Band directors have a strong sense of the traditions of band when they begin teaching. They learned these traditions as students in band and through music education coursework. They also have unique personal histories that influence the ways in which they perpetuate or alter these traditions. The variety of personal and professional experiences…

A body of research on 'place' in various disciplines indicates that the concept stands at the nexus of time, space, and experience. Acknowledging also that place represents a meaningful learning context, this study examines its pedagogical underpinning within the framework of community music making. Three cases of community music making in Japan…

Offering music programs in prisons is one way that artists may contribute to the correctional system's rehabilitative goals. To explore the role music may play in rehabilitating youth in detention, I developed a string program at a Youth Development Center. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the outcomes of implementing the…

Although the effects of focus of attention (FOA) on the performance of gross motor skills are now well understood, less is known about the role of FOA in naturalistic classroom settings where learners are engaged in the ongoing acquisition and refinement of complex motor skills. The purpose of this study, the first of its kind, was to explore how…

First established in Scotland in the 1870s, civilian Scottish Pipe Bands are now a global intergenerational phenomenon. In Canada, they are a diasporic reminder of the 70,000 Scots who emigrated there in the 19th century. Currently, there are more SPBs per capita in Canada than any country outside of Scotland, with an estimated 240 civilian SPBs…

The purpose of this study was to uncover the approach that a professor in Lithuania utilized in successfully teaching undergraduate music education majors how to improvise during a one-semester course. The research questions focused on the participant's philosophy of teaching and learning, his methods for motivating students, the learning…

For each person studying music in formal institutions in Spain, there are at least five others learning and performing in "informal" schools and settings. Choirs and "estudiantinas" or "tunas" are two examples of these informal schools found both in Ibero-America and worldwide. Their place in society and their…

This paper seeks to highlight some of the key issues of the social stigma associated with mental health-related issues, to present examples of some existing anti-stigma concepts found within mental health literature and, in turn, to begin to suggest ways in which the personal and social experience of participation within community music activities…

Music education has faced considerable challenges in trying to bridge the gap between music in young people's lives and that taking place in the classroom. The 'Musical Futures' initiative aimed to devise new and imaginative ways of engaging young people, aged 11-19, in music activities through a process of informal learning based initially on…

Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a sometimes debilitating condition affecting many young musicians as they perform in testing or concert settings. These students may consult their teachers to seek aid in overcoming their anxiety. The purpose of this multiple case study was to investigate the strategies and methods utilized by middle and high…

The aim of this study was to consider how we can invest in music-making to promote well-being in school contexts. Web-based data collection was conducted where researchers identified 17 case studies that describe successful music programs in schools in Australia. The researchers aligned content from these case studies into the five categories of…

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…

In recent decades, the teaching and learning of composition has become an important topic for research in music education. Composition is established as one of the three main areas in the Norwegian curriculum "Laereplanverket for Kunnskapsløftet" (LK06, 2006), and the importance of creative competencies is being increasingly recognized…

When music education is formalized within schools and non-governmental organizations, it often becomes aligned with justice-oriented aims of providing universal access to music education. This qualitative case study examines the formation of a marching band within a Haitian school in northeastern Haiti. Data sources collected and analyzed included…

The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to explore the perceptions and beliefs about personal musicianship and music-making of 8- to 12-year-old children ('tweens') in combination with the perceptions and beliefs about musical parenting of their parents. The guiding research questions for the study centred on tweens' ideas of their past,…