In this article, five highly experienced music educators tell what they love about teaching music. They are: (1) Rob Amchin, professor of music education at the University of Louisville, Kentucky (elementary general music specialist and percussionist--over 30 years of experience); (2) Susan Bechler, retired orchestra teacher for the Victor Central…

"Rivers of Musical Experience" were used as a research tool to explore the wide range of musical experiences and concomitant identity construction that six amateur keyboard players over the age of 55 brought to their learning as mature adults. It appears that significant changes in their lives acted as triggers for them to engage in musical…

Improvisation--the act of spontaneously creating music, as opposed to playing music that is strictly pre-composed--is a practice that has most often been taught only in the context of jazz in the classroom. But it has actually been part of many more musical traditions, cultures, and periods. Classical icons like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven,…

The purpose of this article is to provide a mnemonic device that when incorporated into practice behavior is shown through case study to help students develop an understanding of the relationship between exercises, new and old, and the music that they are preparing. I developed the mnemonic "Preparation of Relevant Activities Causes Technical…

The present study was designed to examine attitudes toward private lesson teaching of a cross-section of string instrument instructors ("N" = 1,617). The participant pool was drawn from the membership of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA). Results were similar in many ways to responses in previous studies also involving…

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice music educators' attitudes toward popular music in the music classroom. On a survey instrument designed by the investigators, participants ("N" = 82) rated (a) the effectiveness of popular music in addressing the National Standards for Music Education, (b) the appropriateness of popular…

This study was designed to examine whether the presence of excellent or poor ensemble performances would influence the ratings assigned by ensemble members to conductors who demonstrated highly expressive conducting. Two conductors were videotaped conducting one of two excerpts from an arrangement of Frank Ticheli's "Loch Lomond." These videos…

The Aural Learning Project (ALP) was developed to incorporate jazz method components into the author's classical practice and her applied woodwind lesson curriculum. The primary objective was to place a more focused pedagogical emphasis on listening and hearing than is traditionally used in the classical applied curriculum. The components of the…

Professional growth, like personal growth, comes only through an investment of effort, but it can provide significant returns. Music educators--indeed, most serious musicians--are naturally curious and intensely interested in opportunities for continuing education. If music educators are looking for ways to increase the level of knowledge they…

Conductors play a significant role in creating a podium-centered atmosphere by encouraging ensemble members to become overly reliant on them. Due in part to well-developed egos, a lack of confidence in the ability of the ensemble members who actually make the music, or simple naivete, many conductors insist on placing themselves at the center of…

Highlighting the application of ethnomusicology beyond the traditional boundaries of the academy, this article investigates the use of music in adult literacy education. In 2005, as part of the Literacy and Equality in Irish Society (LEIS) project, adult literacy tutors working in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom (UK), were invited to enrol in…

Historically, in the professional training of musicians, the master-apprentice model has played a central role in instilling the methods and values of the discipline, contributing to the rigorous formation of talent. Expert professional musicians advocate that certain thinking skills can be modelled through the master-apprentice model, yet its…

Playing-related musculoskeletal problems (PRMP) are common in adult musicians. The limited available evidence suggests PRMP are common in children and adolescents and that risk factors may be similar. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of PRMP in children and adolescents and their associations with female gender, age and…

To test the effects of octave and timbre on tuning accuracy, four stimuli--B-flat 4 sounded by flute, oboe, and clarinet and B-flat 2 sounded by tuba--functioned as reference pitches for high school wind players (N = 72). The two stimulus octaves combined with participants' assigned tuning notes created soprano, tenor, and bass tuning groups. All…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of blocked and random practice schedules on the performance accuracy, speed, temporal evenness, and attitude of beginning band students in a group instructional setting. The research assumptions were based on the contextual interference hypothesis, which predicts that a blocked practice…