Joel Krosnick, a top performer of avante-garde music, urges students to recreate the fantasy that the composer visualized in creating the music through gestures, expression, and coloration. (AM)

Discusses the lack of attention paid to women composers in music education and the need to correct the situation. Suggests an integrative approach to teaching elementary school students about women composers. Offers sample teaching strategies and other learning activities and sources for teaching students that women, too, can be composers. (SG)

Voices of female alto singers may be permanently damaged by prolonged singing in the male tenor range. Music teachers' rationales for using altos in tenor parts are refuted and alternative solutions to choral music teaching problems are suggested. (AM)

This article reports a project designed to foster first-year music students' academic study skills and to investigate their expectations and experiences of starting at university. Data gathered through questionnaires, diaries and in-class tasks reveal the change in learning strategies and musical identity the students experience in their first…

The positive aspects of improvisation (careful listening, response to words, notes and sounds) are presented, as are obstacles to improvisation (fear of ridicule, and the "comedian syndrome"). Nevertheless, it can help the rule-bound see the need for freedom or the undisciplined see the need for more understanding. (Author/KC)

Article investigated perceptual-motor areas, as they are related to music activities. (RK)

Discussed are two main concerns of Zoltan Kodaly, the developer of the Kodaly method of teaching music: the caliber of musical training and how professional musicians are trained. Kodaly felt strongly that only the best musicians should be teaching in the schools. (RM)

Offers ideas for teaching musicians to be improvisors. Suggests that structure, organization, and continuity are problems that can be solved by learning to improvise. Recommends exercises in building phrases to help students acquire a sense of the developing whole. Concludes that improvisation can be taught by showing students how to teach…

Describes a high school music program in which students form strolling performance groups. Explains that violinists, violists, and even cellists play as they stroll through audiences. Suggests that strolling strings programs benefit both students and teachers by providing opportunities for creativity and enhancing musical skills. Provides a list…

The author cautions against using a professional concert format for the high school ensemble concert, for they have different audiences and different goals. He suggests a number of ways for making the school ensemble concert a rewarding experience for all involved. (KC)

A year-long music instruction unit introduces students to information about the lives of nine great composers of the classics and to their works. Each month a different composer is featured. No special training for teachers is necessary. (PP)

Analyzes independent videotape observation, investigating whether beginning student conductors could demonstrate high and low gestural intensity. Reports that 320 subjects had a 77 percent correct response rate to conductor gestures. Suggests intensity is recognizable across multiple illustrations and diverse music experience levels. (CH)

Describes the role and influence of Mellonee Burnim on U.S. music education. Discusses the origins and impact of African American gospel music. Includes a list of selected resources and two lesson plans featuring gospel music. (CFR)

Profiles Wynton Marsalis and discusses his work with children and music. Describes the motivation behind, and development of, the Public Broadcasting System's four-part special "Marsalis on Music." Marsalis discusses his early exposure to music and the influence of his parents. (MJP)