ABSTRACT

Learning to play a musical instrument and developing a high level of performance skills requires not just musical talent but also an enormous amount of effort. Practice, as the most evident form of effort, is a fundamental activity of musicians. Indeed, there is now a considerable body of evidence suggesting that the amount of time spent in practice is directly correlated to the level of expertise attained. What has not been sufficiently considered in relation to this issue, however, is the relative effectiveness of practice. Several studies on practice of musical instruments insist that students need diverse strategies for dealing with the cognitive, technical and emotional aspects of learning to achieve higher levels of performance expertise(Erricson, 1995; Hallam, 1997; Harnishmacher, 1997). Effective practice, as seen from this perspective, is a process that not only involves cognitive skills but also requires the student to consider a broad range of strategies for dealing with whatever problems may arise. Given this study`s belief that instrumental practice is a multi-faceted learning process that involves diverse aspects of the learner, Self- Regulated Learning theory as a structural learning model (Zimmerman, 1994) holds out the possibility of integrating factors that affect each learners ability to control his/her particular learning process. The purpose of this study is to examine students use of self-regulatory strategies in piano practice and to determine how this is related to performance achievement. It is assumed that self-regulated learning (SRL) is a crucial trait of successful learning, especially when students take charge of their own practice sessions in instrumental learning. To prove given hypothesis, interviews and questionnaire survey were conducted. based on interview data, 67 items of `Self-Regulated Learning` rating scale was developed and 32 sets of questionnaire survey were collected and analyzed. The result of statistic analysis(ANOVA) shows that highly successful students choose to manage their practice sessions in very different ways and such SRL-related differences are linked to differences in performance achievement. By focusing on the role of practice in musical achievement and by comparing these students individual differences in SRL, this study seeks to explain successful and unsuccessful outcomes of practice efforts.