A musician's learning process

Authors

• Tuuli Talvitie-Kella Tampereen yliopisto

Abstract

My article is a microhistorical and qualitative case study. The aim of the article is to describe how musicians born in 1880–1940 in Southern Ostrobothnia learned to play. The research material consists of oral life stories of 65 players. The approach is mainly biographical. My own experience as ethnomusicologist, musician and violin teacher has of course had an effect on this study, too. I divide the learning process into three periods: 1) spontaneous adoption and musical environment, 2) ambition to play and active learning by ear, 3) instrumental period and practising. The musicians playing different instruments learned to play mostly by ear. They listened to musicians (and later on to the radio) and imitated the playing. There was rarely any teaching available so the musicians consider themselves as self-taught. In my opinion musical skills and knowledge were transmitted through oral tradition and imitation in situated learning processes and in communities of practice.