The link between cultural and musical backgrounds and ability: an investigation into music education students at a Malaysian university

The paper presents the findings of the first part of a study which was to determine whether there was a link between musical and cultural backgrounds and musical ability. The students were enrolled in a Bachelor of Music at a predominantly Islamic Malaysian university and were studying to become secondary school music teachers. Religion played a major role in Malaysia as it influenced which educational institution the students could attend and musical preferences and style. The cultural backgrounds of students in this study included Malays who were Muslim, Chinese Malaysian who were Christian and international mainland Chinese students who were either Buddist, or did not identify themselves with any particular religion.

The study was in three sections, a survey, interviews and a musical aptitude test. This paper presents the findings of the survey using thematic analysis. The results of the study showed clear distinctions between musical and cultural backgrounds and attitudes towards music. This included; family structure and support, the choice of musical instrument studied, the age they commenced formal music tuition why they had decided to become secondary school music teachers. The musical and cultural background of the student did play a major role in the ability of the student as well as attitudes towards music and music education.