Motivation in Music: A Comparison of Popular Music Course Students and Traditional Large Ensemble Participants in High School

Oct 15, 2026

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Study purpose: determine whether students choosing popular music courses are influenced by different motivational factors than traditional large ensemble participants. A Musical Motivation Questionnaire was administered to music students in six high schools offering both course types. Principal components analysis identified eight motivational factors shaping high school music participation choices. Statistical results showed specific factors influencing popular-course enrollment differently from large-ensemble participation, suggesting expanded curricula may attract a new or distinct student population to high school music learning opportunities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Contributions to Music Education

Intrinsic vs. extrinsic influences

Family, teachers, and peer relationships

Self-efficacy in music motivation

Attribution theory and achievement goal theory

Contributions to Music Education Vol. 45 (2020), pp. 105-126. DAVID M. ROLANDSON Minot State University Motivation in Music: A Comparison of Popular Music Course Students and Traditional Large Ensemble Participants in High School The purpose of this study was to determine whether students who elect to enroll in popular music courses are inﬂuenced by different motivational factors than traditional large ensemble participants. A Musical Motivation Questionnaire was distributed to music students attending six high schools that offered both traditional large ensembles and popular music courses. The results from a principal components analysis indicated the presence of eight motivational factors that inﬂuenced students’ choices to participate in high school music. Statistical analyses revealed that certain motivation factors inﬂuenced students enrolled in popular music courses differently than large ensemble participants which suggests that expanding curricula to include popular music courses may motivate a new or different population of students to engage in the music learning opportunities offered in high schools. Keywords: motivation, popular music, high school music participation Introduction In music education, motivation plays an essential role in teaching, learning, and engagement. Motivation ignites and nurtures musical curiosity, sustains dedication and drive after frustration and failure in music, and fosters growth as musicians pursue higher levels of proﬁciency. The inﬂuence of motivation is further evident when students choose to enroll and remain in elective music courses (Smith, 2011) . Contributions to Music Education Music students’ motivation should be viewed as a dense, interwoven blanket of inﬂuences impacting decisions and choices. Motivation directly impacts how long and how intensely students will engage in music-learning and performing. Motivational inﬂuences can be classiﬁed as either long-term or situational inﬂuences (Smith, 2011). Additionally, motivational inﬂuences can be classiﬁed as either intrinsic or extrinsic depending on whether they originate from within or from outside student musicians (Asmus, 1994) . Early in students’ lives, their relationships with parents, teachers, and peers serve as strong inﬂuences on motivation. Parents (caregivers) can support student motivation in music by creating musical home environments (Brand, 1986), providing access to lessons, and encouraging practice (Davidson, Sloboda, & Howe, 1995). In educational settings, music teachers foster student motivation by creating positive, supportive relationships with students (Sloboda & Howe, 1991) and further inﬂuence motivation, both positively and negatively, by providing feedback and criticism (Atlas, Taggart, & Goodell, 2004; Duke & Henniger, 1998) . Students can also be motivated by the social beneﬁts that music-making offers, which helps to explain why many peers choose to participate and continue in musical activities together (Hewitt & Allan, 2012; MacIntyre, Potter, & Burns, 2012) . While peers are often a positive motivating force behind participation, they can also inﬂuence others to discontinue music instruction (Driscoll, 2009) . Self-efﬁcacy can also play a critical role in music student motivation because students use self-efﬁcacy beliefs to determine whether they might be able to succeed at musical tasks. Researchers have found a strong relationship between successful performance and high self-efﬁcacy beliefs among music students (McCormick & McPherson, 2003; Zelenak, 2015). High self-efﬁcacy beliefs can also motivate musicians to continue learning and improving (Sichivista, 2007) . Students primarily increase self-efﬁcacy by successfully accomplishing musical tasks and receiving formal musical training (Ritchie & Williamon, 2011) . Researchers have also examined attribution theory as it relates to motivation in music education. Attribution theorists suggest that student motivation can b

FAQs

What does the study aim to determine about student motivation?

It determines whether students who enroll in popular music courses are influenced by different motivational factors than students in traditional large ensemble programs.

How was the data collected for the research?

A Musical Motivation Questionnaire was distributed to music students attending six high schools that offered both traditional large ensembles and popular music courses.

What were the main outcomes of the analysis?

Principal components analysis revealed eight motivational factors affecting high school music participation, and statistical tests showed certain factors differed between popular music course students and large ensemble participants.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by nayy☆