What Does it Mean to Grow Older? : Stories from Piano Students and Teachers

The purpose of this interdisciplinary narrative inquiry was to contribute to a better understanding of age and aging in piano teaching and learning (piano pedagogy) through an exploration of the musical life stories of older people. Learning piano in later life is a growing area of interest that deserves more attention. Piano, in particular, is popular with older people and instrumental music teachers. However, we lack empirical knowledge about older adult piano pedagogy. Children are the focus of most music education research. In addition, of the literature on older adult piano pedagogy, some demonstrates a perspective of aging that focuses on decline and the health and well-being benefits of music participation. Although this research is welcome, it offers a limited representation of piano students that can perpetuate age stereotypes. One way of challenging assumptions and increasing understanding about aging in this context is to highlight, in their own words, the experiences of older people in lifelong piano participation. To that end, my research addressed the following question: How do older students and teachers experience aging in the context of lifelong piano learning and/or teaching? Informed by a feminist gerontology perspective, I used a visual elicitation technique and interviews to explore four student and three teacher experiences of aging and lifelong piano participation. The results of this study were framed around meaningfulness and meaning. Specifically, the participants of this study understood aging in lifelong piano participation in terms of musical and social connectedness, musical development, and understanding and wisdom. The main contribution of this thesis is the musical life stories of the women who shared their experiences of lifelong learning and/or teaching piano. This study adds to the research on piano pedagogy by offering insights from older people that expand our understanding of aging and meaning in lifelong piano teaching and learning.