The purpose of this study was to investigate Hong Kong preschool teachers' music-specific professional development (PD) preferences and analyze the potential differences among teachers with varying levels of teaching experience (beginning, experienced, and advanced). A survey was developed to assess four music-specific PD preferences: content,…

Tests of musical ability in children have relied on diverse conceptions of what musical abilities are. Recent investigations suggest that such conceptions can be seen as socially constructed and differ between cultures, sub-groups, and individuals. Based on a previous study on conceptions of adult musical ability, we designed a questionnaire…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the process of composing educational music. As part of a research project titled "Sound Connections: Composing Educational Music" Canadian composers completed email interviews, responding to semi-structured questions about the process of composing educational music. Using…

How we listen to music and respond to its media and contexts has changed significantly since the invention of sound recording. Today's musicians have countless opportunities to listen to others' interpretations given the vast availability of past and contemporary repertories through the global reach of recordings. This study investigated the…

Research conducted on the development of expressive performance capabilities suggests that children can learn to demonstrate expressiveness in their music-making. Expressivity includes musical interpretation, performance technique, and musical and personal creativity. This article examines creativity as an important component of musical…

The author of this article proposes an agrarian vision of music education that underscores fundamental, "down-to-earth" principles for human actions and interactions. An agrarian world-view encourages mass participation ("y'all come")--"musicing" is free and available to all and it is not treated as a…

This article describes uses for podcasts in music education, focusing on learner-created podcasts as an opportunity for students to construct and represent knowledge. The author outlines a podcast assignment that enables secondary and postsecondary students to examine and more deeply understand the meaning music holds for them and the role it has…

This article discusses the five-string kantele as an example of the Finnish national heritage, a school instrument and an example of sustainable design. A qualitative case study was made by collecting the data from the Finnish students--prospective teachers--and the sixth form pupils, who had designed and carved their own five-string kanteles. The…

Unlike the other arts, music has no direct connection with the rest of the human world. True, there are bird songs and natural "melodies" in the gurgling of brooks, but these are hardly the materials of music in the way that landscape can be the subject of painting. And no natural sounds can stand alone as quasi-artworks the way that the deeply…

This article discusses the numerous benefits of employing contrast-and-compare lessons in music education settings. Such activities focus on the elements of music through the higher-order thinking processes of analyzing, comparing, organizing, and evaluating. They also integrate with the teaching goals and practices of many general educators in…

The purpose of the study is to teach urban young children music concepts and English by composing creative music and songs with contrast elements. The subjects were seven urban young children aged from three to four in a Taiwan kindergarten. The duration was twenty-four weeks, with two sessions per week. The teaching contents included Hello Song,…

Over the last forty years, popular music in America has consistently shown great variety, originality, and evolution. While American music has clearly flourished and evolved over the last several decades, it is difficult to say the same for American music education. Although there are important reasons to preserve long-standing traditions of…

In this article, the author contends that in order to fulfill music education's purpose of developing a child's capacity to make and experience music, attention must be paid to developing listening in performance ensemble classes. Music educators cannot assume that being involved in the refinement and performance of music contributes to becoming a…