The Development of Music Expertise: Applications of the Theories of Deliberate Practice and Deliberate Play

Introduction

How do individuals become experts in any domain? Bloom’s model of expertise development has been one of the prevailing models used in education research since the 1980s (Bloom, 1985a). The model includes many aspects of development (e.g., childhood experiences, interactions with adults, teachers and mentors, family involvement), and has two primary categories of learning activities: play and formal education/intense practice. Subsequent research on expertise development led to the theory of deliberate practice in the mid-1990s (Ericsson et al., 1993). Psychologists and music education researchers have established the importance of deliberate practice in music expertise development, which will be discussed later. Teachers and early education researchers have also studied the importance of play for students. Young students gain a variety of skills through music play. Thus, two large categories of music expertise development have emerged in research: deliberate practice and music play.

While the research mentioned previously was being completed, sport psychologists were investigating how the theory of deliberate practice could be applied to athletes. Deliberate practice has been studied extensively with respect to sport (Starkes et al., 1996), but it does not account for all athletic expertise development. Sport psychologists have identified a specific category of play-like activities that are instrumental to skill development for most expert and elite athletes (Côté et al., 2013). This new category, deliberate play, shares some characteristics with deliberate practice and play. Sport psychologists also created the Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP) to describe how athletes gain expertise beyond that of Bloom’s model.

Music and sports share many common characteristics. Both musicians and athletes use a combination of physical skills and cognitive information (e.g., rules, strategy, note names) to reach expert levels in their respective fields. Individuals develop skills through time and effort, often with a more experienced guide (coach/teacher). Group participation in either domain generally requires cooperation with others and precise timing between individuals. However, there are some primary differences between the two domains. Overall physical fitness is a common need for athletic success; musicians do not generally require better than average physical fitness. Musicians often have to perform tasks simultaneously with others, so that the beginning, middle, and end of the action are together. Athletes are often more concerned with coordinating the end result of an action with other players or as part of a sequence of events. Athletes generally have better visual/spatial awareness, whereas musicians have better aural skills; however, there are exceptions in both music and sports. Although the specific skills for each domain are different, they are two well-studied domains that both combine physical and cognitive skills. Studying the theories that sport psychologists use to explain athletic expertise may also clarify our understanding of music expertise. In this literature review, I document the history of expertise development research in music and sports, as well as recent developments in both fields. Deliberate play could serve as a link between music play and deliberate practice. Deliberate play could also help teachers select and create more appropriate learning experiences for students early in the learning process. Implications for teachers are included in the final section.

Methodology

I used JSTOR, PERSEE, PubMed, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Psychiatry Online, PsychINFO, and Google Scholar databases to search for relevant literature. Initial searches were not limited by publication date; however, most relevant literature was published between 1997 and 2020, with the exception of two foundational research articles from 1973 to 1993, and a book from 1985. Prior to beginning the research, I identified three primary search terms related to the research question: deliberate practice, deliberate play, and music play. I also reviewed references and keywords of each article for potential new search terms, authors, and related literature. Other search terms included practice, play, music play, informal learning, sports play, and selected author names (e.g., Ericsson, Côté, and Koops). I also had personal communication with Jean Côté to discuss other potential relevant research because there is limited existing research on the newest concept—deliberate play.

Expertise Development

The development of expertise is a multifaceted process that researchers have investigated thoroughly. Early theories were that an individual could become an expert only after having spent considerable time engaged in a particular domain, such as the average of 10,000 hours ¹ first suggested by Simon and Chase (1973). Although extensive time engaged in the domain is generally considered a required part of expertise development (Ericsson et al., 1993), such theories did not account for differences between the accomplishments of all individuals. For example, why could a new doctor with less experience be just as good a diagnostician as an experienced one? Or, why do some individuals progress to become elites in their field, while others stop developing regardless of how long they continue to work? Although the answer to those questions is immensely complex, researchers have identified a set of stages of expertise development that have provided some clarity.

Bloom’s Model and Deliberate Practice

Bloom’s model identifies three primary stages during expertise development: early, middle, and late (Bloom, 1985a). Bloom and other researchers interviewed experts in various fields and their parents, coaches, and teachers over the course of 4 years in order to determine how people developed into experts (Bloom, 1985b). Based on a cross-analysis of the data from multiple domains, they determined certain common characteristics by stages. During the early years, children are introduced to the domain in playful, fun ways, generally by a parent or close family friend. In the middle years, usually 2 to 3 years after the first introduction, three characteristics are apparent: (a) individuals are spending more time in the domain, (b) a teacher or coach is working with the individual, and (c) the parent or family friend is primarily motivating practice efforts. In the late years, individuals and their families devote large amounts of financial resources and time to the pursuit of this field, the individual seeks out a master teacher, and the parent or family friend is no longer a primary motivator or additional teacher (Bloom, 1985a). Other researchers have confirmed these stages, and some have argued for a fourth “elite” stage where individuals have learned everything their teachers can teach and begin to seek personal solutions to the issues of the domain (Ericsson, 1996). Further research into expertise development has identified deliberate practice as one of the primary factors in how new skills and knowledge are acquired and applied during development.

Deliberate practice refers to intense, mentally taxing practice that is typically not enjoyable, but is designed to improve performance of a specified task (Ericsson et al., 1993). The initial research by Ericsson et al. (1993) focused primarily on musicians. The researchers interviewed groups of violinists and pianists matched by their ability levels, ages, and professions about their music careers, practice habits, and other daily activities. Most musicians reported feeling mentally drained after an effective practice session, while some also reported physical exhaustion and/or fatigue after practice, and normally rated their practice time as not particularly enjoyable. These two characteristics—not enjoyable and mentally taxing—formed the basis for the developing theory of deliberate practice.

Further research in the domain of chess reinforced the concept of deliberate practice. Charness et al. (1996) investigated the correlations between skill ranking and other variables among 136 internationally ranked chess players from Germany, Russia, and Canada. Comparable to the findings of the original study, these chess players spent considerable amounts of time each week in deliberate practice. Similar to the musicians, the highest ranked chess players, those who had reached Grand Master status, had accumulated a considerable number of hours of deliberate practice. All of the deliberate practice activities were rated as mentally taxing, not particularly enjoyable, focused on improving a specific aspect of performance, and solitary in nature. Unlike the musicians, only some of the chess players used a coach to achieve international ranking. The use of a chess coach was correlated to country, not ranking: thus it seemed likely that the use of coaches was determined by culture. The researchers also compared deliberate practice with tournament play or other potentially social opportunities for expertise development. However, none of these other practice activities were as effective at predicting international ranking (Charness et al., 1996). When people practice alone, it may be easier to focus their efforts on a specified task, rather than being concerned about issues of beating an opponent or winning a tournament. Regardless, the definition of deliberate practice was clarified to be mentally taxing, not enjoyable individual practice that was designed to improve a specific task.

Deliberate practice research is also prevalent in the field of medical education. Similar to the studies in music and chess, the most effective methods were those that involved high levels of mental effort and were generally rated as relevant to the profession, but not enjoyable (Ericsson, 2003; Moulaert et al., 2004). Specifically, the students who studied alone and chose techniques to improve a specific aspect of medicine consistently scored higher on exams. These studies supported Ericsson’s definition of deliberate practice.

Subsequent studies into multiple domains revealed a series of steps required for deliberate practice: individuals must be attempting to improve a specific aspect of a well-defined task, and they must have detailed feedback for their multiple attempts at improvement on the same or similar tasks (Ericsson et al., 2009; Ford et al., 2009; Ward et al., 2007). The detailed feedback and multiple attempts are called a feedback loop—identifying a specific aspect of performance that needs improvement, attempting some strategy to improve performance, receiving feedback on the attempt, and repeating the cycle with the new information (Zimmerman, 1990). Zimmerman (1990) elaborated:

This loop entails a cyclic process in which students monitor the effectiveness of their learning methods or strategies and react to this feedback in a variety of ways, ranging from covert changes in self-perception to overt changes in behavior such as altering the use of a learning strategy. (p. 5)

It is important to note that participants were generally only able to maintain deliberate practice for a maximum of 1 hour before breaks due to mental exhaustion (Ericsson, 2005; Ericsson et al., 1993; Ericsson et al., 2009; Moulaert et al., 2004). Thus, the operational definition of deliberate practice used in this article is practice that is mentally taxing, not enjoyable, usually occurs alone, and aims to improve a skill through a feedback loop.

Deliberate Practice in Music

Researchers have applied the theory of deliberate practice and its facets to music practice. As expected, these researchers determined that deliberate practice typically occurs individually, or occasionally with an instructor (Byo & Cassidy, 2008; Chaffin & Imreh, 2001; Duke, 2007). During one observational study, middle school participants recorded their practice sessions at home and then researchers analyzed the students’ practice behaviors (Christensen, 2010). The most successful participants repeated short sections of the piece with the goal of increasing tempo or accuracy. These young students were engaged in deliberate practice: they had specific goals and they used strategies to create a feedback loop. A related study aimed to create a predictive model of music achievement that combined aspects of deliberate practice, self-regulation, practice time, and self-perceptions of competence. Bonneville-Roussy and Bouffard (2015) considered various self-regulation skills and deliberate practice under a blanket term of formal practice to study the development of 173 college music students. The participants with higher amounts of formal practice had higher normalized semester grades, which were considered a measure of levels of music achievement. The findings of the studies described provide an expansive view of how music skills are gained through deliberate practice.

Other researchers have investigated particular aspects of deliberate practice. Some have focused on improving the feedback loop with younger students. Providing middle school students with a model during the self-evaluation portion of deliberate practice was particularly helpful, but all students performed better with a model, regardless of whether self-evaluation was required (Hewitt, 2001). The use of exemplary models, however, did not improve self-evaluation skills (Hewitt, 2002). Although using a model demonstrated what students should sound like, it was no guarantee that students would be any better at recognizing their errors. Self-evaluation scores of high school students were more accurate than those of middle school students when compared with experts’ ratings of individual performance (Hewitt, 2005); thus, the more advanced students were better at a necessary step of the feedback loop cycle.

Researchers interested in how the brain processes information have looked at how deliberate practice functions over time. Consolidation refers to the concept that basic motor skills learned during the day improve during sleep (Duke, 2007). In one study, participants learned a piano melody and then returned 12 or 24 hours later to test retention of the melody; participants who slept before the retention test outscored those who did not on temporal evenness, but not speed (Simmons & Duke, 2006). In a later study, researchers manipulated the timing or lack of an extended break during the participants’ initial learning of a short piano melody; those who had an extended break early in the process were most accurate when they performed the next day after sleep. Participants with the later break were more accurate than those who did not have an extended break (Cash, 2009). Further reinforcing the evidence for overnight memory consolidation, Cash et al. (2014) investigated the effect of listening to a model recording prior to following a similar practice with sleep schedule as was used in the Cash (2009) study. All the participants performed the test melodies better following sleep, but the participants who listened to the recorded model showed the most improvement. Thus, the mentally intense practice was more effective when participants took frequent breaks and rested between practice sessions, similar to the presence of mental exhaustion and resulting naps described in other deliberate practice research (e.g., see Ericsson et al., 1993).

The music learning and deliberate practice research reviewed thus far supports the notion that music learning happens through deliberate practice. Over the course of a typical career, musicians gradually spend more time each week devoted to deliberate practice. Many of the studies reviewed included adolescent or adult musicians. Thus, these studies are evidence of activities during Bloom’s later developmental stages, when the learner invests more time and resources in their career.

Deliberate Practice in Sport

Although deliberate practice has been used effectively to describe expertise development in music, chess, and medicine, sport psychologists have argued it is not as well suited for explaining athletic expertise. In a two-part study designed to investigate how deliberate practice functions in athletes compared to other domains, Starkes et al. (1996) surveyed 42 current and retired wrestlers of international and club levels, with similar numbers in each group. Wrestlers rated various practice and leisure activities on effort, enjoyment, and relevance to expertise development, and also estimated hours per week spent in each of the activities. Several off-mat activities were rated as relevant to development and requiring either physical or mental effort; sparring was the only activity ranked as relevant to expertise development and both physically and mentally effortful. Thus, sparring was identified as a deliberate practice activity for wrestlers. However, unlike deliberate practice in other domains, sparring is not a solitary activity and was rated as highly enjoyable. It is also important to note that sparring is designed to be comparable to actual competition, so perhaps some of the reaction skills required for wrestling are best practiced in realistic scenarios. Unlike other domains, athletes rated deliberate practice activities as highly enjoyable; some of this difference, however, may be explained by the structure of the questions. In the previous study using musicians, participants were asked to rate activities based on their enjoyment during the activity itself, and not on any perceived benefits of the activity (Ericsson et al., 1993). The athletes, however, were asked to rate enjoyment of the activity, without the request to ignore perceived benefits (Starkes et al., 1996).

In the second part of the study, Starkes et al. (1996) interviewed international level figure skaters and skating coaches from Canada, using comparable questions about practice and leisure activities. Similar to the wrestlers, several noncompetition practice activities were rated as effortful or relevant, but only individual lessons and on-ice practice were rated physically and mentally effortful, and highly relevant for expertise development. Although figure skaters did rate individual practice in a way that matched most of the characteristics for deliberate practice, these activities were also rated as highly enjoyable. Thus, it seems that there are deliberate practice activities for elite and expert athletes where specific performance tasks are being addressed and improved, but the level of enjoyment is higher than in other domains, including music (Starkes et al., 1996). Further research into deliberate practice in sport has supported the sport-specific qualification that deliberate practice may be enjoyable (Baker & Horton, 2004; Ford et al., 2009; Güllich et al., 2020; Starkes et al., 1996; Ward et al., 2007).

Similar to expertise research in music, researchers have investigated how the feedback loop can function for athletes. Sport psychologists surveyed 150 athletes from a variety of sports and of different skill levels to create a broader view of how imagery, or cognitive recreations of experiences, functioned as deliberate practice (Nordin et al., 2006). Based on ratings of mental concentration, enjoyment, relevance, frequency, and effort, several cognitive activities, such as imagining a skill or studying game strategies, were characterized as deliberate practice. Thus, elite athletes were found to engage in some solitary deliberate practice, similar to experts in music and other domains.

Deliberate practice in many sports requires mental concentration, may be enjoyable, and aims to improve specific aspects of necessary skills. The two primary differences between deliberate practice in sports and other domains are the enjoyment of the practice activities and the presence of other people. This rather broad definition seems to fit most elite or expert athletes; however, unlike many other domains, some athletes are able to rapidly attain elite status in a second sport, or to start their career much later than competitors. Although there are common skills and overall physical fitness required for most sports, deliberate practice alone does not adequately explain rapid development for multisport and late-start elite athletes (Côté et al., 2007). Citing the discrepancies mentioned previously, researchers constructed the DMSP, which is described in the following section.

Developmental Model of Sport Participation

In an effort to illuminate how practice functions during athletic development, sport psychologists determined deliberate practice does exist for athletes; however, the careers of multisport athletes and those who started training much later than the average athlete do not fit the predictions of deliberate practice (Baker & Horton, 2004; Ericsson, 2008; Ford et al., 2009; Memmert et al., 2010). Côté (1999) suggested the DMSP as an alternative explanation for athletes. DMSP includes deliberate practice as a large component of expertise development, as well as similar stages of development as those identified by Bloom and his colleagues. As previously noted, expertise development in areas other than sport follows three to four stages: early/introduction, middle/moderate amounts of time invested with teachers, late/large amounts of time and resources invested with outstanding teachers, and elite/mastery of skills and independent exploration of new possibilities—with increasing amounts of deliberate practice during each stage (Bloom, 1985a; Ericsson, 1996). DMSP, however, takes other nondeliberate practice activities into consideration, such as deliberate play. Deliberate play is the term used to describe activities that involve some aspects of play and some aspects of practice: those activities are enjoyable, process-oriented, flexible, and rarely supervised by adults, but have specific tasks required for success and may borrow rules from organized games or activities (Côté et al., 2007; Côté & Erickson, 2015). Free play is also enjoyable, process-oriented, flexible, and not supervised by adults; however, free play is ever changing and does not require specific tasks for any level of success (Soccio, 2013). In sports, deliberate play activities could be shooting baskets with friends from the neighborhood, or playing tag—both of which could result in improved physical fitness, increased agility, and spatial awareness (Côté et al., 2007). Running and climbing around a playground in an unorganized manner would be considered free play, where individuals with better agility and spatial awareness would not be at any distinct advantage.

Although DMSP includes both deliberate play and deliberate practice to explain the development of expertise, it also uses stages of development similar to Bloom’s model. During the sampling stage (aged 6-12 years), athletes are introduced to several activities that may or may not be related to their primary sport. Next is the specialization stage (aged 13-15 years), when athletes will choose one or a few sports as their primary commitment, typically ending other activities. The final stage is investment (aged 16 years and older), when athletes commit considerable resources into their specific sport (Côté et al., 2007; Côté et al., 2013).

Using a retrospective interview technique ² to apply DMSP to ice hockey players, Soberlak and Côté (2003) spoke with four elite players and parents of three of the players, to create a timeline of sports and sports-related activities for each participant. All four of the elite ice hockey players were found to have followed the sampling, specialization, and investment stages of DMSP. All of the athletes reported engaging in the most deliberate play and the least deliberate practice during sampling, while deliberate play was replaced by deliberate practice sometime shortly after the beginning of specialization (Soberlak & Côté, 2003). Researchers also have found similar stages of development and progression from deliberate play to deliberate practice in triathletes (Baker et al., 2006), young soccer players (Ford et al., 2009), and players of several other team sports (Baker & Horton, 2004).

Although the stages and amounts of deliberate practice and deliberate play used by athletes are accurately accounted for by DMSP for most team sports, some athletes have a drastically shortened sampling stage. Some chose to specialize in a sport early for personal reasons (Ford et al., 2009), whereas others specialized early because of the expectations of the sport (e.g., gymnastics or figure skating; Côté et al., 2007). Some researchers even consider early specialization in any sport to be detrimental to motivation, as substantiated by the significantly higher drop-out rates, and have recommended more deliberate play and sampling activities for younger athletes (Côté et al., 2009; Memmert et al., 2010).

DMSP incorporates both deliberate play and deliberate practice activities to explain the development of athletes. Similar to Bloom’s model, DMSP includes three stages of development, with increasing amounts of dedication and deliberate practice as the career progresses. Unlike the theory of deliberate practice used most commonly with music research on expertise development, DMSP considers the skills gained through deliberate play as part of the development process.

Play in Music

Play has been identified as a learning method, especially for young children (Pellegrini, 2009). Definitions of play vary, but most include descriptions of free choice, enjoyment, and some component of exploration, imagination, or creativity (Lew & Campbell, 2005). Pellegrini and Smith (1998) explained that “play behavior is enjoyable, and that players, typically children or juveniles, are concerned with means over ends, and that the activity appears to be ‘purposeless,’ or to occur for its own sake” (p. 577). In music, researchers define music play as “activities that allow children to explore, improvise, and create with sound” (Tarnowski, 1999, p. 27). These activities are enjoyable and process-oriented, like nonmusic play, but with sounds functioning as part of the activity (Soccio, 2013). This music-based definition is in contrast with nonmusic sounds, where an instrument or sound has no music meaning, such as using a guitar as a gun instead of creating sounds with it. Combining these definitions, I will use the term music play to describe activities that use music sounds and include free choice, enjoyment, and exploration.

Music play can function differently for individuals or groups. Campbell (2010) observed children at play on the playground, in a preschool and fifth-grade classroom, at lunch tables, on a bus, in a music class, at a toy-store, and a home. Children would sing, chant, rap, and clap in groups and individually; many of the music games included sections of call and response. In addition to playing by oneself, children may learn from watching others play, from playing in the same manner as another person, or interacting with someone else (Tarnowski, 1999). Custodero (2006) investigated singing in 10 families with 3-year-old children through observations, parent interviews, and parent journals. All of the households reported spontaneous singing: some instances were recreating music with new words, whereas others were improvising new music. Parents also used singing to reinforce routines and pass on traditions or other elements of family culture. Ilari (2018) described a young student singing alone instead of eating lunch; a few other students joined the singing before the teacher reminded them to eat. Even though the social setting for music play changes often, researchers have identified a unifying element: agency.

Agency refers to the child’s control over choices, situations, and rules (see Karlsen, 2011, for a discussion of agency in music play). Researchers have conducted case studies of preschool children interacting with each other and with adults in play settings; one notable investigation focused on interactions within an early childhood music classroom (Berger & Cooper, 2003) and others included video and descriptions of play interactions at home as well as in the classroom (Koops, 2012, 2017). Children observed in these studies exhibited playing in various groupings, with and without adults. All of the researchers described examples of situations where a child’s play was either reinforced or interrupted during adult interactions. Situations where children retained primary control over the music play process were categorized as reinforcing, because the adult interaction extended or enhanced the play. Interruptions occurred when adults would join music play and alter rules, or somehow constrict creativity, whether intentionally. Custodero (2006) noted similar issues when adults would interfere with the child’s music play. Children enjoy having the type of control over their own choices that comes with the exploration present in music play (Barrett, 2010). Koops (2012) recommended “For teachers, being aware of adult involvement that promotes children’s music expression and encouraging adults to preserve children’s control” (p. 25) may help create reinforcing music play activities.

Researchers have investigated what skills children learn through music play. Over the course of 3 years, Whiteman (2009) studied transcriptions of 443 songs of eight preschoolers engaged in music play. The songs were analyzed for uneven or even phrase length, existence of a pitch center, and use of known melodies/fragments or original compositions for melodic material. Over time, the children’s songs progressed from less sophisticated to more advanced in each category. Campbell (2010) described many examples of “musical utterances, the seemingly effortless flow of melodies and rhythms that exude from children as they play” (p. 244). Campbell also observed children frequently using familiar melodies and simple fragments; although the older children observed did use more complex melodies and rhythms. Children also have been found to learn cultural norms through music play, as they establish their own individual culture, such as a child with a preference for orchestral music or a teenager with a dedication to punk rock that is likely different from those choices of their parents (Berger & Cooper, 2003; Campbell, 2010; Covington-Ward, 2006; Ilari, 2018). However, not all music play experiences are successful. Countryman (2014) analyzed the failed attempts at music play she observed on several elementary school playgrounds. Some of the interactions failed because of poor communication between leader(s) and followers, but many of them failed as a result of lack of some music skill, such as rhythmic timing. When considered together, these results indicate that children do learn through music play, and music skills are required for more advanced music play to be successful.

Music play may be a way to help develop creativity and expression in young children (Campbell, 2000; Lew & Campbell, 2005). Campbell (2010) described the need to create in this way: “Whether or not the music is graphically recorded in staff or invented notation, children may be driven to work out their music, to practice it, and to remember it for various future uses” (p. 97). The children of the Whiteman (2009) study sang songs using more original material as they aged—evidence of increased creativity. Other writers have considered the importance of imagination as a method for exploring both the known and unknown. For a thorough explanation of various types of imagination, see Reichling (1997).

Music play is enjoyable, process-oriented, and involves a component of exploration or imagination. Children gain various skills through music play. Most of the research described supports Bloom’s early stage of development: children are exposed to the domain through fun, playful activities, while still learning.

Deliberate Play in Music

There is minimal research investigating deliberate play in music. Lordo (2015) interviewed five elite musicians about their music development from their earliest memories to current habits, and found examples of music deliberate play, including: improvisation, enjoyment-oriented chamber music with friends and family or by technology, technical skills competition, and performing with a progressive rock band. The activities were enjoyable and child-led like music play; they also required specific skills for success like deliberate play in sports. The activities set-up a natural feedback loop, as individuals would gain greater success as the skills were refined. This feedback loop is similar to the one present in deliberate practice; however, the activities were not mentally taxing like deliberate practice. Students have shown improved scale performance after scale games designed to mimic deliberate play (Lordo, 2016). These and other examples of deliberate play share many of the same characteristics as informal learning (e.g., student-led, enjoyable, required additional skills). Deliberate play activities likely serve as a bridge between play and deliberate practice, as they share some common characteristics with both categories. During an after school program about informal music learning, Jones (2015) found students had expanded their listening skills, range, and grasp of rhythmic notation. Although informal music learning and deliberate play are very similar, more research is needed to determine the amount of overlap between the two research areas.

There are many parallels between music play and deliberate play. Some examples include they both are process-oriented, exploratory, flexible, child-led, and enjoyable. However, the ideas of agency and enjoyment may be the most essential connections between the two categories. Music play was reinforced when children were able to remain in control (agency) and all examples of music deliberate play identified by Lordo (2015) were child-led to some extent. Music play and deliberate play are enjoyable by definition and multiple research studies have shown that children learn through these activities. Logically, people are more likely to pursue activities they enjoy than those they do not. For these reasons, I suggest deliberate play activities as a viable learning option for intermediate students. The next section addresses implications for researchers, teachers, and students; the final section is the conclusion.

Implications and Applications for Teachers and Students

Researchers should investigate whether the development of music expertise follows stages similar to those of Bloom’s model as well as DMSP. If music expertise does follow the three or four stages, then teachers can use this as a frame for understanding and supporting music behavior appropriate to each stage. Early childhood music education advocates often encourage creativity and exploration; knowledge of the sampling stage characteristics reinforces that teachers should design activities with flexibility to encourage exploration. Music classes are often constrained by classroom space, sound levels, and assessment requirements. Teachers could use the characteristics of the early and middle stages of both models, as well as the concept of deliberate play, to advocate for the flexibility required to include these activities.

Middle school teachers could use music deliberate play activities in their classrooms and encourage continued exploration and individual expression through music. Could the student in the practice room playing seemingly random notes actually be learning the physical aspects of playing throughout the instrument’s range? Perhaps the challenge of “I can play higher/faster than you!” serves to encourage students to increase their range. Teachers could provide students a list of skills and challenge them to think of ways to create a game that would require the skill. For example: buzzing roller coasters for beginning brass; students buzz the contour shown as the leader “rides” the roller coaster with their hands. Exploration in the music room could be as small as starting each lesson with a 5 minute “What new sounds can you make?” share and learn from your neighbor, or as large as allowing students to compose with or without any form of notation. All of these scenarios fit the characteristics of deliberate play: process-oriented, student-led, enjoyable, and success tied to skill level. Further research could confirm how performance is altered as a result of the music deliberate play activities.

DMSP and other sports research has shown that dropout rates are much lower in sports where specialization occurs later after sufficient sampling has taken place. Côté et al. (2009) posited that early specialization could actually be detrimental to the motivation and development of young athletes. They argued that athletes who skip or severely shorten the sampling stage are more likely to experience “burn-out” and may fail to gain the variety of athletic skills learned through multiple sport participation. Some students switch from a sampling environment in elementary music classes where they have multiple ways to create music to a heavily structured, performance oriented ensemble course in middle school that approaches the characteristics of the investment stage. Such a switch skips the middle stage of development entirely. Teachers could consider the potential for improved retention and student enjoyment if they are able to include more music play and deliberate during middle school, especially for beginner ensembles where students’ age might be approaching the specializing stage, but their actual ability is still early in the sampling stage. Researchers should consider investigating whether a variety of deliberate play activities have a similar impact on motivation and retention of music students. Investigators, teachers, and parents could also consider what activities are reduced or replaced as intensive training becomes a higher priority during specialization and investment stages. Do students give up sports or other nonmusic activities? Do they reduce the number of music activities to focus on a specific domain? Will students be more motivated to gain skills learned through deliberate play than deliberate practice activities? Since deliberate play activities are enjoyable, would students who experience more deliberate play be more likely to continue participating in music at a recreational level after leaving school?

Further research into these areas could clarify our comprehension of music learning and expertise development, specifically filling the gap of explaining activities that are not quite music play or deliberate practice that are likely common in the middle stage of development. If we can better grasp how experts develop during this middle stage, this understanding could potentially lead to ways that music deliberate play could be used in the classroom and practice room for the benefit of our students. Perhaps we can increase motivation through new ways to challenge our students with deliberate play activities. Rather than endure frustration that our students spend so little time practicing effectively, we could encourage them to play games that gradually require more music skills much like video games are designed to teach players skills through increasing difficulty. If more of our students enjoy learning and performing music, then more of them may transform into lifelong music participants. We may even be able to teach our students how to enjoy learning in general and derive pleasure from the challenges of life.

Conclusion

This literature review began with a summary of expertise development research in music, sports, and other domains. Bloom’s model describes three stages of development: early, middle, and late. The activities shift from versions of play and exploration in early development to more structured, formal education or intense practice in late development. Subsequent research would label the intense practice as deliberate practice, which is defined as mentally taxing practice that is usually not enjoyable and is designed to improve a specific aspect of performance. Music practice research has shown that musicians’ performances and skills improve through deliberate practice. Like many other experts, athletes engage in deliberate practice as well; however, deliberate practice alone does not adequately explain how all elite athletes develop. DMSP has stages similar to Bloom’s model, but clarifies expertise development in sports by including the numerous skills and physical attributes gained during deliberate play as well as deliberate practice. Research has indicated that children do gain music skills through music play. Preliminary data support the existence of music deliberate play and student learning through deliberate play. Music play and music deliberate play are both enjoyable and child-led, also described as the child maintaining agency or control of the situation.