An article titled The First Cut is the Deepest has been accepted for publication by the prestigious Psychology of Music. The article discusses LoMus and its investigation of musical identities.
The paper presents the results of two workshop series that took place in Glasgow and in Cosenza: Sounds Like Music and LoMus Lab. The data were analysed and three superordinate themes emerged:
– early exposure and family influence, consistently correlated to positive experiences across all the informants;
– experiences with music education, which were mostly negative experiences that seem to detrimentally influence the participants’ relationship with music-making throughout their lives;
– participation and playfulness, which groups a series of positive experiences related to welcoming socio-musical practices that seem to have determined a particularly encouraging shift in the informants’ approach to music-making.
The results highlight the need for music educators to aim to healthy musical identities. Healthy musical identities imply that individuals make music without recurring to feelings of insecurity. The paper also highlights how the musical identities of individuals who perceive themselves to be unmusical can be changed with a more inclusive practice.