Music Ensemble as a Resilient System. Managing the Unexpected through Group Interaction

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Existing research often overlooks how music ensembles handle unexpected, performance-disrupting events.
• A resilience framework offers a more comprehensive understanding of regulatory strategies musicians use to maintain optimal performance.
• Music ensembles represent unique social and creative systems with exceptional adaptive capacities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel heuristic model for understanding music ensemble characteristics, focusing on resilience.
• To explore individual (cognitive) and group (coordination) mechanisms contributing to ensemble resilience.
• To propose hypotheses and predictions regarding factors that foster team resilience in musical groups.

Main Methods:

• Development of a new heuristic model centered on resilience as a key construct.
• Analysis of music ensembles of varying sizes as case studies.
• Proposal of hypothetical scenarios to illustrate resilient and non-resilient musical teams.
• Integration of recent findings from neuroscience and experimental psychology.

Main Results:

• The resilience model explains how ensembles adapt to external perturbations and anticipate future events.
• Individual and group mechanisms contribute to the exceptional resilience of music ensembles.
• Case studies demonstrate how ensembles resist errors and maintain joint performance under stress.

Conclusions:

• The resilience approach provides a robust explanation for maintaining optimal performance in music ensembles facing challenges.
• The model accommodates current research in psychology and neuroscience, offering new avenues for research.
• Findings suggest potential strategies for training resilience in teams beyond musical contexts.