Research suggests that when we treat our non-obligatory activities playfully, we are more likely to engage with them and derive meaningfulness from them. Play is of interest to the field of music education on at least two counts: the perceived relationship between play and music, and the perceived educational aspects of play related to human…

Music, when approached as a part of a classical liberal arts education, is a profoundly humanizing endeavor which can facilitate individual musical and moral growth within communities of practice. A classical approach to music education contrasts with common progressive and critical curriculum frameworks through a philosophically realist analysis.…

This teaching activity builds students' interpersonal competencies in identifying Mark Knapp's Stages of Relationships (Adler, Rosenfeld, Towne, & Scott, 2012, Interplay: The process of interpersonal communication, p. 504, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston). The activity establishes a theoretical understanding of each stage and asks students to use…

Performing music is one of the fundamental processes of music education. A musical performance includes not only singing or playing accurate notes and rhythms but also making interpretive decisions to convey music expressively. The author researched to find out the best strategies for developing expressive performance, and then created a lesson…

Evidence-based practice in education is the implementation of research-supported teaching tools to enhance students' learning. Retrieval practice is among the top performing learning techniques in scientific literature, with decades of research supporting its incorporation in educational contexts. Testing enhances posterior performance of the…

Pre-pandemic, technology integration into music lessons was helpful but not a necessity for effectively teaching elementary music. Those who believed technology integration was important for student engagement, as well as those comfortable with their technological skills, were experimenting with tools on an interactive board or through a website…

This article suggests pathways for supporting habits of creativity and the development of creative mindsets in performance-ensemble learning spaces. The Wallas model of creative thought is used to frame the concept of creative musical mindsets. The author reflects on the assumptions and principles outlined in the stages of this influential model…

This article aims to capture how the Swanwick and Tillman (1986) spiral model of musical development influenced my work as an Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) music coordinator (advisory teacher). It discusses my professional position in a period of teaching prior to the implementation of the National Curriculum for Music, to illustrate…

In 2014, the National Association for Music Education released music standards that strongly emphasized creativity, encouraging teachers to find new ways to implement creative activities into their classrooms. As such, making cross-modal associations and emphasizing divergent thinking are important priorities for teachers to consider. Synesthesia…

Soundscapes engender historical, cultural, social, and aesthetic meanings through acoustical qualities that reflect a community's lived experiences. In this article, we propose music lesson ideas that help students appreciate and embrace their sociocultural heritage--by creating, performing, and listening to soundscapes that are representative of…

This research-to-resource article proposes and supports the application of sound-to-symbol approaches within the 5E instructional model to teach musical concepts experientially in beginning band settings. Drawing upon insights from music education scholars and pedagogues advocating for a shift toward sound-first approaches, the article explores…

Teachers sharing music in their classrooms is all about establishing a sense of mutual trust and respect for their students. Shekema S. Dunlap invites her students into the innermost sanctums of her world and humbly ask that they allow her into theirs. The sharing of music becomes an exchange among equals, forcing their learning space. In this…

This article describes how I, an American music teacher educator, visited the classrooms of eight Musical Futures Champion Teachers in the United Kingdom and observed their teaching with a focus on informal music learning and nonformal teaching. Musical Futures, a professional development organization in the UK, is the original organization that…

A priority of music educators across the globe continues to be the incorporation of music from various cultures into the classroom. In this article, the term "authenticity" is introduced as it applies to music education. Authentic music teaching experiences for use in the classroom from the West African Ewe music, Cuban cha-cha-chá, and…

This paper discusses the development of music lessons for adults in a non-professional choir. Based on the Kodály Concept, the lessons took place from April 2019 until March 2020. The singers and conductor engaged in shared research practices, tracking teaching and learning experiences through journaling and sharing our writings. Through this…