Improvisation pedagogy has presented a challenge to music educators since jazz courses began being offered in North American universities in the 1950s, a development which has raised important pedagogical questions ranging from 'Can improvisation be taught?' to "Should it be taught?" Following on the increase in academic…

This paper aims at analyzing specific features of social competence of future music teachers and the development of specialized techniques in order to improve the quality of motivational and cognitive components of student social competence. The sample involved 660 undergraduate students. The authors used a number of research methods, such as…

This article investigates the process of devising strategy in an intercultural Baltic-Nordic setting. Sixty teacher education participants collaborated on an interdisciplinary artistic production based on Norwegian folk beliefs and wights through an intensive, week-long program called Nordplus. Using this as a case study, we explored how the…

We argue in this article for greater role for improvisation in the music classroom. Based on an extensive examination of scholarship about improvisational practices, we propose three conceptualizations--ability, culture, experience--that can serve to guide the teaching of improvisation. When considered as an "ability," improvisation is a…

Jazz band directors tend to face a lot of time constraints in readying their ensembles for performance. Sometimes the race to the stage can result in suboptimal playing, a rhythm section that does not quite gel, or soloists who "blow and hope"--that is, fail to put in the appropriate amount of thought before and during their…

Learning improvisation in music is often treated as the process of gaining skills to spontaneously perform within the conventions of a style. Alternatively, learning improvisation can offer musicians a place to explore sound as it happens in free improvisation. Within the school setting, the former approach is commonly used in the jazz programs,…

In today's complex music software packages, many features can remain unexplored and unused. Software plug-ins--available in most every music software package, yet easily overlooked in the software's basic operations--are one such feature. In this article, I introduce readers to plug-ins and offer tips for purchasing plug-ins I have…

The focus of this paper is how we can facilitate problem based learning (PBL) more creatively. We take a closer look upon the connection between creative processes and social communication in the PBL group including how difficulties in the social interplay may hinder creativity. The paper draws on group dynamic theory, and points out the…

This autoethnographic study seeks the value, position and possibilities of free improvisation in the musical field. It explores how embodied knowledge, dialectical exchanges, emotional and intellectual stimulation constructs and reconstructs experiences in various contexts for the free improviser, who is both researcher and actual piano performer.…

For music students in the early stages of learning, the music may seem to be hidden behind the scores. To support home practising, Juntunen has created the "Playback Orchestra" method with which the students can practise with the support of the notation program playback of the full orchestra. The results of testing the method with…

Though jazz has been a part of many school music programs for more than 40 years, relatively little research on jazz education exists. Despite this scarcity, a comprehensive examination of the extant literature could serve to inform practice and guide future studies. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to analyze and synthesize the extant…

The article discusses the culture of self-education of music teacher as a professionally necessary quality of a modern specialist in the field of music education. The author proposes finalized definitions of basic concepts; consistently reveals the essence, structure, criteria and indicators of self-culture of music teacher; reveals the potential…

Improvisation, the third content standard for the National Standards for Music Education (Music Educators National Conference, 1994), has received less attention from music teachers. This article advocates for more improvisation specifically free improvisation in general music classrooms. The nature of free improvisation, and its evolution in the…

The prediction of creative performance from ideation has shown promise, but questions remain. In this study, the relationship of ideational behavior and the creative performance of elementary school children (N = 255) was examined across 6 domains of creative performance: science, mathematics, technology, fine arts, music, and writing.…

Theoretical approaches to learning in practice-based jazz improvisation contexts include situated learning and ecological perspectives. This article focuses on how interest-driven, self-sustaining jazz learning activities can be matched against the results of a recent Swedish investigation based on extensive qualitative interviews with jazz…