This study aimed to determine the motor creativity of preschoolers, to develop a music education programme suitable for the interests and needs of children, and to investigate whether music education is effective in motor creativity. A quasi-experimental design was used to test the effect of music education programme on children's motor…

The presence of popular music education in schools has expanded significantly in the past two decades within the United States in part due to the expansion of modern band programming. Initially developed and propagated by the non-profit organization Little Kids Rock (LKR), modern band is a term used to describe school-based ensembles that use…

Based on the descriptive method of qualitative educational research, the present study explores music teaching at the stage of early adolescence in terms of general-school music teachers' viewpoints on factors defining the planning and implementation of music teaching. The study was based on qualitative analysis of data gathered in interviews with…

In the last 30 years Croatia has been involved in an intensive period of educational reforms. Music teaching, as a compulsory subject, underwent some positive and negative changes. The so-called open model and contents remake bring the possibility for teachers to be more creative and for students to be involved to a greater extent, but…

Music competitions have an ancient history dating back some two thousand years. In the United States, early music contests mimicked the German Saengerfests and Welsh Eistoddfods; however, some of the earliest continuously running music competitions held in America are the state contests for secondary school students. This article identifies for…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenomenology of the female high school band director (FHSBD). In order to achieve a sample for regional maximum variation, one FHSBD from each county in the state of Connecticut was interviewed. After gathering data from a series of three interviews, I used Moustakas's modification of the Van Kaam…

When beginning music teachers enter a new classroom for the first time, they start a journey toward understanding a new context and community. Place consciousness develops as they become embedded in their community and begin to recognize how its culture and environment interact with their teaching practices. By mapping the objects, people, and…

Thanks to the efforts of music teachers in arranging concerts, young musicians develop a multitude of skills when performing with others. Music teachers are notoriously time-poor with the pressures of various curricular and co-curricular demands. To find time to provide performance opportunities for students that involve other schools adds layers…

There is a universality to the sight of groups of children celebrating public events. These groups might be large or small but teachers and students put much time and effort into preparing performances for appreciative audiences. These events occur across cultures and countries, are commonplace and expected but also highly memorable to…

Aims: The use of illegal drugs is well documented in some alternative, underground music scenes, like the Goa trance scene. The aim of this article is to explore harm reduction practices employed by attendees of the Goa trance scene in order to identify potential pathways for targeted interventions in (underground) music scenes, such as Goa…

For many novice music teachers, creating and implementing effective music lessons can be a tedious process. Moreover, preparing a music lesson is quite different from lesson planning in other areas, creating a disconnect that music educators may feel when trying to make music lessons fit a classroom lesson-plan model. However, most music teachers…

The Happy Roll Elastic Ensemble (HREE) is a community music ensemble supported by Tainan Culture Centre in Taiwan. With enjoyment and friendship as its primary goals, it aims to facilitate the joys of ensemble playing and the spirit of social networking. This article highlights the key aspects of HREE's development in its first two years…

Work such as that of John Cooksey on boys' changing voices has influenced choral practice in the USA and in certain UK youth choirs, but has hitherto had little impact in UK schools where many teachers continue to believe that boys' voices "break". Different practices are found across the independent and maintained sectors of secondary…

In this article, David Forrest probes Ahmad Sarmast (Founder and Director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, Ministry of Education, Afghanistan) about the development of the Institute, its sponsorship, the range of local musicians and music educators that work there, and the student population.

According to the Austin-based Amati Foundation (a nonprofit group that supports programs for the stringed arts), over the past several decades the number of public school districts offering instruction for violin, viola, and cello has plummeted, from as high as 80 percent in 1960 to less than 19 percent today. Lack of public funding for stringed…