Music&Me Quiz: helping young people to understand their relationship with music

Professor Karen Burland is currently conducting a project about Musicians’ Identity, which is all about how people see themselves as musicians and how music plays a part in our unique lives. We already know a fair bit about adult musicians’ identities but it’s more unclear about how younger people form their identities as they grow as musicians. We are seeking the involvement of young musicians because the best people to tell us about young people are young people.

Karen is seeking secondary school aged music learners to complete the Music&Me Quiz. In order to participate they need to gain the permission from their parent/carer.

They will be asked to complete a questionnaire about their beliefs as a musician, in addition to a few basic questions such as age, instrument and gender. It’s 22 multiple-choice questions, online, with 4 more questions requiring short written answers, and will likely take about ten minutes to complete. If they want to see their answers later and receive the supporting resources, they can add their email address, but if they choose not to, nobody will know the answers are theirs.

We will then use their answers to answer questions such as:

 

• How does musicians’ identity develop in younger learners?

• Are young musicians’ identities similar to those of adults, and if not, how do they differ?

• How can we use this new knowledge to help develop talent in music?

 

We are not:

 

• Sharing answers with students’ tutors

• Deciding whether or not your child is a good student

• Using their answers to affect their grades

 

If you are happy for them to participate in the research then please share this link with them; they will also be given details about the project and asked to provide consent (on the first page of the online survey).

Please contact Professor Karen Burland (k.burland@leeds.ac.uk) if you have any questions.