CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Background of the Study

There are some misconceptions about guitarists. According to Lim (2015),

because people would often think that a musician already simply have the talent, some
kind of a common idea that often gets overlooked is the fact that musicians spends
countless of hours of practice and different ways for them to get the needed experience
so they could get where they are. Lim also mentioned is that others think they become a
musician and take up the craft just for them to achieve the fame and fortunes usually
associated when becoming a musician. The researchers take this further to imply that
musicians have a large, inflated ego. “Overall the guitar industry has been continuously
growing for the past five years” (IBISWorld, 2018). This is most likely due to an
increased in demand for the instrument and this increase in demand means that more
people are planning to learn or learning the instrument, meaning that these
misconceptions have a lot higher potential to spread even more. This research is
performed as this aims to either dispel or confirm these misconceptions, may it be for
fame and fortune, or for their inflated ego, or their inborn talent, the researchers will gain
knowledge of this by interviewing students who are playing the guitar, asking about their
experiences in learning and gaining skills, and how it is to be a guitarist, and more
generally so, a musician.

Statement of the Problem:

The study aims to answer the following questions:

1. What challenges do student-guitarists experience?

2. What are the motivational factors of the student-guitarist to play the guitar out of all
the instruments in the first place?
Significance of the Study:
Student guitarists represent one of the fast growing segments of being a
musician. The study would be helpful for student guitarists, either professional or non-
professional, in gaining insights about this, including student guitarists who play in a
band. It would also give benefit to teachers and educators who teach music or guitar.

This will be of great benefit to:

● Aspiring Student guitarists. They will find out that being a student
guitarist is already a step close to becoming a musician. Knowing the experiences of
these student guitarists could be a factor in them thinking which path that they really
want to take. It is not about making them give up to be a aspiring student guitarist, but
rather to tell them the hardships and challenges they will encounter. This is because
there are other student guitarists who played a lot longer than they do, especially those
who are in a band or has their own band.

● Educators, especially in the field of music. They will know more if the
students they are teaching, would later gain inspiration in pursuing music or guitar.
Knowing what experiences that student guitarists and/or student musicians go through
can help them empathize with these students who have a larger passion for the
instrument, allowing them to have a better closeness between the educators and the
students he/she is teaching, wherein they can gain a bond with the music they both
know and, with this specific group of students.

● Parents of aspiring guitarists. They will know how they can help their
children learn more about the instrument, more in specific the guitar, by providing them
the proper education to learn more about it. The study can also help parents understand
what their child may go through outside of the home while they play/perform music. This
may also inform they about the struggles they are going through in learning the guitar
and balancing their studies with it.

● Other Musicians. In the case that these other musicians collaborate,

form a band/ensemble, or simply befriend a guitarist, they will understand why they act a
certain way, these behaviors can show if they are with people/band mates they are close
with, these change in behaviors may be due to the said “ego” of these guitarists. This
can help them create better music together, since understanding is beneficial to
collaborative creation.
Scope and Delimitation:

The researchers will be conducting their interview on student guitarists in San

Beda College Alabang. Students involved should atleast have 3 or more years of
experience in playing the guitar, including basic lessons. They don’t need experience in
performing live. Those involved will be students coming from Grade 11 and 12. The
Research will be conducted to know why they chose to play the guitar rather than any
other instruments to choose from. The students who will be interviewed are not required
to be in a band. The interviewees are also not limited to any gender.
 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Related Literature

A. Local Studies
Bonayon (2012) mentioned that, when it comes to coverage of music events
taking place within the Philippines, there seems to be a large inequality in promotion
between local and foreign artists from local media companies that were at the focus of
his study - Philippine Daily Inquirer, Summit Media, and When in Manila. He cites how
foreign artists are able to sell enough tickets to fill up the largest concert venues in the
country despite having ticket prices higher than those of local performers. This suggests
an influence from promotion bias on the choices of consumers, particularly that of music
tastes and prioritizing certain performers over others (e.g. one would rather spend more
money on X performer because one favours them more).
This may be a factor when it comes to what inspires or influences student
guitarists to take up learning the instrument. Student guitarists themselves can also be a
part of the consumers that the aforementioned media companies in Bonayon’s study are
marketing to, being influenced by this bias of the said companies to promote more
foreign artists that he mentioned.

The guitar has a large appeal to the people of the current generation. Reasons to
support this include its accessibility (inexpensive compared to other instruments), a
strong association to the image of a singer-songwriter, and a strong association with the
opposite sex, both in it’s impact in attraction and its similarity to female curves as said by
male respondents. (Pelayo, Mallari, & Pelayo, 2015)
This is about why the guitar is usually picked up, as the guitar is a very popular
instrument that is commonly used by many musicians. This study focused on the
reasons why the guitar is a lot more appealing to the youth in comparison to other
instruments. This plays a big role as a factor to explain one of the possible reasons the
study’s planned respondents started learning the instrument.

B. Foreign Studies
According to interviews conducted by Watson to self-taught musicians (2016),
they began learning to play music due to experiencing a childhood surrounded by music
and musical performers, which piqued their interests. On their late childhoods, their want
to play an instrument was awakened by simply listening to more music, often guided by
friends and/or siblings, learning how to perform the piece from the record. During the
interviewee’s pubescent phase, they would form musical ensembles of their own, and
play to audiences. To directly quote the article in regards to what the interviewees said
of this stage in their lives:
In terms of what they learnt during this time they had similar answers
which are summed up in these quotes “it didn’t matter how good you were or
thought you were, if you couldn’t get along with others, then you didn’t last, and
that was both on and off stage” (Participant 7) and “you realised that more was
learnt in one live performance especially to the public, than you could learn in
10 or more rehearsals” (Participant 4). There was also mention of the bands
essentially debriefing after each performance where they would go over how
the night went.

The student guitarists to be interviewed may have similar childhoods as

described by Watson’s interviews, such as the aspect of the challenge of learning music
on one’s own accord. Their experience of being a musician may have also been shaped
by the unique challenges of being in a musical ensemble or a simple informal session
with other musicians present while dealing with the other aspects of adolescence, such
as socializing with one’s fellow musicians and developing cooperation.

The survey of MacIntyre and Potter (2013) examined the motivations of

composers, future composers, and those who really do not wish to compose, amongst
pianists and guitarists. The results reflected each group’s differences in wanting to play,
and their self-evaluations as musicians.
Knowing the motivations of student guitarists is one of the main problems to be
solved by the study. The information found by MacIntyre and Potter may be mirrored by
the responses of the student guitarists, with the possible difference stemming from the
fact that MacIntyre and Potter’s study is a survey, while the research to be done is a set
of interviews.

Thomas (2011) interviewed 15 local musicians, to know interpersonal conflicts

between them and their bands, and ways they fixed or worked out their problem in it.
These conflicts included differing aspirations of the band members, the type of
government when it comes to decision making, competition among the members,
criticism, money, work, and age gap of the band members.
The study needs information from the student-guitarists of their experiences,
including guitarists in bands, how they cope up with their studies, and band time.
Thomas did say that, workload and different age gaps are reasons on why there are
conflicts among bands. This could be a challenge to them as a musician. This may be a
factor in how student guitarists balance between academics and music.

According to Wright, Holmes, Di Russo, Loporto, & Smith (2012), more skilled
guitarists show more enthusiasm in performances than beginners. This can support the
notion that these guitarists really have this “high or inflated ego”.
 According to Sangler, Muller, and Lindenberger (2018), coordination is a key
factor amongst musicians when performing with other musicians, which depends heavily
on synchronization between the brains of each ensemble participant. Higher frequencies
are present in intrabrain communications and lower frequencies for interbrain
communication, based from EEGs of a quartet of guitarists
This is evident of a difference in brain functions of a guitarist when a performance
with other musicians is happening. Higher brain frequencies mean higher levels of
activity and awareness/alertness, while lower brain frequencies mean reduced
consciousness (Tri, n.d.). This plays into how their experiences are percieved by them.

According to a study done in Berlin (2012) (as cited by Pelayo, Mallari, and
Pelayo, 2015), the neural networks of a guitarists are synchronized before a piece is
played, wherein unconscious, creative thought takes control to perform. Non-musicians’
brains have more conscious effort to play a musical piece.
This explains that a guitarist has a different mindset compared to non-guitarists.
Their brains work differently than non-guitarists, being more intuitive thinkers, as
evidenced by the study of Sanger, Muller, and Lindenberger’s brain scans. This may
play a factor in how they plan out their energy between hobby and academics.

Groce and Dowell’s (1988) study focused on musical performances performed at

informal events, wherein a large part of the music that is played by the musicians are
covers of whatever is popular at the given time. These pieces are easily recognized by
the partygoers due to its popularity.
These informal performances resemble what may be the most common public
outlets for student guitarists, especially inside the classroom. Having to learn popular
songs to satisfy one’s peers represents a unique challenge for the participants.

Theoretical Framework

Multiple Intelligence Theory

This theory developed by Howard Gardner emerged from the cognitive research
he made, where “documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of
minds and therefore learn, perform and understand in different ways,” (Gardner, as cited
by TecWeb.org, 2001). According to this, “we learn through different ways, through
language, analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, and the use of the body to
solve problems and do things”. Different individuals have different intelligences, and
these can be combined to do various tasks, perform problem solving, and progress in
different domains. He says that “everyone can learn the same materials in the same way
and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning.”. There are
different learning styles, and these are as follows: “Visual-Spatial, Bodily Kinesthetic,
Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Linguistic, & Logical-Mathematical”. For the
researcher’s study, the musical style of learning contributes to the topic. This shows
“sensitivity to rhythm and sound. It says in the Musical section of the original source that
these people love music, but are also very sensitive to sounds in their surroundings.
They may study better when there is music in the background. Different ways to teach
these people, are through turning their lessons into lyrics, speaking rhythmically, and
tapping out. Mediums in teaching may include musical instruments, music, radios, and
multimedia.” These all play into the student aspect of a student-guitarist.

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory

Kolb (as cited by McLeod, 2010) describes learning as a four-stage cycle, as
described by this model... (Fig. 1)

...wherein a learner has, to directly quote the original source, “touch all bases”.
That is, a learner has to experience each stage, in a clockwise manner from any point,
restarting the cycle when a new lesson need be learnt. Kolb mentions that each stage is
meant to support each other, in both experiencing the cycle as a whole and in leading
into each other. This supportiveness from each element for each other is so important to
Kolb that, according to Kolb, the learning process would not work without the whole
cycle being completed. Each stage of the cycle is defined as the following, to directly
quote Kolb as cited by McLeod:
 “1. Concrete Experience - (a new experience of situation is encountered, or a
reinterpretation of existing experience).
2. Reflective Observation (of the new experience. Of particular importance are
any inconsistencies between experience and understanding).
3. Abstract Conceptualization (Reflection gives rise to a new idea, or a
modification of an existing abstract concept).
4. Active Experimentation (the learner applies them to the world around them to
see what results).” (p.1)
Student guitarists often tackle studying music as a learning by doing process -
that is, one has to actually perform the action to learn from it. Learning by doing is best
described by Kolb’s theory since the theory in itself means to experience a phenomena
and create one’s own concept based from that experience. Student guitarists would
experience difficulties learning a musical piece until they finally succeed in performing it
completely & at tempo, wherein similar pieces would be easier to learn due to the
concept formed from the experience.

Definition of Terms

● Ego - “is the part of your identity you consider only your "self", it is a persons
sense of self - esteem or self-importance” (“Ego”, n.d.)
● Music Education - is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of
music. Music education leads students to develop their music abilities, such as
playing the guitar, piano etc. (“Music Education”, n.d.)
● Student guitarist - any in-school youth who has a sense of proficiency in playing
the guitar, and is often known by their classmates as “the guitar person”
 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

In order to completely answer and satisfy the questions outlined by the

Statement of the Problem section of this paper, the researchers plan to use descriptive
research design for the study. More specifically so, the study will use phenomenological
method via interviews the respondents. Describing events, situations, experiences,
concepts, or - to summarize - phenomena (Astalin, 2013), and how they are perceived
and understood by people is the main focus of phenomenology. Hence, the researchers
will conduct interviews encompassing all possible aspects of a student guitarist’s life that
may differentiate such from the lives of other students, so that the phenomenon of being
known as “the guitar person” will be described by the guitarists themselves.

Research Locale
The respondents of the study will come from the Senior High School department
of San Beda College Alabang, Muntinlupa City, located around the southern area of the
National Capital Region (NCR). Founded in 1972 by monks from the Benedictine
religious order (Catholic), San Beda College Alabang, often referred to as SBCA,
consists of three main departments when it comes to education. The SHS department of
SBCA consists of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), HUMSS
(Humanities and Social Sciences), ABM (Accountancy & Business Management), and
GAS (General Academic Strand) strands. There are different types of musical education
programs offered in the school. There is currently no music program for the SHS.
Respondents
The respondents will be chosen according to their skill in playing guitar, in this
case the skill in playing has to be at least three (3) years of experience playing (including
the initial learning process). The researchers will disregard any experience playing in
musical groups, ensembles or orchestras. In the selection of the respondents, the
researchers will also consider why these respondents chose to play the guitar among all
other instruments. They will also take note of what their motivations were for playing the
guitar in the first place.

Research Instruments and Techniques

In order to best fulfil the problems of the study, the researchers will use a set of
interview questions in order to construct a background of the life of the respondents. It
will encompass questions about the struggles that they encountered when they began
playing the guitar, the songs that they played on the guitar, and the motivations they had
to play the guitar.

Data Gathering Procedures

The following are the procedures to be observed by the researchers in gathering
data from the respondents.

First the researchers will provide an authorization letter for the respondents that
will participate in the research. When the researchers receive the respondent’s consent,
the interview shall proceed. If they can answer the question, they would answer with full
honesty that they would be able to give, but in the case that they are not comfortable
with the question being asked, they would not be forced to answer the given question.
Moreover, if they feel uncomfortable during the interview, it will be temporarily stopped.
After the interview the researchers will give the respondents the chance to ask
questions. After all of these the researchers will thank the respondents for their
cooperation. Process will be repeated with other respondents and informants.
 After gathering all the answers from the respondents, the researchers will go
ahead to listen and then transcribe the recorded conversation through earphones for
everything to be more accurate rather than listening without earphones. Researchers will
also write down the expression that the respondents expressed at certain questions.
This procedure is to be repeated to every respondents involved.

Data Analysis Procedures

The following procedures are to be used by the researchers in order to analyze
data to be obtained from the responses of the interviewees.
Profiles are to be constructed for each respondent in order to have a proper
understanding of who they are, consisting of their favourite music to listen to (artists,
song/s or album/s), how long they have been playing the guitar (including how long they
studied the instrument), how long their peers have known that they played the guitar,
and whether or not they have experience playing in a band or ensemble. Each interview
transcription will be read over multiple times by each researcher in order to find any
statements that particularly stood out or held heavier importance than others, especially
if they satisfied one of the problems of the study.
These statements will then be tallied and categorized by similarities towards a
certain “general answer” for each problem. These categories will be further grouped
together to form themes, by arranging categories which answered a common question,
thereby giving definition to each theme. Once each theme was established wholly by the
research group, they will be defined by concept and by operation as to how they are
used in the study, integrating knowledge gained from the related literature.
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 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1) Has there been a time where you had to take extended periods of time away from
playing the guitar due to increased schoolwork? How did it feel?

2.) How did it feel once you picked up the instrument again?

3.) Please relay the hardest moment you had balancing between your passion of playing
guitar and your obligation to do schoolwork.

4.) Why haven't you given up on the instrument completely even though SBCA SHS
currently does not offer a music class?

5.) How do you feel when an elder, may be it a teacher, administrator, parent, relative,
and/or family friend tells you or any other student-guitarist to stop playing the guitar?