Materiality and Embodied Cognition in Music-Making and Musical Learning

A recurring theme in my research is an interest in the embodied-cognitive dimensions of music-making and musical learning. A particular focus lies on the interaction and relationship between musicians and their instruments. The questions within this theme are elusive: What does it mean to learn to play an instrument? How do we develop coordination in our movements, from the first tentative steps to full-fledged virtuosity? Can we truly say that the instrument becomes an extension of the body, and if so, what does that entail? These broad questions can be broken down into smaller, researchable ones. Through practice-based, empirical research and with the concept of affordances as a central point, methodological and theoretical pathways open up for a deeper understanding of this complex set of issues.
My first publication in the field was my licentiate thesis (Tullberg, 2018), followed by my doctoral dissertation (Tullberg, 2021). In my dissertation project, the traverso flute served as a case study in both an interview study and a practice-based study conducted with five other flautists. The driving question was the role of the musical instrument in music-making and musical learning.
This project led me into ecological psychology and embodied and situated cognition (4E cognition). My theoretical interest culminated in a conceptual article on the notion of affordances in relation to musical instrument studies (Tullberg, 2022).

Practice-Based Research

As I work on a Music Teacher Training programme, research connected to educational environments is of great importance. My postdoctoral project was part of a research initiative known as practice-based school research. I explored how teachers within upper secondary school arts programmes perceive, work with, and assess artistic expression. The study was based on open-ended interviews with practising teachers and resulted, among other things, in a article (Tullberg, 2024).

Practice Lab Project

As part of my interest in practice-based research, I have initiated a project investigating the role of practice in higher music education. In connection with their coursework, students in both the Music Teacher Training programme and the Performance Programmes in Music conduct autoethnographic studies on their own practice habits. They present their findings in an essay. These essays form the foundation of the research project, which is conducted from a practice-based student perspective.

Folk Music

As a musician, I have been actively involved in the revitalisation of the traverso flute within Swedish folk music, particularly through my collaboration with Andreas Ralsgård (see published albums under artistic output). This engagement has, in turn, sparked a research interest in folk music practice and pedagogy. The clearest expression of this interest has been my collaboration with Eva Sæther. Together, we run the research project Tradition, Identity, Learning (TIL), in which we explore different formal and informal learning arenas for Swedish folk music.
So far, the project has generated two publications. The first concerns the theoretical development of communities of practice and situated learning arising from this work (Tullberg & Sæther, 2022). The second article examines the challenge of maintaining three parallel careers—musician, researcher, and teacher. This challenge is prevalent in higher artistic education, as the different career paths are built on distinct merit systems. Consequently, potential synergies—despite their possible benefits—risk being lost in a zero-sum game of time and daily priorities (Tullberg & Sæther, 2024).
My research interest in folk music has also resulted in two earlier publications, which, in hindsight, can be seen as precursors to my involvement in the TIL project. The first is an autoethnographic study of my own flute teaching at music academies in Sweden and Denmark (Tullberg, 2017), offering a critical perspective on the pedagogical and artistic considerations that come with the institutionalisation of folk music. The second is a book chapter exploring the meaning of the concept of tradition in higher music education specialising in Swedish folk music (Tullberg, 2018).

Interdisciplinary Work

In addition to the above research interests, I am engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations. I have an academic background in creative writing and am also active as a fiction writer. My interest in this art form led to a collaborative project between Lund University’s Writing School and Malmö Academy of Music. Hosted by the Pufendorf Institute at Lund University, the project explored artistic and pedagogical processes from the perspectives of our respective artistic disciplines and educational environments.
I am also a member of the CogCom Lab at LUX, Lund University, and a core researcher within the profile area Natural and Artificial Cognition, 1, 2, many.