We use this paper to suggest the use of Sen's capability approach in interpreting disability. The substantive focus is our evaluation of the Drake Music Project, which uses electronic and computer technologies to enable severely disabled people to explore, compose and perform music. We consider how the process of making music enables the musicians…

The author's article, "Making Music, Making Selves," was written as "an effort to broaden the academic conversation about music educators and identity, to make room for a wider range of perspectives on identity, and to help everyone in the field to think deeply about what it means to be a music educator and what it means to become a music…

It is important to create a framework in the education of professional musicians, whether these musicians are students of music education, performance, composition, musicology, ethnomusicology, or conducting, in which the political dimensions of their lives can be critically examined. Lise Vaugeois argues that creating such a framework would…

This article applies Engestrom's Activity Theory (AT) as an analytical lens to identify defining characteristics of the collaborative creative music making activities of composing and arranging. Attention is paid to the complex interrelationships among the various elements of interaction in children's collaborative creative music making as…

In this article, the author argues that the Rhoda Bernard (2005) paper "Making Music, Making Selves" is seriously flawed in research design, literature review and, more importantly, in its conclusions. Bernard's hammering of the idea of self as having multiple identities is well taken, but today it is more than accepted as a given. The problem is…

Listening is an important skill for all, but it is critical for musicians and those who love music. National Standard 6 calls for students to listen to, analyze, and describe a wide variety of music. This listening, analysis, and description can pose challenges for older students who are familiar with a narrow repertoire and accustomed to music as…

The Great Depression is typically taught through history textbooks, but the music of this time allows students to learn about this era through different perspectives. The Great Depression witnessed many musical styles--from the light heartedness of popular music to the sadness of the blues, gospel, which offered inspiration, to the tension between…

This paper explores the issue of motivation in music learning in higher education by contextualising data collected as part of the "Investigating-Musical-Performance" research project (Welch, et al., 2006-2008). The discussion begins with findings which suggest that popular, jazz and folk musicians experience more pleasure in musical…

This was the twenty-second article in the Journal's bicentennial series. In it the author wrote about the achievements of noted black American composers. (RK)

Article compared the developments of the concert band movement that took place earlier in the twentieth century with the development of the stage band in this country's music curriculum. A list compared the two movements in eleven different ways and predictions were made about the future of the stage band movement. (Author/RK)

Author believed that individual musicians are responsible for constantly seeking high artistic ideals that will prevent the stage band from being trite and commonplace. (Author/RK)

Checking back into journals, diaries, and other source materials from the late eighteenth century, author has put together evidence of private "bands of musick", maintained by military men during the Revolutionary War and used for everything from political and ceremonial affairs to dinners and executions. (Editor/RK)

Article evaluated the current state of African music. (Editor/RK)

The role of high school principals can be compared to that of composers of music. For instance, composers put musical components together into a coherent whole; similarly, principals organize high schools by establishing class schedules, assigning roles to subordinates, and maintaining a safe and orderly learning environment. Second, composers…

When the film "The Last Waltz" was released in 1978 the rock music press lost itself in comparisons of the performances of the rock group. The Band's many famous guest artists, while movie critics, for the most part, considered it only a concert film. Few critics saw the film as an integral part of director Martin Scorsese's continuing…