Dear colleagues,
We're delighted to announce the publication of a new research methods textbook:
Performing Music Research
Methods in Music Education, Psychology, and Performance Science
by
Aaron Williamon
Jane Ginsborg
Rosie Perkins
George Waddell
Oxford University Press (2021)
ISBN 9780198714545
Performing Music Research is a resource for those who seek to understand musical performance and musicians wishing to carry out their own research. Drawing on perspectives from music education, psychology, and performance science, this book explores the motivations and methods underlying research in these fields, allowing readers to gain the knowledge and skills needed to review and critique existing studies and to design and carry out their own investigations.
The book aims to help researchers bring precision to the questions they pose, select methods that are appropriate for addressing their questions, and apply those methods in a systematic and rigorous fashion. We recognize that music researchers typically place the importance of their research questions over that of any particular method of inquiry. Therefore, we have structured the book so as to guide readers as they plan, conduct, analyze, and communicate research:
PART 1: Planning research
1 Research questions
2 Methodological approaches
3 Research ethics
PART 2: Conducting research
4 Observations
5 Documentation
6 Interviews
7 Surveys
8 Experiments
PART 3: Analyzing research
9 Qualitative analysis
10 Descriptive statistics
11 Inferential statistics: Foundations
12 Inferential statistics: Differences
13 Inferential statistics: Relationships
PART 4: Communicating research
14 Communication and dissemination
The book is accompanied by a companion website, www.PerformingMusicResearch.com, that includes practice datasets, interactive quizzes, and video summaries of example research.
A public virtual launch will be held on Friday, 12 March, at 5pm (GMT). For more information, visit the Royal College of Music's Facebook page.
A second public launch will be hosted by the Royal Northern College of Music on Thursday, 25 March, at 12 noon (GMT). For more information, visit the RNCM website or Facebook page.
Aaron Williamon
Jane Ginsborg
Rosie Perkins
George Waddell
