Systematic differences among regional U.S. English speech are recognizable to native speakers to varying degrees. This has been demonstrated by researchers in perceptual dialectology who ask listeners to match a speaker to his or her dialect region. Machines have also been able to identify the regional origin of a speaker to some degree, although…

In order to learn to be an orchestra conductor in the United States of America, students often begins their formal education by seeking to earn a master's degree in orchestral conducting. This project compiled a listing of American universities which offer a master's degree in orchestral conducting and categorized the component parts of their…

Finding new repertoire poses endless obstacles for musicians. Often the search for an unknown piece or composer presents such an unforeseen challenge that the actual aesthetic and technical success of the work becomes secondary. A major contributing factor is the lack of an accessible and centralized database. Many notable bibliographic reference…

The Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music (CQCM) has maintained a partnership with Hamilton Island Enterprises (HIE) since 2002. As a part of this partnership, the Bachelor of Music (jazz & popular) students visit Hamilton Island (HI), an island resort located off the Australian east coast, four to six times annually to engage in 3 to 10…

The purpose of this study was to gather and compare information on measures of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among instrumentalists enrolled in collegiate ensembles. A survey instrument was developed to gather information concerning demographic data and responses to questions on motivational preference. Participants were undergraduate and…

According to this author, alternative rock did not deserve what it became in the post-Nirvana 1990s. Reduced to a marketing catch-phrase--effectively rendering it meaningless--major label co-optation helped blur the line between artistic expression and cloned sounds. Before Nirvana broke through to the mainstream with the blistering sarcasm of its…

What professional musicians say and do affects the attitudes and actions of music educators in the classroom. One example comes from influential conductor/composer, Gunther Schuller, who, in his controversial 1997 book, "The Compleat Conductor", defines, espouses, and recommends his own "philosophy of conducting." An examination of his ideas and,…

This article profiles Neil Slater, the longtime leader of the jazz program at the University of North Texas who encouraged both musical perfection and artistic freedom among his star pupils. Standards are high at North Texas, which has become a Camelot where aspiring jazz musicians have come to hone their skills since 1947, when it offered one of…

The purpose of this study was to compare teacher beliefs about music technology, types of teacher training in music technology, music technology resource availability, and levels of teacher use of music technology based on school socioeconomic status, teacher age, number of years teaching, and teacher gender. High-school band directors from the…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of peer-based instruction on rhythm reading achievement of instrumental and choral music students attending a large urbanfringe high school in a major metropolitan area. Participants (N = 131) included band (n = 71) and choir (n = 60) students whose backgrounds reflected extensive economic (78%…

The already limited vocational prospects of low-income African Americans in New Orleans were further devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill added to the devastation, highlighting the continued vulnerability of New Orleanians seeking employment. As a result, opportunities persist for vocational practitioners…

Measurement and assessment are becoming increasingly important to all music educators. The purpose of this study was to investigate the following questions: 1) in what specific ways are current high school band directors assessing students in their ensemble classes; 2) what are high school band directors' attitudes toward the assessment process;…

Jazz education has been a part of school music programs in the United States in both extracurricular and curricular settings since the 1920's. An enormous growth in the popularity of stage bands and jazz ensembles was experienced between the 1940's and 1980's resulting in a vibrant, widespread acceptance of jazz in the music curriculum (Luty,…

Drawing upon video recordings over two years, teacher interviews, school reports, and field notes, this practitioner research study described and analyzed 16 video excerpts from a music therapy group in a public preschool class serving 14 children with autism, for durations ranging from two to sixteen months. The research centered on three of the…

This is a study of the marks that were awarded for students' personal attributes, when used as peer assessment criteria, in their band rehearsals. Successive cohorts of first-year undergraduate students, from 2001 to 2009, were involved in the research comprising of 191 students and 84 bands. Data analysis focused on the strength of marking…