The purpose of this study was to examine the degree withdrawal patterns of undergraduate music education majors, with a specific focus on the individual experiences of students withdrawing from the major. Data from recently withdrawn students (N = 14) were assembled using a qualitative methodology that included semistructured interviews,…

This case study investigates how secondary students (three individuals and three groups) engaged with music and acted as musicians in a Songwriting and Technology Class (STC), a course involving the creation, performance, recording and production of original music with instruments and music technology. The following research question guided the…

This study investigates pre-service music teacher's (PSMT) perceptions of their professional identities. University-level education students in the United States America (USA), Spain and Australia were all asked interview questions based on general themes relevant to teacher identity development, and their responses were subjected to content…

For many people, the appeal of music lies in its connection to human emotions. A significant body of research has explored the emotions that are experienced through either the formal structure of music or through its symbolic messages. Yet in the instrumental music education field, this emotional connection is rarely examined. In this article, it…

Jamey Aebersold is an internationally known saxophonist and authority on jazz education and improvisation. His series of jazz play-along book and CD sets are valuable tools for music teachers, and his weeklong summer jazz workshops--now in their thirty-third year at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and thirty-seventh year overall--have had…

In an fMRI experiment, we tested experienced singers with singing tasks to investigate neural correlates of voluntary and involuntary vocal pitch regulation. We shifted the pitch of auditory feedback (plus or minus 25 or 200 cents), and singers either: (1) ignored the shift and maintained their vocal pitch or (2) changed their vocal pitch to…

Professional musicians and college students commonly study orchestral excerpts, but a similar practice has yet to be implemented in the band field. Due to their widespread use in orchestral auditions, excerpts have been incorporated as a tool for musical development. Many college professors regularly assign excerpt study as part of their…

This study investigates the effects of concert dress and physical appearance on perceptions of female classical soloists' musical abilities over a range of genres. Four female violinists were recorded playing three pieces, in four styles of dress of varying formality. Each combination of performer, piece and dress was recorded twice, once as the…

They have worked as professional musicians, taught in several school districts, and even created a children's educational music video series, all while raising five kids of their own. But as they move into yet another chapter of their careers as music educators, Chuck and Mary Lynn McMichael are still crazy after all these years. Crazy about…

Informal learning practices, based on Lucy Green's research into how popular musicians learn, offer students in the music classroom the opportunity to explore collaborative, aural-based learning that is guided, rather than directed, by the teacher. Over a period of five years, informal learning projects were included in the music curricula of two…

This study examined the effects of the conductor's goal orientation (mastery vs. performance) and use of shared performance cues (basic vs. interpretive vs. expressive) on instrumentalists' self-efficacy, collective efficacy, attributions, and performance. Eighty-one college instrumentalists from two musical ensembles participated in the study. It…

Identity development is a continuous process framed within changing social contexts, and is particularly problematic for musicians and other artists whose work contradicts the mythologized image of the artist. The purpose of this article is to examine the professional growth of music students in relation to developing teacher identities. The…

Researchers in second language socialization (SLS) often examine those interactions relating to a learner's integration within a target community. Kramsch and Whiteside (2008) noted the importance of "symbolic competence" in this integration. Symbolic competence, defined as the ability to access contextually relevant social and political…

The purpose of this study was to compare the levels of anxiety that students experienced according to whether their public performance consisted of a free improvisation or a repertory piece. The researcher had two objectives: (1) examine the relationship of students' levels of anxiety to free improvisation and repertory pieces during a…

This article examines how notions of freedom are linked to popular music practices in previous research literature. The author discusses how two competing discourses depict popular music practices on the one hand as "freedom," and on the other hand as "constraint," and how these ideas relate to gender. She also argues that…