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Controlling our narratives for positive change involves influencing the Self-Memory System. One of the most powerful tools we have to this end is language. There is a reason that when presented with the concept of psychology, many people think first of talk therapy. Part of the reason is that from the early days of psychological interventions, we have had some awareness of the importance of narrative to human well-being. Language is what allows us to actively create meanings from our experiences. As stated by Pennebaker and Graybeal, (2001), most forms of therapy involve some element of verbal self-reflection, developing understanding and awareness of one’s histories and internal processes. In other words, most therapy targets the Self-Memory System in one way or another, and accomplishes this by creating new meanings with language.

As discussed earlier, coherent narratives are one of the central goals of our Self-Memory System (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000). The healthiest memories center on coherence (i.e., narrative), rather than correspondence (i.e., accuracy). In other words, storytelling is intrinsic and natural; a built-in, necessary mechanism of our cognitive processes. Much of the organization of our memories occurs through verbal processing. Words are crucial in helping us understand our experiences. The imagery and sensory details of our memories would lack meaning without being placed in the verbal context of an overarching story. These stories are, of course, flexible: we can revisit them and make changes through re-telling. In sum, language allows us to both create new meanings and alter existing meanings around our experiences. Thus, in this examination of music education, language is an important leverage point for change. The quality of words we use as teachers has powerful effects on our students’ personal narratives, motivations, and subsequently on their behaviors and the outcomes of their musical journeys.

Creating New Meanings Through Metaphor

We have established that language is a crucial element of understanding and shaping our experiences, and that within music education, we have an opportunity to leverage this as a means of fostering growth. The next step in this process is to move from the theoretical to the practical, examining what verbal tools can be used to shape meanings. The first of these is metaphor. In their work on linguistic metaphor and reasoning, Thibodeau, Hendricks, and Boroditsky (2017) theorize that metaphors are not simply creative additions to our storytelling, rather, they are integral forces in shaping thoughts and behaviors.

One of the goals of this guidebook is to foster in students a growth mindset toward learning and musical skill. A careful choice of metaphoric language can be the turning point for helping students make that cognitive change. For example, in her development of Mindset theory, Dweck (2008) demonstrated that simply describing the brain as a muscle helped students develop a growth mindset of intelligence. If the brain is a muscle, it can grow with exercise. This simple change in narrative led students to be more committed and persistent in their learning goals. Thus, word choice affects cognitive habits and narratives, which in turn can alter behavior.

The power of metaphors is that they help conceptualize abstract ideas. The way this occurs is by drawing from a familiar source material, and mapping its similarities and relationships to a more complex target concept. For example, a familiar object like a seed or a lightbulb (i.e., an easily understood source material) can be used to describe ideas (i.e., a less easily defined target concept). Suddenly an otherwise formless cognitive process is associated with a visual representation, a shape, even a movement. The key is that the relationship between source and target is not too far-reaching. The real cognitive process of idea-generating involves elements similar enough to seeds and lightbulbs. The second power of metaphors is in their ability to direct attention to certain facets of the target concept. Ideas are a multidimensional process. Both the “seed” and the “lightbulb” metaphor highlight different aspects of how ideas work. If an idea is described as a lightbulb, people may imagine ideas as a moment of realization: a single event, a special and isolated occasion. By contrast, If an idea is described as a seed, people will be more likely to consider the long, slow processes of making connections between existing knowledge, collaborating with others, or generating iteration after iteration of a project. In sum, ideas have both characteristics of slow-growing seeds and of quickly illuminating light bulbs. Different metaphors focus attention to different parts of the same concept (Thibodeau, Hendricks & Boroditsky, 2017).

How does this discussion of seeds and lightbulbs apply to the work of music educators? Consider the different ways we talk about abstract concepts such as learning, growth, progress, and motivation. All of these can take on different meanings based on the facets we draw attention to in our use of metaphor. We have discussed that a complex theory of change is more accurate than a linear model. Is our word choice in teaching creating this nuanced image for students?

For example, when discussing goals and practice habits with a school-aged student a teacher might say

“Think for a minute about what you need to do when you have to get from one floor in a building to another. You start on the first stair and “head-up,” right? You walk up the stairs one at a time and you eventually get to the top. Your music practice is just like this– it happens one step at time. If you keep putting one foot in front of the other (that is, practice one skill every day) as you work through your practice sheet you will arrive at the next level in no time!” (Kleinknecht, 2021, personal communication)

While this sentiment is intended to be motivational and positive, it reflects a linear theory of change and implies that there is no room for a mis-step. Indeed, a mis-step in a stair-climbing metaphor implies disaster. Consider, instead, the alternative power of this remark:

“Have you ever seen a fast-motion video of an artist working on a sketch? Lines are drawn, erased, sketched out and sketched over. Their pencil is all over the place and they stop and start. But in the end, when they are done sketching, shifting, sorting, and refining their lines a beautiful recognizable image results. Your music practice is just like this — it happens as you work on the bits and pieces and refine them over and over again. Sometimes you hit it just right and other times you don’t so you start it over. If you keep at it, eventually, all the pieces come together and your music is beautiful and coherent. But the path to get there isn’t a straight line. As long as you evaluate and revise, you will get there to the next level!” (Kleinknecht, 2021, personal communication)

Word choice has a powerful effect on what students come to expect from their practice. Metaphors that describe learning as a complex, cyclical process may ease frustration when students find themselves having to revisit and re-work old skills.

Writing and Reflection

A second endeavor of this project is to foster internally controlled, identified motivation in music students. The central tenet of identified motivation is that the desired behavior becomes important to the sense of self. Learning is most effective when it is a reflective, internally driven, and creative process (Cleary & Zimmerman, 2012). Self-Determination Theory (SDT) states that people are inherently active, naturally curious, creative, and have a desire to achieve goals (Deci & Ryan, 2008). This suggests that practicing challenging skills is an organic, natural tendency, not something that must be forced or coerced into being.  Conversely, SDT also recognizes that environmental influences can either encourage or discourage these natural tendencies. Though our healthiest state is active, given the wrong environmental cues people can become passive, unmotivated, and dependent on external forces for action.

Many young students begin music lessons with energy, creativity, and desire for musicianship. They have an unhindered ability to picture themselves on stage singing a beautiful song, or picking up an instrument and sounding like their musical heroes.  It is possible that they take on the first difficult tasks of music learning with eagerness because they imagine themselves as musicians. In other words, I suspect that they begin with a degree of identified motivation. Somewhere in the process of learning, this identified motivation becomes challenged. It might occur when a student has a memory slip on stage, or encounters a technique that they cannot seem to master.

Moments of difficulty have the potential to disrupt students’ identity as musicians, hindering their natural motivation. Because music is such a complex skill, encountering these events throughout the learning process is mostly unavoidable. What can be guided in healthier directions is students’ reactions to these experiences. Whether they see them as marks of failure or as natural parts of the learning process has much to do with how they construct their narratives, and how, as educators, we guide them in doing so. This is where we return to language: there are ways we can actively, consciously, shape the meanings we create around experiences. One of the most accessible and powerful tools we have to this end is expressive writing.

There is much evidence that using language through expressive writing can have emotional and physical health benefits. In multiple studies, people who participated in an expressive writing intervention experienced improvements in immune function, decreased biological markers of stress, and fewer overall visits to the doctor (Pennebaker & Graybeal, 2001). Interestingly, these outcomes did not depend on the writing containing strong emotion words. Rather, the outcomes were most pronounced  when the expressive writing involved greater numbers of cognitive words and insight words such as “because,” “reason,” “know,” and “understand.” Pennebaker and Graybeal (2001) theorize that the reason cognitive and insight words are so powerful, is that these are the words involved in creating coherent narratives (i.e., in telling good stories). Thus, the power of expressive writing is not in cathartic release of emotions, but in the act of good storytelling: organizing disparate events, noting causal relationships, and making insightful connections. Using writing as a medium, we can help students reflect on their practice and guide them to develop lasting positive narratives.

Practical Applications

So far in this segment we have examined two possible interventions for improving student narratives around practice: the use of metaphor to guide thought processes, and the use of expressive writing to reflect on experiences. Applying these ideas practically is the crucial next step. To begin, there are several abstract concepts within music education that could be discussed in strategic ways using metaphors. Practice itself is an example.  As a young violinist, I heard practice described with a wide array of metaphors such as “climbing a hill,” “working out the kinks,” or “exercising a muscle.” These all point to different facets of practice. Of these metaphors, “climbing a hill” may be the least effective, as it suggests a mostly upward slope with a summit at the end. As we have learned, the process of growth is not so linear, and not always upward. It also does not always have a summit, or final “level” of achievement. Thus, the hill metaphor is not optimal. In contrast, the idea of practice as exercising a muscle aligns most closely with Dweck’s theory of growth mindset. In this metaphor, “exercise” represents the act of practicing. The “muscle” is musical skill. This is the same kind of metaphor that was tested and found successful among academic students: if the brain was thought of as a muscle, they developed a less fixed concept of intelligence (Dweck, 2008). If musical skill can be thought of as flexible and able to grow with exercise, students may be more inclined to persist in the face of difficult practice.

To generalize this idea a bit more: when choosing metaphors for practice–or any  abstract facet of music learning–it is best to choose images that align closely with the nuanced, cyclical nature of learning. It is not ideal to use vocabulary that suggests fixed levels of achievement, or a constant upward trajectory. Both the hill metaphor and the muscle metaphor hold some similarities to actual practice, but the muscle metaphor illustrates a more adaptive conceptualization.

The second practice that can be applied is expressive writing. Self-reflection through writing can be applied in age appropriate ways to many different learning environments. Students can write short reflective blurbs in an online practice log, which can be shared and discussed by the teacher. Older students might be encouraged to journal following events such as performances, lessons, or even practice sessions. Consistency in the reflective practice is important. As stated earlier, expressive writing should not be reserved for cathartic venting, though that may have a different kind of value. This practice should be done regularly, with the goal of reflecting on learning habits, understanding cause and effect between practice and outcomes, and examining the ups and downs of growth over time. Its overall aim is to create narratives, and in doing so to help students notice patterns in their learning processes, assign healthy meanings to their negative experiences, and project into the future for further goal setting. These processes together will strengthen students’ identified motivation: an internally driven action that is based in healthy self-concept, and that persists in the face of setbacks.