Children’s informal music learning: A phenomenological inquiry

Abstract

Children’s informal music-making has been studied in a variety of contexts outside of school, but few researchers have examined this type of learning in elementary music classes. The purpose of this phenomenological inquiry was to explore the lived experience of 13 children with informal music learning in an elementary school in the U.S. Individual interviews, focus group interviews, and field notes were collected and analyzed using van Manen’s process for hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry. The data revealed the following themes: freedom to choose, making it their own, exploring their musical identities, and critical reflection. Key elements of the essence include interactions with friends, embodied music making, personal validation, and the encouragement of future musical opportunities. The discussion provides suggestions for music educators to facilitate informal music learning experiences and implications for future research with elementary students.

Keywords

Children’s music elementary music informal music learning musical identity phenomenology popular music

For decades, scholars in music education have called for music educators to consider how to bring aspects of children’s music play into the music classroom (Campbell, 2010; Harwood & Marsh, 2012; Marsh, 2009). Harwood and Marsh (2012) expanded this call, suggesting that elementary music teachers reconsider not only the playful processes of children’s music making, but also “the place of informal learning experiences in a complete school curriculum” (p. 11). However, despite this call, few studies have sought to explore informal music learning in elementary schools in the United States. Understanding children’s experiences with informal music learning in school settings could provide new insights for how elementary music teachers can incorporate this constructivist approach in their classes.

Informal Music Learning

Informal music learning is a term used to describe learning that involves self-selected activities, is not sequenced in advance, and occurs with little to no formal instruction from a teacher (Folkestad, 2006; Green, 2008). Green (2002) identified five main characteristics associated with informal music learning: (a) learning music by ear; (b) using self-selected songs; (c) learning from and with peers; (d) working in haphazard processes; and (e) integrating acts of performing, listening, and creating. Informal music learning incorporates a variety of learning strategies, like approximating musical contour, and spontaneous improvisation (Green, 2012).

Research on informal music learning has revealed several positive outcomes, including improved aural skills (Baker & Green, 2013), increased feelings of individual and collective student ownership (Allsup, 2003; Davis, 2010, 2013; Evans et al., 2015; Green, 2002, 2008; Jaffurs, 2004), and greater personal connections with music (Davis, 2013; Green, 2008; Evans et al., 2015). Researchers have examined informal music learning with a variety of populations, including adolescents (Allsup, 2003; Baker & Green, 2013; Butler et al., 2021; Davis, 2010; Green, 2008; Jaffurs, 2004; Jones, 2015), university students (Wright & Kanellopoulos, 2010), and music teachers (Abramo & Austin, 2014; Kastner, 2014, 2020; Vasil, 2019). However, at the time of this study, few researchers have studied informal music learning with elementary-aged children in the United States.

Children’s Informal Music Play

In children’s music play outside of school, researchers have found many learning processes similar to those in informal music learning (Campbell, 2010; Griffin, 2009; Koops 2010; Lum, 2008; Lum & Campbell, 2007; Marsh, 2009). Harwood and Marsh (2012) described several characteristics of children’s informal music play, including “shared responsibility for learning,” “learning through movement,” “aural/oral transmission,” and “embedded opportunity for composition and improvisation” (p. 4–5). Additionally, children’s informal music play is influenced by popular music (Griffin, 2009; Lum, 2008; Marsh, 1999, 2009). Marsh (1999) noted that, although sometimes viewed as a negative influence by educators, popular music existed in a “mediated orality” in children's musical play that “enriched” their experience (p. 2). However, informal music play often differs from the learning that takes place in school, and children are aware of these differences (Griffin, 2009).

Few researchers have examined informal music learning with primary-aged children in schools (Davis, 2013; Linton, 2014). Linton (2014), in a case study of 35 students in Grade One in a private Canadian school, found the use of informal music learning allowed for creative expression, student independence, and collaborative learning. In an ethnographic study in which she was both teacher and researcher, Davis (2013) found that elementary students used a variety of strategies in informal music learning, including movement, peer collaboration, and aural learning. Findings also indicated that a common “social identity” emerged through ongoing dialogue about students’ popular music preferences (p. 43).

Need for the Study

Children’s informal music-making has been studied in a variety of contexts outside of school (Campbell, 2010; Griffin, 2009; Lum, 2008; Marsh, 1999, 2009), but few researchers have examined informal music learning in elementary music classes (Davis, 2013; Linton, 2014). More research is needed to explore the meaning of children’s lived experience–their actions, attitudes, and interactions–with informal music learning (Rich et al., 2013). The specific questions guiding this investigation were (a) What is the meaning of informal music learning for children in the elementary music classroom? (b) How, if at all, do informal music learning experiences contribute to elementary students’ musical or social growth?

Method

The design for this study was hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry. As a research method, this involves an in-depth, rigorous examination of how individuals describe, perceive, and share the phenomenon (Patton, 2002), which in this study was informal music learning. In particular, I drew from van Manen’s (1990) approach because of his view of the complementary nature of pedagogy and phenomenology, in that the former “requires a hermeneutic ability” to understand people and situations and the latter involves a “research process [that] contribute[s] to one’s pedagogic thoughtfulness” (p. 2).

Setting and Participants

After obtaining IRB approval, data collection took place in a rural elementary school in the Midwestern United States. This site was purposefully selected because the school’s music teacher had previously implemented informal music learning processes in her curriculum and pedagogy, though not with the students who participated in this study.

Thirteen students from four fifth-grade classes (aged 10–11) participated in the study. I used a typical case sampling approach and utilized the teacher as a key informant to identify participants (Patton, 2002). The music teacher had students select groups for a project using informal music learning, and she then recommended one group to me from each class. After selecting the groups that might be best suited for participation, I obtained parental consent and student assent. The participants included two groups of boys and two groups of girls with three to five members each, and this was their first experience with informal music learning in school.

For this project, students chose a school-appropriate popular song and created a cappella arrangements to perform for their peers. After providing initial direction and sharing examples of a cappella cover song arrangements, the teacher invited groups to work independently, providing support when needed. In comparison to Green’s (2008) stages of informal music learning, this most closely resembled the first, “dropping pupils into the deep end.” The groups chose songs that were popular hits around the time of data collection, including “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen (Jepsen & Ramsay, 2011),“Lips Are Movin’’ by Meghan Trainor (Trainor & Kadish, 2014), “Fireflies” by Owl City (Young, 2009), and “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (Haggerty et al., 2013).

Data Collection and Analysis

Following van Manen’s (1990) process for conducting phenomenology, I first examined the etymological roots of informal music learning as well as my own experience. Next, I “obtain[ed] experiential descriptions” (van Manen, 1990, p. 62) by collecting data through individual interviews, focus group interviews, and observations. Two individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant at the beginning and end of data collection. The first interview included questions to gather participants’ background information and prior musical experiences, and the second focused on their informal music learning experiences in school. The focus group interviews were held with each group at the end of data collection and centered on “sense-making and interpreting” (van Manen, 1990, p. 98) the phenomenon. All interviews (26 individual and 4 focus group) lasted between 10 and 25 minutes. In order to help participants feel more comfortable with interviewing, I provided a list of questions, showed the recording device, and asked for their assent before beginning. I also conducted observations of the four groups during music classes. While observing, I made notes about intra-group conversations, as well musical utterances and movements. Overall, I sought to “follow [the participants] into their play spaces” (van Manen, 1990, p. 68) to document additional aspects of their lived experience.

Analysis began during the data collection process as I bracketed out my prior understandings of the phenomenon and made memos about what I had seen and heard from participants and (Patton, 2002; van Manen, 1990). After data collection ended, I transcribed the interviews and read through the data. I coded the data twice using HyperResearch software, first using open coding and then axial coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Next, I examined these codes to look for patterns and discover emerging themes. Finally, I was able to uncover the essence of the phenomenon by reflecting on the themes through van Manen’s four lifeworld existentials of every phenomenon: spatiality (“lived space”), corporeality (“lived body”), temporality (“lived time”), and relationality (“lived human relation”; Strauss & Corbin, 1998, pp. 101–102). Examining the themes through the framework of the lifeworld existentials provided a holistic framework for understanding the meaning of the participants’ experience (Rich, et al., 2013).

In my process as a researcher, I sought to ensure trustworthiness (Patton, 2002) through data triangulation and peer review by two music education researchers, one who specializes in informal music learning and one who specializes in children’s music learning. I also sought authenticity in my research process by seeking multiple perspectives and realities, bracketing the phenomenon, and exercising reflexivity in my own perceptions and experiences.

Findings

The following themes emerged from the data regarding children’s lived experience with informal music learning in school: (a) freedom to choose; (b) making it their own; (c) expanding musical identities; and (d) critical reflection.

Freedom to Choose

One of the aspects participants most enjoyed about their experience with informal music learning was freedom to choose their groups and songs. For example, the “Call Me Maybe” group described how autonomy was central to their experience:

Researcher:

How does this experience compare to your regular activities in music class?

Isabelle

¹: That was just like my favorite project. It was really fun!

Lyla:

Yeah, out of everything.

Isabelle:

We got to pick our groups and stuff. And our song. It’s kind of like, all for us, and what we wanted to do, and how we did it!

In being given the opportunity to make independent choices, Isabelle perceived informal music learning as more personalized for her and her group.

Similarly, Luke recounted his excitement at hearing his music teacher explain how they would get to choose their groups. “I was in my assigned seat and my best friend, Matt, was in his. When she said we could pick our groups, we just both looked at each other, and we knew we were going to be in a group together.” However, although Luke appreciated the freedom to choose his group members, he did not enjoy working with all of them equally. Luke’s group included four boys, but he described one of them as “picky” because he had differing opinions about their song choice. Despite this disagreement, Luke still felt that working with friends was a key part of the experience. In response to a question about what he thought other music teachers should know regarding informal music learning, he explained:

Let them pick, because if you say [in a teacher-like voice], “Okay, you with you, you, you, you, you,” [then in a normal voice] kids aren’t going to be as happy and aren’t going to think the project is as fun, because part of the reason it was so fun is that you’re doing it with your friends!

Other students also indicated that the freedom to choose was what they most appreciated about informal music learning. Several participants in the “Fireflies” group explained that they would not have enjoyed the experience with informal music learning if they did not have the autonomy to choose their own songs.

Researcher:

Do you think you would ever do this again?

Liam:

If I got the chance to, I would!

Researcher:

Yeah?

Liam:

Yeah, definitely!

Owen:

I don’t know. It depends. It depends. If we had the choice to choose our own song, then yeah. But if we were assigned a song, then I don’t know.

Researcher:

Okay. So, the choice was a big deal?

All three boys:

Yeah.

The participants greatly enjoyed the informal music learning process, but for at least some participants, this was dependent upon being able to make independent choices.

Making It Their Own

In their groups, the participants worked on making the arrangements their own. In doing so, they made musical decisions that revealed what they were hearing in the original recordings, what they could perform with their voices and bodies, and what they viewed as important in their own arrangements. This was evidenced in three main areas: hearing the background parts, adding choreography and body percussion, and knowing the lyrics.

Background Parts

Several groups described how they were listening for instrumental parts and background vocals. Many participants described how this was something new they had learned about music. For example, the Lyla from the “Call Me Maybe” group described her new understanding about additional parts she called “the background noise.”

Researcher:

What do you think you’ve learned from doing this project?

Lyla:

A song isn’t all about the lead singer. It’s more background noise than is the lead singer mostly.

Researcher:

Do you mean how the pieces fit together?

Lyla:

Yeah. . .I like to listen for the background noise now, because it’s really cool to find out what it is.

Many students described how they appreciated this new discovery and that it changed not only how they listened to the song they selected for their a cappella arrangement but also in how they listened to music outside of school: “Sometimes I try to listen to the background noises, and stuff like that” (Interview, “Call Me Maybe,” Tiffany).

However, even though the students talked about hearing the “background noise,” many still had misconceptions when they tried to incorporate parts other than the melody into their arrangement. In the song, “Call Me Maybe,” the chorus melody is punctuated by synth strings performing a basic harmony in the background. Rather than singing these parts in harmony, two of the girls performed the parts in unison, but on different vocables: “doo” and “bum.” I asked the group to explain the two parts and how they came up with them.

Researcher:

And when is the “bum” part?

Lyla:

[Singing] Bum bum-bum.

Isabelle:

It’s at the same time.

Lyla:

Yeah, the same time. So it goes together.

Isabelle:

[Smiling proudly] So we were all doing different things at the same time.

Research:

Oh, cool! Why did you make that choice to do different things?

Isabelle:

Because it kind of, like, gave more like–[stops abruptly]

Lyla:

Background sounds?

Isabelle:

Yeah.

In the ‘Call Me Maybe’ group, the girls understood that they should all be performing different parts, but were unable to figure out the harmony on their own. Instead, they created a way to distinguish these two parts through the text of their vocables.

Choreography and Body Percussion

Another way the participants “made it their own” was by adding choreography and/or body percussion to their arrangements, an addition made by three of the four groups. The two girls’ groups spent more time than the two boys’ groups in determining their choreography. The “Lips Are Movin’” group used choreography with finger snaps and stomps on the off-beats to accompany different sections of the song, but they adapted the choreography over several class periods because some of the girls struggled to make their entrances on the beat. Eventually, they decided to stagger their entrances, so that the two girls who were stronger musically came in first. They called this musical effect “rippling,” like waves.

The “Fireflies” group added a body percussion part consisting of a rhythmic ostinato with 16th note pats and snaps that coordinated with their song, although this ostinato was not in the original recording. The “Call Me Maybe” group included choreography in the form of an elaborate count down introduction that seemed to be borrowed from a cheerleading club that several group members participated in outside of school (Figure 1). Each time they chanted a number, they stuck out their hips, and for each snap, they quickly put their arm out diagonally. The girls seemed to find their introduction both silly and fun, and they often giggled with excitement before starting. Later, they added additional movements so that whoever was singing the lead would hop to the center, and they switched positions at various points in the performance. Overall, the choreography and body percussion provided a visual component and an added layer of sound to their arrangements.

Figure 1.

“Call Me Maybe” group’s opening choreography.

Knowing the Lyrics

The participants took ownership over their pieces by placing a great deal of emphasis on knowing the lyrics. In three of the four groups, they determined the lead singer by figuring out who already knew most or all the words. The participants were also concerned about performing the lyrics accurately and at the correct tempo.

Researcher:

What do you think you’ve learned from doing the a cappella project?

Luke:

Probably how hard it is to produce music!

Researcher:

Really!

Luke:

It’s harder than the blues.² It’s harder than anything we’ve done in the past.

Luke went on to explain that his use of the term “production” referred to physicality of producing music by singing and rapping lyrics.

Researcher:

What’s hard about it?

Luke:

Probably trying to memorize the lyrics, especially for a rap song. Because you gotta go fast.

The groups also spent a lot of time rehearsing the lyrics during class time. When working on their arrangements, participants spent a majority of time either listening to the pieces or running through the piece without stopping. In between run-throughs, they gave each other few peer critiques, but these usually concerned the lyrics. For example, the “Lips Are Movin’” group struggled at one point because some members pronounced the word “deny” differently than others. The song lyrics of the chorus go as follows: “You can buy me diamond earrings and deny-ny-ny, ny-ny-ny, deny-ny/ But I smell her on your collar so goodbye-bye-bye, bye-bye-bye” (Trainor & Kadish, 2014). Three of the girls were singing the word “deny” like ‘de-nah’ (as in the word, “nautical”), but others were singing it as “de-nī” (as in “night”). Taylor spoke to her group and encouraged all of them to use the same vowel sound. She explained how this was her least favorite part of the experience: “It was hard to tell people how to do parts, like [the] ‘deny’s,’ because that was the hardest part of the project. It wasn’t my favorite, because it was hard to explain.” Ultimately, Taylor convinced the other members of her group that they should sing “de-nah,” claiming that it sounded more like the pronunciation in the recording.

In the “Fireflies” group, the boys’ emphasis on knowing the lyrics seemed to lead to a misconception about the purpose of the assignment. When rehearsing in class, the music teacher had given each group a copy of the lyrics so that students could use it as a tool in developing their arrangements. The participants in the “Fireflies” group discussed whether they should cut the instrumental introduction from their performance. Liam explained, “The intro is mostly making weird noises. When I looked up the song on [an Internet browser], they didn’t even write down the intro.” In the end, the group started their arrangement by beginning with the initial verse, rather than by including the introduction.

Exploring Their Musical Identities

Through this experience, the participants had opportunities to explore their musical identities through validation of their musical skills and expressing their musical preferences. Because they had to develop an arrangement in which they were not all performing in unison, they had to evaluate not only which parts were needed, but who was best suited for each part. The “Fireflies” group selected the various parts by considering everyone’s skills. In their focus group interview, group members joked about Liam’s ability to beat box, referring to the slobbering that sometimes happens during that type of vocalization.

Researcher:

How did you decide each person’s job in the group?

Liam:

By what they were good at!

Owen:

Yeah, pretty much.

Researcher:

How did you know?

Owen:

[Pointing to Xavier] He knew all the lyrics, so we were like, “Okay, he’s probably going to be lead.” And he’s a pretty good beat boxer [pointing to Liam], so we put him on bass, and then I just–

Xavier:

[To Liam] You’re pretty good at slobbering on yourself while making sounds! [Everyone laughs.]

Researcher:

Did you know that you were good at beat boxing?

Liam:

[Nods] ‘Cause I do beat boxing at my house sometimes.

Liam received validation from his peers in his beat boxing, which he could now share in music class through the context of this informal music learning experience.

While Liam received validation in his performance ability, Taylor felt confidence about her creative contributions to her group’s arrangement. She explained how at the beginning of the project, she was curious about whether she would be successful with this type of musicianship: “I wanted to see what the experience would be like for me and if I did good with switching around [the parts] and stuff. It turns out I am really good at it.”

Participants’ musical identities were also supported as they expressed their preferences in the song choices and in the roles they took on their groups. Taylor informed me that she wanted to become a music teacher when she grew up, and she consistently functioned as the “teacher” in her group by offering critiques, suggestions, and encouragement. Other participants preferred to stay in the background, regardless of their level of musical ability. Lyla explained how she did not want to be the lead singer in her group:

Lyla:

If we didn’t have Isabelle, I wouldn’t have sung all of that. No.

Researcher:

Really? Why is that?

Lyla:

I just don’t like singing in front of people all that much.

During participant selection, the music teacher told me that Lyla was one of the strongest musicians in the whole fifth grade. She was a good singer with excellent aural skills, and she also studied piano outside of school. However, even though Lyla had high levels of musical achievement, she preferred to let other, more extroverted members of her group sing the lead vocals. This provided an opportunity for her to participate in a positive musical experience as a part of a group, rather than individually. She was also able to identify her preference to let others take the lead in the performance.

For others, their identities seemed to be reinforced by the autonomy they had to make decisions as a group without the teacher. For example, when asked whether this project made her feel like a musician, Isabelle confidently answered that it did, explaining, “Yeah, because I feel like I’m a musician! I feel like I’m a singer and we’re a band group!” Even though they were making decisions as a group, they were able to develop a sense of personal independence, which further reinforced their musical identities.

Critical Reflection

In addition to considering what the phenomenon was for the participants, the data also revealed what it was not. For the participants, informal music learning involved little, if any, critical reflection on their musical products. While the participants reveled in the process of working on their a cappella arrangements, most seemed unable to describe the strengths or weaknesses of their arrangement or their performance, even when prompted. Rather, most simply described their performance generically as “good.”

Only three of the 13 participants described any strengths or weaknesses of their musical products. Luke and Isabelle both described moments when other group members did not sing their parts accurately. Luke critiqued Howie on his ability to vocally recreate the piano part from their recording:

[Howie] is having a little bit of trouble–not to be rude to him–because when he’s doing the piano [part]. . .he doesn’t sound very good. So I said, “You should try and sing higher to kinda make the note.”

Similarly, Isabelle felt that some of the harmonies performed by her group did not “mix together,” and she described how the issues in balancing the various parts performed in their group, saying, “Sometimes someone’s super high and someone’s super quiet, so they need to be at the same [level].”

While it is possible that some participants were capable of hearing aspects of their musical arrangements that were successful and parts that were less successful, most were not able to express this verbally. Regardless, they seemed mostly unconcerned about making their performances sound exactly like the original recordings. Ultimately, they seemed more focused on the experience of working together and making music.

Essence

Informal music learning with elementary students centered on interactions with friends to connect their shared interests, validate their unique contributions, and find enjoyment in the process. It was embodied through listening, singing, beatboxing, choreography, and body percussion, which added expression and creativity to their musical arrangements. It allowed students to connect with their past experiences and current preferences, as well as encourage possibilities for future music making. Finally, informal music learning transformed the lived space of the elementary music classroom into one in which students could claim ownership over their music making and connect to their outside musical worlds.

Discussion and Implications

The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of children’s lived experience with informal music learning in an elementary music classroom. The elementary students in this study found meaning in their experience with informal music learning in their freedom to choose their own groups and songs and to interact with their peers in the process of developing a musical arrangement. The creative freedom and social interactions revealed in the data resemble findings from ethnographic studies of children’s music play outside of school (Campbell, 2010; Griffin, 2009; Koops 2010; Lum, 2008; Lum & Campbell, 2007; Marsh, 2009). However, most U.S. elementary music classes involve activities in which the teacher has control over the song selections and learning sequence; students frequently perform folk repertoire learned as a whole class in a teacher-led process. Informal music learning could provide a pedagogical approach that more directly connects with the types of experiences found in children’s self-directed musical play (Campbell, 2010; Harwood & Marsh, 2012; Marsh, 2009).

Informal music learning contributed to participants’ musical growth through their expanded listening skills; use of beatboxing, choreography, and body percussion; and exploration of their musical identities. First, the participants began to listen to and recognize multiple parts in recorded music, and they appreciated their new understandings of “background noise.” Even though they lacked the linguistic vocabulary to be able to describe what they were hearing in proper musical terms, they began to develop the musical vocabulary to perform it vocally and through movement. These new listening skills could provide a foundation for the participants’ future musical performances and creations and, over time, result in an improvement in their overall aural skills (Baker & Green, 2013; Woody & Lehman, 2010).

The participants in this study incorporated choreography and body percussion into their creative process, which was also found in several studies of children’s play (Campbell, 2010; Marsh, 2009; Riddell, 1990) and in Davis’s (2013) ethnographic study of informal music learning in an elementary classroom. However, choreography, body percussion, and other movements have not been documented in studies of informal music learning with adolescents or adults. The use of choreography and body percussion may also have been due to the nature of this learning experience in which participants were assigned to create an a cappella cover song arrangement. Because they were not playing instruments, the participants were free to use their bodies to create sounds and visual effects. While Marsh (1999) described the appropriation of popular music through parody and emulation, participants in this study adapted musical sounds and practices from other, more distant sources, like cheerleading.

Similarly, while singing and chanting have been documented in children’s music play, scholars studying informal music learning have focused primarily on the experience of these processes through performance on both traditional concert band (Allsup, 2003; Davis, 2010; Jones, 2015) and garage band instruments (Abramo, 2011; Green, 2008; Jaffurs, 2004). Few descriptions have been provided regarding the role of the voice through singing, chanting, and rapping in informal music learning, and more research is needed to examine this aspect of the phenomenon. Additionally, music educators might consider how the use of singing and movement might be possible entry points for learners in beginning informal music learning processes, particularly children.

While offering many positive outcomes, informal music learning also presented issues that music teachers may need to consider when implementing informal music learning with children. First, the participants placed a great deal of social capital on memorizing the lyrics of their song selections, as opposed to emphasizing the accuracy and expression in their musical performance. In some of the groups, this also influenced the roles taken by group members in their performance, like determining who would perform the lead part and critiquing others’ pronunciations. In informal music learning, learners have the freedom to choose their own steps and processes, which may result in non-linear or “haphazard” processes (Green, 2008). However, informal music learning as an in-school educational approach can and should involve the guidance of a music teacher, and more research is needed in the pedagogical strategies that can support these processes, particularly with children (Davis, 2013; Kastner, 2014, 2020).

A second issue that emerged regarding children’s lived experience with informal music learning was the participants’ inability to verbally reflect on their musical performances and creative products. Only three of the participants responded with descriptive answers when asked about their informal music learning products, but this may have been due to the age of the participants or the fact that this was their first attempt at informal music learning. For example, Jones (2015) found in a study examining the informal music learning experiences of high school band students that the participants developed more sophisticated cover songs after multiple attempts. It could be that the ability to critically reflect may develop with age and multiple experiences with informal music learning. Additional research could examine the process of critical reflection in informal music learning with learners of all ages.

Informal music learning provided an opportunity for the exploration and reification of participants’ musical identities. In this study, the participants’ musical identities were validated through the musical roles they took on in their groups, like singer, beat boxer, and teacher. They were also supported through their musical preferences, which they could share in their song choices, group membership, and role in the performance. Music teachers should continue to find ways to support students’ musical identities in the classroom, and future research could further explore the characteristics of learning processes that promote students’ musical identity development. Additionally, the participants in this study chose single-gender groupings. Future research could further explore the relationship between gender and informal music learning at the elementary level. Finally, given that this study found that informal music learning seemed to support the development of the participants’ musical identities, further research is needed to understand if and how informal music learning affects musical identity development and the characteristics of environments that can support this growth.

In conclusion, these participants found meaning in the autonomy and social interactions of informal music learning, as well as the opportunities for music-making that is rooted in creative choices and personal expression. Their informal music-making experience helped these children develop new understandings of the components of a popular music piece as well as explore the social nature of active music-making. As one of the participants explained, they got to make music in their “own way.”

Footnotes

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Julie D. Derges

Notes

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