When considering a person, incident, controversy or idea, the following questions may be helpful in assembling a useful history:

• Who discovered what, when?
• How does our modern understanding of a past achievement differ from how people at the time understood that achievement?
• What questions did an individual think were important?
• How did a person conceive or defined "music psychology"?
• Did the person consider their work part of "music psychology" or part of some other field (such as music theory, music education, acoustics, perception/cognition).
• Was a person primarily a researcher? A promoter of the field? A mentor to others?
• Who taught whom? What is "tree" of personal friendship or influence?
• What background did a person have? Were they primarily a musician? A scientist? A psychologist? A philosopher?
• What institutions, places, programs, laboratories, or funding agencies encouraged music psychology?
• Are there any identifiable "schools" of thought in music psychology?
• What (if any) set-backs occurred in the field?
• Apart from music psychologists, who is interested in the fruits of the field? Why are they interested?
• Who has viewed music psychology as an opportunity? A threat? Irrelevant?
• What misconceptions do music psychologists have about their own history?
• Who was left behind? Whose contributions have gone unrecognized?
• Who benefits from writing a certain history?

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