The purpose of this study was to begin to examine the factors that contribute to the inclusion and exclusion of children with disabilities in piano lessons in private studios. Specifically, using a qualitative approach. the perceptions piano teachers have regarding the inclusion of children with disabilities in the piano studio were studied. The…

Practicing scales has important place in piano education to improve students' technique and dexterity, aslo improve timing and help the ear training. This research is qualitative research was made by interviewing six piano teachers who is working in Piano Education Departments in Turkey with semi-structured questions. It was indentify how has…

This article profiles James Sewrey, founder of the Percussive Arts Society. A passionate percussionist who's spent more than 60 years teaching at all levels from kindergarten through university, Sewrey was called out of retirement in 2007 to serve as adjunct professor of percussive studies at Wisconsin Lutheran College. As a founding member of the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate intermediate musicians' self-regulated practice behaviors. Thirty sixth- through eighth-grade students were observed practicing band repertoire individually for 20 min. Practice sessions were coded according to practice frame frequency and duration, length of musical passage selected, most prominent…

In the context of advanced instrumental learning, this study had two purposes: to investigate the relationships of epistemic beliefs to first-year music students' self-reported learning strategies in practising a musical instrument, and to examine the adaption of a measure of academic personal epistemology to the musical domain. One hundred and…

The banjo is an instrument of unique image and sound. It has a long history in North America from its arrival on slave ships from North Africa to its contemporary use in jazz and popular music. Adding the instrument to the general music classroom can open new realms of timbre and new avenues of exploration into the instruments of cultures around…

Woodwind methods classes are where most teachers learn the basics of woodwind embouchure and tone production. Woodwind methods texts and beginning band methods disagree on clarinet embouchure. One cannot readily reduce any embouchure to one or two attributes; however, clarinet teachers and band directors often disagree about whether the corners of…

Singing music at sight is a complex skill, requiring the singer to perform pitch and rhythm simultaneously. Previous research has identified difficulty levels for pitch and rhythm skills individually but not in combination. In this study, the author sought to determine the relationship between pitch and rhythm tasks occurring concurrently. High…

This article explores issues of authenticity related to adapting world music examples for classroom instruments and suggests ways to engage students in active, participatory music-making activities derived from diverse musical cultures. Several lesson plan segments are provided to aid general music specialists in implementing "play along"…

This column presents an account of the Homebrew Ukulele Union: an ensemble where students build their own instruments, write their own compositions and arrangements, and organize performances in the local community. One author, a member of the group, presents the student perspective on building, learning, leading, and performing, whereas the…

In this article, the historical roots of tablature for stringed instruments are noted, and the use of tablature is explained. Modern guitar tablature is then shown and explained, and the author leads the reader through the basics of using Guitar Pro 6, a guitar tablature program that simultaneously displays standard Western staff notation. The…

This study extends an eight-country mapping exercise (McPherson & O'Neill, 2010; see "Research Studies in Music Education" issues 2010-2011) to include students' motivation to study music within the Australian context. It sought to determine whether music learners (students learning an instrument or voice), might be more motivated to…

In this case study, the author investigated intersections of secondary students' musical engagement in a Songwriting and Technology Class (STC) and outside of school. The study traces the experiences of three individual participants and three participant groups (six embedded cases in total) in the creation, performance, recording, and production…

The purpose of this study was to examine collaborative composing in high school string chamber music ensembles. Research questions included the following: (a) How do high school string instrumentalists in chamber music ensembles use verbal and musical forms of communication to collaboratively compose a piece of music? (b) How do selected variables…

It is not uncommon for very young children to start music instruction on string instruments. Previous studies have examined the relationship between starting age of formal music instruction and years of study (Duke, Flowers & Wolfe, 1997; Hartley, 1996; Hartley & Porter, 2009). Duke et al. (1997) found that students who took more years of…