Conservatories in Finland belong to publicly funded educational organizations that offer studies for the upper secondary vocational qualification in music (180 credits). In vocational education over the last few years, attention has been paid especially to the development of cooperation between work life and educational units in learning-at-work (Jokinen, Lähteenmäki & Nokelainen, 2009). In the field of music, learning-at-work means the student’s action in terms of a musician’s tasks: preparing the pieces of music for performances, practising music individually, ensemble work and arranging performances (Finnish National Board of Education [FNBE], 2014). Carrying them out requires strong motivation: commitment, and responsible and initiative action in an ensemble.

In this continued research project, the musicians’ vocational learning-at-work was arranged in a workshop in which the students planned and implemented a performance in cooperation with a professional musician according to popular and jazz music tradition (see Berliner, 1994, pp. 44–45). The study consisted of 11 workshops as part of the vocational education of 62 students aged from 17 to 24 years in the Conservatory of Oulu, Finland, in 2003–­­2011.

In several of the most recent music education research reports (e.g. Countryman, 2014; Evans, McPherson & Davis, 2013; Küpers et al., 2014; McPherson, Davidson & Faulkner, 2012), the authors have examined the factors which make students motivated in their music studies.

In music education studies, less attention has sometimes been given to examining the motivational factors of music students who aim at becoming professional musicians. The students are readily interested in music and are relatively skilful. On the other hand, attaining and maintaining professional competence requires continuous commitment in terms of developing one’s competence (e.g. Renwick & Reeve, 2012). Learning in conservatories is, however, described as being strongly teacher-centred (e.g. Creech, 2012). Students may have very few opportunities to influence their studies, which does not strengthen the ownership of their learning or, for instance, promote the development of their self-assessment skills.

This research is connected to the problematics described above by examining the motivational factors of popular and jazz music students in the conservatory. The research examines the influence of self-determination on the learning motivation of popular and jazz music students. Self-determination theory (SDT) explains that satisfying people’s universal psychological needs has a significant influence on well-being and learning (Deci & Ryan, 1985; 2000; 2014. Psychological needs will become satisfied when the learner autonomously influences the choices and decisions of his/her learning. He/she then feels competent about acting in his/her learning environment and experiences relatedness to it.

The researcher first built a learning environment – a workshop in which the students’ universal psychological needs were first paid attention to according to the principles of the SDT. Next, a research task was set to explain how the cooperation of a professional musician and conservatory students is connected to the students’ learning motivation from the point of view of SDT. 

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