Peer-group learning

Bennett identifies the second aspect of ʻlearning without pedagogyʼ as

being the way members of rock bands interact with each other in rehearsal. He describes group practice as ʻa uniquely constructed system of discovering, demonstrating, and talking about musicʼ, involving trial and error, critique and repetition:

Given the insight that there is no formal or informal training institution, and

therefore no paradigm of rock practice, the practice site becomes the focus

for the experience which replaces pedagogy. Musically, local rock band

practice is a case of the blind leading the blind. (Bennett, 1980: 70)

A rock musicianʼs most important source of skills is then the group interaction involved in learning to play together. This idea has become one of the central tenets of the literature on informal music learning.

Campbell states that band rehearsals are crucial for developing individual

and collective skills. She also suggests however that rehearsals may be influenced by a musical ʻleaderʼ - not exactly a teacher, rather a guide ʻwho appears to draw the others toward greater musical accuracyʼ (Campbell, 1995: 18) a finding replicated by Jaffurs (2004). Sara Cohen (1991) gives detailed accounts of the ways musicians in rock bands discuss and experiment with ideas for songs during rehearsals. Lilliestam stresses the importance of group learning, not just as a way of developing individual skills but also as a site for ʻcollective composingʼ (Lilliestam, 1996: 209) arising out of band improvisation. Allsup focuses on the way members of a rock band cooperate democratically in rehearsal and finds that those taking part ʻdiscovered more thanks to the input of their peersʼ (Allsup, 2003: 33).

Green also gives examples of how musicians can learn from others (often

peers or siblings), not just by being told or shown things they donʼt know, but also by simply watching more accomplished players. Like many other

researchers, she sees the group rehearsal as a key site where knowledge is exchanged and skills developed through jamming together and learning songs:

Performance, composition and improvisational abilities are thus acquired

not only as individuals, but, crucially, as members of a group, usually from

very early stages. (Green, 2002: 82)

Several musicians in the study gave examples of this kinds of autonomous interaction. Some recalled how they had learned informally from others with whom they were not in bands; for example, Bill remembered learning simply by ʻwatching other people playʼ, while Dave said: ʻmy brother showed me

something to play, Iʼd play itʼ. Carl had been helped enormously by meeting people who had been ʻvery free with informationʼ.

The experience of being in bands was described in overwhelmingly

positive terms, such as ʻfantasticʼ or ʻbrilliantʼ. However, there was not a single mention of band rehearsals, nor of more experienced band members helping less experienced ones, nor of how skills developed individually and as a group through collective improvisation. This is not to say that such activities did not go on, and it seems reasonable to assume, in most cases, that they did. All of them had been in bands at some point, several playing in covers bands, and often original bands as well; Bill, for example, said the ʻexciting thingʼ about being in your own band was that ʻyou just made it up didnʼt you, you write your own songsʼ. The literature may be right to focus on how much musicians develop through learning covers, jamming and writing songs together. There is every reason to think that the musicians in the present study too had benefited from such activities. However, they did not specifically recall them as being especially educational.

Rather than emphasising the importance of rehearsals, my sample

generally had rather more to say about how much they learned through performing live with (and in front of) other people. Within a year of starting to play harmonica Frank was in a band, and going out gigging meant he was ʻforced to learnʼ. For Helen the ʻbest experience everʼ was being in a band playing jazz with a group of teachers from her school: ʻthat was- “come on then, weʼre out”, and youʼre out giggingʼ. Andy said his piano playing ʻdid really wellʼ while performing regularly in a band, though he attributed this to simply playing a lot rather than learning from others. Performing for Carl was to become a spur to improve; he recalled how he would occasionally return home after a gig and set about practising there and then to correct aspects of his performance that he was dissatisfied with. However Carlʼs earliest experience of performing live was rooted in the kind of ʻsession cultureʼ described by Cope (2002):

Carl: The great thing about traditional music and acoustic music is

there's a culture of sitting around and just playing, and there was always a session that I used to go to, to watch, and at the time I was living at home

with my parents, and they forced me after I was playing for about a year to

go to the session with the banjo.

Q: And actually sit in.

Carl: Yeah, and I sat in back and just joined in with what I could and sat there looking gormless with the bits that I couldn't.

Q: Yeah, so that's a big influence, gets you into performing live?

Carl: Looking back on it that was almost certainly the single biggest part of

my development as a player.

Similarly, Berliner (1994: 45-55) refers to the experiences of jazz

musicians ʻsitting inʼ on a live session as both alarming and inspiring. Although Carlʻs learning history has much in common with both the literature on informal music learning generally and the other members of the group, this particular communal, participatory aspect of it appears to belong more to a folk or jazz tradition, rather than to rock and pop genres. Sitting in on a session is perhaps not directly comparable with the ʻpeer-group learningʼ of budding rock bands, though John OʼFlynn argues that there are nevertheless many similarities ʻbetween traditional music and other musical styles when it comes to modes of production and other socio-musical contextsʼ (OʼFlynn, 2006: 142). Frank described regularly taking part in a jazz workshop group (albeit not on his main instrument) where he developed his improvisational skills; it is doubtful however if this was the same kind of collective improvisation, or indeed the same kind of group, as those referred to by, say, Bennett (1980). The problem of how to categorise musical activities is one we shall return to (see section 3.6).

Overall my participants reported a range of learning experiences which

took place as part of a group. While they tended to stress the significance of performing rather than ʻgroup-learningʼ in rehearsals, it could be argued that performing is an integral part of being in a band, and generally the result of individual and collective practice; without the rehearsal there may be nothing to perform. Nevertheless, the kinds of interaction and communal learning which feature in, for example, Cohen (1991), Bennett (1980), and Jaffurs (2004) are not evident. This is not to say that the musicians I spoke to denied the

importance of these activities; they simply didnʼt mention them in response to general questions about their learning histories. Meanwhile, much existing research does acknowledge that performing plays a part in the development of

popular musicians, but does not emphasise this to the extent that the musicians in the present study did.