AIRS 5th Annual Meeting: 2013

Title: Becoming a professional singer songwriter in PEI: The role of family, institutions, and
personality characteristics
Authors: Michael Speelman (University of Prince Edward Island), Ross Dwyer (University of
Prince Edward Island), Rob Oakie (Music PEI), Henk Van Leeuwen (Culture PEI), Annabel J.
Cohen (University of Prince Edward Island, Music PEI)

Abstract

Introduction: A relatively rare and sometimes idealized profession is that of the singersongwriter, whether it be at the heart of rock or pop band, or entertaining on the solo stage.
Little is known, however, about the prerequisites for success in this profession, where success is
defined by economic viability. The study aimed to obtain knowledge about the precursors to
the singer songwriter profession.
Method: There were 18 regularly performing singer-songwriters in PEI (Mean age 30.83, SD
9.53 years; 10 males) who participated (live or via Skype) in a 30-item interview. All but three
reported playing guitar, and all but 5 played piano. Only two played neither. Regarding voice
lessons, 8 had received none and 5 reported from 1 to a few months. The remaining 4 reported
taking lessons for 3, 3, 5 and 8 years. (1 did not answer). All had lived in PE for at least 6 years; 7
participants came “from away”, the majority moving to PEI by the age of 10 years. Questions
surrounded early influences of family, school, church, voice lessons, and self-assessed past,
present and future vocal ability. Responses were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data
were then transferred to a spreadsheet for quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Results: In regard to their earliest experiences of music, all but one participant spoke of one or
more close family members who were musicians (10 mentioning father, and 7 mother, and 5
both, 6 brother, and 1 or 2 references to uncle, aunt and family) with less uniform reference to
school choirs, bands and opportunities provided by the community. The average rated level of
their own vocal ability in comparison to that of the voice of their idol (on a 10-point scale) was
6.4. This was higher than their judged past singing ability (3.9) and lower than their judged
potential future ability (8.4). The linear trend in improvement over time was significant, F(1, 16)
= 140.25, p <.001. Females rated their own voice as better than did males on all three measures,
F(1,16) = 4.76, p < .04. There was no interaction between gender and time (past, present, future).