ABSTRACT
A distinctive contribution of the Investigating Musical Performance (IMP) project is the light it throws on the learning approaches and experiences of highly skilled musicians from different genres. In this chapter we consider some of the results emerging from the IMP data gathered from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s (RCS, formerly Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama 1 ) BA Scottish Music (BASM) degree students. The RCS added Scottish traditional music to its portfolio of predominantly Western classical music programmes in the mid-90s and it challenged some pre-conceived notions of conservatoire education. This chapter provides an overview of the thinking behind the BASM degree at its inception and in its current design. It then takes a number of themes from the IMP studies, including learning in the pre-HE years, the place (both metaphorically and literally) of informal learning, and attitudes of BASM students towards their own practice and that of other musical genres. Our results reveal contrasts between profiles of student musicians, and between the conventional styles of western classical learning and teaching, and those in Scottish music. These traditional-music approaches have provided exemplars for rethinking the conservatoire curriculum as a whole.
