The Contribution of Motivational Factors to Instrumental Performance in a Music Examination

This paper reports on a study with 349 instrumentalists between the ages of 9 and 18 who completed a self-report questionnaire immediately before undertaking an externally assessed music performance examination. The first purpose was to clarify the degree to which internal (e.g. effort, ability, nervousness) and external (e.g. task difficulty, luck) attributions were cited by students to explain their results on the performance examination. The second purpose was to investigate a range of self-regulatory and motivational influences which predict student results in the performance examination. Results show that an ability to perform proficiently relies not only on technical and expressive skill, but also on the employment of a range of motivational resources. It is suggested that how students think about themselves, the task and their performance is just as important as the time they devote to practising their instrument