Reclaiming musics, shaping selves and healing moments: Motivations for participatory practice among musicians in Belgium, Colombia, Finland and the United Kingdom

Global growth of participatory music practices has been met by increased scholarly attention. Whilst much research in this area has focused on the participants and impacts of such practices, this article presents practitioner perspectives. It draws on data collected within a three-year international research project that explored practitioners’ contexts, work and beliefs. We offer a qualitative research design via cross-cultural, multidisciplinary analysis of 88 semi-structured in-depth interviews in Belgium ( n = 21), Colombia ( n = 23), Finland ( n = 20) and the United Kingdom ( n = 24) using Glaser and Strauss’s Constant Comparative Method (1967). We found that alongside motivations relating to social, cultural, political and economic aspects of this work, practitioners emphasized ‘musical’ motivations. Our analysis brought up three overarching themes related to musical motivations across the countries: (1) disrupting and reclaiming musical cultures, (2) shaping musical selves and (3) psycho-physical states of being that emerge in and through the practice. We suggest that closer attention to practitioner musical motivations, and gains they experience through participatory practice, can bring about deeper understanding of the qualities of this growing field – globally and locally – on its own terms, with implications for participatory practice research and education.