Interpretive autonomy predicts self-regulated learning behaviors in lessons, practice, and performance among classical musicians

Although self-regulated learning, planning, monitoring, and evaluating one’s performance to attain personal goals, is vital to improving classical music performance, even advanced musicians struggle to initiate self-regulation in lessons, practice, and performance. While qualitative studies have suggested that autonomy in musical interpretation underpins self-regulated learning behaviors, this has not yet been quantitatively investigated due to the difficulty of measuring interpretive autonomy. Following the model of Werktreue internalization, which conceptualizes interpretive autonomy from both psychological (basic psychological need satisfaction in musical interpretation) and behavioral (self-oriented interpretive approaches) aspects, this study conducted a questionnaire survey among 214 student and professional musicians in Japan using newly developed scales. Mediation analysis revealed that basic psychological need satisfaction in musical interpretation predicted the use of self-oriented interpretive approaches, which in turn predicted self-regulated learning behaviors across the lesson, practice, and performance contexts. These findings demonstrate that interpretive autonomy plays a significant role in initiating self-regulated learning behaviors in classical music performance. In addition, by quantifying interpretive autonomy using psychometrics for the first time, this study offers a crucial methodological contribution to a discourse long discussed by qualitative investigations.