Environmental Support for the Development of Musical Talent: The Impact of the Musical Involvement of Parents in the Homes of Talented Young Australian Musicians

Studies by Sosniak (1985), Sloboda and Howe (1991), and Howe and Sloboda (1991) considered the facilitative impact of the musical involvements of parents on the development of their child's musical potential. Music in the home is well documented as being a factor which aids the normative development (Hargreaves, 1996) of musical competencies (Larsen, 1987; Papousek, 1996). The type of parental musical engagements reported in the literature are usually confined to intuitive parenting practices (Papousek, 1996) or music listening activities (Larsen, 1987). With respect to expert musical development (Hargreaves, 1996) the findings of the research literature do not concur. This paper, based upon an Australian study of families of talented young musicians, examines three dimensions of parental musical involvement, and the environmental influence that these may have upon the development of the child's musical potential. The three dimensions are; consideration of self as musical, past or current involvement with formal musical tuition and current involvements with musical activities.