Whilst public music-making is generally perceived as largely a male domain, the perception of school music is that, at all levels, it is dominated by females. This article describes the author's attempt to find out how A-level music students see themselves in relation to their past experiences as musicians, their current work for A-level, and their potential musical future. The aim of the research was to identify differences that might exist between the perceptions of girls and boys in the sample, and between those at state-maintained and private schools.

Apart from generating a psychological and autobiographical profile for the cohort as a whole, results from the students' responses were analysed by using a quantitative statistical measure. Then the autobiographies of the constituents of these groups were examined, and this threw up interesting and unlooked for similarities within them.