Collaborative composition is an established method within music education, but it is a relatively rare phenomenon between composers of large-scale musical works. This research explores collaborative composition in a professional context and highlights the potential and value of its inclusion in specialist composition training at a tertiary level.…

A model for incorporating diverse musical content into the core conservatory aural skills curriculum is presented. We position the contemporary conservatory as a solid institution providing Western musicians with a sense of stability and heritage in an age of anxiety (Bauman's 'liquid modernity'). Despite these benefits, we argue that the…

The study investigates Australian music teachers' approaches to teaching the post-tonal piano music of Béla Bartók, composed between 1908 and 1920 and included in the syllabi of four international music examining bodies in Australia. Despite the inclusion of Bartók's piano music in Australian instrumental music education syllabi, it is often…

In Turkish music, it is possible to find different makams sharing the same core scale of notes. The subjects of this study are three such makams, namely Acem Küdri, Kürdi, Muhayyer Kürdi. We use computational analysis based on histograms, pattern search and dynamic time warping to reveal the similarities and dissimilarities of these three makams.…

Recent advances in music technology include practical tools for sound recording and production in school music classrooms. Secondary school music production classes allow students to make meaningful connections between school music and the music in their own lives. We offer several projects for teaching music production and sound recording;…

Creating, performing, responding, and connecting are often central foci in the development of music education curricula. While these meta-organizers provide a sense of direction for planning instruction, greater depths of knowledge and skill could be achieved if these actions were viewed as means rather than ends in music education. The profession…

People all over the world are engaging with popular music, particularly through social media platforms, where views are often in the billions and climbing. Sacks (2007), a world-renowned neurologist, coined the term "earworms" to refer to songs that play repetitively in one's head for no apparent reason, sometimes for days, even years,…

This article explores a comprehensive, student-centered alternative to traditional ensemble instruction with the goal of promoting better opportunities for musical independence and lifelong musicianship. Developed by Caron Collins from the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York-Potsdam, the Curious, Collaborative, Creativity…

This case study employed multimodal methods and visual analysis to explore how a young multilingual student used music improvisation to form a speech rap. This student, recently arrived in Australia from Ethiopia, created piano music that was central to his music identity and that simultaneously, through dialogue with his mother, enhanced his…

This article focuses on a hip-hop perspective of school, schooling, and school music. The study involves applications of ethnographic (including autoethnographic) techniques within the framework of a holistic multiple case study. One case is an adult amateur hip-hop musician named Terrence (pseudonym), and the other is myself (a traditionally…

Musical independence has always been an essential aim of musical instruction. But this objective can refer to everything from high levels of musical expertise to more student choice in the classroom. While most conceptualizations of musical independence emphasize the demonstration of knowledge and skills within particular music traditions, this…

The disconnect between the need for music composition instruction at the precollege levels and the content of music education curricula across North America has been a concern for over two decades. To be able to effectively teach their students how to compose, music educators need to have both experience and comfort in the creative process of…

The decline in the status of the classical guitar is, for many, a cause of concern, calling for viable answers to restore its place in the expressive arts tradition. In this article, I explore a pedagogical style specifically intended for young and/or inexperienced players. It is argued that this endeavor could prospectively benefit a range of…

Ambitious ideals are seldom achieved completely. Realistically, the criterion of success is not so much full accomplishment as satisfactory progress. The author urges music educators to pause now and then to consider their status in this regard. Are they moving ahead to fulfillment of their hopes in ways adequate to their compelling vision? Events…

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…