The purpose of this descriptive research study was to examine collegiate instrumentalists' applications of practice strategies and their motivation orientations to practice. Respondents (N = 128) were music majors who enrolled in concert band or orchestra. Results indicated that pianists spent more time in practice followed by percussionists,…

This action research study provides insight into the learning of university music education students who participated in a popular musicianship experience. The participants were thirty-four music education students (i.e. pre-service music educators) at an American university enrolled in a student-directed Popular Musicianship course. Although…

This case study features pedagogical strategies that were used in the context of a mobile app for learning to encourage relevant engagement and participation. For 20 weeks, a group of 18 piano students, ages 10 through 15, used a mobile app known as PracticeCactus. This self-contained social media platform allowed young participants to create and…

This study, followed by an historical review of Shinichi Suzuki's work, investigated the contemporary and critical issues surrounding the Suzuki Method in Japan. First, the author compared textbooks and recordings of the Suzuki Violin School Volume 1, the Japanese version, published in 1970s to the present edition in Japan. In addition, the study…

In this study, we explored the ways in which listening tools within technology-mediated environments can facilitate children's self-regulation of instrumental music learning between lessons. This interpretive multiple case study utilized a software application assigned for 22 weeks to a piano teacher and four students (ages 8-10). Data sources…

The acoustics of a vibrating string is frequently used as a simple example of how physics can be applied in the field of art. In this paper we describe a simple experiment and analysis using a clipped string. This experiment can generate scientific curiosity among students because the sound generated by the string seem surprising to our senses.…

This article presents a history of mediated pedagogy in the Suzuki Method, the first widespread approach to learning an instrument in which sound recordings were central. Media are conceptualized as socially constituted: philosophical ideas, pedagogic practices, and cultural values that together form a contingent and changing technological…

This article explores how group playing by ear (GEP) through imitation of recorded material and opportunities for inventive work during peer interaction was used to support first year undergraduate western classical music students' aural, group creativity and improvisation skills. The framework that emerged from the analysis of the data describes…

A short piano piece was prepared by undergraduate and graduate piano students (N = 15) without guidance from their piano teachers. Temporal parameters were analyzed in several time frames, from a phrase-to-phrase level to an interonset interval. At a macro level, local tempo was shown to be a crucial parameter that divided the students into two…

This article presents findings from an action research project that investigated instrumental teachers' strategies for facilitating children's learning of expressive music performance. Nine teachers and 14 pupils (aged 9-15) participated in this project, which consisted of 10 weeks of teaching. At the beginning and end of this period pupils'…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the practice strategies that collegiate music majors chose to employ in preparing for a jazz improvisation performance, and the relationships among selected practice behaviours and achievement in instrumental jazz improvisation. Participants for the study (N = 62) were enrolled as music majors…

The use of music technology in the enhancement of young pianists' musical improvisations has been scarcely explored in instrumental music teaching and learning research. In the present study, 19 piano pupils aged 6-10 from the UK and Greece used an interactive improvisation system called Musical Interaction Relying On Reflexion (MIROR)-Impro for…

The main purpose of this study was to compare differences in approaches to teaching children's song by kindergarten teachers in Taiwan and the USA. Five public school kindergarten teachers in Taipei, Taiwan, and five public kindergarten teachers in Seattle, USA, were invited to voluntarily participate in this study. They were asked to teach six…

The purpose of this study was to document behaviors of applied music teachers and students, as they occurred in online lessons with instructional delivery facilitated through desktop videoconferencing. The author examined the use of desktop videoconferencing in the delivery of applied music instruction to six middle school-aged band students…

This paper reports findings from the Ear-Playing Project in relation to the teaching strategies that 15 instrumental teachers adopted during one-to-one instrumental lessons whilst helping their students to copy music by ear from a recording. Overall, the teachers used a variety of strategies including singing and humming along with or without the…