The Role of Family Influences in the Development of Musical Performance

Interviews were conducted with the parents and children of 257 children who had all studied a musical instrument but who differed in the extent of their mastery. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of the family in the development of musical ability. It was discovered that the most successful children had parents who were the most highly involved in lessons and practice in the earliest stages of learning. These successful music learners often had parents who were involved with music themselves. Parental involvement in music typically took the form of listening to music rather than performing it, and tended to increase over the child's learning period. The children who failed to continue with lessons had parents who were, on average, less interested in music and who did not change their own degree of involvement with music over their child's learning period. There were also differences in the way in which siblings influenced the music learners. The highly successful children had siblings who were perceived as having a positive influence. In contrast, the least successful children tended to perceive their siblings to have played a neutral role. Overall, the most musically able children had the highest levels of family support.