard 2, 8, or 32 times. Higher scores on Openness-to-Experience were related to greater liking for novel excerpts and more rapid satiation. In sum, these three studies highlight that music preferences vary as a function of individual differences and the listening context.

Despite the ubiquity of music and its importance to one’s identity, there has been limited research on individual differences in music preferences. The aim of this dissertation was to examine how music preferences vary across individual differences in stable traits (e.g., gender, personality) and states (e.g., mood) over three studies. The focus of Study 1 was on the influence of the listener’s mood on emotion-based music preferences. The typical preference for happy- over sad-sounding music was found to be mood-dependent, evident after happy and neutral but not sad mood inductions. When the music was emotionally ambiguous (i.e., with cues to both happiness and sadness), happy listeners liked the music more than other listeners, whereas sad listeners perceived it to be more sad-sounding. Study 2 examined how emotion-based music preferences develop. Adults and children 5, 8, and 11 years of age listened to short pieces expressing emotions that varied in arousal and valence: happiness (high, positive), scariness (high, negative), peacefulness (low, positive), or sadness (low, negative). Adults preferred pieces with a positive valence (happy and peaceful), whereas children preferred excerpts depicting high-arousal emotions (happy and scary). Identification accuracy was predictive of a positive-valence bias among 5- and 8-year-olds. A number of other findings related to accuracy and gender differences were also evident. Study 3 examined whether personality differences affect the influence of exposure on liking. Undergraduates completed the Big Five Inventory and provided liking ratings for novel music excerpts as well as for excerpts they heard 2, 8, or 32 times. Higher scores on Openness-to-Experience were related to greater liking for novel excerpts and more rapid satiation. In sum, these three studies highlight that music preferences vary as a function of individual differences and the listening context.

Early musical experiences are very important for social, cognitive and physical development of children, as well as their future musical competences. Preschools present this environment with various musical materials. However, suitability of these materials in terms of developmental needs of children and educational goals is questionable. The purpose of this study is to transfer knowledge from relevant literature to design considerations of musical toys for preschool children. Literature review was conducted to determine various aspects to be considered while designing musical toys by compiling knowledge from developmental psychology and pedagogy literature / governments

This thesis examines the effects of formal musical experience in infancy on musical, social and communicative development. Parents and care-givers have a wide-range of choices of activities and products for an enriched musical experience for their infants, yet prior to the studies in this thesis little was known of the effects of formal musical experience on development. In chapter 1, I outline the introduction to my thesis. In Chapter 2, I examine the effects of Kindermusik training on rhythmic enculturation. Infants who participated in these classes demonstrated a heightened interest in rhythmic patterns but also showed a stronger preference for duple metrical patterns, indicating that musical classes for infants can accelerate the development of culture-specific metrical perception. In Chapter 3, I present results showing that infants who participate in active musical classes showed superior development of prelinguistic communicative gestures and social behaviour as compared to infants assigned to a passive musical experience. In Chapter 4 I examine the development of joint attention in infants assigned to active and passive musical experiences. Although no significant results were found, I suggest that either more sensitive measures or a longer period of study might well show differences between the groups. Together these findings indicate that infants are able to engage in meaningful musical training when the developmentally appropriate pedagogical approach is used, and that formal musical experience in infancy can enhance culture-specific musical acquisition as well as impact social and communication development. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The purpose of this study was twofold; to investigate the relationships between the musical development of two- and three-year-old girls and their mothers' musical backgrounds and the music in their home environments; and to investigate the significance of the differences in the musical development of two- and three-year-old girls with reference to their socio-economic status (SES) and ethnicity. The relationships between the musical development of all subjects and music in the home environment were positive, rendering correlation coefficients that were statistically significant. These statistical inferences indicated that the musical home environment (the product of the mother, the father, and other adults, and the availability of musical items and activities) has the strongest relationship to the musical development of the young child. This influence begins before the age of two and continues during the third year. It was also hypothesized that there would be a significant difference in the musical development of the two- and three- year- old girls with reference to SES and ethnicity. Analysis of variance was employed to ascertain these differences. The subjects remained in age groups and were statistically regrouped by SES and ethnicity for these analyses. From the inferences rendered by these analyses, neither SES nor ethnicity made statistically significant differences in the musical development of these young girls.

This work deals with the teaching of improvisation in basic art schools. It describes the contribution and signifikance of improvisation in the pupil's life, in his musical development. The aim of this work is to focus on the practical aspects of piano teaching, both from the pupil's point of view (pupil's musical needs, difficulties) and from the teacher's point of view. The work refutes the opinion that improvisation is conditioned by special, individual talent, but emphasizes that a suitable approach and methodology can develop improvisation in each student. The work also deals with some of the possible difficulties in learning to play the piano, and these are stress and tremor and musical dyslexia. Work connects both of these phenomena with the ability to improvise and shows how improvisation can have a positive effect on these learning difficulties. Another goal of this work is to map the current state of teaching improvisation in our basic art schools. For this purpose, a questionnaire was created addressing teachers throughout the Czech Republic. The aim of the questionnaire was to find out the state of teaching improvisation at basic art schools, the content of teaching improvisation, the individual time allowance of this teaching and the materials used to teach improvisation. The work...

The diploma thesis deals with the topic of the family's influence on the development of a child's musicality at an early age, from birth to his pre-school period. In the work the author first describes the general development of the child and then the musical development of the child in individual developmental periods, because the development of music takes place inseparably from the overall development of the child and his personality. This description also includes the period of prenatal development. A part of it is the characteristics of individual musical abilities, the development of which can already be seen at children at this age. The work focuses on the influence of father, mother and siblings of the child on his overall development and development in the field of music, describes the appropriate musical environment in the family and the possibilities of its positive influence. The practical part logically follows the theoretical part and draws on the knowledge contained in it. It focuses on specific practical musical activities that can be performed with children of this age within the family. It aims to create a set of simple ideas for the development of musicality of children in toddler and early pre-school age. The author first characterizes the musical environment in her family and...