PC
T&P
         
PERSONAL CONSTRUCT
THEORY & PRACTICE
Vol.6
2009

An Internet Journal devoted to the Psychology of Personal Constructs

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PIFANO, TABLA TARANG, OR SANZA:
EXPLORING DIVERSE TYPES OF MUSIC WITH THE REPERTORY GRID


Ute Ohme

Institute for Productive Learning in Europe (IPLE), Berlin, Germany

 


Abstract
   
Although listening to music and making music are very personal processes which are attractive to most people, little research has been done from the psychological perspective of Personal Construct Psychology (PCP), with hardly any musicologists having developed research using the repertory grid. In order to take a step along this new avenue to be explored, empirical research was undertaken with young students in a primary school in Potsdam, Germany. Using the repertory grid, the investigation showed how the participants construed diverse types of music and furthermore that this way of listening to and exploring music is a suitable tool for music teachers to introduce the topic ‘music of the world’.
   
Keywords: Psychology of music, self and other, constructivism, diversity, music of the world, music lessons at school



INTRODUCTION
 
Fay Fransella has put music onto the list of “new avenues” (Fransella, 2003) to be explored from the perspective of PCP. Listening to music is, in fact, a deeply personal process which attracts most people in the world. Making music is an activity undertaken at all levels possible, from childhood onwards, be it as a profession or a hobby, or at least the famous ‘singing in the shower’. How people construe music is therefore an important question and some interesting steps have been taken along this avenue of research (Fransella, 2003; Scheer & Sewell, 2006).
 
From the perspective of a musicologist focussing on the psychology of music one special aspect is of great relevance. The researcher’s tremendous interest in peoples’ feelings and thoughts about music creates dependence on what people actually tell him or her. Putting feelings and thoughts about music into words is, however, not an easy task, either for children or for adults. Besides, a lot of people strongly believe that music exists as a particular means of thinking or feeling or even saying things without words.
 
According to the musicologist Herbert Bruhn (2002), who conducted repertory grid interviews with two adults, the repertory grid is a perfect technique to invite people to quit their habit of giving one-syllable-answers and instead to reflect, elaborate and verbalize more fluently about music during surveys of the psychology of music. Even though (at least in Germany) no large-scale study can be found in support of Bruhn’s statement, his comment underlined my interest in becoming more familiar with the repertory grid for the empirical research I planned. As I wanted to work both with children and with very different kinds of music the children might not have heard intensively before, a technique which would encourage these young participants to tell me what they perceived and thought was very important. Another factor was, however, even more significant. The basic question I started my empirical research with was: What similarities and differences do school children identify between music examples from all over the world? As the repertory grid is based on defining similarity and difference it seemed perfect in this respect. Experts in Personal Construct Psychology themselves might judge this a superficial understanding of the repertory grid. But research does not always start with full knowledge, only with some questions. The study of Kelly’s work (Kelly, 1955) which followed my first idea opened up horizons to my research I hadn’t anticipated. Looking at PCP with certain interest accrued from a musicological background might, in turn, open up alternative uses of the repertory grid not seen within the field of psychology.
 
In this article I would first like to give a short, personal overview of some of the deeper motives behind the research I undertook. But instead of then elaborating on these arguments theoretically by filling pages with the philosophy of science, constructivism, responsibility of cultural anthropology and the like, I will describe the empirical side of the research and some of its practical consequences. After the presentation of the setting of the research, that is the repertory grid interviews with music examples as elements, one of the music examples used will be looked at more closely. Then I will focus on two aspects which might show the prospects for using the repertory grid in music lessons in school: the question of intercultural understanding and ‘reality’ as well as the idea of networking the music of the world.
 
 
LINKS BETWEEN MUSICOLOGY, INTERCULTURAL ISSUES, AND CONSTRUCTIVISM
 
Travelling through or living in different countries enables us to see familiar things which we are often barely aware of in a new light. So after studying and teaching musicology in different countries I questioned German musicological literature for some of its terms and definitions which I hadn’t even been conscious of before. One of the terms I found most difficult was ‘fremd’, meaning foreign and strange. This term was used to speak and write about the various kinds of music (with the exception of Western classical music) that exist around the world, usually covered by the discipline of ethnomusicology. I had personally encountered only very few of these innumerable ways of making music, but was that reason enough to sum up all other kinds of music using this single to characterise my personal relationship with and feelings towards them? Calling them ‘foreign’ or (even worse) ‘strange’ did not convey anything of their unique quality. Instead, using the same umbrella term to refer to these diverse means of making music only heightened my sense of helplessness and my desire to highlight their similarities, in order to somehow also make them more ‘manageable’ to me.
 
Encouraged by a discussion that was being held in cultural anthropology and similar fields criticising the process of ‘othering’ as a means of exclusion (Abu-Lughod 1991, Schiffauer 1996), I decided that in my studies I would call all these kinds of music ‘diverse’ instead of ‘foreign’ or ‘strange’. But what initially seemed straightforward became more complicated later, when I wanted to write about something usually called ‘my own’ music. It took me weeks of intense work (doing nothing but thinking, trying things out, doubting and reflecting) to fully understand that not only were all ‘foreign’ kinds of music different or diverse, but that my own music was part of this diversity too. I was astonished by – and, I admit, even ashamed of – this revelation and it opened up the field of constructivism to me, making me sense the power of the constructs we live in without doubting and reflecting and more: without recognizing them. The bipolar construct of ‘das Eigene’ (the own) and ‘das Fremde’ (the foreign) that I had grown up with and that had even been affirmed for years while studying musicology was obviously very strong and difficult to deconstruct: digging new channels for new ways of looking at things was no less demanding. Through studying the work of George Kelly as well as other constructivists I gained an insight not only into the great responsibility I bear while using terms and constructs, but also the freedom that is involved in this process at the same time. Including my music in the worldwide network of different music and therefore looking at what I had called ‘my music’ from a new and more distant perspective was merely an initial experience, but it paved the way for me to explore different kinds of perspectives in various fields, both professionally and personally.
 
Today I am not as strict about declining to use the term ‘fremd’ as I was before. The discussion about this term seems to be outdated anyway, though the problems of exclusion and discrimination in our society are not. Maybe there are circumstances in which describing something as ‘fremd’ to ourselves is helpful. And the construct ‘self and other’ is definitely one we can not abstain from using completely. All sorts of identity building (e.g. of persons, societies, companies and organisations as well as cultures, nations and the like) depend on it. What now seems more important than resisting the use of one single term to me is supporting the general competence of building diverse perspectives or constructs in which – as a consequence – regarding some cultures as ‘fremd’ might then be an additional perspective to regarding the same cultures as being ‘diverse’. Nevertheless, the profound objective behind the research I undertook between 2003 and 2006 was trying out and elaborating on a certain concept of diversity which is built up from networking all elements (e.g. music pieces) by grouping them on the basis of similarities and differences. The aim of the empirical side of this interest was, and still is, the development of a didactic tool to be used in schools.
 
 
THE SETTING OF THE RESEARCH: CHILDREN CONSTRUE MUSIC WITH THE REPERTORY GRID
 
The participants in the empirical research were 17 students who made up a class (grade 5) in a primary school in Potsdam. These students were 8 girls and 9 boys aged between 11 and 12 years. As group work is a very popular means of interaction in schools nowadays and the research was intended to lead to some didactic tool for music lessons, the whole class was split up into seven groups of two children each; one more group consisted of three children. With each of these eight groups I conducted a repertory grid interview during school time, but in a separate classroom. The interviews lasted between 45 and 60 minutes.
 
The study consisted of two steps: getting to know the elements (eight music examples) and doing the repertory grid. Whereas in the classical situation of a repertory grid interview, the client or participant chooses the elements herself or himself, in the interviews described here the participants were exposed to certain prepared elements. The music examples lasted about 60 seconds each and they were played from a laptop with separate loud-speakers. While listening to each of the examples the participants were asked to write down some first impressions onto small cards. These served as very useful memory aids for the children, which was especially important as music is a fleeting medium.
 
Choosing examples for experiments in musicology (psychology of music) is always difficult. Every musicologist has only limited experience and knowledge which influence his or her choices. As the music in this experiment had to originate from all over the world, music samples from each continent and a total of eight countries were selected. The music examples were from categories mostly called ‘traditional’ or ‘classical’, but of course these terms are no less problematic than others. Martin Fromm (1995) suggested a number of six to 15 elements to be used in a repertory grid. Eight examples may therefore not seem very many but considering the fact they were pieces of music that are not well known and that the participants were pupils, the number was realistic.
 
Meeting the children at their own level of experience was an important factor for the success of the interviews. As the children played the recorder and some percussion instruments during music lessons, these sounds were involved in at least some of the music examples played. Additional criteria included selecting music examples of different instrumentation, tempo, mood, with or without voices and other aspects. They are listed here:
 
(1) dance music from the north-east of Brazil with the pifano, a wooden flute;
(2) Sufi music from Turkey with the flute ney;
(3) music of master drummers from Nepal;
(4) Indian classical music with the tabla tarang, a tuned set of drums;
(5) music from Nigeria with the sanza (in other parts of Africa called mbira);
(6) music from Australia with the didjeridu and singing;
(7) a song with Oumou Sangare from Mali;
(8) baroque music from Ireland.
 
The participants listened to the samples of music – that is, the elements for the repertory grid interview – only once but were assured that they would be able to listen to them again during the actual interview, an option they widely used. The origin of the music was not explained to the children.
 
To give an example and idea of what the participants wrote down from their first impressions and to aid their memories, here are the notes one girl made about the eight examples listed above:
 
(1) a very fast music with some flute;
(2) slow, African, nearly always the same melody;
(3) sounds a little bit like rubbish (note: the children had been exposed to music produced with instruments from recycled material in class);
(4) very slow, always the same notes;
(5) in the background water, some rushing and some knocking with one instrument;
(6) one voice, very funny, again with some knocking, from Africa;
(7) some kind of stringed instrument and a few voices;
(8) happy, with a flute, different melodies together.
 
During the repertory grid interview, the so-called full context form was used. The children were asked to choose their own triads from the eight music examples with the help of their notes and memories or with repeated listening. Nevertheless, finding two examples which were similar to each other in some aspect and then identifying a third example which differed in that same respect was sometimes too difficult for the children. They were happy then to build only pairs of similarity or of difference instead.
 
The two (or three) participants from each group filled in a prepared form of the repertory grid themselves just as they would when doing any other school activity in which intensive interaction with each other is required. This protocol of their music perception may serve various purposes in music lessons, some of which will now be discussed.
 
 
TABLA TARANG EXPLORED WITH THE REPERTORY GRID

As space is limited here, I would like to concentrate on one of the eight music examples I exposed the children to. It is the beginning of the slow introduction (alap) of Raag Deen Todi played by the late Pandit Kamalesh Maitra on Tabla Tarang, a set of drums tuned according to the raag. Laura Patchen (1996) defines the word raag as “a combination of musical notes or a melodic framework with a determined set of rules which create a special, colourful feeling in the mind.” The Todi raags are morning raags and meant to create a mood of quietness and devotion – “the sun having risen, the energy level slowly increases, and the day’s activity begins” (Patchen, 1996). Tabla tarang is an instrument hardly played anymore. A short excerpt of the music can be listened to at: http://www.folkways.si.edu/trackdetail.aspx?itemid=34053. It is the first music example presented. More detailed information can be found there as well.
 

First impression
 
While listening to the example of Indian classical music the students were asked to make some notes on their first impressions and associations. This process of getting to know the elements for the repertory grid replaced the usual process of choosing the elements. After looking at all the notes given by the participants, categories were generated. In the following table (Table 1), the categories and the participants’ notes are listed. The number in brackets indicates the number of participants using the listed word.
 
Table 1

CategoryParticipants’ notes
Expression, mood, motion, functionmysterious (3), thrilling, slow, very slow (dancing), calm, calming, praying
Instrumentationdrum (2), drums, made by African drummers, plucking, harmonica, guitar in the foreground
Musical structureascending line, always the same tones, fast beats in a row
OriginIndian, Chinese
Scenic or visual descriptionsit sounds a little like in the rainforest, there could be rattlesnakes, jungle music, snakes that come out, television, underground music, creepy and black like the night, music of the cowboys

In comparison to other music examples where sometimes up to 9 of the 17 children wrote down the same word (e.g. “happy”), this music seemed to be more difficult for them to describe. There were few multiple nominations of terms. This observation is underlined by the fact that four of the students didn’t write down anything at all. This is a typical situation in surveys of psychology of music during which participants very often struggle to find words. But the difficulty of describing this particular music may also have to do with the actual mood the music obviously suggested to the children. In summary, this music was mainly described as being mysterious and even thrilling but calm at the same time. The scenic or visual descriptions provide an especially good insight into the beautiful associations this particular music aroused in the children. The drums were recognized, as was – at least by one of the participants – the accompanying string instrument, the tanpura. Although there were few notes made concerning the musical structure, those that appeared were quite appropriate.
 
 
The image of Tabla Tarang through construct building
 
During the repertory grid interview each of the eight groups of participants was able to identify 6 to 7 constructs. They all chose the music example Tabla Tarang for their construing process and used it between two to four times. Even the children who had not made any notes during their first listening worked with this piece of music. This proves that although the music did not appear too easy to the children initially, it had in fact left a deep impression which led to further elaboration. The following list shows what each of the participant groups wrote down concerning the example Tabla Tarang on their repertory grid form (Table 2). In addition to this grid protocol, oral information on the music from the taped interviews is taken into account as well.
 
The list does not show the full bipolar constructs that were developed. Instead it shows the description of the piece under observation here. Nevertheless, the slash separates the constructs from each other in order to indicate the number of constructs the piece of music was involved in. Furthermore, those terms or descriptions that each group elaborated newly during the repertory grid interview (in comparison to the first listening) are underlined. (Note: the fact that terms or descriptions were newly developed in one group during the repertory grid interview does not necessarily mean that they were not being used already by other groups during the first listening to the music, the first step of the study.This concerns, for instance, the term “slow”).
 
Table 2

GroupRepertory Grid Protocol
Group 1drums / mysterious, praying / lonely, slow / sad
Group 2very slow / always the same notes / stagnant music
Group 3maybe from the same country (like example 2: Sufi music) / memory of animal movies, thrilling music, drums
Group 4jungle music, snakes that bite, slow, sad / a bit funny, but also serious
Group 5underground / no category can be found
Group 6mysterious, calming / mysterious (because of the drums) / relaxing / calm, music was calmming
Group 7mysterious / one doesn’t know what one should think
Group 8 Arabian, snake charmer / more quiet (than example 3: music from Nepal)

The image of mysterious music was confirmed during construct building. In addition, a notion of sadness and loneliness was developed. Even the term “stagnant music” might lead in this direction. The scenic description which showed something thrilling or dangerous grew more acute: “snakes that were appearing were even biting”. One group making particular mention of the calm mood elaborated on this point with more terms. It’s interesting to note that the uncertainty the piece of music created was expressed more intensely during the repertory grid interview. The music had “no category” and “one did not know what to think”. A lot of terms, descriptions or only small hints which were transcribed from the taped interviews underline the assumption that the repertory grid process helped the children to express their perception of the music even though it was ambivalent and difficult: “like in the desert”, “a cowboy”, “like somebody is standing there and is very lonely”, “or like a snake appearing”, “like somebody receiving a letter and having to go somewhere all alone”, “all by himself”. Asked why the music was mysterious, one group answered: “because of the drums, as if something is coming but then it is not coming”. At the same time it was quite obvious that the music developed certain characteristics through the active comparison to other music pieces during the repertory grid interview. Of course comparison always takes place, even during the first listening to the elements. But the process of the repertory grid forced conscious relation building. As there were quite some vivid, light and even happy music examples in the experiment, the music under observation here became even more mysterious, sad and lonesome.
 
 
Vice versa: construct building with Tabla Tarang
 
Whereas in the section above the image which the participants developed of the music example Tabla Tarang through construct building was shown, from the perspective of PCP it is interesting to look at the constructs directly. What bipolar comparisons did the children generate?
 
The following list shows the constructs in which the music example Tabla Tarang played the role of a contrast (Table 3). As the other music examples cannot be listened to in this article, they are not specified.
 
Table 3
 
Tabla TarangOther music examples
lonely, slowmany instruments, happy
jungle music, biting snakes, slow, sadhappy, fast
Arabian, snake charmerhappy, turbulent
mysterious, calmingfestive, fast
mysterious, prayingfaster, more instruments
mysterious (drums)royal, festive, medieval times
always the same notesalways the same melody
stagnant musicfloating (fluent) music
drums wind instruments
drumsmore Arabian, mysterious
a little funny, but also serioussoft music
calming funny
more calmless calm
undergroundAsian
relaxing loud and fast
no categoryhappy, good for dancing


As mentioned previously, the music example developed an even more mysterious form when compared to those music examples which were very light, happy and which the children felt were like dancing music. At this point the researcher has to bear in mind that it is always a certain and limited setting that the participants react to. Kelly tried to overcome this problem as much as possible by defining a very wide range of relations or functions of the elements, which, in his work, persons relevant to the client usually had to have. The elements (i.e. the persons) were then identified by the clients themselves. This setting was not taken at the research presented here. As the aim was to confront children with little known music they did not choose music examples themselves. But to make the study manageable to the children, some music examples with obvious bipolar characteristics were chosen and the children responded as expected to a large degree. Nevertheless, they developed quite a range of vocabulary to express and diversify the underlying constructs of happiness versus sadness (mysterious) and fast tempo (for dancing) versus slow motion (calm, relaxing). So, for instance, the term mysterious was compared to festive and royal, calm to funny, relaxing to loud and fast. Other comparisons were connected to the instrumentation or musical structure. From the perspective of a music teacher this intensive verbalizing is a good result.
 
 
REPERTORY GRID INTERVIEWS AS A MEDIUM IN SCHOOL
 
Intercultural understanding and the question of ‘reality’
 
Teaching successfully is only possible when students are engaged with their particular stage of ability and knowledge. As in any process of accompanying somebody who is learning, in music teaching the teacher needs to know what the students he or she wants to reach with certain music are able to perceive in it, what they think and how they verbalize. This is even more important when dealing with music little known in daily life – like the music from various and sometimes distant parts of the world. Of course, in many classes nowadays there are children from mixed origins learning together. But though a child coming from a Turkish migrant background might indeed have been exposed to some Turkish music, he or she might, however, have been exposed to just as little music from Africa or Australia as his or her fellow students. Establishing a common basis among the pupils and the teacher is therefore an essential process and may be reached through listening to the music together and discussing it.
 
The repertory grid technique was tried out here to investigate its use and benefit for giving the teacher an insight into his or her student’s perception and verbalization concerning the music of the world. At the same time, the students gathering (in class) the information they collected themselves during the repertory grid interviews (in groups) will be able to participate in a discussion about their perceptions and opinions. This process is not a substitute for the compiling of cultural information about each piece of music itself, but does serve as an opening into the field and hopefully as an arousal of interest in it. Topics in this field may be the music traditions of each of the examples, as well as all questions concerning intercultural communication. Here the image the children built up about some music in their perception through the use of the repertory grid interview may be compared with the image and function the music actually has within its cultural context.
 
The music example attended to in the chapter above was a piece of Indian classical music, a certain raag played with the instrument tabla tarang. The children were only exposed to 60 seconds of the music and so a full picture of the music was not offered. The music, which is culturally meant to express quietness and devotion during morning hours, was in fact characterised as being calming and relaxing by a lot of children. The idea of sadness and even loneliness might, however, not be an aspect culturally transported by this music. This characterisation given by the children is (to a certain extent) most likely due to the fact that there was no rhythmic pulse in the traditionally slow introduction, the alap. Listening to the piece of music as a whole may help to discuss these questions and open up the topic of intercultural understanding of – in this case – the mood of a raag.
 
At the same time the result, which was produced through the comparison with other music pieces, should not be forgotten: compared to some fast dancing music with flute and rhythmic pulse, the slow introduction of the piece of Indian classical music turned out to be even more sad and lonely. This result shows that comparison influences our perception and therefore our concept of ‘reality’. If we manage to discuss this problem of perception of ‘reality’ and – especially – the influence the comparison always has on our perception of ‘reality’ (disclosed through the process of the repertory grid) we build a profound basis for intercultural questions. Doubting and reflecting our own process of perception can serve as a starting point to understand that there is hardly any right or wrong, and that ‘reality’ (apart form questions concerning human rights) is relative.
 
 
The idea of networking: exclusion and inclusion with the repertory grid
 
The participants in the study presented here were asked to build triads or at least pairs of similarity and difference as many times as they were able to. This procedure is the way the repertory grid interview is conducted. What usually interests researchers or psychologists are the constructs that the participants or clients use. The procedure as such is not of special interest.
 
I would like to introduce an approach in which this very procedure of building various groups of similarity and difference among elements, a process I will call ‘networking’ here, is the one wanted. It might open up an interesting perspective to the repertory grid.
 
As mentioned above, the process of defining ‘self’ and ‘other’ is a natural one, but it can also lead to constant ‘othering’, exclusion and discrimination. With my study, in addition to other areas of interest I wanted to observe the behaviour of the children with music examples they hardly knew. Because I (being the person defining their task) asked the children to find differences between the music examples, they – of course – did find those differences but – in addition – they found some pieces of music “more different” than others. Nearly every group initially excluded a piece of music from the eight examples. Interestingly enough, those pieces of music excluded varied a lot. So, for instance, the music example from Nepal was considered to be “getting out of the line, compared to all others” by one group of participants. Another group felt that the music from Australia was “the most different of all”. And for a third group the singing from Mali “was spare, left over”. But even though exclusion took place on the one hand, on the other a constant process of inclusion was observable. Without being asked, the group which first found the music of Australia “the most different of all” identified the parallel of happiness between this and the music from Nigeria among one of their constructs. The group for which the singing from Mali was first “spare, left over”, later associated this music “with people” like the music from Nepal. The group excluding the music from Nepal also identified a certain similarity with other music. The children thought to know the origin of these pieces.
 
When the whole group of participants is considered, the idea of networking through exclusion and inclusion becomes even easier. Very often the music example excluded by one of the groups of students was the first to be identified as being similar to other music by other students. To illustrate some details for this process, I will list some similarities which have been found for the music examples mentioned above (Table 4):
 
Table 4

Music example being excluded at firstSimilarities defined to other music examples
Music example from Australia
“the most different of all”

the same rhythm, happy, singing, dancing, different language (in comparison to German), Africa, with melody, repetitive melodies, sad, a little funny but also serious, funny, fast
Music example from Nepal
“getting out of the line, compared to all others”
drums, fast, happy, good for dancing, funny, has to do with people, Asian, festive and fast
Music example from Mali
“spare, left over”
dancing, medieval times, singing, dancing, different language (in comparison to German), Africa, with melody, funny, has to do with people, holy music and beautiful, Asian, same rhythm

All eight music examples, even those initially excluded by some groups of participants, ultimately turned out to be surrounded by an interesting network of relationships to all the music pieces. By discussing the repertory grid interviews in class the participants (with the help of their self-made grid-protocol) would be able to comment mutually on the examples of music they excluded by listing all possibilities for including the same pieces and shaping – consciously or unconsciously – the concept of ‘diversity’ to the music of the world.
 
From the perspective of ethnomusicologists, who might feel that apples and oranges are being compared within this process, and that ‘foreign’ music always has to be understood from ‘within its own culture’, this way of opening the topic ‘music of the world’ might not be acceptable. From the constructivist’s point of view, we know that comparison takes place all the time and is even important in defining this particular view from ‘within the culture’ by looking from “outside”. From the perspective of a psychologist of music, taking people’s feelings and ideas concerning music into account is a basis for supporting any kind of understanding.
 
 
CONCLUSIONS
 
The findings and discussions presented were taken from a pilot study, in which the repertory grid was used within a musical context. The aim was to undertake an exploratory study for the development of didactic material for music teachers focussing the diversity of the music of the world.
 
Results show that the repertory grid can very well be used with music examples from all over the world to make students listen to these sometimes unknown pieces of music intensively and verbalize their impressions and ideas about them. At the same time the repertory grid protocols may serve to raise the issue of intercultural understanding and communication among students in class. Comparing one special piece of music with different other pieces will signify that perception is not fixed. If students are astonished by the results different sets of comparisons bring about, they may be made sensitive to the question of reality and its relativity. And finally: the repertory grid is an interesting medium to start with elements, in this case pieces of music from all over the world. This process of networking, that means building different sets of similarity and difference, is an important basis to avoid dichotomous thinking which often leads to exclusion and discrimination.
 
Discussing these questions with students is definitely an ambitious task. A lot of research on these specific ideas of using the repertory grid still has to be done. I would very much like to undertake further research to develop concrete didactic material which will help teachers in class to follow a guideline of listening to the music with the students, moderating their various findings and leading discussions under the headlines presented here. I am happy to receive comments and suggestions as well as references about similar projects (ute.ohme@t-online.de).

   


REFERENCES
Abu-Lughod, L. (1991). Writing against culture. In: R. Fox (Ed.): Recapturing anthropology. Working in the present. (pp. 137-162). Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research Press..
 
Bruhn, H. (2002). Methoden. In: Akademie für Lehrerfortbildung Dillingen (Hrsg.): Musikpsychologie in der Schule (Forum Musikpädagogik: 15) 2. Auflage. (pp. 119-134). Augsburg: Wißner-Verlag.
 
Fransella, F. (Ed.) (2003). International handbook of personal construct psychology. Chichester: Wiley.
 
Fromm, M. (1995). Repertory Grid Methodik. Ein Lehrbuch. Weinheim: Deutscher Studien Verlag.
 
Kelly, G.A. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton
 
Ohme, U. (2008). Vielfalt entfalten – Musikhören und Musikdenken in Netzen. Die Psychologie der Persönlichen Konstrukte und das Repertory Grid von George A. Kelly: Theorie und Anwendung in Musikwissenschaft und Musikpsychologie. Essen: Die Blaue Eule.
 
Patchen, L. (1996). Booklet to: Pandit Kamalesh Maitra & Trilok Gurtu. The World’s Musical Traditions, Vol. 10: Tabla Tarang – Melody on Drums. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings 40436.
 
Scheer, J. W. & Sewell, K. W. (Eds.) (2006). Creative construing. Personal constructions in the arts. Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag.
 
Schiffauer, W. (1996). Die Angst vor Differenz. Zu neuen Strömungen in der Kulturanthropologie. Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, 92: 20-31.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ute Ohme, PhD, studied musicology in Hamburg between 1982 and 1989, specialising on the psychology of music as well as on ethnomusicology. She lived and worked in Nepal, Zimbabwe and Turkey and settled in Potsdam after German reunification. A doctoral thesis on the idea of ‘diversity’ and George Kelly’s Personal Construct Psychology gave interesting insights into constructivism related to intercultural issues. Currently Ute Ohme is working as a scientific associate at the Institute for Productive Learning in Europe (IPLE). Her children are 17 and 14 years old.
Email:ute.ohme@t-online.de 



 


REFERENCE

Ohme, U. (2009). Pifano, Tabla Tarang, or Sanza: Exploring diverse types of music with the repertory grid. Personal Construct Theory & Practice, 5, 64-73, 2009
(Retrieved from http://www.pcp-net.org/journal/pctp09/ohme09.html)



   


Received: 15 October 2008 – Accepted: 6 March 2009 Published: 20 March 2009

 

ISSN 1613-5091

Last update: 20 March 2009   -   Portrait photo: provided