In many ways, the nature of the community where the learning takes place determines student success in creative endeavors. It is important to recognize that the teacher is not the only one in the room who may have interesting ideas about how to revise or extend students' ideas. Peers share ideas freely with one another, and students are often more…

Middle school choral students and their teachers can benefit from studying and performing a musical. The students can apply their vocal skills to the exploration of this important genre of American music. Outstanding chores members will have opportunities to perform as soloists and to master dramatic roles. The teachers can express themselves…

The name of Manos Hadjidakis is probably unknown to contemporary musicians and music educators. After all, the Greek composer achieved his international fame back in 1961 when he won an Oscar for his soundtrack of the movie, "Never on Sunday." Numerous other awards followed from England, Krance, Germany, and of course, Greece. After his…

Regardless of the extremely subtle acoustic changes that are perceptible within almost all perception research studies, it is the total overall effect that generally occupies each individual listener. A long line of research indicates that many subtle "music changes" are often not perceived accurately and are actually mistakenly identified.…

This article reports the findings of a research project that investigated the nature of the teaching and learning process in music composition. Over the period of one semester, the formal interactions in one-on-one study sessions between an eminent composer-teacher and an experienced graduate student-composer were videotaped. Following the…

This article investigates computer-based music composition using the CD Rom "Dance eJay" with pupils from a secondary school setting (13-15 years). Three issues are explored: the extent to which participants adopted different strategies during the composition process, how the strategies differed with respect to prior experience of formal…

With all the music that is available for instrumental performance in the schools, the music of Thailand is under-represented. Yet Thailand has a rich instrumental tradition. This article focuses on the possibilities of adapting the Thai "mahori" and "kruang sai" ensembles to the western instrumentation available in school music…

Written for juveniles, this biography of Leonard Bernstein, the master musician, conductor, composer, and music educator, provides a resource for students of his life and work. Particular attention is paid to the influences that inspired Bernstein's work, his U.S. education, and his love for teaching. Bernstein's pride in his Jewish heritage is…

This study of the Italian-Argentine composer, Domenico Zipoli, first presents a brief background and biography of Zipoli, discusses the reasons for the scarcity of representative materials in the musical literature, and reviews the non-Spanish literature about the composer. A bibliographic essay focusing on the 20th century Spanish language…

The author, long associated with the school jazz movement, called for the teaching of improvisation rather than cued-in transcribed solos. (Editor/RK)

Learning to read and write music should be as natural as learning to read and write the English language. Similar instructional models can be used for both. This was the premise for the investigation of 5-year-old Joel's musical development. Joel was the youngest of a four-member musical family. He was surrounded by musical literature and role…

New York City as a subject has fascinated generations of artists, writers, and musicians. However, the glamorous image of the city has changed over the years, and in the 1960s, popular music, in particular, began to reflect a utopia/dystopia dichotomy in relation to New York. During the past twenty years, six popular singer-songwriters who have…

This report deals with research presently being done dealing with the acquisition of musical skills. In an attempt to create a self-paced, independent music study approach, investigators have formulated two main hypotheses: (1) that perception and cognition are inextricably intertwined - not discrete quantities; and (2) that learning behavior in…

The keeping of a dream log can spark the imagination in freshman composition courses, giving students opportunities to be both creative artists and critics. With the emphasis more on using dreams than on interpreting them, students are free to explore the symbols and relevance of their dreams when creating written or musical compositions, films,…

The dichotomy between research and creative activity is a false one. Most creative activity does produce knowledge and should be considered as research. Through a hypothetical case study this argument attempts to justify creativity as research. It also describes two projects as possible examples of how creativity might be explored in a research…