This action research study provides insight into the learning of university music education students who participated in a popular musicianship experience. The participants were thirty-four music education students (i.e. pre-service music educators) at an American university enrolled in a student-directed Popular Musicianship course. Although…

This study, followed by an historical review of Shinichi Suzuki's work, investigated the contemporary and critical issues surrounding the Suzuki Method in Japan. First, the author compared textbooks and recordings of the Suzuki Violin School Volume 1, the Japanese version, published in 1970s to the present edition in Japan. In addition, the study…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of wind ensemble seating configurations on college instrumentalists' ratings of ensemble sound. Members of a university wind ensemble (N = 40) were recorded while performing a 1-minute excerpt of "Only Light" by Aaron Perrine in one of four ensemble configurations. At the conclusion of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of baton usage on college musicians' perceptions of ensemble performance. Two conductors were videotaped while conducting a 1-minute excerpt from either a technical ("Pathfinder of Panama," John Philip Sousa) or lyrical ("Seal Lullaby," Eric Whitacre) piece of concert…

This article presents findings from an action research project that investigated instrumental teachers' strategies for facilitating children's learning of expressive music performance. Nine teachers and 14 pupils (aged 9-15) participated in this project, which consisted of 10 weeks of teaching. At the beginning and end of this period pupils'…

Under controlled conditions, we assessed acoustically (long-term average spectra) and perceptually (singer survey, listener survey) six performances of an soprano, alto, tenor, and bass (SATB) choir ("N" = 27) as it sang the same musical excerpt on two portable riser units (standard riser step height, taller riser step height) with…

The use of music technology in the enhancement of young pianists' musical improvisations has been scarcely explored in instrumental music teaching and learning research. In the present study, 19 piano pupils aged 6-10 from the UK and Greece used an interactive improvisation system called Musical Interaction Relying On Reflexion (MIROR)-Impro for…

The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesized model of solo music performance assessment. Specifically, this study investigates the influence of technique and musical expression on perceptions of overall performance quality. The Aural Musical Performance Quality (AMPQ) measure was created to measure overall performance quality, technique,…

The purpose of this study was to document behaviors of applied music teachers and students, as they occurred in online lessons with instructional delivery facilitated through desktop videoconferencing. The author examined the use of desktop videoconferencing in the delivery of applied music instruction to six middle school-aged band students…

The purpose of this study was to examine the influences of presentation modes (audio and visual) on perceptions of expressive choral performance. The stimulus recording included four choral selections, each conducted by a different conductor in two ways: using expressive conducting gestures and using strict conducting gestures. Three groups of…

The purpose of the study was to determine Canadian secondary school choral students' skill in singing the national anthem. The sample (N = 275) consisted of students from 12 schools, representing six provinces in Canada. Students were audio taped singing "O Canada" in English, French, or in a combination of both languages and…

The current study, a preliminary examination of whether music teachers are more susceptible to vocal problems than teachers of other subjects, asked for expert evaluation of audio recordings from licensed speech-language pathologists. Participants (N = 41) taught music (n = 23) or another subject (n = 18) in either elementary (n = 21), middle (n =…

This article, based on my PhD empirical study, was conducted in a qualitative and holistic approach. It had examined how students had used formal and informal strategies, styles and situations while improvising and composing for the research task. Eighteen research groups made up of a total of 40 males and nine females had participated in…

This article reports on information gathered from a set of interviews carried out with 88 mothers of under-two-year-olds. The interviews enquired about the everyday musical experiences of their babies and very young children in the home. From the process of analysis, the responses to the interviews were grouped into three main areas: musical…