Sloboda John, *13 June 1950 London, English music psychologist of a Polish descent. He studied the piano at the Trinity College of Music in London, and in 1968–71 psychology and philosophy at the Oxford University. In 1974, he obtained his doctorate on music psychology at the University College in London based on the dissertation Prose Reading and Music Reading. Some Comparisons of Underlying Perceptual Processes. He has lectured psychology at the Keele University since 1974, he has been a professor and director of Unit for the Study of Musical Skill and Development since 1991, he was a vice president there in 1994–99, a Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1991–94, and a Head of Psychology in 2000–03; from 1994, he has coordinated science research at the psychology faculty. Sloboda works in as an editor of scientific magazines, e.g. “Music Perception” (from 1983), “Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology” (1985–89), “Psychology of Music” (chief editor in 1985–90), “Psychology Teaching Review” (since 1991), “Musicae Scientiae” (since 1996) and is active in learned societies, e.g. British Psychological Society (since 1989, in 1991–94 he was a director of Special Group of Teachers of Psychology), European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (in 1991–94, he was a vice chairman, and in 1994–97 a chairman), British Association for the Advancement of Science (in 1992–93 he was a chairman of the psychological section, and in 1995–96 chairman of the general section). He has cooperated with the international scientists (including workers of the Music Psychology Departments of the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw), and gave many lectures abroad (Poland in 1995, 1997, 2002). He was given numerous awards for his scientific achievements. In 2004, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy of Sciences.
Sloboda is one of the most prominent representative of cognitive studies and is held in high esteem by psychologists, musicologists and musicians alike, as his theoretical concepts and hypotheses on a wide range of issues (related to, among others, learning and remembering music, also its creation, performing and acquiring the skills of an “expert,” and to the emotions accompanying one’s contacts with music) are supported not only by the psychologist’s scientific workshop, but also by his own experience as a performing musician (playing piano and clarinet), choir conductor and composer with extensive knowledge of music theory, history and literature. Until the 1980s, the research of psychologists and music acousticians focused on the perception of single sounds; little attention was paid to such issues as the mental representation of long-term and complex musical phenomena. Promoting a cognitive psychology of music, focused on the study of human memory, imagination and emotion, Sloboda made bold theses and hypotheses about performing, creating, listening to and teaching music, and raised issues that required more research.
His book The Musical Mind (1985) became a worldwide bestseller; it has been reprinted a dozen times, supplemented and translated into many languages. The scope of this book is impressive: from music perception to music production; it covers topics as diverse as the origins of music and the circumstances conducive to the acquisition of musicianship, learning about and analysing the construction of the music one listens to, and the discussion of emotional reactions and creative processes is based on the author’s personal experiences. The musical phenomenon of human activity is presented on the basis of the results of research in social psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology and the rapidly developing cognitive psychology. Sloboda confronted the results of experimental research with knowledge of music theory and history, as well as a retrospective of his own musical activity (he presented, among other things, a report on the process of composing his piece for choir and organ). According to him, the basis of all musical activity is the need to remember, understand and give meaning to sound events. Although the main reason for the interest in music is that it is able to arouse deep and meaningful emotions, the necessary predecessor of the affective phase is the cognitive phase, through which the internal representation of music is created. Sloboda discusses the problem of musical performance from the point of view of proficient note reading (playing a vista), effective practice and instrument playing technique. The hypothesis that performance proficiency depends on the ability to flexibly apply knowledge of the expressive structure of the music being performed has been confirmed by studies undertaken in Europe and the United States.
In analysing the process of composition and musical improvisation, Sloboda considers four aspects: the study of the history of a given composition contained in the manuscript (sketches and notebooks can reveal how the composition matured and changed in the mind of the creator), the study of composers’ statements about their creative work, the observation of improvisatory activities, and the creator’s report on the conscious processes occurring during the composition of a musical work. Sloboda focused on analysing two aspects of mental activity: grasping the overarching sound structures or plans that guide and determine subsequent compositional actions, and determining to what extent these plans may be provisional. He discusses the problem of the listener’s contact with music from the point of view of people’s natural tendencies to group sequences of sounds into segments (“sound characters”) and the functioning of attention and memory while listening to a piece of music. Sloboda believes that so-called “intelligent listening” involves grasping the relations of similarity and difference between groups of sounds, and at the same time emphasises that listeners are able to perceive the macro-scale relations described by analysts. He discusses the problem of musical memory from the point of view of the ability to remember a particular pitch (absolute and relative hearing), some repetitive sonic whole, and the relationship of connections between similar and different segments of an extended piece. According to Sloboda, the basis of musical memory is the ability to grasp higher-order structures from a sequence of sounds, and the most significant is the discovery in a given piece of music of similarities and relationships between segments perceived as a whole (also the stereotype of these relationships) and the increased motivation to remember them. Development in the performer musician’s dexterity is mainly based on mental assimilation of new, general structures, so intensive thinking about correct fingering promotes manual dexterity.
Emphasising that the cognitive psychology of music attempts to articulate the structure of human thought and action to the exclusion of biological or social causes, Sloboda raises questions about the operation of cognitive mechanisms in human contact with music, analyses the factors determining cultural differences and seeks evidence for the existence of universal characteristics of music. He puts forward the thesis that the written musical culture and the associated developed system of musical notation promote the development of specific cognitive skills; however, he points out that both the written and oral musical traditions have basic features in common, including the human tendency to create and perceive organised patterns, hierarchies and sequences, so he examines in detail the essence of various cognitive structures and processes. He believes that in every culture an important motivational impulse for practicing music is the voice and the rhythmically moving body, and that the music created is beneficial as a mnemonic aid, as a means of aesthetic and transcendental experience, as well as fostering social bonds. Sloboda, asking key questions in The Musical Mind: “how” and “why,” set a research agenda for music psychologists around the world, who, a quarter-century later, offered him a book, Music and the mind: essays in honor of John Sloboda (Oxford, 2011), containing an overview of current research findings in music psychology inspired by Sloboda’s influential work.
An important field of Sloboda’s research is the problem of the relationship between perceived sound and emotion; as a proponent of interdisciplinary research, he advocates taking into account the theoretical and methodological problems addressed by philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, biologists and musicologists on the subject of emotion. Analysing the problem from a psychological perspective, he proposes a move away from the traditional static approach to a dynamic one, better adapted to the changing emotional response to music over time.
Sloboda’s findings are useful in education and improvement of musical performance, and his findings on the mental representation of music, the processes of cognition, memorization and understanding of music have challenged music theorists focused on score notation, interpreted through the notion of pitch class and theories of serial complexes. The psychology of music as seen by Sloboda provokes new theoretical approaches and the search for new methods of analysing and interpreting music created in literate and oral cultures.
Literature: B. A. Younker, J. M. Renwick Responses to John Sloboda’s article (2001), “Music Education Research”, IV, 2002; L. Stan Universaux de la musique et psychologie cognitive: Quelques réflexions à propos du livre L’esprit musicien de John Sloboda, Musica II 2009; I. Deliège, J. Davidson (red.) Music and the mind: Essays in honour of John Sloboda, Oxford 2011.
books:
The Musical Mind. The Cognitive Psychology of Music, published in London 1985, reprint 1999, 2004, 2011, French and Belgian ed. L’esprit musicien, Brussels Liège 1988, Italian ed. La mente musicale, Bologna 1988, reprint 2011, Chinese ed. 最新音乐心理学 [The latest music psychology], Beijing 1995, Spanish ed. La mente musical: la psicología cognitiva de la música, Madrid 1996, reprint 2012, Estonian ed., Muusikaline meel: Kognitiivne muusikapsühholoogia, Tallinn 2000, reprint 2007, Polish ed. Umysł muzyczny. Poznawcza psychologia muzyki, transl. A. Białkowski, E. Klimas-Kuchtowa, A. Urban, Warsaw 2002
Generative processes in music: the psychology of performance, improvisation, and composition, published in Oxford 1987, reprint 2005
Cognition, Emotion, and Performance. Three Lectures on the Psychology of Music and Polish transl. Poznanie, emocje i wykonanie. Trzy wykłady z psychologii muzyki (lectures given in 1997 in Poland, with a discussion), published in Warsaw 1999
Exploring the Musical Mind. Cognition, Emotion, Ability, Function, collection of articles, published in Oxford 2004, reprint 2007, 2011
Wyzwania i możliwości psychologii muzyki (lectures given in 2002 in Poland, with a discussion), published in Warsaw 2005
Psychology for musicians: understanding and acquiring the skills (with R.H. Woody and A.C. Lehmann), published in Oxford 2007, reprint 2022
articles:
Visual Perception of Musical Notation. Registering Pitch Symbols in Memory, “Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology” XXVIII, 1976
The Effect of Item Position on the Likelihood of Identification by Inference in Prose and Music Reading, “Canadian Journal of Psychology” XXX, 1976
Phrase Units as Determinants of Visual Processing in Music Reading, “British Journal of Psychology” LXVIII, 1977
Perception of Contour in Music Reading, “Perception” VII, 1978
The Psychology of Music Reading, “Psychology of Music” VI, 1978
Visual Imagery and Individual Differences in Spelling, in: Cognitive Processes in Spelling, ed. U. Frith, London 1980
The Uses of Space in Music Notation, “Visible Language” XV, 1981
Music Performance, in: Psychology of Music, ed. D. Deutsch, New York 1982
The Communication of Musical Metre in Piano Performance, “Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology” XXXV, 1983
Immediate Recall of Melodies, with D.H. Parker, in: Musical Structure and Cognition, ed. P. Howell, I. Cross, R. West, London 1985
Expressive Skill in Two Pianists. Style and Effectiveness in Music Performance, “Canadian Journal of Psychology” XXXIX, 1985
Infant Perception and Perception and Knowledge, in: Children Growing Up, ed. A. Branthwaite and D. Rogers, Milton Keynes 1985
An Exceptional Musical Memory, with B. Hermelin and N. O’Connor, “Music Perception” III, 1985
The Musical Mind. The Cognitive Psychology of Music, published in London 1985, reprint 1999, 2004, 2011, French and Belgian ed. L’esprit musicien, Brussels Liège 1988, Italian ed. La mente musicale, Bologna 1988, reprint 2011, Spanish ed. La mente musical: la psicología cognitiva de la música, Madrid 1996, reprint 2012, Polish ed. Umysł muzyczny. Poznawcza psychologia muzyki, transl. A. Białkowski, E. Klimas-Kuchtowa, A. Urban, Warsaw 2002
What is Skill, Acquiring Skill, Reading. A Case Study of Cognitive Skill and Computers and Cognition, in: The Skillful Mind, ed. A. Gellatly, Milton Keynes 1986
Cognitive Psychology and Real Music. The Psychology of Music Comes of Age, “Psychologica Belgica” XXVI, 1986
What Can the Psychology of Music Tell Musicians?, in: Musical Awareness, ed. M. Henson, Huddersfield 1987
Musique et mémoire. Le point de vue de psychologie, “Inharmoniques” no. 4, 1988
Music as a Language, in: Music and Child Development. The Biology of Music Making, materials from a conference in Denver 1987, ed. F. Wilson and F. Roehmann, Saint Louis 1989
Music Psychology and the Composer and Composers and Scientists. A Relationship of Equals, in: Structure and Perception of Electroacoustic Sound and Music, ed. S. Nielzen and O. Olsson, Amsterdam 1989
Musical Excellence. How Does it Develop?, in: Encouraging the Development of Exceptional Abilities and Talents, ed. M.J.A. Howe, London 1990
Biographical Precursors of Musical Excellence. An Interview Study, with M.J.A. Howe, and Music Structure and Emotional Response. Some Empirical Findings, “Psychology of Music” XIX, 1991
Musical Expertise, in: The Study of Expertise. Prospects and Limits, ed. K.A. Ericsson and J. Smith, Cambridge 1991
Psychological Structures in Music. Core Research 1980–1990, in: Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought, ed. J. Paynter, T. Howell, R. Orton, T. Seymour, vol. 2, London 1992
Begabung und Hochbegabung, in: Musikpsychologie, ed. H. Bruhn, R. Oerter, H. Rosing, Reinbek 1993
Talent, motivatie, oefening en succes, in: Muziekpsychologie, ed. F. Evers, M. Jansma, P. Mak, B. Devries, Assen 1995
Biographical Precursors of Musical Excellence, with M.J.A. Howe, and Psychology of Music Today. The Need for Applicable Psychology, in: Psychology of Music Today, ed. M. Manturzewska, K. Miklaszewski, A. Białkowski, Warsaw 1995
What Motivates Instrumental Learning?, with J.W. Davidson and M.J.A. Howe, in: Proceedings of the VIIth European Conference on Developmental Psychology, ed. A. Niemczyński and J. Fenz, Kraków 1995
Are There Early Childhood Signs of Musical Ability?, with M.J.A. Howe, J.W. Davidson and D.G. Moore, “Psychology of Music” XXIII, 1995
The Role of Practice in the Development of Expert Musical Performance, with J.W. Davidson, M.J.A. Howe, D.G. Moore, “British Journal of Psychology” LXXXVII, 1996
Early Signs of Talents and Special Interests in the Lives of Young Musicians, with M.J.A. Howe, in: Fostering the Growth of High Ability. European Perspectives, ed. A.J. Cropley and D. Dehn, Norwood (New York) 1996
Environmental Factors in the Development of Musical Performance Skill in the First Twenty Years of Life, with J.W. Davidson and M.J.A. Howe, in: The Social Psychology of Music, ed. D. Hargreaves and A.C. North, Oxford 1997
Talking fingers: An interview study of pianists’ views on fingering, with E.F. Clarke, R. Parncutt, M. Raekallio, “Musicæ Scientiæ” I, 1997
Innate Talents. Reality or Myth?, with J.W. Davidson and M.J.A. Howe, “Behavioural and Brain Sciences” XXI, 1998
Does Music Mean Anything?, “Musicae Scientiae” II, 1998
Peer Counselling as a Resource in the Teaching of Psychology, in: Innovations in Teaching Psychology, ed. J. Radford, D. Van Laar, D. Rose, Edgbaston 1998
Determinants of finger choice in piano sight-reading, (and E.F. Clarke, R. Parncutt, M. Raekallio), “Journal of experimental psychology” I, 1998
El joven intérprete [The young performing musician], with J.W Davidson, I.G. Adánez, “Quodlibet: Revista de especialización musical” (10) 1998
Characteristics of music teachers and the progress of young instrumentalists, with J.W. Davidson, D.G. Moore, M.J.A Howe, “Journal of research in music education” I, 1998
Musical talent and individual differences in musical achievement: A reply to Gagné (1999), with M.J.A. Howe, “Psychology of music” I, 1999
Music: Where cognition and emotion meet, “The psychologist” IX, 1999
Everyday Uses of Music. A Preliminary Study and Music Performance and Emotion. Issues and Developments, in: Music, Mind, and Science, ed. Suk-Won Yi, published in Seul 1999
Music and the Mind, in: Settling the Score. A Journey through the Music of the 20th Century, ed. M. Oliver, London 1999
Music and Worship. A Psychologist’s Perspective, in: Creative Chords. Studies in Music, Theology and Christian Formation, ed. T. Hone, M. Savage, J. Astley, published in Leominster 2000
Individual Differences in Music Performance, “Trends in Cognitive Science” IV, 2000
Why are Musical Enjoyment and Musical Achievement at Such Different Levels in Contemporary Society, in: Człowiek – Muzyka – Psychologia, M. Manturzewska’s memory book, ed. W. Jankowski, published in Warsaw 2000
Functions of Music in Everyday Life. An Exploratory Study Using the Experience Sampling Methodology, “Musicae Scientiae” V, 2001
Tracking performance correlates of changes in perceived intensity of emotion during different interpretations of a Chopin piano prelude (with A.C. Lehrmann), “Music perception” I, 2001
Function, functionality and the everyday experience of music: where does music education fit?, “Music Education Research” III, 2001, reprint in: Music Education, vol. IV, ed. K. Swanwick, Abingdon-on-Thames (Routledge), 2012
The „sound of music” Versus the „essence of music”. Dilemmas for Music-Emotion Researches, “Musicae Scientiae” VI, 2002
Musical expertise, in: Foundations of cognitive psychology: Core readings, ed. D.J. Levitin, Cambridge, (Massachusetts) 2002
Obituary: Michael Howe, 1940–2002 (and J. Hartley, S. Ceci), “Psychology of music” I, 2002
Factores ambientales en el desarrollo de las habilidades musicales interpretativas a lo largo del ciclo vital [Environmental factors in the development of musical performance skills over the life span], “Quodlibet: Revista de especialización musical” (23) 2002
The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning (and Richard Holmes, Patricia A. Holmes), “Music education research” I, 2004
Foreword, in: The music practitioner: Research for the music performer, teacher and listener, ed. J.W. Davidson, published in London & New York 2004
Lectura a primera vista [Sight-reading] (with M. Pedraza), “Quodlibet: Revista de especialización musical” (32), 2005
The role of harmonic expectancy violations in musical emotions: Evidence from subjective, physiological, and neural responses (and N. Steinbeis, S. Koelsch), “Journal of cognitive neuroscience” VIII, 2006
Singers’ recall for the words and melody of a new, unaccompanied song (with J. Ginsborg), “Psychology of music” III, 2007
Mozart in psychology, “Music performance research” I, 2007
An investigation of musicians’ synchronization with traditional conducting beat patterns (with G. Luck), “Music performance research” I, 2007
Exploring the spatio-temporal properties of simple conducting gestures using a synchronization task (with G. Luck) “Music perception” III, 2008
Tributes to Leonard B. Meyer (J.A. Sloboda and others: L.L. Cuddy, J.J. Bharucha, W.J. Dowling, Z. Eitan, R.O. Gjerdingen,; C.L. Krumhansl, F. Lerdahl, J.M. London, C. Palmer, B.S. Rosner, A. Rozin), “Music perception” V, 2008
Establishing an empirical profile of self-defined „tone deafness”: Perception, singing performance and self-assessment (with K.J. Wise) “Musicæ Scientiæ” I, 2008
Choosing to hear music: Motivation, process, and effect (with A. Lamont, A.E. Greasley) and Peak experiences in music (with J. Whale, A. Gabrielsson), in: The Oxford handbook of music psychology, ed. S. Hallam, I. Cross, M.H. Thaut, Oxford 2009
Music and art in conflict transformation: A review (with A. Bergh), “Music and arts in action” II, 2010
Understanding musical structure and form: Papers in honour of Irène Deliège, “Musicæ Scientiæ” (special ed. in English and French) 2010
Performers’ experienced emotions in the construction of expressive musical performance: An exploratory investigation (with A.G.W. van Zijl), “Psychology of music” II, 2011
Music and its meaning, how has the last 30 years of music psychology research progressed our knowledge?, “Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology” (Between sound and music) (10), Poznań 2011
The reciprocal relationship between jazz musicians and audiences in live performances: A pilot qualitative study (J.A. Sloboda and others: G. Brand, B. Saul, M. Hathaway), “Psychology of music” V, 2012
Music: Where cognition and emotion meet – The Presidents’ Award lecture at the society’s annual conference, Belfast, April 1999, in: Music Education, vol. II, ed. K. Swanwick, Abingdon-on-Thames (Routledge), 2012
The improvisatory approach to classical music performance: An empirical investigation into its characteristics and impact, (J.A. Sloboda, and others: D. Dolan, H.J. Jensen, B. Crüts, E. Feygelson), “Music performance research” I, 2013
Music and emotion (with P.N. Juslin), in: The psychology of music, ed. D. Deutsch, Cambridge (Massachusetts), 2013
Learning from artistic and pedagogical differences between musicians’ and actors’ traditions through collaborative processes (with B. Ford), in: Collaborative learning in higher music education, ed. H. Gaunt, H. Westerlund, Farnham (U.K.), 2013
Can music teaching be a powerful tool for social justice?, in: The Oxford handbook of social justice in music education, ed. C. Benedict, P. Schmidt, G. Spruce, P. Woodford, Oxford 2015
[Managing performance anxiety, in Persian], J.A. Sloboda and others: A.C. Lehman, R.H. Woody, M. Arab, “Faṣlnāmeh-ye musiqi-ye māhur/Mahoor music quarterly”, 72, 2016
Opera and emotion: The cultural value of attendance for the highly engaged, (with S. O’Neill and J. Edelman), “Participations: Journal of audience and reception studies” I, 2016
Audience reactions to repeating a piece on a concert programme (J.A. Sloboda and others: A.R. Halpern, Ch.H.K. Chan, D. Müllensiefen), “Participations: Journal of audience and reception studies”, II, 2017
Responding to performers: Listeners and audiences (with S. O’Neill), in: Musicians in the making: Pathways to creative performance, ed. J. Rink, H. Gaunt, A. Williamon, Oxford 2017
25 years of ESCOM: Achievements and challenges, (with J. Ginsborg), “Musicæ Scientiæ” II, 2018
Music for social impact: An overview of context, policy and activity in four countries: Belgium, Colombia, Finland, and the UK, (J.A. Sloboda and others: G. Baker, A. De Bisschop, S. Karttunen, A. Mazzola, E. Rojas, S. Juan, A.G.W. van Zijl, H. Westerlund, R. Zapata, P. Gloria), “Musiikkikasvatus / The Finnish journal of music education”, I–II, 2020
The audience as artist? The audience’s experience of participatory music (with J. Toelle), “Musicæ Scientiæ” I, 2021
editing:
Acquisition of Symbolic Skills, with D. Rogers, published in New York 1983
Cognitive Processes in Mathematics, with D. Rogers, published in Oxford 1987
Generative Processes in Music. The Psychology of Performance, Improvisation and Composition, published in London 1988
Cognition and Social Worlds, with A. Gellatly and D. Rogers, published in London 1989
The Teaching of Cognitive Psychology, with N. Hayes, S. Newstead, J.R. Richardson, published in London 1990
Musical Perceptions, with R. Aiello, New York 1994 (including the article Music Performance. Expression and the Development of Excellence), reprint 2008, Japanese ed. Ongaku no ninchi shinrigaku, Tokio 1998
Musical Beginnings. The Origins and Development of Musical Competence, with I. Deliège, published in Oxford 1996 (including the article The Young Performing Musician, with J.W. Davidson), reprint 2003, French ed. Naissance et développement du sens musical, Paris 1995
Perception and Cognition of Music, with I. Deliège, published in New York 1997, reprint 2015
Music and Emotion. Theory and Research, with P.N. Juslin, published in Oxford 2001 (including chapters with P.N. Juslin Music and emotion: Introduction, Psychological Perspectives on Music and Emotion and with Susan O’Neill Emotions in Everyday Listening to Music), reprint 2004, 2009; Japanese ed. 音楽と感情の心理学 [Psychology of music and emotion] Tokio 2008
Handbook of music and emotion: theory, research, applications, with P.N. Juslin, published in Oxford 2010 (including chapters: (1) Introduction: Aims, Organization, and Terminology with P.N. Juslin), (4) At the Interface Between the Inner and Outer World: Psychological Perspectives with P.N. Juslin, (18) Music in Everyday Life: The Role of Emotions, (33) The Past, Present, and Future of Music and Emotion Research (with P.N. Juslin), reprint 2012
