Sustained Adult Community Band Participation: Influences and Emotions of Music Making
Open Access
- Author:
- Long, Joshua Eric
- Graduate Program:
- Adult Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 10, 2018
- Committee Members:
- Esther Prins, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Esther Prins, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Kyle L. Peck, Committee Member
B. Stephen Carpenter, Committee Member
Linda Thornton, Outside Member - Keywords:
- community bands
adult music education
participation
emotions
music making
community of practice - Abstract:
- Community band research should address the needs of members and directors (Rohwer, 2016), similar to principles of adult education (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 2015). The purpose of this research study was to explore and understand how music making sustained the participation of adults who perform in a community band in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. The focus was to investigate what influenced participants and how adult instrumentalists were motivated to make music in volunteer community bands. Utilizing a grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2014) while using communities of practice (Wenger, 1998, 2011) as a framework, the research findings lead to the conclusion that instrumentalists’ influences (family, self-initiated learning, ensembles, community band participation, ensemble dedication, camaraderie, community band invitation) and emotions (passionate music making, emotional connections, musical expression, emotion-induced reflection of music making) have motivated their participation in the Bellefonte Community Band. Participants described moments of music making that followed and influenced them for decades and generated emotions that invoked the senses (Dufrenne, 1973) and motivated adult community band instrumentalists to sustain participation as a result of the artistic experiences (Alexander, 2012; Dewey, 2005). Findings were consistent with literature showing that aesthetic experiences caused adults to engaged in a state of deep concentration (Ruggeri, 2003) and become “homo aestheticus,” requiring beauty and meaning (Dissanayake, 1995) by craving passionate music making. This study extended adult education research since learning took place outside an institutional setting (Lave, 2010), where community education provided a key contribution to lifelong learning (Smith, 2001). These findings demonstrate that local and voluntary groups can be natural carriers of adult education (Henson, 1954).