Adult Music Engagement: Perspectives from Three Musically Engaged Cases

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of adult music engagement from the perspectives of musically engaged adults not currently participating in activities that are direct extensions of the typical K-12 music curriculum. Three participants were purposefully chosen and include an avid listener, a church praise team member, and a bluegrass rhythm guitarist/lead singer. The following questions framed the investigation within an interpretative phenomenological approach to first construct the perspective of each case and second, to identify ways learning has occurred through music engagement over their lifespan: (1) What are the musical life histories of these adults? (2) How do adults place their current musical settings within the context of their lives? (3) What meanings do these adults derive from reflections on their musical engagement? (4) How have these musically engaged adults experienced musical learning throughout their lives? Data were gathered from a series of one-on-one interviews with each participant. Constructed perspectives combined with the joint interpretation of data, by participants and the researcher, to provide an interpretive phenomenological analysis, which placed this data within the context of music learning. The emergent themes resulting from cross case analysis of transcript data are: connection to humanity, sense of fulfillment, and choice. Further interpretive analysis for learning yielded the following themes: formal learning settings, self-directed learning settings, and community learning settings. Triangulation was used to test the trustworthiness of these findings. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone [phone]. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]