Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

how it can ‘enhance a variety of learning, intellectual, personal and social outcomes’
(Hallam and MacDonald, 2009). However some projects have already shown that
music lessons can help to improve social skills with disaffected pupils (Shuler, 1991;
Spychiger, 1993). A programme in America, using rap music with adolescent African
Americans who have behavioural problems (De Carlo, 2001), also proved to have
some success in improving social skills. Disadvantaged youth were given the
opportunity to play music alongside professionals, in a project at a festival reported
by Sapin (2009). ‘It had such an effect on them…I really think that they will be much
less likely to be involved in the risky and destructive behaviour that they used to get
up to. It was a truly transforming experience’ (p.95). A case study by
Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde and Whalen (1997) illustrated how music helped a young
person to deal with stress that might otherwise have been overwhelming. Ron, a
gifted saxophonist who enjoyed playing in a band, described music as ‘the force that
keeps him together’ (p.236) that offered him a shield against his unhappiness and
stopped him from worrying about his home situation. His musical skill helped him ‘to
live enjoyably in the moment and to look to the future’ (ibid. p.236) which, as
Erikson (1968) states, is crucial to the healthy achievement of this developmental
stage.
Alvin (1975) described how the preparation for a concert helped adolescents with
behavioural difficulties to communicate with one another and to do so positively with
enthusiasm, instead of with their usual patterns of aggression. Boys Don’t Sing,
broadcast by the BBC in 2008, followed professional musician, Gareth Malone, as he
set up a choir at an all-boys school in Leicester which had no previous tradition of
choral music-making. The teenage boys who had grown up listening to R&B and rap
were unwilling at first and had no interest in singing, but in the end performed on
stage in front of thousands.
As well as actively playing or singing, music can help students in other ways. Two
studies by Hallam, Price and Katsarou (2002) showed that the use of background,
relaxing music helped primary school pupils’ performance in both arithmetic and
memory tasks but music which was loud and stimulating did not. Older children often
use music to accompany their studying (Hallam and MacDonald, 2009) and the
concentration of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties can be
improved with background music (Hallam and Price, 1998; Savan, 1999). Vizard
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