Participatory Music Practitioners’ Skills, Experience and Pathways for Learning: Perspectives From Belgium and the UK

Participatory music practices—understood here as practices that inherently connect musical and social aims—are growing globally through diverse activity, research and scholarship. Practitioners, as facilitators of such initiatives, are often pivotal to their success and sustainability. This study foregrounds practitioner perspectives to consider what skills and experience they deem necessary for effective practice and ways in which they prepare(d) for practice. It was developed as part of an international research project titled Music for social impact: Practitioners’ contexts, work and beliefs and draws on survey responses and in-depth interviews conducted in Belgium and the United Kingdom. We analysed the data via an inductive approach, using practitioner narratives as a guiding perspective. Across geographical and project differences, practitioners reported similar necessary skills and experience, which we distinguished within three domains: musical, pedagogical and social. Practitioners honed their skills and experience through a variety of preparations; with experiential and peer-learning frequently mentioned. Such on-the-job learning, particularly when working with marginalised communities, raises ethical considerations about how best to prepare and support early-stage practitioners in navigating diverse practice contexts. We suggest that peer-guided experiential learning, cultivating self-directed study and critical reflection, offers an important pathway for practitioners to hone musical, pedagogical and social skills necessary for effective practice.