Like the best teachers in any subject, Dana Hamant is a consummate student. In his 31 years as a music instructor, he has attended every single annual Music Educators Association conference in his home state of Kansas and missed only two Kansas Bandmasters Association conferences. (He is also a frequent attendee at NAfME and other professional…

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between musical performance anxiety, learning styles, and the field of instrument and solo singing music teacher candidates. Musical performance anxiety has been investigated at various musical events, such as performance during exams, singing and playing on stage, or in front of judges for an…

Ensemble work is a key part of any performance-based popular music course and involves students replicating existing music or playing "covers". The creative process in popular music is a collaborative one and the ensemble workshop can be utilised to facilitate active learning and develop musical creativity within a group setting. This is…

Practicing the piano is a systematic part of the instrument-learning process. It contains all development practices from the analysis of the work to the improvement of performance. Students usually practice the piano as a preparation for performing in courses, exams, or on stage and they do it individually. The mentality which emerges during the…

This article investigates a piano-playing subject called "keyboard harmony." The subject was initially developed in the 1980s to give (K-12) schoolteachers the skills needed for accompanying singing in classrooms. Since keyboard harmony today has an official status in all Finnish music schools, both piano and general music teachers ought…

Across the globe populations are ageing and living longer. Older people seek meaningful ways of occupying and enjoying their later years. Frequently, this takes the form of learning a new skill, in this case playing the piano keyboard. From the initial act of commitment to learning comes a raft of related aspects that influence the learner, their…

Musicians are appointed to positions in professional symphony orchestras--both rank and file and section principals--following a blind audition process. They perform set repertoire works and orchestral excerpts behind a screen. In many higher education programs, musicians focus on learning the orchestral excerpts and instrumental repertoire that…

This article is about the way in which and to what extent digital media and tools are used in the teaching of music in Sweden. Through interviews and observations, teachers' and pupils' experiences and expectations of digital media and tools are presented. The investigation considers eight municipal schools with pupils in the ninth form. The…

In the current world of education, politics and public opinion, musical experience is increasingly threatened. It is designated ever more as an expendable luxury. This kind of general trend has hardly left the thinking in the field of music and music education untouched. Inspiration comes from the technical rationality of our time. This…

This article describes Training 2012 Conference & Expo which began with a bang and finished with a splash--literally. The Drum Cafe got participants' blood pumping with rhythmic tribal music early in the morning on the first day of the conference, February 13, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The drum leader established the…

A simple pipe whistle can be made using pieces of PVC pipe. The whistle can be used to measure the resonant frequencies of open or closed pipes. A slightly modified version of the device can be used to also investigate the interesting dependence of the sound frequencies produced on the orifice-to-edge distance. The pipe whistle described here…

This research was designed to determine whether musicians' learning is affected by the time intervals interposed between practice sessions. Twenty-nine non-pianist musicians learned a 9-note sequence on a piano keyboard in three practice sessions that were separated by 5 min, 6 hr, or 24 hr. Significant improvements in performance accuracy were…

The purpose of this multiple instrumental case study was to explore approaches of four high school instrumental music educators assuming the role of facilitative teacher in responding to challenges affecting the social and emotional well-being of their students. This study utilized the framework of social emotional learning as a lens to view the…

Through the lens of hospitality, we explored the meanings that members constructed about their experiences within a blended formal/informal college music ensemble. The focus in this ensemble was not on competition and musical excellence but on independent musicianship and praxis. The bandleader had his roots in tradition but his heart in socially…

Since the arrival of the first charter school in Minnesota in 1991, charter schools have become one of the largest movements in educational reform. In recent years, research has emerged that has compared the effectiveness of charter schools with their traditional school counterparts. The purpose of this study was to compare the extent of music…