The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance

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458 the cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance Strauss families, which by their mere existence suggest a strong heritability of musical talents. Alas, the hope to identify heritability of excellence in families is not justified (see also discussion about Galton, 1979;e.g., Simonton, Chapter 18). Genetic background and environmental effects are mingled inevitably, and alternative explanations cannot be refuted. Older heritability explanations failed to take into account the genetic contribution of females in the genealogy or to the socio-historic fact that sons frequently followed in their fathers’ professions (Farnsworth, 1969). Hence, there are different explanations for why many musicians have parents who are musically active (Gembris, 1998). The home environment is obviously important for promoting musical excellence (Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde, & Whalen, 1993; Sosniak, 1985). Also, the socioeconomic conditions of a young musician’s family constitute obvious factors that influence the choice of a teacher, the quality of the instrument played, and other possibilities awarded to the learner. An analysis of successful Polish musicians by Manturzewska (1995) revealed a common pattern of attitudes, value systems, and family structure in the musicians’ families of origin. Families were emotionally stable, task oriented, and careful in selecting their children’s friends, and they strongly supported the musical activities. These attitudes gain importance as they translate into behavioral consequences in the daily lives of musicians. For example, Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde, and Whalen (1993) demonstrated that families of high-achieving children changed their lives to accommodate the needs of their talented offsprings, for example, by exempting them from household chores to give them additional time to practice. Biographies of famous musicians underline such practices: the cellist Jacqueline du Pre never did her own laundry and did not have any household responsibilities as an adolescent (Easton, 1989). Taken together, it is difficult to obtain clear evidence on the role of innate abilities, despite the fact that giftedness features prominently in everyday discourse. On the other hand, much evidence exists that practice and other environmental factors have a large impact on changes in many variables related to music performance. Some researchers have expressed serious doubts whether it is even possible to identify specific innate characteristics that mediate the development of expertise (Ericsson, 2003). However, the goal of this chapter is not to work out the nature-nurture debate for music but to focus on the role of practice for the attainment of expert performance. In brief, we do not know whether practice is a sufficient condition for high achievement, but it is certainly a necessary one for invoking the cognitive, physiological, and psychomotor adaptations observed in experts. Although practice is omnipresent during the development of expertise in music, its role and manifestation is not identical in all musical genres. Different musical styles are characteristic for specific musical cultures, and those different cultures have their respective types of practice. Most research on musical expertise has been conducted in the classical conservatoire tradition – also known as the “Western art music tradition”. Investigations about expert performance in jazz music, popular music, or vernacular genres may yield somewhat different results (Berliner, 1994). For example, whereas an early start of training is typical for pianists and violinists in the classical music domain, jazz guitarists start much later (Gruber, Degner, & Lehmann, 2004), and so do most singers today (Kopiez, 1998). Despite some differences, important commonalities regarding phases of development or deliberate practice should exist regardless of the specific music style in question. These will be addressed below. Increasing Performance through Practice Practice: Investing the Time The discussion about the role of traininginduced changes in performance was
triggered by Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch- Römer (1993), who first introduced the concept of “deliberate practice.” See also Ericsson, Chapter 38. Deliberate practice is a set of structured activities that experts in the domain consider important for improving performance; it is often strenuous and can therefore only be maintained for limited amounts of time per day without danger of psychological or physiological burnout. At the Berlin Academy of Music, Ericsson et al. (1993) investigated violin students from different degree programs that varied with regard to the instrumental proficiency required. The students were interviewed retrospectively about their practice and skill development. The amount of lifetime accumulated practice up to the point of the interview (or even the point of entry into the academy) was clearly related to the degree of level of performance attained. Less-proficient performers had practiced less than more-skilled ones. The lifetime trajectory of practice reported by the most promising group of students resembled that of musicians currently employed in Berlin orchestras. The results underline the predictive validity of the accumulated hours as an indicator of excellence, and are hence at odds with the everyday belief that some musicians – the “highly talented” ones – need not practice as much as the less talented, who have to compensate for lack of talent with excessive practice. Although it may be difficult to refute claims by famous musicians not to have practiced much or to hate practice (Mach, 1981), the empirical evidence regarding contemporary musicians makes such claims rather suspicious. Musicians are likely to engage in conscious impression management when belittling practice in the classical tradition or, in the case of rock and popular musicians, to dismiss the role of formal instruction by emphasizing self-teaching, that is, autodidactic learning (Green, 2002). The relation between innate abilities and practice probably is a complex one. According to Ackerman’s (1986, 1990) theory of ability determinants of skilled performance, in which the change from controlled pro- music 459 cessing to automatized processing was discussed in terms of abilities versus practice, one could argue that in early phases of skill development general abilities play an important role, which is reduced later, if consistent task characteristics exist within the domain. These foster the development of compilation processes that are heavily influenced by practice. The more skilled a person is, the more specific components of information processing are relevant, so that the relation between general abilities and performance tends to disappear. The subjects in Ericsson et al.’s (1993) study might already have compensated ability differences through adaptation of practice. Thus, the role of talent could not be judged adequately. Additionally, experts might be most competent in selecting proper practice. At younger age levels, however, practice may not be as efficient, and a smaller amount of practice is accumulated. Therefore, practice time might be of less importance and ability of more importance in young musicians (Lehmann, 1997b, for a review). Sloboda, Davidson, Howe, and Moore (1996) addressed this problem by replicating Ericsson et al.’s (1993) study. Students aged eight to eighteen from a music school were rated by their teachers with respect to musical achievement and promise. The students then were interviewed by the researchers about their practice history. In addition, many other data were collected, including a 42-week longitudinal recording of practice diaries. The results clearly support the deliberate-practice assumptions obtained from the study of adults. The leastproficient group of subjects had practiced less than the better-performing groups, and the students who dropped out of music lessons had practiced even less. In order to proceed from one level of performance to the next, the best groups’ increase in practice was even larger than expected. Thus, already relatively early in instrumental music learning, the amount of practice is significantly related with level of performance. Competing explanations could be that talented children practice more in a rage to master the skill (Winner, 1996), or that
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The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance

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