The Elusive Muse : Understanding Musical Giftedness

Many labels exist to outline musical giftednessor aspects of it; a profusion resulting from differentepistemological positions, disagreements, and theconsiderable complexity of the issue. In this chapter,musical giftedness as a sub-cultural attribute is discussedas well as the problems inherent in attributionby consensus procedures. Based on available researcha conceptual model of musical giftedness is outlinedbased on domain generality and domain specificity,thus proposing an understanding of musical giftednessas a set of core skills and sets of key skills, particularfor specific domains. The question of heredity isbrought to the fore as is the significance of accumulatedpractice over time. Differences between the developmentof Western Classical musicians and popularmusicians are demonstrated. Recent research on giftednessidentification is also discussed followed by aconcluding overview of potential research pitfalls asthe understanding of musical giftedness continues tobe explored