The purpose of this article is to revisit the biomechanical concepts of Paul Rolland's scholarship on bowing to provide a new framework of Rolland's underlying bowing principles. First, we discuss how whole body movements help facilitate natural bowing, which can generate better tone efficiently from freedom of movement. Second, we attend to the…

It is becoming increasingly popular for musicians to study Body Mapping, a method of body movement education, to improve both body movement and musical quality. In Body Mapping workshops, observers frequently claim that they can both see and hear improvements in the performance, yet previous research does not support this anecdotal evidence. In…

Numerous studies have demonstrated the substantial advantages of integrating music education into the overall development of students, particularly in early childhood education. This integration allows for combining music education with various curriculum areas, utilizing its playful and motivating nature as a practical methodological tool for…

The aim of this research is to contribute to students, trainers and performers by examining the materials prepared for the effective and fast performance of the scales. As a descriptive study, literature review and document analysis were used in the analysis of the data. The results of this study revealed that guitarists should determine a sitting…

In a series of three video-recorded assignments over a 6-week period, undergraduate music education students (N = 16) enrolled in an instrumental methods course described aloud what they were thinking about as they practiced a three-note melody on a secondary brass instrument. Later, I completed a content analysis of the students' practice…

This paper presents an autoethnographic study of rock drumming, in which the author weaves together theoretical writing on the importance of accounting for understanding bodily knowledge and somatic experience with accounts of drumming in a rock band in London, England, in the summer of 2016. The chapter includes excerpts from diary entries that…

Playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs) are highly prevalent among concert pianists due to the unique sociological and historical predispositions of the instrument. Although current literature explores PRMD risk factors in isolation, few studies have explored the complex interdependencies that exist between the procedural and postural…

This study evaluates the dimensions of fractional-size violin bows in relation to the anthropometric and grip-strength measurements of children and adults. In string education, various methods and devices have been put forward to measure children for the correct violin size, but there is a lack of research regarding the proper bow size. Results…

Improvisation is an important element of global musical practices. However, musical improvisation is often neglected in K-12 and collegiate music education programs, with some music educators suggesting that improvisation cannot be taught. Rather, improvisation must be facilitated, enabled, and fostered. In this review of literature, I examined…

The purpose of this column is to promote the use of group drumming as an important access point to improved self and community relationships that naturally develops the competencies of student self-awareness and social awareness in the general music classroom. Group drumming is a far-reaching activity with the capacity to improve and transform…

The constrained action hypothesis states that focusing attention on action outcomes rather than body movement improves motor performance. Dexterity of motor control is key to successful music performance, making this a highly relevant topic to music education. We investigated effects of focus of attention (FOA) on motor skill performance and EMG…

The Alexander Technique is a method that emerged as a result of Actor Frederick Matthias Alexander's work on himself to solve the problems he had with his voice during his performance. This technique, which was effective for himself, rapidly became widespread because it was tried by different people over time and positive results were obtained.…

This study emphasizes findings from literature reviews that aimed to describe and present the current teaching strategies in Music education. These teaching strategies are one of the needed primary skills of Music teachers to address the learning challenges, competencies, and diverseness of the existing curriculum, help them to explore the needs…

The purpose of this study was to compare the muscle activation of singers and instrumentalists while performing simple vocal exercises. Volunteer participants (N = 28) were undergraduate music majors and minors, with an equal number being vocalists and instrumentalists. Participants performed five vowel sounds (ah, eh, ee, oh, oo), while…

Music performance requires high levels of motor control. Professional musicians use body movements not only to accomplish and help technical efficiency, but to shape expressive interpretation. Here, we recorded motion and audio data of twenty participants performing four musical fragments varying in the degree of technical difficulty to analyze…